My Fuji and … a 7Artisans 35mm f0.95

No sharpness tests, pixel counting or other technical mumbo jumbo, just everyday pictures with the intention of showing the view angle, color pattern and character, and my thoughts of the lens.

I have the 7Artisans 35mm f0.95 from the beginning of August 2021, so almost five months now, and this is my opinion about this lens :

When I first got the lens, I thought it was great, a real old school lens !
Good size, looks great and feels very sturdy.
All metal and a lot of glass – you can feel it !
On the left side, the focal point is in red painted on the lens (not engraved)
A DOF scale – well drawn broadly on top of the lens,
furthermore a clickless aperture on the front of the lens – my favorite place for the aperture ring (like the vintage Olympus primes).
The focus ring runs smoothly – just enough resistance.
The aperture is just the same – smooth.
A great lens, but is it ?

Below a Picture BlowUp :

• 7Artisans 35mm f 0.95 – set at f 0.95
• 400iso
• 1/105

Of course I’m only showing one photo here where I’ve magnified the corners – but it’s good and sharp – even at f0.95.
Is she better than the XC 35mm f2.0 – probably not, and the XC is cheaper, but unfortunately made of plastic.
Is the XF 35mm f2.0 WR better? – yes, but that one is almost €100 more expensive, but of course then you have an AF lens and Fuji glass.

The 7Artisans 35mm f0.95 is a not so cheap manual lens – the higher price is of course due to the higher light sensitivity. It is sharp enough – even wide open. Being slightly larger than the other 35mm 7Artisans lenses, it is also easier to operate (especially if you have bigger hands).

This bigger format makes it much more in line with the old vintage lenses from before. Just like Nikon, Canon, Pentax and many others made their standard 50mm lenses. The focal length is also in the same line (35mm x1.5 = 52.5mm).
Shooting with this lens on your camera takes you back to the analog and manual era, especially when you shoot with a Fujifilm camera with dedicated shutter and iso dials.
Perfect for those who want to learn how to shoot manually, or just want that vintage feel.
Both in use and feel, and also a bit in the results, this lens breathes Vintage.

However, I have one concern about the lens,
and that’s the clickless aperture.
While shooting with the lens, I noticed that the aperture twisted quite easily when looking for the focus ring.
I read a review about the lens somewhere that described the same problem, and where the writer put a piece of tape at the bottom of the lens with the lens fixed at f0.95.
But other than this, I’d say: go for it !

In summary, why should you buy the 7Artisans 35mm f0.95?

• Good quality lens – fairly sharp wide open
• Very light sensitive due to the f0.95
• “real manual lens” not “manual by wire” like the Fujifilm lenses
• Very good handling (except the aperture ring, which can shift)
• Real Vintage feeling and results
• Target price around €300, which is actually a bargain for an f0.95 lens

Below are some more samples – I know, actually I didn’t take that many pictures with it, that’s for several reasons – the weather, the covid, but mainly because I prefer working with wider angles lately.

For those who are interested :
During the time this fortress was active, the entrance was not so easy to reach. All the way around the fort there is water, and at the front and the entrance of the fort there was a drawbridge – in the photo below this is the first red boxed area – now a concrete slab is over it.
Then you had a flat piece about a meter / a meter a half in stone – I think the thickness of the fort walls. Behind it you had a second drawbridge also above deep water – now that part has a wooden beam floor – it is the rear part marked red in the photo. It made the fortress difficult to access.

Via Google maps you can get a better insight into the size of the entire fortress – the coordinates are 51.34692093539357, 4.42596851785953 or follow this link : https://goo.gl/maps/GrUZd9dgoExn7A8h7