Artisans & Artists - Carsten Schouler
A lot of photographers have a special relationship with Leica, they either think it’s way too expensive, it’s adorable but out of reach or they love it. I for my part, love Leica lenses – they are absolutely amazing. But not only Leica offers gorgeous rangefinder lenses, Zeiss and Voigtländer sells excellent lenses which are both well-built and highly performant. Every now and then another marque surfaces: I do own (and really like) a HandeVision Iberit 2.4/24 which plays in the same league.
Some time ago some new lenses swapped across the continents from China, lenses that bear the name “7artisans” and since recently “TTArtisan”. First, many Leica fans ridiculed them as substandard and cheap copies but then, once they had the chance to try them, the very same photographers found themselves surprised by the impressive quality and performance those “copies” offer.
When you hold M-lenses by 7artisans or TTArtisan in your hand, you don’t feel any difference to Zeiss or Voigtländers. These are by no means shoddy China-garbage. It is pretty astonishing – and rather puzzling – that they are sold at those prices. “How is that even possible?”, you might wonder. Just low wages and high production numbers? Or perhaps subsidy? We don’t know.
One reason why Leica lenses are expensive is, apart from high production costs in Germany of course, the complicated but essential adjustment for a perfect cooperation with the rangefinder of M-cameras. And it seems that DJ Optical in China performs these alignments of the focus system just by basic standards. The company, however, knows that a precise adjustment is important, so they include the possibility for the users to adjust focus themselves. You even find a suitable screwdriver in the package. This is actually pretty clever, because the user can always re-adjust the lens in case something happens. I needed to do that for three of my five models, only the 35mm and 50mm were spot on out of the box. But finetuning the focus is really easy on a digital M and takes not more than 15 to 30 minutes if at all.
Well, who produces those lenses? And is “7artisans” the same company as “TTArtisan”? Both sport the name “DJ Optical” on the name ring. Online you find diverging statements and claims. Some say they are identical; others say the factory is the same but it’s two different companies. Some even say it a wrong translation – but I really doubt that. I just asked them, because I also wanted to know. This was their answer: „TTArtisan and 7Artisans are two different companies. Some of the components are from the same supplier. Therefore, there’s ‚DJ Optical‘ on the lenses.” That sounds kind of plausible, doesn’t it? Who knows, perhaps we will find some other brands with “artisan” in their names one day?
7artisans tells their story on their website and B&H also write about them online. There are not only lenses with M-mount available but also ones for different mirrorless systems. The M-lenses, however, are something like the premium series and they can be used on both Leicas and adapted to mirrorless cameras.
Meanwhile, I own, apart from my Leica lenses, three lenses by TTArtisan (1.5/21, 1.4/35, 0.95/50) and four by 7artisans (1.4/28, 2.0/35, 1.1/50, 1.25/75) – mostly bought from Mint & Rare in Vienna – and I am very happy that they are available, because only with Leicas I would not be able to enjoy such a wide variety of focal ranges.
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