TTArtisan 21mm f/1.5 Lens for Leica M (Silver)

Loved the TTArtisan 21mm f1.5, can you believe that. This is a heavy, great build quality and with 1/2 stops between each stop on the aperture ring. Leica L mount went right on the S5 - lens will be great for videography and photography. The price is very good, I am not disappointed in any way so far. It was a good buy.

I was pleasantly surprised with the clarity of the photos, I needed a fast wide angle lens for astrophotography and this one seems the right lens since manual focusing is what is needed. I was able to take very nice shots of the Milky Way with it. I also tried it for street photography and it produced decent photos, although I do prefer auto focus for that. Bottom line I like this lens and the price is right.

This is an incredible ultrawide angle lens! The corners are sharp enough, and the coma is minimal for how fast this thing is. Most professional reviewers used the Leica M Mount version of this adapted to Sony E, which introduces significant coma and a loss of sharpness (Due to Sony E's filter stack). The Sony E Mount version is just wonderful, and is ideal for working indoors, as the lens is sharpest with the highest contrast at portrait distances. Sharpness decreases at MFD, as well as at infinity, but by F/2.8, there's no spherical aberrations/glow to speak of. Shoot at portrait distances to really make the most of this thing! There is some field curvature, but focus peaking makes this easy to get used to! And for anyone curious: This lens is sharper at F/1.5 than most vintage lens are at F/5.6. It's incredible! Blows away my Tokina, Tamron, and Olympus ultrawides. If you're looking for vintage color, build quality, and handling, but want modern sharpness and image quality, then this is my recommended choice. Infact, this lens is cheaper than most ultrawide vintage lens, despite being new with superior optics!

It is solidly built of metal, with a click-type aperture ring, leaving nothing to be desired in terms of build quality. Of course it is not weather sealed but at this price I did not expect it. The lettering is engraved, then filled with paint. Markings are not going to chip off. This is good quality. Focus and aperture rings move smoothly and are well damped. Lens fits tightly into the L mount on my camera, but not too tightly. Because of the dimensions of the built-in petal-shaped lenshood, the slip-on metal lens cover is a little wobbly. This is because the top and bottom lobes project a little further forward than the side lobes, same as on any petal-shaped lens hood. The slip-on metal cover does not easily fall off and that's a good thing. The included 72mm filter adapter and cover solves this problem well, although it adds some bulk to the front of the lens. I'm using the lens without this, to save bulk. The built-in petal-shaped hood (about 53mm diam) works well to protect the very curvy front element. For normal use it works very well optically. I'm using a Sigma fp L which has 60mp. Sharpness in the center is very good, and it is quite adequate in the corners when stopped down. At F1.5 it is a little bit dreamy but it clears up well by F2.8. I have done a Color Shading correction using the in-camera menu, but this might not be a real problem. Jury is still out on this one. There is some vignetting, but I don't mind it. I could correct for this also using in-camera menus, but I like vignetting and it is not extreme. When carefully levelled in all axes it displays very little (if any) perspective distortion. It's a good addition to my lens assortment, and I think it is a great value.

After owning a few weeks I just ran some outdoor comparative tests at f8 with this lens mounted on Lumix S1R against the Leica Q with the Summilux Asph. 28mm f1.7. The news is all good for this lens except for a bit of corner fringing that Capture 1 cleaned up completely. Honestly, I was not expecting anywhere near the results. Color, feel, look, contrast, detail, vignette were pretty much identical between two ! Resolution was higher on pics taken with S1R along with better highlight detail. ( even with max. highlight recovery on Capture 1 for Leica lens ). Extreme 4 corner resolution STILL beat Leica even though this is a 21mm vs. 28mm. I love my Leica but give credit were credit is due... lens optically is great at f8. Fun manual lens that works so easily on Lumix S1R. Build quality is excellent. Balance this reviews with others to make up your own mind.