We flew to Alykanas in Zakynthos for this year’s family holiday and to give myself a challenge, I only took one camera and one lens. I found a 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 at MPB for a bargain that also nicely compliments the retro styling on the Fujifilm X-T3.
I’ve been using my Leica Q2 in manual a lot recently because that Summilux is such a dream to focus. I’ve felt more involved with the photographs and it’s slowed me down. I experienced much of the same using the 7Artisans 35mm on the Fuji also.
Shooting with manual focus lenses is a luxury that doesn’t translate well into weddings or commercial work anymore and autofocus is great but it can leave me feeling a bit “spray and pray”, like I haven’t really worked for an image.
The 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 was £67 from MPB and I love using cheap equipment because when I do get a nice image, it feels just that bit more rewarding. It never fails to amaze me how incredible the image quality is out of these third party manual focus lenses and this 35mm 1.4 is no different.
It’s sharp, the bokeh is smooth, it’s well made, the focus and aperture rings are smooth and plus it looks just like an old Fujinon lens. For a fun walkabout holiday lens, what more can you ask for?!
To be really honest, I wouldn’t think twice about chucking it in my camera bag for paid work as a last resort, all-else-has-failed option. The images the 7Artisans 35mm 1.4 creates are full of saturation and character.
I found this Joe D’agostino’s ‘Nostalgic Negative’ recipe via @Iamtongue on Youtube and it has been gorgeous to use with rich warm tones and nice blues. I did also have a Circle Polarising filter on to help cut the refleections and boost saturation also but all of these images are straight out of camera (except for some straightening and cropping).
