TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 Macro 2:1 Tilt-Shift Field Review

The world of 100mm macro lenses a crowded one. From name-brand to 3rd celebration choices, there are dozens of choices for all budgets and necessities. But amongst that crowd, the TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 ultra-macro tilt-shift stands out due to the big range of options packed into the lens, together with 2:1 macro capabilities, tilt and shift performance, and even cold-shoe mounts constructed into the lens. But it solely prices $389. Do all these options add as much as a compelling bundle?

Design and Options

The TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 Macro 2:1 Tilt-Shift lens is at the moment made for Nikon Z, Sony E, Canon RF, Fuji X, L Mount, and Micro 4 Thirds. Nevertheless, on the time I’m publishing this evaluation, it’s bought out and arduous to seek out in some mounts, particularly L Mount and Micro 4 Thirds.

By way of the lens’s building, it’s a fairly heft lens. Weighing in at round 1.75 kilos (800 grams), the all-metal building makes for a formidable bundle. There’s nearly no taper to the lens, both, so it wants appreciable house in your bag. Roughly the center third of the lens is taken up by a big, well-knurled focus ring, with markings for the macro ratio and the ft/m distance.

The rear third of the lens features a clicky aperture ring, in addition to the lean/shift and rotation mechanisms. Close to the entrance of the lens are a number of small holes that permit for the attachment of a cold-shoe mount, helpful for attaching lighting equipment for close-up images.

On the copy I examined, each the aperture and guide focus rings have been fairly heavy to show. Whereas it’s unclear in the event that they’ll break in over time, proper out of the field, they’re among the many most strongly-dampened rings I’ve ever used. On one hand, that may make for very exact operation, but it surely additionally will get annoying if you might want to rapidly rack focus from macro distances to infinity.

The lens is unusually difficult to mount and dismount out of your camera contemplating the big focus ring, aperture ring, and tilt-shift knobs. Add that to the extremely dampened focusing ring, and I wouldn’t take into account this lens seamless to make use of, ergonomically. I’d put it like this – you might want to function the lens intentionally, particularly should you’re going to make use of the lean or shift choices.

Tilt-Shift Performance

Whereas there have been different lenses that supplied each tilt/shift and macro performance in a single bundle, just like the PC-E Nikon 85mm f/2.8D, the TTArtisan 100mm absolutely commits to each points. It incorporates a whopping 2:1 most magnification, permitting the topic to look 2x bigger than life on the sensor – in comparison with the 1/2 life-size magnification of the Nikon PC-E 85mm tilt-shift lens. The TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 additionally has the total suite of tilt, shift, and rotational features.

Shift performance in a macro lens is an usually crucial operate. Shift actions are extra helpful with with wider lenses, enabling the correction of issues like vertical traces in architectural or forest images. That isn’t quite common in close-up or macro images, however should you’re planning to make use of this lens for photographs at regular distances, it could possibly be extra helpful. The lens permits for 6mm of shift.

Tilt, however, is certainly helpful for macro images. Tilt performance permits you to tilt the aircraft of focus relative to your sensor. Mainly, this allows you to seize extra of a topic in focus, with out having to stack your photographs or cease down, assuming the topic is at an angle relative to your sensor. The lens permits for 8 levels of tilt.

Lastly, since each tilt and shift can solely be carried out alongside one axis, the rotation performance permits you to rotate the lens across the sensor to line up these features with the topic as required. It is a very helpful function not discovered on all tilt-shift lenses.

Optical Efficiency

For such a cheap lens, with such a fancy set of optics and options, I used to be pleasantly shocked by the optical high quality. At 2:1, 1:1, and macro distances generally, the lens is sort of sharp, with the main target accuracy actually being the limiting issue. Central sharpness does enhance when stopping all the way down to f/5.6 by way of round f/11, however it is a minor enchancment on already good efficiency within the middle.

The corners are good large open, and so they enhance extra when stopped down. For optimum sharpness, I’d actually say the lens is greatest at f/5.6 or f/8. When shifted or tilted, corners are simply OK large open, though it is a difficult situation, because the picture circle is being pushed to its limits. Stopping down positively helps right here, and think about using f/8 by way of f/11 in case you are using intensive tilts or shifts. (For macro images, you’ll usually be at slender apertures like f/11 and smaller anyway.)

Past sharpness, the longitudinal chromatic aberration efficiency of the lens is sort of good. There’s no actual seen shade fringing in out-of-focus areas, even on excessive distinction topics. That is enormous for a lot of macro topics, together with issues like product photographs, the place some lenses will exhibit painful ranges of background shade fringes.

Flare efficiency and resistance on the TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift is sadly a bit weaker. When targeted at a distance, I observed that even pointing the lens typically within the path of the sunshine may trigger veiling flare that robbed some sharpness. In the meantime, at excessive macro magnifications, some bloom can come up off of specular highlights. That isn’t actually a shock for such a fancy lens at a $389 value level, however it will have been good to have higher anti-glare coatings on the lens.

One constructive is the low stage of distortion and vignetting on this lens. Even at f/2.8, vignetting was properly managed in my expertise. Since I solely field-tested this lens, I don’t have actual distortion figures, however I by no means noticed it in any photographs, both at macro or subject distances. For a tilt-shift lens, that’s necessary – there isn’t any straightforward solution to right distortion after the actual fact should you employed tilting or shifting to a photograph.

In comparison with different macro lenses, even third-party choices, this lens could be very aggressive primarily based on value. It’s, nonetheless, a fully-manual lens, so that you’ll have to get snug with focusing manually and setting the aperture through the ring on the lens. You’ll additionally wish to perceive the “bellows issue” impact, the place the efficient aperture of a lens narrows as you focus extra carefully.

In absolute phrases, nonetheless, the TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 has considerably much less sharpness than most macro lenses I’ve examined. It’s nonetheless a lot for typical macro topics (whenever you wouldn’t be at f/2.8 anyway more often than not anyway), however for images at a distance, I’d lean towards different lenses until you positively want the tilt-shift performance.

I believe the true enchantment of this lens comes from making each 2:1 macro and tilt/shift features accessible at a really engaging value level. Particularly, tilt performance might be actually helpful for some macro functions, notably if focus stacking will not be potential or desired.

By comparability, even different 2x macro lenses from third-party producers are costlier, and so they nonetheless lack tilt-shift features. And in comparison with macro lenses with autofocus, you’ll most likely be paying about 1/3 the worth for this TTArtisan lens – not a foul deal contemplating that many macro photographers solely shoot with guide focus anyway.

Briefly, the TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 2x Macro Tilt-Shift might be an inexpensive lens that gives an important function set and spectacular value in comparison with most macro choices. It additionally delivers some worth as a standalone 100mm lens, with good bokeh and an f/2.8 aperture letting it function a pleasant quick tele – should you don’t thoughts the guide operations, barely weaker sharpness, and flare tendencies. General, I believe the lens is a really compelling choice for a surprisingly big selection of photographers, and it positively succeeds at what it was meant to do.

You possibly can assist our testing efforts by buying the TTArtisan 100mm f/2.8 2x Tilt-Shift lens, or every other camera tools, by way of our B&H hyperlink under. Please let me know within the remark part following this text if in case you have any questions concerning the lens, and I’ll do what I can to reply!