Quick take: The TTArtisan 17mm F1.8 for Fujifilm X-mount costs $149, and it's a genuinely compelling alternative to the $1,200 Fujifilm 18mm F1.4. Autofocus is fast and quiet, build quality is solid metal, and image quality is close enough to the Fuji that I couldn't see much difference even zoomed in. The trade-offs are no weather sealing and being 2/3 of a stop slower. For most people wanting a fast wide prime on Fujifilm, this is now the lens I recommend.
A $149 Lens vs a $1,200 Lens
I've been impressed with TTArtisan before, especially its 35mm F1.8 Mark II. The 17mm takes things up a notch. It's so good it makes me a little worried Fujifilm might consider closing the X-mount someday.
At $149, you could buy eight of these for the price of one Fujifilm 18mm F1.4. So can a $150 lens compete with a $1,200 first-party lens? Surprisingly, yes.
Where the Fujifilm 18mm F1.4 Still Wins
It would be disingenuous to call them equal, so here's what the Fuji does better:
It's 2/3 of a stop faster. To me, that's a negligible difference.
It's weather sealed. That's a bigger deal if you shoot in the elements a lot. A drizzle is fine with the TTArtisan, but in a downpour, put your camera in the bag.
It's slightly sharper if you pixel peep. Even at 200% and 400% magnification, I barely saw a difference, and for video it won't matter at all. The $1,050 difference isn't worth it for marginal sharpness.
Build Quality
Like TTArtisan's other Fujifilm lenses, the build is surprisingly robust: a metal body, a metal mount and a thick, very solid lens hood. That hood actually works. It blocked harsh overhead sun in my samples, and it might be the first lens hood in a while I've seen make a difference right away.
The rear lens cap has a USB-C port for firmware updates. You leave the cap on the lens, connect it, and update it yourself, presumably to keep it compatible with future cameras. The cap works across TTArtisan's other Fujifilm autofocus lenses, so keep it somewhere safe. I think this is really smart. Putting the port on the lens itself would compromise structural integrity and let debris in.
Video Performance
I'm a video-first guy, and that's why I bought the Fuji 18mm F1.4 in the first place. Before that, I had the 16mm F1.4, a great lens, but its focus motor was clunky and noisy for video on older bodies. It got better on the X-H2S and X-M5, but the noise stayed.
The TTArtisan's autofocus motor is very quiet, and on a wide lens it's just as fast. It's a really compelling choice for talking heads, especially at a desk where you want something a little wider but still want a blurry background.
I deliberately shot with a bright window behind me, which is traditionally where Fujifilm cameras struggle to track people. It had no problem. Walking toward and away from the camera, and leaving and re-entering the frame, it caught me quickly every time. The performance was on par with every other lens I've tested on Fujifilm, and I've tested quite a few.
On a body like the X-H2S, which I recorded this review on, you also get IBIS, so handheld work is an option. None of these wide primes have stabilization of their own.
A Crazy Value Proposition
High value was my whole reason for buying into Fujifilm, and that gap has shrunk as prices have gone up across the board. At $149 brand new, if you want a wide lens on Fujifilm, first party or third party, this is the one I now recommend. For the price and performance, nothing else comes close.
It's not weather sealed, but at this price that's perfectly acceptable, and if something happens to it, it hurts a lot less than damaging a $1,200 lens.
Image Quality
Like the excellent 35mm F1.8, color, contrast and rendering are stellar. Photos still have that signature Fujifilm 3D pop with directional light. In full-frame terms, it's about a 22.5mm lens that renders roughly like F2.8, which is no slouch. I also like the slightly wider field of view compared to the 18mm, so it's easier to use on a desk without being super tight on my face.
There's some ghosting and flaring under harsh midday sun. Personally, I like flare in video because it gives you creative options. If you don't, block it with your hand or the hood, or change your angle slightly. It was never overbearing, and the coatings held onto color and contrast surprisingly well even when the whole frame was flaring. The images don't look cheap and can't be mistaken for a phone shot when you're wide open.
A 52mm Filter Thread
The small 52mm filter thread means you won't spend a fortune on ND filters, which is great if you're newer and this is your fast wide prime. You can also use step-up rings to adapt larger filters you already own. For photography, it makes long exposures with a standard or variable ND more accessible too.
Close Focus and Distortion
Close focus surprised me. It's not a macro lens, but you can get a nice shot of a flower without standing far away, and I could get very close to the lens when recording, maybe too close.
There's some perspective distortion in the corners, but nothing bad. In the center and slightly off to the side, everything looks good. That matters most for video, since cameras don't apply correction profiles to video files. Straight out of camera, the video looks great with minimal distortion.
Final Thoughts
This is a $149 lens, not on sale on release day, and it saves you over $1,000 compared to the Fujifilm 18mm F1.4. As someone who's owned the Fuji since the day it came out, it's crazy to see how close to first-party quality TTArtisan has gotten at a literal fraction of the price.
The only real thing to keep in mind is the lack of weather sealing. But if you shoot on an X-M5, X-T50 or X-T30 III, those bodies aren't weather sealed either, so it won't matter. Lenses this cheap used to come with a massive asterisk. Now it's getting really hard to tell the difference.
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