More experience with the 7Artisans AF 50mm lens for L mount makes me like it more. And more.

 

"Kirk" by David Ingram. Using my SL2 with the 7Artisans 50mm f1.8 lens @f3.5. Cropped and converted to "monochrome." At Jo's Coffee on South Congress. 

I'm not as smart or as fast as the YouTube reviewers who can use a lens for a few hours in an afternoon and then know all there is to know about the lens. Nope. I'm slow and plodding and sometimes will spend weeks getting to know a new piece of gear before I rant or rave about it. It's a failing on my part but I'd be sad to know that if I "pulled the lever" on the "awesome" control panel too quickly that someone might get a lens that, in the light of day, just doesn't work as well as I might have initially thought. And then they'd be out their lunch money...

I got my copy of the 7Artisans 50mm f1.8 AF lens in the middle of last week. I bought it with my own credit card. It's hard to send cash through the mail to an online store....  No one cares if I post this review. Meaning, of course, that no one is paying me to have a good opinion about the lens. It's totally up to me. The responsibility is awesome. 

Up until yesterday I had been using the lens only recreationally but I'm working on an ad photo for a larger medical practice and we're going to be compositing a photo of a doctor I made in the studio with either an image of a statue of Willie Nelson that sits in front of the Austin City Limits Theater on 2nd St. or an image of The Continental Club at twilight. I decided that the images needed to be made with a 50mm lens to match up best and since the 7Artisans lens was already on a camera it's the one that got pressed into service. 

Seems like all the cool, local, independent retail shops that first made South Congress Ave.

a tourist destination are being priced out and are either permanently closing or moving to 

more affordable areas. Soon, all that will be left will be national clothing stores, an Hermés store

and a bunch of pricey hotels. And upscale chain restaurants. Sad. But I guess that's 

the evil nature of capitalism. 

Back to Jo's. Which I believe is about to be owned by the Marriott Hotel Corporation.

And it too will change beyond recognition...

Mia, sitting next to me, had a cute, stuffed animal on her backpack.

I asked permission to photography her mascot.

It's always the same. Someone needs a photo of a statue or some art and when I drop by to photograph it the object is surrounded by big and unmoving objects. In this case a huge pick-up truck with a promotional wrapper. Promoting something that will happen in the Austin City Limits Auditorium; just behind the statue of Willie. We work around stuff. Or use content-aware fill....

I got over to South Congress Ave. yesterday evening about six p.m. I haven't been photographing for clients at dusk in a while and I'm afraid my timing was off. Had I looked at my phone I would have figured out that sunset wasn't until somewhere near 8:30. What's a photographer to do? I scooted by Jo's Coffee, right across the street and whiled away some time sipping on a cappuccino and scrolling through stories on Apple News. Then I got up and walked around trying to decide when to start shooting. 

I met a nice woman named Lindsey who offered me a bottle of cold water.  She comes to South Congress and sets up a table on the sidewalk most days. She reads Tarot cards for people in exchange for donations. We chatted about how to understand what to do with one's life. She is as conflicted as the rest of us. When the ambient light started dropping I mosied on over towards the Continental Club for a look. I wanted to get frames where the neon sign starts to outshine the daylight. Just like the statue of Willie, the front of the club was littered with people standing around smoking, or gawking, or trying to decide if they were ready to cough up a cover charge for a band they weren't really sure they knew much about. The dispersion of the crowd and the falling of the light more or less coincided as I waited for the perfect balance. 

And that's funny because I'm not used to waiting and I may be one of the most impatient people you know. But I had a camera in my hand and that's usually a free pass to loiter on the sidewalk for as long as you want. The doorman nodded to me and I nodded back. Once the sun dropped behind some buildings I was ready to take my hat off and pull my camera up. The sign over the club entrance comes on in stages and goes off in stages so one has to find the rhythm of the on and off cycles to get the neon sign all lit up. 

By 8:45 the last of the light faded away and my choices were ultimately reduced to getting good exposure on the signage or overexposing the sign and getting a good exposure on the sidewalk, the buildings and the passersby. 

So, what's my point? Hmmm. I guess it's that if you really want to know how well a lens works or doesn't work you actually have to spend time using it. And if you are testing lenses there are few better ways than working with the lens on a series of jobs or projects. Preferably projects that allow for some variation of subject matter. 

The lens in question is a fine lens. It's not earth-shattering but then few lenses really are. This one works, focuses just fine and is adequately sharp when used wide open and satisfying when used above f2.8. Perfect by f3.5. Not a bad deal for $228. I'm not selling them. I also don't do affiliate links. But this lens caught my attention and I'm happy to have it now. It still hasn't come off the SL2 I first attached it to. ..to which I first attached it. (Lord Byron would have wanted it this way...)

As a bonus this lens has been Mannequin Approved for various, mission critical, Mannequin Documentation Works.  Yes. Her natural tan.

Waiting in the shade for the sun to drop down over the horizon. Nice, puffy clouds.

I think we'll go with something like this. My composited doctor should cover the woman in the yellow boots just to the left of the red doors. And I like the way the signage looks. Could I have done better with a wildly more expensive lens? Probably not. I don't think I would have been any more or less talented... Would anybody be impressed by a lens that cost 20X as much? Probably not. No one even seemed to notice an older photographer in a wide brim hat standing on the sidewalks for a couple hours occasionally pointing a nondescript black camera at the doors of a famous old night club. Why would life be any different with a platinum level lens?  Nobody cares...

After a long evening waiting for the light to get right I headed back to the house. B. is out of town so I fended for myself by scrounging through the refrigerator. Leftover Ropa Viejo (Cuban style beef stew) and a thoughtfully paired container of cooked rice were right there on a shelf in the fridge with a note from B. "Try warming this up for two minutes in the microwave...." Who has time for that? I tried 1:45. She was right, it needed two minutes. 

This morning I glanced at someone else's review of this lens. He felt it was just mediocre. He was wrong. I kept thinking as I went off to buy some pipe insulation at Lowe's; wouldn't it be nice if everyone who wrote about, or made videos about, photography actually got out of their basements and did some actual photographs before they formed an opinion about a technique, a product or look?

It's Wednesday. I'm finishing up a couple of projects. Projects that clients actually assigned. Feels like just another normal day.