TTArtisan’s New Pancake Lens
TTArtisan has announced the AF 24mm f/3.8 Mini, a small autofocus pancake lens for full-frame Sony E-mount cameras. Measuring 16mm long and 60mm in diameter, it is about as thick as a camera body cap. Weight comes in at 57g, making it even lighter than a standard Sony NP-FZ100 battery. Despite its size, the lens still supports autofocus and accepts regular 52mm screw-on filters. The 24mm focal length also makes it a fairly versatile all-round option for everyday photography.
Of course, there are a few compromises that come with making a lens this small. The f/3.8 aperture is completely fixed, meaning you cannot stop it down or open it any wider, and there is no manual focusing either. The lens relies entirely on autofocus, although it does support face and eye detection on compatible Sony cameras. Optically, it uses a relatively simple construction of six elements in six groups, including two extra-low dispersion elements and two aspherical elements. There is also a nine-blade aperture diaphragm, although its fixed opening limits how much control you have over depth of field. The minimum focusing distance is 0.3m, and TTArtisan has included a rather unusual built-in lens cover that can be opened or closed using a small lever on the front.
The lens is primarily designed for full-frame Sony cameras but can also be used on APS-C models, where it provides an approximately 36mm equivalent field of view. TTArtisan does note some compatibility limitations with older cameras, including the original Sony a7S, a5000 and a5100. The TTArtisan AF 24mm f/3.8 Mini is priced at $99.
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