TTArtisan APO-M 35mm f/2 ASPH

TTArtisan APO-M 35mm f/2 ASPH

The APO-M 35mm f/2 ASPH marked a shift for TTArtisan, a Shenzhen optics maker that had built its reputation on fast and compact M-mount lenses that prioritized speed and size over outright correction, such as the well-known 50mm f/0.95 [1][3]. With this 35mm the company set out to chase optical quality instead, positioning the lens as a far cheaper alternative to the Voigtlander VM 35mm f/2 APO-Lanthar while aiming for the same class of correction. Reviewers treated it as a direct competitor to that Voigtlander, and the early verdict was that the apochromatic claim held up.

The lens uses a complex optical formula of 12 elements in 9 groups, combining apochromatic correction to suppress chromatic aberration with an aspherical element to control distortion [2]. It is built as an all-metal, manual-focus rangefinder lens with a clicked aperture ring and 10 inwardly curved blades, and at 510 g it is dense for its size. The mount is Leica M with rangefinder coupling, it takes 52 mm filters, and it focuses to 0.7 m, a distance the reviewer noted is a little long for a 35 mm but typical for the M-mount system, where many Voigtlander 35mm lenses reach 0.5 m and the current Leica goes to 0.3 m. Although M-mount only, it can be adapted to mirrorless bodies, though such a high-resolving design performs best on the sensor it was designed for.

TTArtisan has historically added more mount options to its lenses after launch, but at the time of the early reviews this lens existed only in M-mount, in black. No major factory special editions are widely documented.

Optical qualities

Rendering Documented impressions describe a high-contrast, high-resolution lens with natural, undistracting bokeh helped by comparatively low optical vignetting. As a genuine apochromatic design it shows no colorful fringing around out-of-focus edges.

Sharpness The lens shows hardly any softness wide open, and one reviewer said he would not hesitate to shoot it at f/2 even at close distances.

Aberrations Longitudinal chromatic aberration is described as essentially absent, with the reviewer calling the correction effectively perfect and noting no visible bokeh fringing, a result he found stronger than the Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar samples he had tested.

Collector and user notes The same review was not uniformly positive. It pointed to focus shift between f/2 and f/2.8, only average build quality and handling by the tester's standards despite generally liking TTArtisan's M lenses, weak flare resistance, and rough polishing of the aspherical element that produced onion-ring textures and odd light streaks in the bokeh, alongside the 0.7 m close-focus limit.

History

Development and Launch TTArtisan announced the lens in July 2022 alongside an unrelated 50mm f/2 lens for mirrorless cameras. It launched at a retail price of about 468 US dollars, roughly 40 percent of the price of the Voigtlander VM 35mm f/2 APO-Lanthar it was compared against, which framed its appeal as bringing apochromatic, aspherical 35mm performance to rangefinder users at a much lower cost. TTArtisan itself was founded in 2019 in Shenzhen and divides its catalogue into rangefinder, mirrorless, and autofocus lines, with the rangefinder series aimed at Leica users.