optical quality - even the humblest Vivitar or Hoya 28mm will outperform the 7-artisans. Both need a good lens hood to perform at their best (and remember to buy a telephoto length one as this is for M4/3 crop factor use) It looks like the lable “ made in China” is no longer something photographers are too skeptical of. I also think lenses like this mark a new era in affordable, quality manual focus lenses with native mirrorless camera lens mounts. A great era we live in.

Maybe I am a hard reviewer. Just being honest. I didn't just judge wide open. I posted just as many shots stopped down. And I just follow-up with with a stop down comparison all the way to F16. One of the main issue I have is the corners don't get much better until F8, which makes F2-F7 not very useful. Do you just need an old 50mm F1.7 or 1.8 then? No, the 50-56mm equivalent view of the 7-artisans or a legacy 28mm gives a more neutral geometry to pictures - one more advantage to your creative range.Finally, the metal bayonet mount is well made and the lens fits smoothly. There is absolutely no rotational play when the lens is mounted. Get it...You just need more experience reading the peaking function. Maybe this video ( https://youtu.be/aMShIo-fHcs ) will help you. Focusing ring is well dampened on the Discover lens. Focus throw is quite short (about one third of lens circumference) which makes manual focusing a bit challenging with larger apertures. On Hengyijia, dampening is a little bit looser which makes accidental misfocusing more frequent — sometimes I focused correctly, shot a picture and then at home I found out it’s far from focused correctly. I think that in the second between focusing and activating shutter I must have slightly altered the focus which in combination with very short focusing throw made a big difference in the photo sharpness.

I've got the Pergear 25mm 1.8 and I've been very satisfied with the image quality using it on my X-Pro3. I was actually surprised at how sharp it was compared to some of the other manual lenses I've tried (e.g. Pergear 50mm 1.8, Meike 35mm 1.7) even at 1.8. Unfortunately I can't compare to the 7artisans though since I don't own that one. So the extra 8cm of DoF at a 1 m focus (a headshot) or 44cm at 2 metres focus (Head and body) comes at a cost:Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. yep, got one last week, cheap, light and small. Image quality is what you would expect for a cheap lens I THINK ITS WORTH IT. Still testing it though. I am aware of corner and vignette issues. The compactness of the lens keep its usage high in my bag. I have been using my Zonlai over 1 year and I still like it. I am biased in my opinion as I always prefer smaller and lighter gear. I actually own two copies — Discover and Hengyijia for Fuji X mount and they are exactly the same design. This review will cover mainly Discover lens as that’s the one I used the most. As far as I can see, the lenses differ only in their defects, which are covered below. How about the XF 27mm f2.8? Is that a consideration or out of the price range you are willing to spend?

Thanks for the review. I have been watching the 7Artisans lenses for a while and thinking about taking the plunge on one or two more as fun lenses than anything else. They are inexpensive enough that if they only get used occasionally the bank balance won't feel too sad. One of these is the 135mm f/2 MF lens you refer to. I use it in situations when there's not a great deal of time pressure, and so the MF isn't a big disadvantage - in terms of Bokeh per Pound Sterling, it's exceptional, especially as I found a mint-condition example secondhand for around half the current list price... One important thing to note is that as far as I know there are two versions of this lens. They are easy to distinguish, first generation has unusual placement of aperture and focusing ring — focusing ring is close to the camera body and the aperture ring is near the front lens element. Second generation has traditional ring placement — aperture ring close to body, focusing ring close to front of the lens. DesignThe wide manual focus ring is electronic and super-silky-smooth in its action. There is just the right amount of friction to ensure it is not accidentally turned. AF is driven by an accurate and almost silent Linear Motor, and focus can be acquired in as little as 0.04s. Focusing is down to 0.19m, for a maximum magnification of 0.2x, or 1:5. Whatever the camera, the results will give a degree of indication of the lens quality, I'd suggest.