How I use the 7Artisans 25mm lens for Street Photography

The 7Artisans 25mm f1.8 is a particular lens with a great bokeh and the error in focusing is a far from remote possibility.

Of course we are talking about a full manual lens. The AF doesn’t work and so I need to focus in manual with my fake Leica.

This lens is one of the first released by 7Artisans and is not very precise as newer lenses produced by the Chinese brand are. After some time of use you get used to its flaws too. I also noticed that the lens becomes slightly harder in its rings and this is better because at the beginning they moved excessively, it was almost enough to look at it to move them...

As I said the tendency to bokeh seems excessive to me, anyways we need to consider that is an equivalent 38.5 lens so the detachment of the subjects is a peculiarity for many lenses at that focal range, even in aps-c sensors.

As you know a fubndamental thing when it comes to street photography is to be always ready. This means the photographer needs to devise a plan to have the camera ready to take the picture. And this depends with the camera and the lens you are working with. The system I have adopted and that I propose to you if you have this lens is this:

Camera settings on the fake Leica:

DEFAULT ISO 400

MAX ISO 12800

MIN. SHUTTER SPEED 1/60

METERING SPOT or CENTERED

With these settings on the camera I have a camera ready to go at day and night. I just need to change aperture and times on the dials, depending by the light and hour. An now let’s see the lens:

This is the way to go. this is the setting, let's call it the default, in which I keep the camera in rest situation while I'm out and about. As you can see it is in infinity therefore in hyperfocal and therefore when I photograph generic situations with everything far away I know that I have everything in focus.

Clearly if a subject passed in front of me at close range it would be out of focus and for this reason it is not good for classic street photos. It is sufficient to rotate one step the distance focus ring to have it at 5 meters:

With practice this is an operation that is done in moments, without the need to see the lens. I generally keep the aperture ring between 8 and 16. The shutter speed dial is usually between 500 and 1000. Of course at night I'll lower it down to 125.

The lighting conditions will make me decide one way or another and clearly it's about thinking about every shot, but that's what photography is all about if you want to get exactly the results you want.

Oaxaca, 2021

The photo you see is one of the most recent that I am proud of. I was able to manage the little light available, producing a good shot.

Conclusions

I hope this can be useful for the 7Artisans users that shoot on the street. In practice, it is a question of going from hyperfocal to zone focus quickly, knowing that this lens is made this way. It is a super cheap lens, only 70 dollars, but the results can be great. In fact I think they are superior to the official lenses.

If you have any question, please post your comment here.