A Day in Bath with the TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 and 90mm f/1.25 Leica M-Mount Lenses

Bath is a beautiful city in southwest England, famous for its Roman-built baths, Georgian architecture and literary heritage. It’s also a great place to test out some new lenses for my Leica M-mount camera: the TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 and the TTArtisan 90mm f/1.25.

These lenses are made by a Chinese company that offers affordable alternatives to the expensive Leica glass, but with surprisingly good quality and performance. I was curious to see how they would perform on my Bessa R2, a rangefinder camera that uses the same mount as Leica M cameras.

I loaded a roll of Ilford Delta 100 black and white film, which I think suits the classic look of Bath and the lenses. I also brought along a light meter, in the form of an App on my Iphone, as I would be testing the lenses for the first time i did not use any filters as I wanted to see the lenses uninterrupted performance.

I started my day at the Bath Skyline which offers a stunning view of the city.

I mounted the 50mm lens on my camera, and started my walk towards the City centre with is an UNESCO World Heritage Site. The lens has a fast maximum aperture of f/1.4, which allows for shallow depth of field and smooth bokeh. It also has an aspherical element, which helps to reduce spherical aberration and improve sharpness.

The lens is very well built, with an all-metal body and a smooth focus ring with a focus tab. The aperture ring has half-stop clicks and is easy to operate. The lens is relatively compact and light, weighing only 399g. It balances well on my camera and doesn’t block the viewfinder.

The lens has a rangefinder coupling, which means it can be focused using the patch in the viewfinder. However, I found that the lens was slightly off on my camera, so I used the supplied screwdriver and focusing strip to adjust it myself. This is a very handy feature that allows you to calibrate the lens to your camera without sending it in, and is very easy to do with well laid out instruction supplied in the box.

The results from the 50mm lens were impressive. The lens was sharp across the frame, even wide open at f/1.4. The contrast was good, the bokeh was smooth and pleasing, with no harsh edges or onion rings. The lens also handled flare well, with minimal loss of contrast or ghosting.

The lens showed some vignetting at wide apertures, but this was not a problem for me as I like the darkened corners in black and white photography. The lens also showed some barrel distortion, but this was easily corrected in post-processing.

Here are some sample shots from the 50mm lens:

Once I reached the City Centre, I switched to the 90mm lens on my camera and took some shots of daily life as it passed me by. The lens has an even faster maximum aperture of f/1.25, which makes it one of the fastest lenses available for Leica M-mount cameras. It also has an apochromatic design, which means it corrects chromatic aberration and renders colours accurately.

The lens is much bigger and heavier than the 50mm lens, weighing 1056g. It’s also longer, extending beyond the base of my camera. It feels solid and well made, with an all-metal body and a smooth focus ring with a focus tab. The aperture ring has half-stop clicks and is easy to operate. The lens comes with a metal lens hood and a metal lens cap.

The lens has a rangefinder coupling, which means it can be focused using the patch in the viewfinder. However, I found that the lens was very hard to focus accurately, especially at wide apertures. The lens blocks about 40-45% of the viewfinder on the bottom right corner, making it difficult to see the focus patch. The depth of field is also very shallow, making it easy to miss the focus.

Although it has its issues on the smaller format of my Bessa R2, the results from the 90mm lens were excellent. The lens was sharp in the centre, even wide open at f/1.25. The contrast was good, the bokeh was smooth and creamy, with no harsh edges or onion rings. The lens also handled flare well, with minimal loss of contrast or ghosting.

The lens is expectably sharp in the corners and also showed some vignetting at wide apertures, which was more noticeable than the 50mm lens. The lens also showed some pincushion distortion, but this was easily corrected in post-processing.

Here are some sample shots from the 90mm lens:

After shooting around the city centre and visited some of the other attractions of Bath, such as the Abbey, the Pulteney Bridge and the Roman Baths. I switched between the 50mm and 90mm lenses depending on the subject and distance. I enjoyed using both lenses, but I preferred the 50mm lens for its size, weight and versatility.

I finished my roll of film and developed it at home using Ilford ilfosol 3 developer. I scanned the negatives using an Epson V750 scanner and processed them using Lightroom.

Conclusion

The TTArtisan 50mm f/1.4 and 90mm f/1.25 are two very interesting lenses for Leica M-mount cameras. They offer fast apertures, good build quality and affordable prices. They are not perfect lenses, but they have their own character and charm.

The 50mm lens is a great all-around lens that can handle various situations and subjects. It’s sharp, contrasty and smooth. It’s also compact and light, making it easy to carry and use. It’s one of my favourite lenses for my Bessa R2.

The 90mm lens is also a great lens that can create stunning images with shallow depth of field and creamy bokeh. It’s sharp in the centre, but soft in the corners. It’s also big and heavy, making it cumbersome to carry and use. It’s not a lens for everyone, but it can be rewarding for those who appreciate its qualities.

If you are looking for some new lenses for your Leica M-mount camera, you might want to check out these lenses from TTArtisan. They are not Leica lenses, but they are not bad either. They are fun lenses that can give you some great results.

You can buy these lenses from Clifton Cameras.

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