This is the TTArtisans 75mm f1.5, it might look like a vintage lens, but this is brand new and I bought it for 229 euro. The reason why I bought this lens is that I think this is the ideal tele lens to partner the Helios 44-2 and that it’s a much better fit than the Jupiter-9 85mm f2.
Unlike the Jupiter-9 which is a Zeiss Sonnar copy , the TTArtisans is also Biotar Copy like the Helios 44-2. And lens it copies some call it the “king of Bokeh” the legendary Zeiss Biotar 75mm f1.5 lens, which is quite an expensive vintage lens and can cost more than a grand on the used market. While TTArtisan is only 229 euro brand new in the Netherlands, so it’s quite a steal when you think about it.
Brief History
In 1927 the first Biotar was designed by Willy Walter Merté for use in cinematography. As the basic double gauss design enabled it to achieve much faster lenses. And in 1930’s Willy designed more Biotar lenses, also the Biotar 75mm f1.5 and the 58mm f2 which the Helios 44-2 is a copy off. The first 75mm f1.5 was released in 1939 was made for the Exakta mount, a decade later in 1949 the 2nd model was released with a different look, but next to Exakta mount, it was also available in M42 mount. In 1953 the 3rd model was released which improved its close focus from 1 meter to 80cm, this model is also which the TTArtisan design is based on.
Being a 75mm lens it’s definitely a tele lens, but you can capture cityscapes if you can get far enough for it and capture establishing shots of the streets. also can see how soft the sides are which isn’t that bad and on APSC it would crop out most of the soft sides.
Capturing medium shots you get to see the swirl happening with oval shaped bokeh on the sides. And when we compare it with the likes of the Jupiter-9 the TTArtisans has a much more similar look to the Helios 44-2 and close very close up the bokeh smoothes out to a soft background.
An improvement on the TTArtisan over the Biotar is the minimum focus distance of 75cm, which allows you to get 5cm closer to the subject. If you want to put a focus gear ring on to this lens you the diameter of the focus ring is 76mm
And I love that TTArtisan this lens has an M42 mount same as the Biotar, which can be used on old film cameras, but also adapted to EF mount and also many mirrorless camera mounts, but sadly the rear design of the lens has a diameter of 54mm making it too big to fit into the M42 to PL adapter.
As they have opted for a different design than the Biotar adding a feature where you can adjust the lens mount, there are these screws on the back that lock the mount in place , but if you loosen then you can rotate the lens separately from the mount and adjust it so the indicators are in the correct position. However because I use a Fusnid adapter which basically does the same thing, for me it’s not a needed feature to have on the lens.
However I wished they made the rear just a few millimeters smaller with a 51mm diameter which would have allowed this lens to work on the M42 to PL adapter. Hopefully they would take this in consideration if they release a new version as it could attract a lot more filmmakers who are searching for affordable PL mount adapted lens options.
Pointing this lens at the sun, it honestly doesn’t flare up as badly as the Helios and could just use this lens without really needing a lens hood, but if you need to the lens has a 58mm filter thread for it, the same as the Biotar. I’ve added a 58 to 77mm 80mm O.D. Ring on it to match my other lenses.
Though the iris ring is on the front of the lens, on the TTArtisan it’s only a single clicked ring, though the design makes it look like a preset ring like the original which it isn’t. Also instead of 10 blade aperture , the TTArtisan has 9 blades which does a great job at keeping the bokeh round in the center.
As the bokeh of this lens mostly swirls it makes a really interesting image especially when we letterbox it to scope, we can see how the oval bokeh give this lens a very anamorphic look and especially in the wider shot there is a stretched texture in the background very similar to Anamorphic. So you don’t need to anamorfake this lens and already get a very anamorphic result.
Honestly I would like to see from TTArtisan to do more Vintage lens remakes, like adding Biotar 40mm f2 and 50mm f1.4 next to the 75mm t1.5, then adding wider Flektogon 35mm f2.4, 28mm f2.4 and 20mm f2.8. That would be an awesome set of lenses, as a lot of the vintage lenses are getting rare to find, but also because they are rare the prices have gone up a lot. TTArtisans could remake those lenses and make it more accessible for new filmmakers to get their hands on these lenses.
But it would also be interesting if TTArtisan would release Cine versions of these lenses made with PL and EF mounts. So people wouldn’t need to cinemod the lenses, as a lot of filmmakers are interested in using these vintage lenses for films and TTArtisan could make a very interesting line of Cine Lenses with a vintage look people are searching for.
