Introduction

Here we have another ultra-wide-angle lens from TTArtisan: an affordable 14mm with a maximum aperture of f/2.8. It’s quite compact and reasonably fast for such a wide-angle lens. A 14mm lens is a good choice for architectural and dramatic landscape photography. The f/2.8 aperture also makes it suitable for astrophotography, and at around 196 USD it remains very affordable. Let’s take a look at its performance.

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

IMG

Disclosure

TTArtisan kindly provided this lens for test and review purposes, but all opitions are my own.

Handling and Build Quality

This TTArtisan lens is fully manual, with no autofocus, no automatic aperture control, no electronic contacts for EXIF data transfer, and no image stabilisation. It’s compact but as it is built entirely of metal, it feels a little heavy for its size.  It feels very solid and tight, in line with TTArtisan’s other manual lenses. There is no weather sealing in this lens.

The aperture ring is marked equidistantly with both full and half stops, and clicks at each half-stop from f/2.8 to f/16. The clicks are gentle, and there is no option to declick the ring. There is a depth-of-field marking on the barrel, and then we have the metallic focusing ring, which turns very smoothly. I found focusing precisely quite easy with this lens.

The lens comes with a metal screw-in hood. The hood may not be particularly effective against stray light, but it serves a dual purpose: it has a front filter thread, which means you can use 77mm screw-in filters on the lens.

Adding a filter introduces a bit of extra vignetting in the corners of the image.

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!

Wide open at f/2.8, centre sharpness is good to very good, the mid-frame is just OK, and the corners are soft. Stopping down to f/4, centre sharpness becomes excellent and the mid-frame improves to good, but the corners are still soft. At f/5.6 the centre remains excellent, while the mid-frame and corners improve further. At f/8 the corners finally reach a good level, with the mid-frame very good. The best across-the-frame sharpness is achieved at f/11. At f/16, diffraction makes the image slightly less sharp.

Sharpness (Close-up)

Close-up sharpness is very good at minimum focus distance and becomes excellent at f/4. It remains excellent up to f/11, where a very slight effect from diffraction becomes visible, and this becomes more obvious at f/16.

Lens Distortion

The distortion is relatively low, especially for such a wide-angle lens. To correct the mild barrel distortion, you need to dial in +4 in Lightroom or Photoshop.

Vignetting

Vignetting is quite strong, with dark corners wide open, but better than many competitors in this class. Stopping down helps lighten the corners to some extent, but it doesn’t make them disappear completely.

• F/2.8: 2.7 EV
• F/4.0: 2.3 EV
• F/5.6: 2.1 EV
• F/8.0: 2.1 EV
• F/8.0: 2.1 EV

Focus Shift & Aberrations

There is some longitudinal chromatic aberration when shooting wide open, , manifesting as slight magenta and green fringing in out-of-focus areas, but it’s not excessive. It improves significantly by f/4, and by f/5.6 it is more or less gone.

Lateral chromatic aberration is a bit more pronounced, but it’s still not severe and can be corrected with a single click in post.

Flare Resistance

This lens suffers from quite weak flare resistance. It show all kind of flaring both at smaller and larger apertures.

Large aperture

Small apertures

Coma

There is a small amount of coma visible in the corners at f/2.8, which is significantly reduced at f/4. By f/5.6, it is essentially gone.

Sunstars

One of this lens’s strengths is its ability to produce beautiful eight-rayed sunstars from as wide as f/4. They get even stronger at smaller apertures, especially between f/8 and f/16—really nice!

Focus Breathing

There is some focus breathing, but it’s only moderate.

Bokeh

A 14mm lens’s bokeh isn’t usually a talking point, but at very close distances you can still get some background blur. A couple of examples are shown here, with more among the sample images

Conclusion

This is a budget lens, and considering the price, it performs well. Stopped down, you can get very good sharpness across the frame, although if you shoot wide open, it’s worth paying attention to the corners. Distortion is well controlled, and LoCA is well corrected.

The lens’s biggest weakness is flare resistance. While it can produce very nice sunstars, strong light sources in the frame can easily cause flare that degrades the image. Its main strengths are its compact size, attractive sunstars, and affordable price of just 196 USD, combined with good sharpness when used carefully.

If you’re looking for a small, lightweight, and affordable lens for hiking or architecture photography, this is a solid option—just remember to stop down for the best corner-to-corner detail and avoid the sun in the images.

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Alternatives

I am sorry I cannot list all possible alternatives, but here are the ones I find the most relevant.

Pergear 14mm 2.8 II:
The Pergear 14mm f/2.8 II is the closest alternative that we have tested, with specifications so similar that one might suspect it’s the same lens—but it isn’t. This came as a positive surprise in our review, as it offers good sharpness, low coma, and, like the reviewed lens, includes an adapter ring with a standard 82mm filter thread, which is larger than this lens’s 77mm. Flare resistance is also quite poor, but coma and corner sharpness are marginally better. Otherwise, performance is largely on par with this lens. It is, however, about 20% more expensive.
Buy from Pergear  (affiliate links) for $239

Laowa 15mm 5.0 Cookie:
The Laowa 15mm 5.0 Cookie is a lot slower (1 and 2/3 of a stop) and a little less wide. It is even smaller and was one of Laowa’s first lenses to feature electronic contacts, but no autofocus. It has a little better corner sharpness but more vignetting, and also well-defined sunstars. It commands double the price, though. If small size is important, then this is the lens for you.
buy from manufacturer’s shop | B&H  | Amazon for $399 (affiliate links)

Laowa 14mm 4.0 FF RL Zero-D
This is also smaller than the TTArtisan but a little bigger than the Laowa Cookie lens. It is a full stop slower than the review lens. It takes 52 mm filters, but unfortunately, the non-removable hood ruins the party for filter users.
The small size takes its toll: field curvature is high and might be annoying for some applications, and vignetting is also higher.
buy from manufacturer’s online shop | B&H |  Amazon (affiliate links) for $449

Voigtländer 15mm 4.5
The Voigtländer 15mm 4.5 E was one of the first third-party ultra-wide-angle lenses for the Sony E-mount. There were issues with sample variation; it has super high vignetting, but creates beautiful sunstars. It is among the most expensive lenses in this list.
buy from amazon (anywhere) | B&H  (affiliate links) for $545

Samyan 14mm f/2.8

NiSi 15mm 4.0 Asph
This NiSi 15mm 4.0 Asph is a solid performer with nice sunstars and was one of the cheapest ultra-wide options when it was released. Well, not anymore. It is much bigger and heavier, and one stop slower.
buy from B&H  | amazon (anywhere) for $249 (affiliate links)

Viltrox 14mm f/4
This is also an interesting lens, quite sharp, especially in the corners,  but not as pretty sunstars as the TTArtisan and higher vignetting. It is also a full stop slower than the TTArtisan, but at the same price
Buy new: Viltrox Store, amazon (anywhere) | B&H for $199 (Affiliate links)

7Artisans 14mm f/2.8
This is another lens besides the Pergear 14mm f/2.8 with almost identical specifications to the reviewed TTArtisan, but we have not tested it, so I cannot say how it compares.
Buy new: 7Artisans Store,  Amazon (anywhere) | B&H for $299 (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?

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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.

Latest posts by Martin (see all)

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