Introduction

In this review, I’m looking at the 7Artisans AF 24mm f/1.8. This focal length works well for landscapes, travel, and street photography. It’s wide enough to capture broad scenes without making compositions overly difficult, and with an f/1.8 maximum aperture, it still allows for pleasing background blur and subject separation at practical shooting distances. Let’s see how it performs.

I tested this lens on a 46 Mp Nikon Z7ii (Sample images were taken with a Nikon Zf )
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 lens has a clean and sleek design, looking like a blend of Nikon Z “business style” lenses and Sony GM aesthetics. The body is metal and feels solid in the hand. It’s on the larger side for a 24mm f/1.8, though it isn’t as heavy as it appears.

There’s no weather-sealing gasket around the metal mount, but it has a USB-C port for future firmware updates.

Going from the rear there is an AF-MF switch and a customisable function button.

The aperture ring is marked in 1/3-stop increments and also includes an A position for camera-controlled aperture. The ring is clickless, with no option to add clicks. The spacing at the wide end is odd: there are the same number of increments between f/2 and f/1.8, which is a little misleading, as you can only open the aperture a third of a stop from f/2, and the printed position of f/1.8 is located where f/1.4 would normally be. It works, but it’s visually confusing and not entirely accurate.

Last but not least, the manual focus ring is well-damped and turns smoothly. It’s a focus-by-wire system, which usually means the throw changes depending on how quickly you rotate the ring. On Nikon bodies, though, you can set a fixed throw, and it worked very well here. With mine set to 90 degrees, it consistently took exactly a 90-degree turn to go from minimum focus to infinity, no matter how fast or slow I turned the ring.

The autofocus uses an STM motor and is fast, accurate, and effectively silent, at least for stills shooting. It also performed satisfactorily in video, and the image stabilisation worked as expected.

There is a sturdy, hard-plastic petal-shaped lens hood in the box, along with the standard front and rear caps. Unusually, a USB-C cable for firmware upgrades is included as well, which is a nice touch.

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!

Centre sharpness is very good wide open at f/1.8, with excellent contrast. The midframe is good at this aperture, while the corners are noticeably weaker, though still perfectly usable. Stopping down to f/2.8 brings a slight improvement in the centre and midframe, and a more substantial improvement in the corners, reaching an almost good level. At f/4, centre sharpness becomes excellent, with the midframe very good. The corners reach a good level by f/5.6.

The best across-the-frame sharpness is achieved around f/8. Diffraction causes a slight reduction in sharpness at f/11, becoming more noticeable by f/16.

Some of the midframe—and especially corner—softness is due to visible colour fringing. Centre sharpness remains good at all apertures, and contrast is consistently high. If the colour fringing is corrected in post, perceived corner sharpness improves noticeably.

Sharpness (Portrait)

Let’s look at the points of interest for portraits at the portrait distance: the very centre, the centre’s inner periphery  (1/3 rule intersection), and the centre’s outer periphery (1/4th intersection).

At portrait distance, the centre sharpness is very good from f/1.8; in the inner and outer circles, the lens sharpness is good, it has lower contrast, though, and the outer is a little darker due to vignetting. Close the aperture to f/2.8, and the inner and outer circles become very sharp with good contrast, and the vignetting is gone too. At f/4, you get excellent sharpness and contrast at all measured points.

Sharpness (Close-up)

Close-up sharpness is just OK wide open, not among the best; it gets a lot better at f/2.8 and becomes very good at f/4. Sharpness reaches an excellent level by f/5.6. At f/16, diffraction causes a slight reduction, but it’s still clearly better than at f/1.8 or f/2.8.

Lens Distortion

The lens shows a complex, non-linear pincushion distortion pattern. The distortion is stronger toward the corners, so applying a standard pincushion correction introduces a noticeable waviness in the centre of the image instead.

Vignetting

Moderate vignetting, which improves just marginally by stopping down, so little that it is hardly visible between wide open (f/1.8 and f/2.8) and no change at all at further smaller apertures.

• F/1.8: 1.8 EV
• F/2.8: 1.5 EV
• F/4.0: 1.4 EV
• F/5.6: 1.4 EV

Focus Shift & Aberrations

No focus shift to worry about,

Very minor and negligible longitudinal chromatic aberrations. It is nothing that would bother anybody in a real-life situation, so this is a much better-than-average feature of this lens.

This 24mm lens suffers from some lateral chromatic aberration, which can be easily fixed in post.

Flare Resistance

The veiling flare isn’t too bad, but it isn’t very good either; I’d call it average. Ghosting, however, is worse than average, so you should be careful when the sun is in the frame.

Coma

There is not much coma visible; the small amount is negligible. It improves a lot at f/4, and at f/5.6, it is completely gone

Sunstars

This 7Artisans lens can produce nice sunstars from f/8, with its nicest sunbursts with the longest and most distinct rays at f/16.

Focus Breathing

This is possibly this lens’s strongest feature, as there is absolutely no focus breathing to be seen. Great for video makers.

Bokeh

Bokeh balls are not very clean and show quite a few artifacts—but you generally don’t choose a 24mm lens for its bokeh anyway.

Still, while a 24mm isn’t most people’s first choice for background blur, some subject separation is always a welcome bonus. To my eyes, this lens can produce pleasantly smooth background blur at a range of distances, not just up close. That was a nice and very welcome surprise.

Conclusion

This is a budget-friendly lens with solid build quality. It’s sharp in the center from wide open and delivers good sharpness across the frame when stopped down to f/5.6, with excellent contrast at all apertures.  The colours are good too. The clickless aperture ring and minimal focus breathing also make it a strong choice for videographers. Its consistently sharp center makes it ideal for vloggers as well, who are usually positioned in the middle of the frame. Longitudinal chromatic aberration and vignetting are well controlled. Areas that could benefit from some improvement are distortion and flare resistance. While it’s not among the smallest lenses, it isn’t bulky either. So, while it’s a budget-friendly lens, it’s a good one. I really enjoyed my time with it. So, if you’re on a budget and want a fast 24mm lens—or simply a good lens at a lower price and can live with a few less-than-excellent traits—this one is worth considering.

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Alternatives

Nikon Z 24mm f/1.8
Nikon’s own Z mount lens, solid build and optical quality
Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $850 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Viltrox 24mm f/1.8 Z
The only autofocus Z mount alternative to date. Smaller and lighter. Good build quality and optically not very far from Nikkor Z 24/1.8 except the distortion and vignetting, which are not as good and also no weather sealing but less than half the price of Nikkor Z 24/1.8  at about ~ $380 today.
Buy new: Viltrox Store, amazon.com, amazon.de for $380 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.8G ED
This is the predecessor of the reviewed lens in Nikon F mount. Also optically very good but not quite as good as the new Z mount version. A little cheaper than the Z version though. If you have a Z camera go for the Z lenses, otherwise this is a very good choice both on Nikon DSLR and Z with adapter.
Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $745 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 24mm f/1.4G ED
2/3rd of a stop faster from the same generation as the aforementioned lens but 5 years older and optically a little weaker than its little brother, the 1.8 version, while its price is more than twice as the f/1.8 version. This one has better corner performance though.  If you need the extra speed go for it, otherwise take the f/1.8 version.
Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $ (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-s
Manual focus from Nikon’s heyday, excellent mechanical instrument, compact and lightweight. Good optical characteristics. Very soft in corners wide open but very good 2-3 stops closed, which normally is the case if you do landscapes. Ideal manual 24mm for street and landscape photography on film cameras and for manual focus enthusiasts.
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Nikon Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 AF and AF-D
Exactly the same lens as the Nikkor 24mm f/2.8 Ai-s  but with autofocus. If you prefer autofocus  and are on a tight budget take this one, otherwise the AF-S version is a better choice.
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art
Sigma’s top line Art series. Faster at f/1.4 with autofocus but in F mount (like Nikkor AF-S 24/1.4G). It is about 50% heavier than Nikon Z 24/1.8 but physically comparable with Nikon’s AF-S 24/1.4 G lens. Almost as good as Nikon’s 24/1.4 G but not quite. However, the Nikon 24/1.4 is more than twice as expensive. Actually in the center of the image at its widest aperture it competes successfully with the Z mount version, which is better than Nikkor AF-S 24/1.4 but not further stopped down and not anywhere else other than the center. So, it’s faster and sharper in the center up to about f/4 but, lo and behold, it’s cheaper than the slower Nikon Z lens, new, as it is still in production. If you need the extra speed but on a budget go for this one, otherwise the Z lens if you have Z body or the AF-S f/1.8.
Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.dr for $820 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG Aspherical Macro Nikon
An older and cheaper design from Sigma. About the same weight (actually 35g heavier), a bit shorter but larger diameter compared to Nikkor Z 1.8. Very slow and noisy autofocus in F mount, generally  the weakest of most of the listed alternatives but it can focus very close and therefore able to create nice bokeh (at close distances). If the only thing about the 24mm lens is the bokeh and close-up photography, consider this one otherwise you would be better off choosing any other lens in the list. It is not produced anymore but you can buy it used.
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (Affiliate links)

Samyang 24mm f/1.4 ED IF UMC
2/3rd of a stop faster manual focus lens in F mount. Larger and heavier though.  Being from 2001 it’s a quite old optical design compared to more modern lenses from 3-4 years ago to now and that can be seen in the images. You can buy this lens new for about $480 at Amazon
Buy new: amazon.com, amazon.de for $ (Affiliate links)
Buy used: ebay.com, ebay.de, ebay.co.uk, ebay.fr, ebay.com.au  (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: Nikon AF-S 24mm 1.8G
• Review: Viltrox AF 24mm 1:1.8 STM ASPH ED IF (Z mount)
• Review: Nikon Nikkor Z 24mm f/1.8 S
• Review: Samyang AF 24mm 1.8 FE

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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.

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