Battle of the Budget 14's

Jack Martin of Martindale Real Estate Media compares the 7Artisan's 14mm 2.8 lens to the TTArtisans 14mm 2.8 lens.

Jack Martin

8/19/20263 min read

TTArtisans 14mm 2.8 on the left and 7Artisans 14mm 2.8 on the right.

While companies such as Canon, Nikon, and Sony continue to push camera lens prices to prices previously reserved for automobiles, Chinese companies are starting to produce lenses that can be afforded by the average consumer. Today we have two lenses on the wide end of the photographic spectrum going head-to-head.

The backstory: I went online to buy myself a lens that would give me just a bit more coverage in small rooms in bathrooms. My Canon 16-35 is great, but small bathrooms can show its limitations. It can look like you are seeing a piece of a bathroom rather than the whole room. After watching a positive review from a fellow real estate photographer I went online to purchase the 7Artisans 14mm 2.8. What I ordered instead was a TTArtisans 14mm 2.8. Geez, really? Going forward I will only call them the "7" and the "TT"

Realizing my mistake only after getting the unit, I ordered 7Artisans, and here we are. The lowdown: these are less than perfect.

Sharpness: "7" wins here. They are pretty close once TT is stopped down past f.8, but TT is really mushy in the corners when more open. In fact, I believe TT has some misalignment, because one corner is more of a problem than the others.

Distortion: A tie. Both have very low distortion. Adjustments in Lightroom are very small for both.

Focus: 7 Wins if you want a fool-proof focus. Pretty much everything is in focus at all times. TT has a strangely shallow depth-of-field, that can only be battled with narrow apertures.

Flare: TT wins. It may not be great, but the 7 is awful.

Field of View: 7 Wins. It has a FOV of 116, compared to TT's more stand 14mm view of 114. You can see the extra bit on the edges of the pictures.

Filters attachment: TT wins. Attaching a front filter directly there is a slight vignette. I cured this entirely by adding a 77 to 95 step up ring and a 95mm filter. 7 is just a compete failure. It has a hard mechanical vignette with any filter I tried. This is a vignette that completely cuts off an image information and therefore cannot be overcome with any post production aside from cropping off the side of your image. How does something like this get shipped out? I reached out to 7 and they never have responded.

Vignetting: TT wins, but that isn't saying a lot. It's not great, but 7 is worse.

Handling: 7 Wins. It's a little bigger, which I preferred, and the aperture rings is easy to find, and has a click/de-click switch.

Conclusion: "Which flaws are the deal breakers for me?" is probably the correct question. 7 has to go. I just can't abide features like a front filter attachment that are just unusable. I also don't have time to be baby sitting the flare addiction it has. The TT may also be going back. I may try another sample to see if the focus issue is better on a different unit. I really do need a unit that will provide decent corner sharpness at lower f-stops while shooting video.

- Jack