Quick take: The 7Artisans 35mm F1.4 is a $169 autofocus prime for Fujifilm X-mount with a roughly 50mm full-frame look. Image quality is better than the price suggests, and it's tiny and light on small Fuji bodies. My pre-production copy hunted badly at F4 and beyond, the AF motor is loud, and there's no weather sealing.
Update: I followed up once 7Artisans released the autofocus firmware. Read the 7Artisans 35mm F1.4 autofocus update for how it performs now.
A Pre-Production Lens, With an Asterisk
I want to flag this up front: the copy I tested was a pre-production model, and it had a problem. When I reported it, 7Artisans told me they already knew about it and that a firmware fix would be on every lens before release. 7Artisans (the parent company is Viltrox) is a reputable brand, so I was comfortable continuing the review, but you should know that going in.
Why a 35mm F1.4 on Fuji
On an APS-C Fujifilm body, 35mm works out to around 53mm full-frame equivalent. That makes it a very good portrait lens. I'm not a fan of the wider 28mm lenses that come on every point-and-shoot these days. I'm a 50mm guy. If Fuji ever put a 50mm on an X100, I'd buy it.
Price and How It Compares to Fujifilm's 33mm F1.4
The headline is the price: $169. 7Artisans told me they had no plans to change it.
The obvious comparison is Fujifilm's own 33mm F1.4. The size difference is huge. The Fuji has weather sealing and linear motors, and it's a brilliant lens. I have zero complaints about it. But you could buy five of the 7Artisans for the price of one Fuji. Keep one and give four to your friends.
Build and Ergonomics
It reminds me of Fujifilm's XC line. There's no aperture ring, and it has a plasticky feel. At $169 I'll forgive that. I'd much rather have a fast prime like this than the kind of kit zoom that comes with the X-M5.
The focus ring is actually really good, which surprised me. As Fuji moved to linear motors, their manual focus rings got worse, especially on the higher-end glass. I still adjust focus manually out of habit, or when I'm shooting through or behind things, and this ring makes fine adjustments easy.
A few other details:
62mm filter thread. Those tend to be some of the cheaper NDs and diffusion filters, which fits the price of the lens.
A usable lens hood is included. Lenses at this price usually skimp on hoods. I didn't have flare problems anyway, and I keep a hood on whenever there's no filter, for protection.
USB-C port for firmware updates. That's a good sign for long-term support as Fuji releases new bodies and firmware.
Size and Balance on Small Fuji Bodies
It's extremely light, and that's why I like it on my X-M5. Fuji's smaller cameras like the X-T50 and X-T30 aren't weather sealed, so they don't need a weather-sealed lens, and the lighter construction keeps the whole setup small. The Fuji 33mm isn't heavy, but on a small body it doesn't balance well. The 7Artisans sits nicely, even with a cage or grip on.
Image Quality
I shot some portraits with my friend Victoria, including the thumbnail for my video on adapting Canon EF glass to the GFX system. Overall the image quality is great. It doesn't have the aggressive flaring or heavy loss of contrast that a lot of lenses at this price used to have. Cheap glass has come a long way.
Wide open it's a tiny bit soft, but nothing I care about for portraits. Stop down a little and you get more contrast, and even wide open a small nudge of the contrast slider fixes it. The bokeh is really nice. After one portrait session and a week of shooting, I haven't noticed a big image quality difference versus the Fuji. The Fuji probably earns its price in coatings and specific tough scenarios.
The Autofocus Problem on My Copy
Wide open at F1.4 through F2.8, autofocus was perfect. Once I stopped down to F4 or beyond, it hunted constantly, in both continuous and single-point AF. Wide open is the hard part, so it was clearly a firmware issue, and that's what made me contact 7Artisans. If you only shoot wide open, you'd never notice.
AF Motor Noise
The motor is loud. It's a bit like Fujifilm's first-generation lenses, but beyond the normal chatter it has a whir that sounds a little like a Decepticon. Outdoors it isn't a big deal, and noise only matters for video. If you're using this lens for video, you probably aren't relying on an on-camera mic anyway. Just know it's not a silent motor.
No Weather Sealing
Like every lens at this price, it isn't weather sealed. I'd happily pay 50% more to have all my lenses sealed. Real weather sealing means protecting the internal mechanisms too, not just a gasket at the mount, and once you add all of that you can't have a fast prime for $169. If you don't shoot outdoors in bad weather a lot, you don't need to pay for sealing you won't use.
Who It's For
This lens makes sense if you:
Don't want to spend $800 to $900 on a fast prime
Want that 50mm-ish look for portraits, environmental portraits, street or walking around
Shoot on a small Fuji body like the X-M5, X-T50 or X-T30 and want to keep it light
Want a cheap lens for risky situations, like a camera on a monopod raised overhead, where you'd hate to break an $800 lens
Final Thoughts
At $169 you get a fast prime that autofocuses well wide open, renders nicely and makes the images look good. With the asterisk about stopped-down AF on my pre-production copy, there's really not much to complain about at this price.
Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.
