TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for Leica M-mount review

5 years ago
Categories: Leica Lenses, LR Reviews
Tags: TTArtisan, TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 fisheye lens for Leica M

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.