Introduction

This 27mm pancake lens for APS-C cameras could be a good choice for everyday photography. Its focal length, between a wide-angle lens and a traditional standard lens, offers a versatile perspective that’s quite usable for capturing everyday moments. Its first version, only for Fuji X cameras, was the company’s first autofocus lens. They’ve since expanded to include versions for Nikon Z and Sony E mounts. It is one of the cutest lenses I have ever seen, not only it is small, but also very light and good-looking. The attractive price tag of around $149 makes it an even more compelling option, but how well does it perform?  Let’s find out!

I review the lens on a Nikon Z fc.

Sample Images

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

Specifications

Disclosure

TTArtisan kindly provided this lens for review and testing.

Variations

There has been a limited edition in yellow/orange color with Fujifilm mount. It was called the Twilight Flame Edition but  is discontinued.

Handling

The TTArtisan AF 27mm f/2.8 is an autofocus lens primarily constructed of aluminium, though it incorporates some plastic components. Despite its solid construction, its extremely light weight may not give the impression of a high-quality lens compared to more expensive models. This compact pancake lens features electronic contacts, enabling full communication between the lens and the camera.

This is TTArtisan’s first autofocus lens, powered by a stepping motor, which delivers a respectable but not blazing-fast autofocus speed. It focuses quietly and accurately and relatively fast when the focus point is center area of the frame, but in low-contrast scenes, especially at f/5.6 or smaller apertures and when the focus point is near the far edges, the autofocus can occasionally hunt for focus.

Surprisingly, for such a compact and affordable lens, it offers a dedicated manual aperture ring with click stops at 1/3rd-stop increments, and an A position for automatic aperture control.

The rear lens cap sports a USB-C socket with contact pins inside, which enables the lens firmware to be updated, whenever a new one is available. I have already updated mine once, and it was easy and straight forward. Attach the cap on the lens, connect the the cap to the computer with a USB-C cable with data contacts, download the firmware from TTArtisan website, unzip and put firmware file onto the lens disk, done!

The lens comes with a very tiny lens hood that screws on like a filter. Another advantage is that filters and the front lens cap can still be attached even with the hood on. This small hood is barely noticeable when mounted, allowing it to stay on for constant protection. However, its effectiveness against lens flare was limited in my tests, so I would not bother having it on at all.

Optical Features

Sharpness (Infinity)

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

The sharpness is very good wide open at f/2.8 already, though some useres might prefer a bit more contrast. Stop down to f/4 and you get excellent sharpness and contrast. Even the extreme corners start with good sharpness, becoming very good at f/5.6 and excellent at f/8.  At f/16 you can see a small degradation due to the diffraction effect.m Overall, this tiny lens exceeds my expectations with performance.

Sharpness (Portrait)

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

At portrait distance, sharpness is very good in the center and inner periphery, good in the outer periphery at f/2.8. By f/4, sharpness improves to excellent in the center and inner periphery, with the outer periphery reaching very good. Contrast also jumps to excellent at f/4. By f/5.6, both sharpness and contrast are excellent at all points.

Sharpness (Close-up)

Same story here at the closest focusing distance as in the previous section,  sharpness is very good at f/2.8 with moderate contrast. However, both sharpness and contrast improve significantly by f/4, becoming excellent. Diffraction causes a slight decrease in sharpness at f/16.

Lens Distortion

This lens exhibits noticeable barrel distortion, which is more common in compact lenses like this. This is likely a trade-off made to maintain the lens’s compact size and affordability. Fortunately, barrel distortion of this type can be effectively corrected in post.

Vignetting

Noticeable vignetting is present at wider apertures with this lens. Stopping down helps reduce it, but it won’t disappear entirely. This is likely a trade-off made to maintain the lens’s compact size and affordability. Fortunately, shooting in RAW format allows you to correct the vignetting effectively in post-processing software. Adobe Lightroom includes also a correction profile for this lens.

Here are the fall off values: Without using profile -> Correction profile enabled

• f/2.8: 3.7 EV -> 3.3 EV
• f/4.0: 3.1 EV -> 2.9 EV
• f/5.6: 2.4 EV -> 2.1 EV 
• f/8.0: 1.8 EV -> 1.3 EV

Focus Shift & Aberrations

Fortunately, no longitudinal aberration is visible.

The lens suffers from a mild lateral chromatic aberration. It is visible only in hight-contrast areas in the corners of the frame and you can easily correct it in post if required.

Flare Resistance

Flare resistance seems to be this lens’s biggest weakness as it is prone to lens flare. Avoid the sun or any very strong light source in or near the edges of the frame, as the included lens hood minimal (if any) protection. You can try to throw a shade on the lens and protect it from the light source, which in some situations can be very efficient (See D vs E)!

Coma

Coma is quite well corrected and normally should not be a problem.

Sunstars

You can get sunstars with somewhat spread out rays at f/8, but they get cleaner with long defined rays by stopping down more. Between f/11 and f/16 you can get very nice 14 pointed sunstars.

Focus Breathing

This lens suffers from moderate focus breathing

Bokeh

While a wider aperture is typically ideal for achieving dramatic background blur/bokeh, this 27mm f/2.8 lens on an APS-C camera can still produce pleasing background separation at closer focusing distances. The following images at the minimum focus distance (MFD) of 0.35m and 0.5m illustrate that, showing a gentle softening of the background.

Even at a little longer distances than MFD you can get some background blur like in the following scenes.

But at longer distances you should not expect any breath taking blurriness in the background.

The bokeh balls have a strong cats eye shape near the edges and corners of the fram.

Conclusion

The TTArtisan AF 27mm f/2.8, with a full-frame equivalent focal length of about 41.5mm, a remarkably non-obtrusive compact size, and quiet and reliable autofocus (most of the time), is ideal for street photography,  everyday carry on, and even some environmental portraits. The sharpness is surprisingly good, and the price is highly competitive. It is a very good value for a standard prime lens if you can deal with its flare issue and want one of the most compact lenses available for your APS-C camera. After all some of the reasons to choose an APS-C system instead of a full frame are the more compact size and the price, both of which are very well met by this tiny lens.

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Alternatives

Fujifilm 27mm f/2.8 R WR
The direct competeitor if you use Fujifilm cameras. The TTArtisan has better sunstars and quieter autofocus.  The Fujifilm is little sharper with better contrast wide open at f/2.8 but stopped down one step to f/4 they are equivalent in sharpness and contrast. In the corner Fujifilm’s sharpness becomes excellent at f/5.6, while TTArtisan’s becomes excellent at f/8.  The Fujifilm is weather sealed, while the TTArtisan is not. The Fujifilm is about 150% more expensive though.
Buy New: Amazon, B&H for $350-$400 (Affiliate links)
Buy used: eBay for $260 (affiliate link)

Nikon Nikkor Z 28mm f/2.8
This full-frame lens is compatible with your Nikon APS-C camera due to the shared Nikon Z mount. However, it’s significantly larger than the TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 here. Besides it offers superior performance in vignetting, distortion, and flare resistance, it’s also a Nikon original lens, commanding a price tag over $100 higher than the TTArtisan.
Buy new: Amazon, B&H , Adorama, for $277-$286  (affiliate link)
Buy used: eBay from $200 (affiliate link)

Nikon Nikkor Z 26mm f/2.8
A true pancake lens with a length of only 24mm. A very compact lens with super sharp center. It is a Nikkor but the price is more than 2.5 times the TTA lens reviewed here.
Buy new: Amazon, B&H, Adorama: $397 (Affiliate links)

Voigtländer 27mm 1:2.0 Ultron X
This Voigtländer 27mm is evenmore compact than the already very compact TTArtisan 27/2.8 and is a full stop faster, but 20-30 g heavier. Although, it is manual focus and is available only in Fuji X mount and is the most expensive lens in this list at about $600
Buy on: Amazon, B&H for $595  (Affiliate links)

Viltrox AF 27mm 1.2 Pro
The Viltrox is a fantastic lens and optically a better lens than the TTartisan 27/2.8 in almost every sense. Furthermore, it is 2.5 stops faster with great bokeh. However, in size and weight the TTArtisan beats the Viltrox with several lengths.  The Viltrox is about 6 times larger, more than 6 times heavier, and about 4 times more expensive than the TTArtisan 28/2.8. Which one is more likely to go with you in your bag or even in your pocket?
Buy on Viltrox: Z-mount , E-mount, 8% discount (Affiliate links)
Buy on B&H: Z-mount, E-mount, X-mount $545 (Affiliate links)
Buy on Amazon: amazon.com, amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.fr for $545 (Affiliate links)
Adorama $545 (Affiliate links)

Astrhori 27mm f/2.8 II
I have no clue how good this lens is
Buy new: Amazon, B&H for $69  (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?
• Revew: Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 STM Asph IF PRO (APS-C)
• Review: Laowa Argus 25mm f/0.95 CP Apo (APS-C)

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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 45 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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