Jonathan-Mac
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2022
- Messages
- 851
Until very recently witht he release of the TTArtisan 40mm f/2 AF, native 40mm options were limited to the Sigma f/1.4, a DSLR lens made available essentially with a built-in adapter or a quick transition to L-mount. That lens is reputedly excellent but it's also very big and pretty expensive.
In the last eighteen months or so I have bought a total of four 40mm lenses and find them to generally be a useful focal length and pretty compact, though none are very fast. Two are old manual focus SLR lenses (Konica and Pentax), one is a newer autofocus design (Canon) and the last is native to L-mount (and other mirrorless mounts), the TTArtisan 40mm f/2 AF.
I lined them up yesterday for a shoot for size comparison purposes more than anything. Firstly on their own, no hoods, no front caps and each with a standard rear cap (though I use K-mount rear caps for the Konica lenses as AR-mount rear caps are apparently not made at all and are therefore limited to originals).
40mm by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
And secondly all adapted to L-mount to show the size of them with an adapter where needed.
40mm for L-mount by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
The Pentax is certainly the most compact but it's also the joint slowest (with the Canon) and probably has the worst overall image quality.
The best performing of these is probably the native TTArtisan one, though the Canon has shown to be very capable and about the same size (with adapter) as the TTArtisan, albeit a stop slower. The Canon plus Commlite adpater is probably also the most expensive if you buy the adapter new. I bought mine used but still the total was about the same as the TTArtisan new.
In the last eighteen months or so I have bought a total of four 40mm lenses and find them to generally be a useful focal length and pretty compact, though none are very fast. Two are old manual focus SLR lenses (Konica and Pentax), one is a newer autofocus design (Canon) and the last is native to L-mount (and other mirrorless mounts), the TTArtisan 40mm f/2 AF.
I lined them up yesterday for a shoot for size comparison purposes more than anything. Firstly on their own, no hoods, no front caps and each with a standard rear cap (though I use K-mount rear caps for the Konica lenses as AR-mount rear caps are apparently not made at all and are therefore limited to originals).
40mm by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
And secondly all adapted to L-mount to show the size of them with an adapter where needed.
40mm for L-mount by Jonathan MacDonald, on Flickr
The Pentax is certainly the most compact but it's also the joint slowest (with the Canon) and probably has the worst overall image quality.
The best performing of these is probably the native TTArtisan one, though the Canon has shown to be very capable and about the same size (with adapter) as the TTArtisan, albeit a stop slower. The Canon plus Commlite adpater is probably also the most expensive if you buy the adapter new. I bought mine used but still the total was about the same as the TTArtisan new.
