New lens, new fun
TTArtisan 250mm F5.6 Reflex
When I heard that TTArtisan, a Chinese optics company, had announced a brand new rather special lens, I just had to see it for myself. It’s a compact 250mm f:5.6 “reflex” lens. It arrived the other day, I fitted it to my Pentax K-3iii and headed out into the backyard to shoot flowers.
What makes this lens different from conventional lenses is that it’s constructed in a way similar to many telescopes using highly polished curved silver mirrors rather than purely using ground glass lens elements. This allows for a relatively long focal length in a lightweight and compact size.
But it has a few unusual attributes that might be off-putting to some photographers but the kind of things that make such an optic interesting to me. It is completely manual and has a single barrel adjustment for focus. There is no auto-focus and no electronic aperture control. That’s a moot point though as it has only a single fixed aperture setting: f/5.6 — that’s it, take it or leave it. It has a single available mount: M42 screw mount. It attaches to the camera by way of a cheap and readily available adapter. Mine cost me $20 and fits the Pentax K-mount. There’s hardly a camera on earth that this lens won’t attach to, which is pretty cool.
The most striking thing about it that is immediately noticeable in many photos is the unique “doughnut bokeh” which can be seen in out-of-focus areas of shots, especially ones containing bright highlights. This doughnut shape is generally a love it or hate it look. I’m not really fond of it but I find that I can avoid it by carefully choosing my backgrounds and foregrounds.
You can see more info on it at the TTArtisan site.
