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Review: TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 macro lens

Review of a cheap, if not the cheapest macro lens for APS-C cameras. Does the price indicate the quality? Let’s find out!

Hi everyone, it’s Charlie. Today I’d like to show you an interesting, budget macro camera lens for APS-C sensor cameras.
It’s a 40mm f/2.8 macro lens by a chinese manufacturer, called TTartisan.
With currently costs about €120, at this moment this is the cheapest option available for a new 1:1 macro lens for Sony APS-c mirrorless cameras. Maybe to other camera brands too.

I bought this lens with my own money, no sponsorship involved. Nevertheless, I just want to share my more than 1 month experience and honest opinion with you.

The lens

TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 macro lens
TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 MACRO

The lens, like other TTartisan lenses, comes in a little grey, hard paper box. Very nicely designed package, as you can see. Not much in the box, just a warranty paper, user manual and a lens itself.

TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 macro lens package
The whole package

The lens is made of metal and glass. It weighs around 370g, and feels massive in the hand. Build quality is very good, at first glance, but more on this later.

TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 macro lens fully extended
Fully extended, to get 1:1 magnification

The lens is available for all major mirrorless camera brands
– Sony E
– Nikon Z
– Canon RF
– Canon M
– Fuji X
– M43 (Panasonic, Olympus)
– Leica L

TTArtisan 40mm f/2.8 macro lens mounted on a Sony APS-C camera
How it looks mounted on a Sony a6500 camera

While in use

The full metal and glass consturcted lens feels right in the hand. The touch of a cold metal barrel shape gives the deceptive impression of a premium lens. The zoom ring looks good, but in practice it would have been better if it had a more sticky surface, so that medium-tight and long way, zooming would be an easier task. But, again, it’s a cheap lens, so it’s ok. The aperture ring operates with gentle clicks, preferred by photographers. The front glass element sits deep inside the lens, no additional lens hood needed.

When fully zoomd to 1:1 magnification the front element is about half way inside the lens barrel still, so you don’t want to worry about something scraching it. On the opposite side, at this zoom position, there is only a 2-3 cm gap between the front of the lens and the subject. In general, using this lens for ture macro photography means that we will need an external light source as well.

Because the lens can focus to infinity, and have a relatively large aperture of f/2.8 it can also be used well in other photographic genre.

How about image quality?

I made a short Youtube video about the lense’s image quality. As you will see, the TTartisan 40mm macro lens can produce very pleasing photos, with a real 1:1 macro magnification. Enjoy!

TTartisan 40mm f/2.8 macro lens image quality

One big flaw

Ok it’s cheap, we didn’t even expect it to be perfect. We even forgive a little chromatic aberration too, but we discovered one big, non optical issue with this TTartisan 40mm f/2.8 lens. Maybe it’s just our copy, but the lens collects dust inside like a wacuum cleaner. In everyday use, when the aperture is between f/2.8 and 5.6 it’s not a big issue, but when need to stop down furter for deep dept of filed for macro, usally beyond f/8, dust marks will be visible on the photos.

Final thoughts

Recommended by 1europhoto.com

After taking everything in consideration, I made my mind and gave this lens a green badge.

If you have unlimited assetts and can easily afford to buy a $1-3000 lenses, with this one you wont be satisfied at all. Also, if you make your living with macro photography this lens (including this article) is not for you.

Neverthetless, after taking a couple hundred of photos whit this TTartisan 40mm macro lens on a Sony a6000 camera, I can honesly say, I enjoyed every moment using this little lens (as a hobby photographer). It’s cheap, sharp enough and fun. What is more important for us hobbyists to try macro photography? 🙂

I hope this information was helpful for you. Thanks for reading my review of this TTArtisan 40mm macro lens!
See you in the next one! Bye!

Click to read, how to clena camera dust inside.

More details at TTArtisan.com:
https://ttartisan.com/?list_10/129.html

Find it on Amazon (Affiliate link):

Fuji X mount, Sony E-mount, Olympus/Panasonic