Review: TTArtisan AF 75mm f/2

3 weeks ago 6

Introduction

TTArtisan has produced several affordable and well-regarded manual lenses in recent years. Now, they’ve introduced their first full-frame autofocus lens: a 75mm f/2, available for Sony E and Nikon Z mounts at a budget-friendly price of $178. Lenses in the 50mm to 85mm range are typically known for their strong optical performance, and this focal length is particularly well-suited for portraiture and general-purpose photography, offering a slightly tighter field of view than a standard 50mm. The 75mm f/2 allows for excellent subject isolation while maintaining enough background detail to keep the blur subtly recognisable. Let’s dive into its strengths and weaknesses!

camera-icon2 I tested this lens on a 46 Mp Nikon Z7ii (Sample images were taken with a Nikon Zf)
You can see this review as a YouTube video here!

Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review and many more can be found in higher resolution here.

Specifications

Focal Length	75mm
Angle of View	32°
# of Aperture Blades	9
Max Aperture	f/2
Min Aperture	f/16
Min Focus Distance	0.75
Filter Size	62 mm
Lens Mount	E / Z
Weight	328 – 340 g
Size (D x L)	66 x 80 mm
Elements/Group	10 / 7

TTArtisan 75mm f/2 with lens hood on a Nikon Z7ii

Disclosure

TTArtisan kindly provided this lens for test and review purposes.

Handling

This TTArtisan, like almost all TTArtisan’s lenses, seems to be built completely in metal. The build quality seems to be solid and it feels quite compact for a 75mm lens. it doesn’t feel to be heavy, but not light either at about 330 g. There is no weather sealing or image stabilisation built into the lens.

There are no control buttons on the lens but there is an aperture ring, which turns nicely and clicks at every third of an f-stop with an “A” for automatic position, where aperture setting can be controlled from the camera.

In front of the aperture ring, you’ll find a generously sized metallic focusing ring that turns smoothly and feels highly responsive. The focus ring can be customised to control focusing, aperture, exposure compensation, or ISO sensitivity, or it can be switched off entirely. The autofocus is quiet and accurate, though it’s not among the fastest and may occasionally hunt to nail the focus from time to time.

TTArtisan 75mm f/2 + front & rear caps | lens hood

The lens has a 62 mm filter thread and comes with a front plastic clip-on lens cap. You will also get a basic plastic lens hood with an unusual square shape. The rear lens cap has a USB-C port, which also works as firmware upgrade dock.

Optical Features

The lens construction includes 10 glass elements in 7 groups with 4 high index elements and one extra low dispersion lens. The MTF chart shows good centre sharpness and very good overall contrast.

Sharpness (Infinity)

For the infinity sharpness test, we look at three areas of the image, centre, mid-frame, and corner, see highlighted areas in the image below!

Infinity Sharpness Chart | Nikon Z7ii | TTArtisan 75mm f/2

Wide open at f/2 the centre and midframe sharpness is very good, and the corner is good but a bit dark due to vignetting.

Stopping down to f/2.8 improves sharpness slightly and at f/4 we excellent sharpness in the centre and midframe and the corner becomes very good.

The lens keep the same level of sharpness until f/16, where diffraction lower the sharpness a little but it is still very good.

Sharpness (Portrait)

Let’s look at the points of interest for portraits at the portrait distance: the very centre, the centre’s inner periphery (1/3 rule intersection), and the centre’s outer periphery (1/4th intersection).

At f/2 we have excellent sharpness in the centre and inner circle and very good in outer circle. Sharpness improves at f/2.8, which seems to be the peak sharpness performance at this distance

Sharpness (Close-up)

The sharpness near the minimum focusing distance is not as good as at longer distances, but it is not bad at all. At f2 it’s good, at f/2.8 very good, and at f/4 it becomes excellent. Diffraction shows itself already at f/8, where the sharpness begins to deteriorate and becomes more obvious at f11 and even more at f16.

Lens Distortion

The lens has some pincushion distortion, which could be beneficial for portrait work, otherwise it can easily be fixed in post.

Vignetting

The TTArtisan 75/2 shows a relatively high light falloff at f/2, it is moderate at f/2.8, and low at f/4. At f/5.6 it is negligible. This is an average performance for a lens with this focal length.

F/2.0: 2.1 EV
F/2.8: 1.8 EV
F/4.0: 1.4 EV
F/5.6: 0.8 EV
F/8.0: 0.4 EV

Focus Shift & Aberrations

The suffers from a mild Longitudinal chromatic aberration, which makes that you can see colour fringing on the edges of high contrast shapes. While it becomes less when you stop down, it does not go away completely. Although, as mentioned, it is low and in most cases will not be noticeable.

There LaCa is very well controlled and there is nothing to be worry about here.

Flare Resistance

Well, flare resistance is definitely not this lens’s strongest feature—it’s TTArtisan’s nemesis. It’s best to avoid including the sun in the frame or near the edges.

Coma

The lens suffers from some coma but it is irrelevant for this lens as it is not a lens that many would use for astrophotography. These are 100% crops of the corner from a 46 Mp image.

Sunstars

To get well-defined sunstars you have to stop down to f/16. Even then the sunstars do no have evenly long rays.

Focus Breathing

This 75mm lens suffers from heavy focus breathing, which can be an issue for video makers.

Bokeh

Possibly this lens’s second most important characteristic. The bokeh exhibits a slight cat’s eye effect in the corners, but it remains unobtrusive. There are no onion rings visible in the bokeh balls.

Overall, the background blur is smooth and pleasant in most situations. However, it can become just averagely smooth when the background has high contrast or features very bright specular highlights. At f/2, it’s easy to dissolve the background, creating strong subject separation. The bokeh performs very well, except in more complex or challenging background scenarios, where it is generally just above average.

Short Distance

TTARTISAN Review test TTArtisan 75mm f/2 f2 nikon z6 Z6ii z50 z30 zfc z7 z7ii Z8 Z9 Zf nikon z f fc Sony FE Fufifilm Fuji X canon rf m43 review nikon z z-fc z30 z50 test sharpness bokeh coma vignetting Flare 24mp nikon z6 z6ii 46mp nikon z7 z7ii Z8 Z9 Zf nikon z f M42 mount

Medium Distance

Long Distance

Conclusion

I LIKE	AVERAGE	I DON’T LIKE
Price Sharpness Size	Distortion Coma Vignetting Autofocus	Focus Breathing Sunstars Flare resistance

This lens is highly affordable, offering excellent value without breaking the bank. Despite its low price, the build quality feels solid, and the optical performance is impressive for what you pay. However, I found the autofocus could be improved, and it would benefit from better flare resistance. That said, its compact size and versatile focal length make it a practical and convenient option. If you’re looking for a good portrait lens on a budget but don’t want to sacrifice too much in terms of quality, this lens could be the perfect choice.

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Alternatives

Voigtländer VM 75mm 1.9 Ultron
Fully manual, excellent build quality, about the same speed, but much smaller and lighter at 230 g. As best it is as sharp as this TTArtisan, flare resistance is a little better, vignetting and distortion at about the same level. It is 2.5 times more expensive than this TTArtisan.
Buy new: Amazon (anywhere) for $599 (Affiliate link)

Voigtländer VM 75mm 1.5 Nokton
2/3 stops faster, Manual focus only, about the same sharpness, better flare resistance and somewhat better distortion but different. Color fringing is a little worse, but much nice sunstars. It is a little smaller and lighter than this TTArtisan but marginally. It is 4.5 times more expensive though.
Buy new: Amazon (anywhere) for $899 (Affiliate link)

Leica 75mm f/2 Summicron-M Aspherical
Same speed, manual only, but a Leica and about 23 times as expensive
Buy new: Amazon (anywhere) for $4529 (Affiliate link)

Leica M-Summilux 75mm 1.4
Manual focus, 1 stop faster, excellent build quality. Good bokeh, vignetting and CA about the same as this TTArtisan. coma and vignetting about the same as here. A leica and the price there after.
Buy new: Not available
Buy used: eBay.com, eBay.de for ≈$4000 (Affiliate link)

7Artisans 75mm 1.25
Fully manual, nice build quality, not much larger than this TTArtisan but about double as heavy. It is about 1.5 stops faster, that’s about 3 times more light, very nice bokeh and sunstars, and better distortion control, flare resistance is about the same as here, but a little more vignetting. A little more than twice the price though.
Buy new: Amazon (anywhere) for $469 (Affiliate link)

More Sample Images

nikon z f M42 mountNikon Zf | TTArtisan 75mm f/2 | f/2

Nikon Zf | TTArtisan 75mm f/2 | f/2Most of the sample images in this review and many more can be found in higher resolution here.

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Martin M.H. lives outside Stockholm, Sweden. He is a M.Sc. in Computer Technology but he has been a passionate photographer for over 45 years. He started his photographic adventures when he was thirteen with an Agfamatic pocket camera, which he soon replaced with a Canon rangefinder camera that his mom gave him in his teenages. After that he has been using Canon SLR, Nikon SLR manual focus and Autofocus, Sony mirrorless crop sensor, Nikon DSLR and Nikon Mirrorless. He has photographed any genre he could throughout the years and you can see all kind of images in his portfolio. During the later years though it has been mostly landscape, nature, travel and some street/documentary photography.

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