TTArtisans (different from 7artisans) currently has three lenses for Leica M-mount and a new 50mm f/0.95 lens coming soon.
TTartisan lenses can be purchased directly from the PhotoRumors online store with free international shipping. They are available also at Amazon, eBay and AliExpress.
Here is a quick hands-on review of the TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for Leica M (price: $369) – as far as I know, the first fisheye lens designed for Leica M-mount:
- Soft when wide open (as most Chinese M lenses)
- Not rangefinder coupled
- Manual focusing is not a problem since at f/4 everything between 1 meter and infinity is in focus
- Nice box and presentation
- All-metal body, solid-built lens, nice built, fit and finish
- De-clicked aperture
- Focusing scale in feet and meters
- Not evenly spread aperture values on the aperture ring
- No focusing tab, but the lens has a small metal notch on the focusing ring for easy focusing – very useful
- Focusing and aperture rings are smooth but a little bit too tight for my taste (some like it that way), I have the feeling they will loosen in the future
- No six-bit coding
- Built-in lens hood
- Excellent price/performance ratio ($369)
- Closest focusing distance: 0.17m
- Easy to touch the front element and leave greasy fingerprints
- Watch your horizon when composing – this is a fisheye lens
- Barrel distortion is obviously very noticeable and that’s the whole idea behind this lens – the closer is the object is to the lens, the bigger the distortion is
- My biggest challenge when shooting this lens was keeping the perspective straight
- Vignetting is minimal, almost non-existing
- There is really no other similar lens on the market today
- The lens comes with an external 11mm metal viewfinder (very helpful if you don’t have live view, no frame lines in the viewfinder):
Lens flare is present when shooting against a strong light source:
TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens, external viewfinder and box pictures:
Size comparison with other Leica M lenses:
Sample photos (JPG SOOC – straight out of a Leica M10 camera and resized without any post processing):
The full size sample photos can be found at flickr – shot with the Leica M10 (JPG SOOC – straight out of the camera, no correction or post-processing applied):
TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens technicals specifications:
| TTArtisan11mmF2.8 for Leica M-mount | |
| Color: | Black |
| Compatible Camera Mount: | for Leica M-mount |
| Focus Type: | manual only |
| Item Dimensions: | 78*67mm |
|
Item Weight: |
439g |
| Lens Type: | fixed-non-zoom |
| Maximum Aperture: | F2.8 |
| Maximum Focal Length: | 11mm |
| Minimum Aperture: | F16 |
| Minimum Focal Length: | 11mm |
| Photo Filter Thread Size: | / |
| Number of Diaphragm Blades: | 7 |
| Number of Elements: | 11 |
| Number of Groups: | 7 |
| Zoom Type: | Fixed |
| Full Frame Available: | Yes |
| Compatibility: | for Leica M-M, M240, M3, M6, M7, M8, M9, M9p, M10 |
The box includes:
- 1 TTArtisan11mm F2.8 Lens
- 1 Front lens cap
- 1 Rear lens cap
- 1 Packing box
- 1 User Manual
Additional pictures of the TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for Leica M-mount:
TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens promo material:
The TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for Leica M is currently in stock at:
Additional coverage of the lens can be found here:
More pictures of the new TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for Leica M
Three new TTArtisans lenses for Leica M-mount coming: 21mm f/1.5, 35mm f/1.4 and 11mm f/2.8
The bottom line is that if you want to use a native fisheye lens on Leica M cameras, this TTartians lens is the only option.
