SOUNDIMAGEPLUS: 7Artisans 75mm f/1.25 for M Mount on a Leica M10.

f/1.25

f/1.4

f/2

All below @ f/1.25

7Artisans 75mm f/1.25 - £350
Leica Noctilux 75mm f/1.25 - £10,500

Now if you are thinking I'm going to do a comparison between these two, think again. However if someone would like to send me the Leica lens, I would be happy to give my opinion on it!!

OK, the Leica is exactly 30 times more expensive than the 7Artisans, so unless it's a complete dog, it has to be good value, right?? Well it's not, it's actually quite good, so it is somewhat of a bargain. However, I'm not sure the eye watering price Leica want is any kind of indicator of quality. New Leica lenses are ridiculously overpriced and I'm not entirely sure why. It really isn't that difficult to use premium quality materials and assemble a superb manual focus lens.

Let me say first off that the 7Artisans 75mm f/1.25 is beautifully made. All metal, very solid and very well finished off. The aperture and focusing rings are actually very Leica like in terms of use, not too loose, not too tight. It doesn't feel in anyway cheap and nasty. I also have their 28mm f/1.4 and 50mm f/1.1 lenses and they are also very well made.

So what's that f/1.25 aperture like? Well first it's worth pointing out that a 75mm lens at such a wide aperture is not that easy to focus. There is a very limited depth of field and even the very slightest movement backwards or forwards when holding the camera can lose the focus. I try to press the shutter immediately after focusing to avoid this and after some wasted frames I've managed (mostly) to get some images.

It will probably come as no surprise to learn that f/1.25 is the least sharp aperture on the camera, but as you can see from the samples above, it is possible to get decent images. And a huge plus is the amazing bokeh. It is very good indeed. It works best with a subject that stands out from the background. Below is an image I shot hand held of a wine cellar at ISO 16000 and f/1.25 on my M10. You can probably imagine just how dark that was. It's noisy and it's somewhat soft, but I got a picture.

Below is an image at f/1.25 and ISO 1250. Again very dark location.

Below is an image at f/1.4 at ISO 5000

So you get an idea of what you do with this lens wide open. For me it's almost a kind of 'emergency' aperture, when there is no other way to get a picture. I would also make clear that, as mentioned above, getting accurate focus is VERY difficult. With the wine cellar image above focusing with the rangefinder was impossible as it was too dark. Using the Visoflex add on EVF, it was possible but it took a while.

So, summing up the pluses of the 7Artisans 75mm f/1.25 are

Very well built. Superb construction.
From f/2.8 upwards it's a very sharp lens.
The f/1.25 aperture makes shooting in very low light possible.
The price (in my case £350 brand new from ebay) is very attractive.

The big minus is

Wide open it is soft.

For me it's a lens worth having for my occasional forays into very low light situations when I want to hand hold. I might also use it for 'creative' purposes as well, though if possible I would use f/2 or f/2.8, which still give great bokeh, but sharper results. As to comparisons with the Leica 75mm f/1.25, since there is probably no way I'm ever going to get my hands on one, here is a sample gallery at Dpreview. - https://www.dpreview.com/samples/1574104287/leica-noctilux-m-75mm-f1-25-asph-sample-gallery As you can see the Leica is much better wide open. As of course it should be.

Whether you want to give the 7Artisans 75mm f/1.25 a go is obviously down to you and all I would say is that I enjoy using it and the results wide open are acceptable for what I want. And it is a fun lens to use. For some that may not be enough, but for me it is.