I recently purchased the TTArtisan 40mm f2.8 1:1 macro APSC lens for Sony E Mount. It is a full manual focus lens and retails at $229 NZD. The first thing I noticed with the lens is that the body of the lens was of metal construction, and it is quite heavy as it weighs 371g, in saying that it is made very well, and it is a sturdy lens.

As the lens has no electronic connection with the camera, the instructions were easy to follow in setting up your camera so you can use the lens. The aperture and focus are controlled on the lens and the shutter speed and ISO are controlled in camera. This combination works well and the focus ring on the lens is very fluid and precise to set the right focus. The aperture ring is easy to use and clicks into place when setting the aperture.

As there is no image stabilisation in the lens, using the lens handheld requires a higher shutter speed to get sharp images, so this lens is more suited to tripod use.

Image quality is exceptionally good and when photographing with the lens wide open at f2.8 there is no evidence of Chromatic aberration, although colour noise is introduced as the ISO is increased. This is easily removed in post processing.

Below is a selection of images I’ve taken so far incredibly happy with the detail that can be achieved with this lens, some images like the bunch of grapes I needed to focus stack the image to get sharp detail.

The lens can alo be used for lanscapes and portraiture photography so it makes it a versatile lens. I compared the lens up against by Sony 35mm f1.8 lens and the only difference was that the TTArtisan lens had some soft focus on the left hand edge of the image that could be cropped out.

With a lighbox I can now take macro photos indoors especially over the winter months. These photos are best taken with your camera tethered to lightroom so you can easily review your photos. Unfortunately Sony cameras are not supported by lightroom for tethering. Thankfully there is a work around by using the Sony imaging app on your computer and with some setting changes in lightroom that will then auto import the photo into lightroom. There is about a 2-5 second delay then you can review your photos in lightroom.

With the photo below I used a sample wooden floor tile that I purchased from a local hardware store as the background.

I have now been using this lens for the last three weeks, I’m really impressed with the ease of use and image quality and as I’m currently compling a macro shot list, its fair to say this lens is going to be used alot.