7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 - Ultra wide, super fun

Prior to owning this lens I never shot anything wider than 24mm - in full-frame terms - and while even 24mm proved to be quite challenging at first, I adapted and got accustomed to it rather quickly. 24mm is indeed very wide, especially in my book, seeing how I'm most comfortable between 35mm and 50mm, but shooting the 7Artisans 10mm, effectively a 15mm field of view, is an experience I was completely and entirely unprepared for. For two reasons.

One is that it's much wider than I ever imagined 15mm to be and two, because it was a great deal more fun and exciting than I thought it would be.

This is a review of the 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 manual focus only lens, shot on both the Fujifilm X-T3 and the X-M5. It’s a lens designed for APS-C sensors and comes in Sony E, Nikon Z, MFT and Fujifilm X mounts.

The lens was sent to me free of charge by 7Artisans and I did get to keep it, but I was not paid to do the review, nor did they have any say in any part of the making of this review. This is a fair and unbiased review, all opinions are entirely my own, and in fact, 7Artisans only saw the video once it went public on YouTube. Watch the video review here, or continue reading.

When I first put the 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 on the camera I was overwhelmed by just how wide a 15mm field of view is. It fits in so much that it's really hard to compose with it, especially if you're not accustomed to such wide lenses, and I wasn't.

Initially I was confused and discouraged and thought I'd have a really hard time getting enough images for a review. And since I had accepted the lens for free, although not legally, morally I was under some obligation to deliver a review.. Furthermore, the kind of lens reviews I like to do require thorough mid to long-term testing of the lens and sufficient real life use images to be able to paint a clear picture of what a lens is capable of. I need at least several dozen images, taken across at least a couple of weeks, in all sorts of situations, in order to dare claim I know how a lens performs. Half a dozen images taken around my desk, not even getting up from the chair is not what I call a lens review.

Initially, frankly dumbfounded and rather anxious about the prospect of shooting a 10mm lens, I knew I had my work cut out for me. A 15mm field of view is so far out of my comfort zone that it's not even funny. I was lost and confused and I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, like I didn't even know to ho make photographs anymore. However much to my surprise and respite, once I relaxed, once I decided to let go of expectations and stereotypes, I noticed I naturally and instinctively settled into a sort of flow-state, a comfortable, easy-going disposition where things quickly started making sense on their own. And this is when it all suddenly changed from overwhelming and distressful to fun and graceful. And what's even more surprising still is that I found uses for the 10mm 7Artisans lens that I hadn't anticipated at first.

In my mind, an ultra wide angle lens such as this, especially one that is rectilinear, such as this, is meant for architecture, for interiors and real-estate, for grand vistas and majestic landscapes, perhaps even astro-photography, but it is actually people photography where it saw the most use. It's taking photos of my toddler at home and around the block, it's portraits of my wife, it's this documenting of daily life that made this tiny little lens shine, pun intended.

Look and feel, form and function

The 7Artisans 10mm f3.5 is extremely small, quite diminutive in size and weight. 34mm long, 59mm wide at it's widest, weighing 125 grams, with a filter size of 37mm... that's small, real small. Built entirely out of metal and glass, however I suspect some innards may be plastic, but the barrel, the mount, even the beauty ring are all aluminium and this make it feel surprisingly substantial. It's got a nice, reassuring heft to it, despite its small size and light weight, and that reminds me of the Voigtländer Nokton Classic 40mm f1.4 SC which is the best built lens I've ever head the pleasure of using. The 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5, much like the Nokton 40mm f/1.4, is very well put together, tolerances are at their minimum, there is an almost luxurious kind of density to it, which together with it's surprising weight, or lack therof to be precise and excellent build quality, make it feel much more expensive than it actually is.

The appearance is even more eager to please. It's painted in matte black with a colour coded depth of field scale, which I’m happy to say is engraved into the metal and not mereley painted on, very reminiscent of Nikkors of yesteryear. Both the focus and the aperture rings are metal and nicely ridged for ease of use, but both are slightly thinner than they should have been, while an understandable decision, considering the size of this lens, it's no less frustrating in use.

Launched in early July 2025, the 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 features and optical construction consisting of nine elements in seven groups, which is frankly quite an impressive feat of engineering, seeing how they managed to fit so much glass inside such a tiny lens.

7Artisans 10mm f/3.5

It makes images with a field of view of 108 degrees, it has a minimum focusing distance of 20cm, an aperture range of f/3.5 to f/22, five straight blades in a diaphragm system that's clicked at every full stop. I much prefer full stop clicks rather than every third of a stop, which I think is somewhat silly and redundant.

On the subject of the focusing ring, while smooth enough, it's where I am faced with my first real gripe - I initially found it somewhat stiff, a tad hard to turn. It required a bit too much force and being as thin as it is, this made for a frustrating experience at times. You really need to put in a not insignificant amount of effort to focus and while doing so the ridges on the ring tend to dig into your fingertips. Now, I'm not a snowflake, I don't mind a bit of work, nor a bit of pain and discomfort, but this is just unpleasant and frankly irritating. Furthermore, considering the placement of the focusing ring, being as thin as it is, the ultra-wide field of view, the fact that you really have to grip it tightly to operate the focus ring, means you are often going to end up with your fingers in your shots. Like this:

On the bright side, it does seem like the grease inside the helicoid has started to slightly wear out and give in with usage because the focusing ring seems to require less force now to turn than it did when I first started using it. Maybe I just got used to it, maybe it is actually the case, but in all fairness, it now seems a bit easier to operate.

On the subject of the aperture ring, I find it a pleasure to use. The clicks are nicely defined, the operation feels precise and I just love the fact that it only clicks at full stops.

Overall a lens that looks and feels like a thousand bucks, while costing only a tenth of that.

Image quality

The 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 is a rectilinear, ultra wide angle lens that's the size of a cookie, costs $99 and is made entirely out of metal. That alone make this lens remarkable.

However, it's the images that interest me and in this regard, it doesn't disappoint. Quite the contrary.

In the centre, the 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 is bitingly sharp, it's ability to resolve detail and render resolution is quite remarkable. It handles the 26MP sensor of both the X-T3 and the X-M5 I shot this lens on, almost always wide open, with grace and ease and I'm confident it can also easily resolve the newer, 40MP sensors Fujifilm uses nowadays. The lens is simply stupidly sharp, perhaps slightly too sharp even, at least for my tastes, but this is only true for the middle of the image, because you will often find that as soon as you move away from the centre of the frame, the sharpness begins to fade. It's never bad, it's never unusable, but there is a distinct difference in sharpness between the centre of the image and the sides. Perhaps due to the optical construction that allows a lens this small and this wide to be rectilinear, perhaps due to some field curvature, I'm not sure, but it is certainly the case.

Nevertheless, I never found this to be an actual issue in day-to-day use, because due to the very nature of an ultra wide angle lens and how we use them, one will almost always strive to keep the subject near the centre of the frame, because anything that's not, will end up being severely and unnaturally distorted. This is not a fault of this particular lens, or of any other, for that matter, it's just how ultra wides work. It's physics and optics and nothing can be done about it. With that in mind, the softness in the edges of the frame this lens does exhibit most of the times is simply negated in use.

A rectilinear lens will ensure that when shot in such a way that the sensor plane is parallel to your frame, lines will not bend at the edges, like it is the case with most ultra wides, which are called fish-eye lenses for that reason. A recilinear lens will always make images where lines are straight, however, once you begin to tilt the camera upwards, downwards or sideways, lines do start to converge towards eachother, but that is - yet again - phisically and optically unavoidable. The 7Artisans is very well corrected and it only exhibits the slightest, most minor geometric aberration, in the form of some barrel distortion. For most intents and purposes it's close to perfectly corrected.

Despite being such a wide lens, it can even make a little bokeh if you shoot it right and mind your distances and the bokeh is sufficiently smooth and definitely pretty. There even is a slight swirl going on in the bokeh, at the edges - the images this lens makes are charming.

Colors are bright and vivid, lively and joyful. Sufficiently saturated without being loud, pretty and fun, very natural, true to life and faithful, with only the slightest hint of warmth. Auto white balance is basically always correct and you can easily get away shooting just jpegs, because straight out of the camera, the images come out looking gorgeous. Image quality is simply superb.

It's optical construction and no doubt it's coatings do a fantastic job at keeping this lens out of trouble when shot in difficult light. Shot directly into the sun, it only makes the slightest amount of flaring, basically no ghosting at all, nor any loss of contrast. The flare it makes is circular and somewhat bland, nothing special, nor glamorous.

Stop it down to f/8 or lower and it will make some pretty sun-stars.

It's remarkable how well it handles tough lighting, the 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 basically never shows any sort of fringing or chromatic aberrations.

As far as black and white goes, this lens performs equally well. Blacks come out rich, inky and deep, highlights are bright and shiny, almost metallic looking. The entire tonal range is naturally and well represented, inter-tonal variation is precise and accurate, yet true-to-life. While quite lovely in monochrome, it's in colour where this lens sings and dances, it's there where it truly shines.

Conclusion

The 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 has surprised me to no end, for several reasons and far exceeded my expectations. While perhaps not it's intended main focus, it's making portraits of my wife and daughter, it's in day-to-day documenting of life where I had the most fun with this lens.

In regards to build quality it's a lot better than I thought it would be, as far as the images it makes, it's quite exquisite and as in day-to-day use it fun, fun, fun! A joy to shoot with.

The 7Artisans 10mm f/3.5 is a lens I will never sell as long as I use an X-mount camera.