Quick take: In my first review of the 7Artisans 35mm F1.4 for Fujifilm X-mount, the pre-release copy hunted badly for focus once stopped down past F2.8. 7Artisans said a firmware update would fix it. After two months of back and forth, it turned out to be partly a design issue, and the updated Mark II copy now focuses flawlessly in single AF at any aperture. Continuous AF stopped down is still a weak spot. The image quality and value are still great, and 7Artisans' customer service impressed me.
The Autofocus Problem
My original review was positive: image quality was great, until I stopped the lens down. At F4 and beyond, it hunted like crazy in both continuous and single-point autofocus. Wide open, which is normally the hardest case, it never had trouble. I contacted 7Artisans, and they said it was pre-release firmware and would be fixed by launch, which I mentioned in the review.
A week after release, I still hadn't received updated firmware, and viewers were telling me in the comments that the problem wasn't fixed. That turned into a two-month effort to get answers.
Investigating the Flaw
To their credit, 7Artisans could have blown off a small YouTuber, but they took it seriously. I even met their US team at a camera expo in New York, and they took it seriously too. In ten years in the industry, I haven't seen that kind of responsiveness often, even as a paying customer.
We went back and forth to make sure they could replicate the issue, and eventually I was put in touch with an engineer in their EU branch. A few other people had reported the same problem. It turned out not to be purely firmware. On the Fuji X version, there appears to be a small design flaw where the rear element sits too close to the sensor, which caused problems as the lens stopped down.
They sent weekly updates on their progress and field testing, and eventually shipped me a Mark II copy with updated firmware. They said it wasn't an easy firmware update.
Performance After the Update
The fix isn't exactly what I hoped for, but it's much better. In single autofocus mode, the new lens works flawlessly, and you can stop down to F8 or even F16. The original copy still hunts in single AF. If you mostly use single AF, the problem is effectively solved.
I default to continuous AF on all my cameras, and as a video guy I'm used to manual focus too. But the whole point of this lens is being an affordable F1.4 autofocus lens, so the continuous AF limitation when stopped down is still worth knowing.
If you have an affected copy, 7Artisans asked me to tell you to contact them through your regional branch, like their US or Canadian teams.
Why I Made This Follow-Up
When people told me the issue wasn't fixed at launch, I came in hot, because my credibility is on the line when I tell you something will be fixed. I was worried this might be a brand leveraging reviewers to sell a flawed product. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.
Everything else I said originally still stands. Even shooting portraits at midday with no cloud cover, the photos came out great, and for an under-$200 lens it handles flare well with little ghosting unless you shoot straight into the sun.
Final Thoughts on 7Artisans
It's unfortunate the issue happened, but 7Artisans has a great reputation otherwise, and how they handled this matters. I was even considering their cinema lens line before buying lenses in-house instead of renting. With higher-end glass, service is just as important as the product, and they sold me on service.
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