Introduction

Just two years ago, finding a true ultra wide-angle prime for APS-C cameras felt like chasing a unicorn. But that’s changed fast. A wave of new releases—many from Chinese lens makers—has opened up a lot of new options for APS-C shooters. Now, 7Artisans joins the mix with its 10mm f/2.8, a lens that promises a lot for its price. Can it really stand out in this crowded new field? Let’s find out.

I tested this lens on a Nikon Zfc.
You can see this review as a YouTube video here!
Sample images in high resolution here.

Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review and many more can be found in higher resolution here.

Specifications

Disclosure

7Artisans kindly provided this lens for test and review purposes.

Handling and Build Quality

The 7Artisans 10mm f/2.8 is an autofocus lens made entirely of metal. The lens doesn’t have any image stabilisation, though at its focal length, it’s hardly necessary. For being a metal lens, it feels light, while the metal adds a little to its weight.

The build feels tight and solid. It has a sleek design, although it is on the larger side of the scale for an APS-C 10mm f/2.8 lens.

There is an AF-MF switch on the lens barrel. The large metallic focusing ring turns smoothly, and in addition to focusing, it can be set to control aperture values, exposure compensation, or be disabled. The focus ring is not mechanically coupled and changes the focusing by wire. The autofocus is quick, precise, and silent.

The mounting plate has electronic contacts for data transfer, aperture control, and autofocus, as well as a USB-C port for firmware updates. A sealing gasket around the mount helps protect the lens from dust and moisture.

In addition to front and rear caps, a petal-shaped, sturdy, hard plastic lens hood is included in the box.

Optical Features

Sharpness (Infinity)

For the infinity sharpness test, we look at three areas of the image, centre, mid-frame, and corner, see highlighted areas in the image below!

Sharpness in the centre is good wide open, very good at f/4, and excellent from f/5.6 onward. The midframe trails by about a stop: it’s OK at f/2.8, good at f/4, very good at f/5.6, and close to excellent from f/8, though it never quite reaches the same level as the centre. The corner is noticeably weaker at f/2.8—hardly OK—and improves only gradually with stopping down. It reaches OK by around f/4, becomes good at f/5.6, and approaches very good from f/8. It improves a little further at f/11, where we get the best across-the-frame sharpness. Also positive is that the contrast is strong at all apertures.

There is visible colour fringing at all apertures, which reduces apparent sharpness, but it’s easily corrected in Lightroom or Photoshop, and doing so is strongly recommended.

Sharpness (Close-up)

Close-up sharpness is just OK wide open; it gets a lot better at f/4 and comes up to a good level, and becomes very good at f/5.6.

Lens Distortion

Barrel distortion combined with difficult, wavy distortion. You can manually correct the barrel distortion by applying +7 in Photoshop or Lightroom, and there is also a correction profile that you can download and install in LR/PS, but I’m not sure if that works better than the manual correction.

Vignetting

Vignetting is better moderate and better than most competitors, wide open, and while it improves a little by stopping down, it does not become negligible. Overall, it should be considered better than average.

• F/1.8: 1.5 EV
• F/2.8: 1.3 EV
• F/4.0: 1.15 EV
• F/5.6: 1.15 EV
• F/8.0: 1.1 EV

Focus Shift & Aberrations

Focus shift isn’t a concern with a 10mm lens, especially one with autofocus.

There’s some longitudinal chromatic aberration wide open at f/2.8. It improves dramatically when you stop down to f/4. By f/5.6 it’s practically gone, and at f/8 it’s completely cleared up. It’s also worth noting that in real-life shooting, LoCA is hardly visible from f/4 onward.

There is moderate lateral chromatic aberration, but it’s easily corrected with a single click in Photoshop or Lightroom, which is strongly recommended.

Flare Resistance

You can get both veiling and ghosting flare — mostly veiling at wider apertures and more ghosting at smaller ones. That said, either type can show up in both situations.

Coma

There is a small amount of coma visible wide open at f/2.8 in the corners of the image. It improves a lot to a negligible amout by closing the aperture one stop to f/4.

Sunstars

The 7Artisans 10mm f/2.8 can produce sunstars starting around f/8, but they aren’t well defined until you stop down further to f/11 or f/16.

Focus Breathing

This 7Artisans lens exhibits a moderate amount of focus breathing, as you can see in this animation.

Bokeh

Bokeh isn’t something you typically look for in an ultra-wide-angle lens. But if you want some background blur, getting really close to your subject will give you just that.

Conclusion

This 7Artisans lens is an affordable option, priced under $200, and can produce sharp, contrasty images if stopped down one or two stops. Colours are pleasant, and vignetting is good for an ultra-wide-angle lens. Lens distortion, sunstars, and coma performance are better than average, and overall build quality is solid.

All in all, this lens performs a little above average by modern standards, while remaining very attractive for its price.

Writing articles like this one is both time-consuming and costs us a lot of money. If you found this article helpful and decided to buy one of these lenses, please consider using one of the affiliate links.

If you are not interested in buying any of the lenses, but you still found this article useful, interesting, or it saved you a lot of money, treat us to a coffee (donate)!

Alternatives

Viltrox viltrox AF 9mm f/2.8 Air
Even wider than the reviewed lens
Buy: Viltrox Store, B&H, Amazon (anywhere)  (Affiliate links)
eBay.com, eBay.de

Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D
The only other rectilinear lens I know about that is as wide as the Viltrox lens is a manual focus lens, though, and costs twice as much at $399. Available for Nikon Z, Fuji X, Sony E, Canon EF/RF, L-mount, MFT
Buy: Laowa Store, Amazon, B&H, eBay.com, eBay.de (Affiliate links)

TTArtisan 10mm f/2
This lens is 1 stop faster than the reviewed lens and has a solid metal build, a manual lens with fine mechanical and optical qualities. It has beautiful sunstars. Available for E, X, Z, MFT, and RF.
Buy:  TTArtisan Store, Amazon, B&H (Affiliate links)

Artralab Nonikkor-MC 11mm f/1.8
This lens is about 1.3 stops faster than the Viltrox and has a beautiful retro look, a manual lens with fine mechanical and optical qualities. It has some handling quirks when it comes to aperture setting. It is a little more expensive, too. Available for Nikon Z and Fuji X
Buy: Amazon, B&H ,  Artralab,(Affiliate links)

SIGMA 12MM F/1.4 DC Contemporay
Impressing two stops faster than the reviewed lens, but it is 3mm less wide, it is actually more than 30% in focal length (or about 15% in angle of view), which is a lot at these focal lengths. Available with Sony E, Fuji X, and Canon RF mounts. At $685, this lens is more than three times as expensive as the reviewed lens. Available for X, E, and RF.
Buy:  Amazon, B&H, eBay.com  (Affiliate links)

Samyang   AF 12mm f/2
Another AF UWA from Samyang, which is one stop faster and while not as wide as the reviewed lens, more suitable for astrophotography due to almost non-existence of coma and the one stop wider aperture. It is only available for E, RF, and X, Price about $280-$450 depending on mount
Buy: Amazon, B&H (Affiliate links)

Sony 11mm f/1.8
This is a brand lens from Sony for Sony cameras only. It is 1.3 stops faster than the reviewed lens, with solid optical quality. It is three and a half times more expensive than the reviewed lens, though.
Buy: Amazon, B&H, eBay.com, eBay.de (Affiliate links)

Fujifilm XF 8mm f/3.5 R WR
Only with Fuji X mount, quite slow compared to other alternatives but wider than the bunch  with 121° angle of view and the highest price of $950
Buy: Amazon, B&H (Affiliate links)

Buy new: amazon (anywhere) for $ (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk from $  (Affiliate links)

More Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review and many more can be found in higher resolution here.

Further Reading

• What camera gear and accessories do I use most frequently?
• Review: TTArtisan 10mm f/2 (APS-C)
• REVIEW: Artralab Nonikkor-MC 11mm f/1.8 (APS-C)
• REVIEW: Viltrox AF 9mm f/2.8 Air (APS-C)

Support Us

Did you learn something new, find this article useful, or simply enjoy reading it? We’ve put a lot of time and resources into creating it, and your support helps us keep going. If you’d like to show your appreciation, please consider clicking the Donate button!

(Donations via Paypal or bank card)

What’s in my camera bag?  MY 2024 KIT!!

• Main camera : https://amzn.to/3TsGtKg
• Camera grip : https://amzn.to/4e0G3CR
• Memory Card 1: https://amzn.to/47pA20i
• Memory Card 2 : https://amzn.to/3XHYxlZ 
• Camera 2 : https://amzn.to/3Xifou8
• Camera grip: https://amzn.to/4dYYpV9
• Memory card 1: https://amzn.to/4e5h2H0
• Memory card 2: https://amzn.to/3zu7W7n
• Small travel tripod: https://amzn.to/4goIX68
  
• Mini tripod: https://amzn.to/4e09XXX
• Small shoulder bag: https://amzn.to/47tPMiY
• Medium shoulder bag: https://amzn.to/4ej4bjY

This site contains affiliate links, for which I may receive a small commission if you purchase via the links at no additional cost to you. This helps support the creation of future content.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Martin

Martin M.H. lives outside Stockholm, Sweden. He is a M.Sc. in Computer Technology but he has been a passionate photographer for over 50 years. He started his photographic adventures when he was thirteen with an Agfamatic pocket camera, which he soon replaced with a Canon rangefinder camera that his mom gave him in his teenages. After that he has been using Canon SLR, Nikon SLR manual focus and Autofocus, Sony mirrorless crop sensor, Nikon DSLR and Nikon Mirrorless. He has photographed any genre he could throughout the years and you can see all kind of images in his portfolio. During the later years though it has been mostly landscape, nature, travel and some street/documentary photography.

Latest posts by Martin (see all)

• In progress-REVIEW: 7Artisans AF 10mm f/2.8 (APS-C) - November 30, 2025
• REVIEW: 7Artisans AF 35mm f/1.8 - October 15, 2025
• REVIEW: Nikon AI Nikkor 24mm f/2 - October 12, 2025