Portraits on a Budget: We Review the TTArtisan AF 56mm f/1.8 for Fujifilm

by Pete Coco May 7, 2024 0 Comments

The TTArtisan AF 56mm f/1.8 lens is a budget-friendly portrait lens designed for APS-C cameras. Although it only costs $158, don't let the price fool you because this inexpensive lens packs quite a punch in terms of quality and performance.

I used the TTArtisan 56mm f/1.8 AF lens for about a month and shot a variety of genres with it, including concert photography, street photography, and portrait photography, including a studio session with a New York jazz trumpeter. In this review, I will detail my experiences using the lens in these various situations. I have also included a link to my YouTube review for those of you who would prefer to listen to my thoughts instead of reading them.

TTArtisan AF 56mm f/1.8
Build Quality and Handling

The TTArtisan 56mm is built of metal, including the mount, barrel, and manual focus ring. The lens, although noticeably lightweight, feels solid and well-made. It has a comfortable and wide focusing ring as well. I was pleasantly surprised by the construction upon unboxing the lens, and I found its light weight to be a benefit when paired with a Fujifilm X-T5, a camera which I love to take along with me. The lens includes a rear lens cap with a USB-C port for updates, which I found to be another nice touch. The lens hood is also a hard plastic with a square front, a stylish choice that attaches quite firmly, although at the expense of the front lens cap. Unfortunately, the lens does not have a physical aperture dial, so aperture settings must be dialed in via a command dial. In general, however, the construction is good, and it doesn't feel cheaply made.

TTArtisan AF 56mm f/1.8
Autofocus

The autofocus performance is a mixed bag, with some quirks but solid performance overall. For still portrait subjects, which is what this lens is primarily designed for, the autofocus is capable and will most likely please portrait shooters. At my studio session, I had no issues with the autofocus finding my subject's eye. Incidentally, TTArtisan says the lens has some sort of built-in eye tracking technology, but I could not find any specifics on what this means. The main quirk I found with the autofocus was when trying to focus from infinity to a subject very close to the camera, like a flower or leaf. In this situation, on a few occasions, the lens would not engage focus, requiring me to set the AF lever to manual and manually focus on the subject or close to it. Once I was in the ballpark, the focus would then kick in without issue. When I photographed a concert in a poorly lit bar, or while photographing nighttime street portraits, and studio portraits with a variety of lighting, I did not experience this issue. It was mainly noticed while taking some nature photos, but a strange quirk nonetheless.

Video autofocus performance is less stellar, as the lens noticeably steps while focusing, without a smooth transition from one subject to another. There is very little focus breathing; however, I would not recommend this particular lens for video work because of the jerkiness of the autofocus when filming video.

Fujifilm X-T5 and TTArtisan AF 56mm f/1.8
Fujifilm X-T5 and TTArtisan AF 56mm f/1.8
Image Quality

I was most interested, and most pleased, with the images the TTArtisan 56mm f/1.8 produced. I used the 56mm for a portrait session with a jazz trumpeter friend, and also used a Fujifilm 50mm f/1, 35mm f/1.4, and 16-55mm f/2.8 during the same session. Although the TTArtisan images do not show the same level of detail or the same pop as the Fujifilm lenses, they did, however, create pleasing images that I feel look like they could have come from a much more expensive lens. I was especially impressed with the sharpness of the images as well as the colors. The TTArtisan lenses did not stand out in a negative way from the images I took with my Fujifilm lenses.

In the image below, which was shot at f/1.8, I focused on the subject's camera-right eye. The eye is sharp, and the f/1.8 aperture gives a pleasing falloff, with his ears just out of focus. I was happy with the performance of the lens wide open, as in this image. The profile image just below that was also shot at f/1.8, and again, I focused on the subject's eye. There is quite a lot of detail in the image and, as with the first image, it has excellent sharpness for such an inexpensive lens.

Fujifilm X-T5 and TTArtisan AF 56mm f/1.8

In the image below, shot at f/2, the trumpet bell is crisp and has nice separation from the background. There is a lot of detail in the bell and the subject, who is now out of focus, has nice separation from the background.

Aside from the overall detail in the images, I found the color rendition to be good as well. In the image above, which was lit with a single Nanlite continuous light just above my subject. The colors, although muted in comparison to my Fujifilm lenses, do render blacks with some pop.

Aside from my studio portrait shoot, I was also impressed with the images captured at a small concert at a bar in Queens. The images below were shot in Fujifilm's Acros film simulation and then tweaked in post. Straight out of the camera, I felt that the black and white images were flat, without the pop and contrasty punch I prefer. This was an easy fix, however, in Capture One, and I often tweak images I create with Fuji's film simulations regardless of the lens I am using.

The main critique I have with the images from the 56mm is that they lack some fine detail and don't have the "pop" in contrast and color that I am used to from my Fujifilm lenses. They also exhibit some softness. Although I did not show an image, the lens also has a great deal of lens flare, so the included hood is a necessity when shooting outdoors in open sun.

Conclusion

At $158, the TTArtisan 56mm f/1.8 AF lens is an excellent value. For a Fujifilm shooter, especially one using a smaller body who wants a lightweight portrait lens, the 56mm is a solid choice. Although the autofocus leaves somewhat to be desired, for stationary subjects or slow-moving ones, the focus is acceptably fast and accurate.