Regardless the TT 50 1.2 seems like a great build for a very reasonable price. Thanks again for sharing your impressions. This lens does not focus closely. It has no macro ability. For macro, use the LEICA SUMMICRON 50mm f/2 mit near-focussing range or the LEICA MACRO-ELMAR-M 90mm f/4. For those that need an even brighter lens, the Kamlan 50mm f1.1 II is also a great option. It lives somewhere between the Rokinon 50mm f1.2 and the TTArtisan 50mm f1.2, in terms of overall sharpness and image quality, but is noticeably brighter.

An example of this in Leica terms is if you mount the Leica Elmarit-TL 18mm f2.8 APS-C lens on a full frame Leica SL camera. For that price it is a great option to bring next to your big zoom lens as an alternative if you want to travel light or need a bit more speed every now and then. Ignore the the vertical smears at large apertures, this is is a sensor artifact called interline transfer smear and not a lens defect.

Conclusion

If you currently shoot with an APS-C camera but later upgrade to full frame you can still use this lens rather than having to buy twice. If however you try to use a crop sensor lens on a full frame camera you have to use the camera in crop mode meaning you can’t benefit from using the full camera resolution.

The mechanical quality generally feels good although I do see some cost cutting measures, as the markings are only printed, not engraved and filled with paint as I am used to from TTArtisan.To summarize, this lens has great sharpness and contrast, but sharpness isn’t even across the frame and only performs well at the point you focus on until about f5.6 because of this field curvature. I have both versions of the KamLan 50mm F1.1. The original (Mark I) is my favorite for everyday shooting. It is small and light, and feels right on my X-E1 camera. I bought it after I bought the Mark II, and I'm glad I did. Wide open there is strong light falloff of roughly 2.7 EV in the extreme corners, stopped down to f/2.0 this improves to 1.9 EV, stopped down to f/2.8 it is 1.4 EV and further improves to 1.3 EV at f/8.0.

TTArtisan 50/1.4 ASPH internal optical construction. High refractive index, Aspherical and Anomalous partial dispersion (ED) elements. I write a review when a piece of equipment wins me over in an extraordinary way. The TTArtisan 50mm f/1.2 has done that. It works extremely well as a moderate telephoto on APS-C bodies for my favorite subjects and settings. This TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 ASPH is a completely manual lens, with manual focus and manual aperture setting. It has no electronic communication to anything. You can obviously only find these lenses used these days and with the rise of mirrorless cameras and the option to adapt these lenses many of them are overpriced and overhyped now and the condition they come in after 40 years is not always great. As usually things get more difficult at longer focus distances. In the forest I often found the Coma to ruin the bokeh in the corners a bit and looking at the picture with the statue field curvature might also play its part.

Build Quality and Usability

That Lens was being tested with Firmware v02, current is already v07. I buy this 35mm F2 AF FE for my A7 into 2021. This is a shot up into the skies. Some vignetting at f1.2, less at f1.4, and it’s mostly reduced by f2. By f2.8 it’s gone.

It's smooth and perfectly damped and easy to turn, and has no play. It feels so nice it's hard not to just fiddle with it all day. With the Sigma 56mm I also managed to get closer, thanks to its narrower FoV. (Minimum focusing distance is the same at 50cm).

I also own the 50 Lux ASPH and here’s my take on how it differs (on the Leica M) from the TTArtisan 50/1.4 images in this review: Leica claims the Lux ASPH is actually an APO design yet was not branded as such (IIRC this was mentioned by lens designer Peter Karbe in an interview). This seems to be supported based on low LoCA and very low wide open purple fringing compared to the TTA 50/1.4. I rarely notice this problem in images with it. It also has very low distortion. However, it has a few flaws that can be annoying: a drop in sharpness and that becomes quite nervous in the mid zone between around f/2.5-4.5 with corresponding wavy field curvature, making rule of thirds subject placement problematic; ‘ninja-star’ aperture opening between f/2.5-5.6 (apparently to minimize focus shift); not so great flare resistance. It will produce a similar, though less colorful flare ring as the TTA wide open and IMO is generally not great at resisting veiling flare with bright light just outside the frame. It does not have to be a specular light source; it could even be an overcast sky. Unfortunately this is something I’ve noticed with other Leica lenses, particularly the various modern 90s I have owned (Summarit, Macro, APO-ASPH). In real life , the results are a little bit less good than in the lab but are still very satisfactory globally : the lens is capable of average to good sharpness for portrait wide open at F1.2 , close it to F2 to get very good results and F4 to get excellent ones The midframe starts to look really good at f/4.0, but the corners never reach that level – not that unusual for a pancake lens with low element count and no aspherical elements. Overall, the metal and glass construction of this lens makes it feel like a premium product, but not quite as refined as the Fujinon lenses. It feels dense and quite heavy considering its size (metal and glass will do that). While the mount is metal and feels quite solid, my copy is a little stiffer to mount than any of my native Fujinon lenses, which glide onto the mount with barely any effort at all. There’s certainly no weather sealing with a lens like this and no warranty should anything go wrong. Next, you do lose a lot of your sharpness when focusing on close objects. In other words, it does have some issues with close-focus spherical aberrations, but it’s not terrible. It’s just something to watch out for. You’ll probably want to be about 4 to 5 (140-150cm) feet away to get solid wide-open sharpness.