Some lenses immediately end up on my wish list. Others somehow get ignored for a surprisingly long time, even though people keep recommending them. That is exactly what happened with the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 for Fujifilm X.
Whenever I talked about manual TTArtisan lenses, sooner or later someone would tell me: “You really need to try the 23mm F1.4.”
And yet, I kept putting it off.
The main reason was simple: 23mm just is not one of my favourite focal lengths. For landscapes, I usually prefer something wider. For details, I often prefer a little more reach.
TTArtisan eventually sent me the lens to test anyway. And I have to admit, that turned out to be a pretty good idea.
So I headed out early one morning with my Fujifilm X-T4. Cold air, fog hanging over the water and a really nice sunrise. Pretty much perfect conditions to find out how this little manual lens performs in the real world.
👉 You can find the lens at Pergear.com:
https://www.pergear.com/products/ttartisan-23mm-f1-4?ref=K83KL
TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 Specifications
The TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 is a fully manual APS-C lens. On Fujifilm cameras, its field of view is roughly equivalent to a classic 35mm lens on full frame.
That makes it a very versatile focal length for documentary photography, everyday shooting, street photography and plenty of other situations.
The main specifications:
- Focal length: 23mm
- Maximum aperture: F1.4
- Mount: Fujifilm X
- Focus: Manual
- Aperture: Manual
- Minimum focusing distance: approx. 20cm
- Filter thread: 43mm
- Weight: approx. 210g
- Price: around €120
The price in particular makes this lens interesting. For roughly €120, you get a fast, compact lens with an all-metal construction. That has become fairly unusual these days.
Build Quality and Handling
Typical TTArtisan: the lens feels noticeably more expensive than its price would suggest. The body is made entirely from metal, and the focus ring turns smoothly with enough resistance to make precise manual focusing easy. The aperture ring also clicks confidently into place and does not feel like something taken from a cheap entry-level lens.
I was actually a little sceptical about the design at first. It has a fairly distinctive look, and I was not sure whether I would like it on a Fujifilm camera.
That changed fairly quickly once I mounted it on my silver Fujifilm X-T4. On that camera, the design works surprisingly well. The low weight also keeps the entire setup compact and comfortable to carry. For walks, everyday photography or small photo trips, it is a genuinely enjoyable combination.
Image Quality: Better Than Expected
In terms of image quality, the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 fits pretty seamlessly into my previous experience with TTArtisan lenses. Wide open at F1.4, it is not clinically perfect, but it is absolutely usable.
The centre of the frame is already reasonably sharp, and in many situations that is exactly where your main subject is going to be anyway. From around F2 to F2.8, the lens becomes noticeably stronger. Images look cleaner, contrast improves, and it becomes a very capable lens even for landscape photography.
The bokeh remains soft and calm, which I particularly liked when photographing smaller details. There is one small thing I noticed, though.
At closer focusing distances, the focus plane sometimes seems to curve slightly. For example, while focusing on something about one metre away, parts of the image near the edges can sometimes appear surprisingly sharp even though they are noticeably farther away.
It is nothing dramatic, but especially towards the edges and corners, you can tell that this lens is more about character than clinical perfection. Personally, that barely bothered me in actual use.
Is 23mm Good for Landscape Photography?
For traditional landscape photography, 23mm still is not my ideal focal length.
Personally, I usually prefer either something wider or something with a little more reach. For my taste, 23mm often sits somewhere in between.
Still, the lens worked surprisingly well during this particular morning.
One advantage is that you can get relatively close to your subject while still including enough of the surrounding environment in the frame. For small details in morning fog, light catching the edges of fields or paths leading into the image, this focal length can actually work very well. You just have to compose a little more deliberately.
One good example was a small path I photographed against the light. From my usual lower perspective, the path almost disappeared completely from the frame. Once I changed my position slightly and photographed from a little higher up, the image suddenly gained much more structure and a much stronger leading line.
Situations like this are a good reminder that strong photographs often have much less to do with EXIF data than with perspective and observation.
Flare and Backlight Performance
That morning gave the lens plenty of difficult lighting situations. There was strong backlight, fog, a low sun and direct light entering the frame from the side. These are exactly the conditions where inexpensive lenses can fall apart fairly quickly.
But the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 handled them surprisingly well. You can obviously produce some flare, but it was much more controlled than I expected. Ghosting and harsh flare artefacts were particularly well contained. I have seen significantly more obvious problems from other inexpensive lenses. For available-light photography, that is definitely a positive.
My Conclusion on the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4
The TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 is not a perfect lens, but that is also part of its charm.
It is compact, lightweight, well built and delivers surprisingly strong results for very little money.
Wide open, it is not perfect, but it is absolutely usable. Stop it down a little and it becomes genuinely good.
If you are looking for clinical perfection, there are better options.
But if you want a small manual lens with some character that is simply fun to use and makes you want to go out and take pictures, the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 is definitely worth a look.
For around €120, there really is not much to complain about.
You can often find it even cheaper on the used market. At that point, it becomes almost a no-brainer for Fujifilm photographers who enjoy manual focusing.
Maybe 23mm still is not my favourite focal length.
But I like this lens quite a lot anyway.
Buy the TTArtisan 23mm F1.4
TTArtisan 23mm F1.4 at Pergear:
https://www.pergear.com/products/ttartisan-23mm-f1-4?ref=K83KL
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