Coffee on the table, down jacket, and hat. In the room where I’ve just opened my computer, it’s barely 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius). The fire behind my back started crackling cozily just a few moments ago. Slowly and reluctantly, the spruce logs are beginning to release the solar energy they have been storing for decades through photosynthesis. Outside the windows, the newly born February has realized what January irresponsibly ignored and has begun to shower my cabin with large flakes of snow. The birds outside the windows are taking away, seed by seed, the sunflowers I have scattered for them. And I, at a pace similar to theirs, letter by letter, add to the first Photography News of the month.

The 50mm f/1.2 all-manual APS-C lens from TTArtisan costs around a hundred bucks and is built like an Acme anvil. It offers outstanding value for the dollar and is fun to use. But it’s not perfect. Read on to review the Pros and Cons as we see them.

Our new Choosing Wisely series aims to deliver concise, summarized information about products we think you’ll like. Got something you want us to investigate? Leave a comment here or on Facebook.

Like many of you, I’ve used more than a few 50mm lenses in my time, but not many that were f/1.2. My budget always topped out at the f/1.4 price level—or lower. TTArtisan changed all that with their 50mm f/1.2 lens for APS-C format cameras. On my Fujifilm X-T5 it’s the equivalent of a 75mm f/1.2 portrait lens. Micro 4/3 users will enjoy the equivalent of a 100mm f/1.2.

I know as much as the next guy about the shallow Depth-of-Field provided by super-fast lenses. Wide open at f/1.2 the DoF is amazingly thin, my brain tells me. But experiencing it firsthand over several weeks has been an education. It’s fun to experiment by shifting the ridge of sharpness across the viewfinder. And when you need more DoF and/or want to crank up the detail rendering, it’s a simple matter to stop down to f/5.6 or so.

The TTArtisan APS-C 50mm f/1.2 is manual-manual, i.e., manual focus and manual aperture. Not so many years ago, virtually all cameras were MF. Focus Peeking and other focusing aids have made MF much easier to master than in days of old. As far as the manual aperture goes, it’s not an obstacle, although it definitely slows down overall operation in many situations. 

This 50mm f/1.2 feels good in the hand. Build quality is very, very good and the lens has some heft, 11.9 ounces (336 g) in fact, about the same as my morning coffee including the vintage 1971 Starbucks mug. The front element is jewel-like. I didn’t know much about TTArtisan as an optics manufacturer before I purchased this 50mm f/1.2, but based on everything I’ve experienced so far, I’m planning to investigate more of their offerings. In my sights now is the TTArtisan APS-C 10mm f/2 ASPH which I’ve seen priced as low as $159 (plus shipping). It’s manual-manual too, but with a lens this wide, focusing accuracy is the least of my concerns. Watch for it in a future Choosing Wisely story.

The TTArtisan 50mm f/1.2 has some downsides too, to be sure; after all, it’s priced around $100. There’s noticeable magenta fringing in washed-out highlight areas, and some unsharpness in the corners. But I expected those flaws. The bokeh is downright peculiar—out-of-focus highlights appear like 10-sided geometric shapes, stars and other assorted glyphs. In some shots, they look cool; in others, it’s damn distracting.

Key Features
50mm focal length (75mm equivalent)
Large f/1.2 aperture (to minimum f/16)
Very good build quality & metal construction
Appealing retro design
Aprox. 18-inch (0.5m) minimum focusing distance
Clicked aperture ring (a boon to still photographers)
Interesting bokeh
Budget-friendly price

Available Mounts
Sony E, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, Canon RF, Canon M, L Mount, Micro 4/3
[Choosing Wisely]

Reasons to Buy Today
Low price but very good build quality
Sharp from about f/5.6 down
Fun lens with very fast aperture
Useful 75mm (equivalent) great for portraits
Focuses to about 18 inches

Reasons to Shy Away
Some noticeable magenta fringing in highlights
All manual focus, aperture, everything = S L O W
Unusual bokeh (some will like, others vehemently hate)
Clicked aperture ring (a bane to videographers)
Focuses only to about 18 inches

Sum & Substance
I’m happy I bought this TTArtisan APS-C 50mm f/1.2. To me, the good points outweigh the bad by a considerable margin, and it’s enjoyable to use. I’m getting some good images, and that’s the most important thing. Furthermore, it’s put TTArtisan on my radar and reopened my eyes to budget-priced manual focus lenses.

Price & Availability
Available now in black or silver colorways, you can order the TTArtisan APS-C 50mm f/1.2 from Amazon for $112. Also available directly from TTArtisan’s website (potentially for less but with additional shipping charges) and hopefully from your local camera store, your resident connection to expert information, honest dealings and fair prices.

—Jon Sienkiewicz

 

(As an Amazon Associate, Shutterbug earns from qualifying purchases linked in this story.)

 

A pen tablet can be an amazing control interface for editing photos, especially with Photoshop. But with the variety of pen tablets available, choosing the right one can feel like a guessing game. Today, I’ll review two options from XPPen’s lineup, both featuring their latest X3 chip for 16K pressure level sensitivity. Is either tablet worth adding to your setup? This review of the Deco Pro and Artist Pro 14 will answer your questions.

If you’re unfamiliar with Lightroom’s powerful masking filters, you’ve come to the right place. That’s because these easy-to-use too will make a huge difference in the quality of your post-processing results.

Today’s eye-opening tutorial from the Nav Edits YouTube channel may be brief, yet it’s a comprehensive guide with everything you need to know. You’ll learn how unlock the power of Masking filters and see how flexible they can be—with or without AI. The lesson includes using a variety of very useful features like the Add/Subtract options.

Instructor Nagesh Vasu, based in India, specializes in image-editing tutorials for Photoshop, Lightroom, Snapseed, and a variety of other popular apps. By watching this 10-minute episode you’ll be able to start enhancing your images today with Lightroom’s versatile Masking filters for a wide variety of purposes.

As Vasu explains, “Lightroom’s Masking filters are tools that let you selectively enhance parts of a photo to adjust things like exposure and color in specific areas within the frame” while leaving the rest of the image untouched. The payoff is that you’ll have far more control with all of your edits.

Vasu covers a lot of ground in a hurry, so you may want to take a few notes for future reference. He explains the difference between Linear and Radial Gradients and illustrates exactly how they work. You’ll also learn how to use Lightroom’s Brush filter for accomplishing a wide variety of tasks.

Other key topics include the concepts of Color Range and Luminance Range with a step-by-step demonstrations of everything they can do to quickly enhance a photograph. The video concludes with a discussion of Select Subject and Select Sky, along with the aforementioned Add/Subtract features that provide precise control.

By the time you’re done watching you’ll be ready to greatly improve your workflow with these “essential” tools that you’ll find valuable time after time. There much more to see on Vasu’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to pay a visit whenever you have time.

We also encourage you to watch the tutorial we posted recently, describing how to use five Photoshop and Lightroom Plugins that one notable landscape photographer says he “can’t live without.” And some them are free!