7artisans 75mm f/1.25 for Leica M review and test photos
By: Thorsten Overgaard. June 21, 2020. Updated August 22, 2022.
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Quantum of Solace
The 75mm 7artisans f/1.25 is a promising $449-lens, mainly because it has the same specifications as the $14,095 Leica 75mm Noctilux ASPH f/1.25. In this article I will show you what it can do and help you to either decide to get one, or save you $449.00. Or, I will cause you to jump at the Leica $14,095 lens. Read on at your own pleasure and risk.
The 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 is a portrait-length prime designed for Leica M-mount rangefinder cameras. What drew me to this lens was the excitement I experienced while using 7artisans 50mm f/1.1 lens - a cheap $400-lens that I regard as a really fun lens with many 'flaws' that made the light sparkle and the out-of-focus backgrounds explode. The shortcuts are what makes it fun because they result in the unexpected.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten von Overgaard.
Short conclusion and spoiler alert
The 7artisan 75mm lens sounds the same as the Leica 75mm. They're both f/.25, so they must be the same.
Not so.
The 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 ($449.00) does not have the qualities of the Leica 75mm Noctilux ASPH f/1.25 ($14,095.00). The Leica lens is a perfectly designed and constructed lens, which the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 isn't. Nor does the 7artisans 75mm have the rebellion qualities of the 50mm 7artisans f/1.1.
But is it fair to expect that the 7artisans lens performs the same as the Leica version for 1/20th of the price? No, and I didn't expect so. But I did have high hopes that it would be as fun and unpredictable as the 50mm 7artisans.
Not so.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten von Overgaard.
Should I get the 75mm 7artisans f/1.25...?
7artisans have laid themselves in an interesting path behind (or below) Leica lenses with similar focal lengths and similar wide apertures to Leica. Anyone who dreams of an exotic Leica lens like this 75mm, or a 50mm f/0.95, can find a moment’s solitude in having a lens that is "almost" what they dreamed about.
There are things that speak for getting one, after all, and it starts with the low price. Buy one, use it and sell it or keep it without much concern.
7artisans 75mm f/1.25: A fairly compact "Noctilux"
The 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 (608g) is slightly smaller and lighter than the Leica 50mm Noctilux f/0.95 (700g) , and much smaller than the Leica 75mm Noctilux f/1.25 (1055g)
I didn't have the 75mm Noctilux to throw into in this comparison photo, but you get the point. For what it is, it is a remarkable compact and light-weight lens. If you want to "Always Wear a Camera", you need a compact lens you can stand to carry. The 7artisans is that.
The 50mm Noctilux f/0.95 vs 7artisans 75mm compares in size and weight. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Enthusiasm at a low level
I've found many friends using Sony, Fuji and Leica rave about this lens, so it easily and enthusiastically "fell into my shopping bag".
I totally understand the enthusiasm with any 75mm f/1.25 lens because the specifications themselves make the lens very special: It's a small tele lens, and in many ways it’s what a "portrait lens" would be.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten von Overgaard.
75mm narrow depth-of-field is (always) fun
The 7artisans 75mm is an f/1.25 lens which per definition - the physical rules dictate that with no exceptions - has an extremely narrow depth of field.
Any 75mm f/1.25 will behave the same way, it is just matter of how well-controlled the glass is. But the depth-of-field and extreme bokeh is given. It's in the physics of a wide open 75mm, no matter the design.
My daughter Caroline reading the book on the Austrian empress, Sisi. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Then the optical design - the art of optics performed by the lens designers - dictates the clarity, sharpness, color accuracy, contrast, flare and overflow of light (overflow results in milky/washed-out colors and tones) versus no overflow of light (clarity of colors, tones and crisp micro-details such as skin texture and wetness).
It should not come as a surprise that the 7artisan 75/1.25 is not as well-designed optically as the Leica 75/1.25 . In fact, it is far from it.
Well, even if the optical design maintained the same excellence in idea, the glass used, the grinding of it, and the assembling just can't be done in an economical lens to the same degree as in a no-nonsense Leica lens which has no limits on what will be done to reach the top performance on all possible points.
7artisans 75mm f/1.25: Excellent assembling quality
The 7artisans lenses are - all of the ones I have had in my hands - surprisingly well-built. The mechanical feel of the lens, the focusing, the aperture clicks and all ... well, it just surprises anybody, I think, that a cheap lens like that doesn't feel like it will fall apart in a week or two.
There is no way about it: When you buy a 7artisans lens, you get a well-made lens.
7artisans 75mm f/1.25: Very good value for the money
I find it surprising how much I get for the money. I try to figure out how it is possible to make an entire lens, wrap it in a nice box, ship it to a dealer and still make money on this.
You get a lot for your money. No way about it.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Money isn't everything
Easier said when you’ve got it. But it is also true in photography that you can get optimum quality if you will go that extra mile. An original Leica lens may not be more than 20% better than the best alternative, but still the price is 400% more. So you pay a lot for perfection and excellence if that is what you aim for.
Let's be frank. Some of the perfection also sits 6 inches behind the camera, in the mind of the photographer. The feeling of having the perfect and most technically optimal equipment makes life more comfortable, and makes you more able to believe in yourself. No matter if this perfection has been measured and documented by you as the user, or it is just trust in a brand, or even trust in that "if I buy the most expensive wine it must be the best". No matter how the calculation, if the result is that you feel you’ve got the best equipment, there's one less thing to worry about: You don't have to strive for another camera or lens. You already got it.
It is also true that light is what makes a photograph. Your ability to write with light, to capture the exact amount of it, work with the reflections and all. You can make an iPhone photo look amazing, and you can trash a photo made with a $50,000 Phase One in 150MP resolution.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Light is amazing
It's a fact that with light and chemistry, you can grow plants, flowers and vegetables that feed the vertical evolution (the vertical evolution, also known as the food chain, is that plants support life forms which support larger life forms which again support humans. Some times with food, at other times with materials to build and produce).
The point is that with light and ideas and a device to record it, you can have a lot of pleasure, and you can share the results with the world.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
You can make many things with the 7artisans, and posted online on Instagram and Facebook, you may be able to convince both yourself and others that it performs pretty damn well. And it's true. It does.
However, once you have used the Leica 75mm Noctilux-M APSH f/1.25 and you step down to the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25, the lack of perfection in the 7artisans is obvious.
But - and that is the good news - if you flush out the $448.00 for the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 with no prior experience, you sure will be enthusiastically using it!
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The lens can produce a little bit of flare, but not the sireworks the 50/1.1 7artisans can. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
A waste of opportunities
Once you know what is possible, the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 is a waste of good intention and photographic opportunities in the sense that it doesn't perform the job to perfection.
This is the voice of a snob, because I am. The same snob that will tell you that I don't use the iPhone because that if I want to take a photo, I want to preserve the moment in the optimum quality for the future. While the iPhone can take great photos, it cannot take photos that stand to be printed large. Yes, you can fake them to look 'professional' even for magazine use. But it isn't really the feeling of a completed quality job; you know that you faked it.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
The 75mm f/1.25 performs the same “almost great” photographs. The center isn't really that clear, sharp or detailed as could be possible with other lenses. The overall feeling is that you work with an artistic lens with narrow focus and that is exciting; but the excellence is missing. Your photographs are not quite as perfectly performed and the idea or possibility you had, isn't preserved as you would wish for.
"You ever have a photograph you regret you didn't take?" people often ask. Yes, I do have those. And then I also have the photos I did take, but regret I didn't use a better camera and lens.
When I photographed music mogul Clive Davis, I was determined to use this 7artisans lens because I had just gotten it and I wanted to use it. It worked out, but I feel I would have made a different choice, had I examined my photographs the way I have now. But that day, I didn't know yet what I was getting into. I hadn't worked much with the lens.
My moment with Clive Davis captured and preserved for eternity, as described in my Story Behind That Picture. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Street Photography with the 7artisans 75mm
I was using the 75mm 7artisans for a whole day of street photography. Houses, people, the streets, fire hydrants, bicycles, dogs and all.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
It all looked good and fun, and it was fun. But upon reviewing the photos on the computer later, they all suffered from lack of clarity and detail overall in the photo.
It is not a standard lens in the sense that it is the only lens you have, and you use it for everything. You use it for special things, where it makes sense.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
New York. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Nice and soft
It is totally possible to decide that the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 is your lens and to just go ahead with it. Once you have a lens under your skin and can feel what it does, the photographs also become equally tuned to what the lens does to the image.
Singer Nikki Lorenzo. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
When forced, there's some of the magic I longed for
The 75mm f/1.25 can perform a tiny bit of the magic that I saw in the 50mm f/1.1 lens. But it's one in 500 photos where I get some of the dreamy and funky look, and only when I try really hard. The 75mm is just a tighter design than a 50mm.
The magic I am talking about is when light and objects take the shape of fantasy, there’s some magic sparkle.
This is the type of undefined magic feel I know from the 50mm f/1.1 and which I hoped the 75mm f/1.25 would be full of. You have to go really closely focus and work with sort of extreme light conditions to get anything resembling it. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
With reflective surfaces in front and behind, and some highlights, the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 shows some of the uncontrolled features you would wish for. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Snowflakes and sparkles in New York. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Colors are sort of dry
It's not often I have had the strange experience that a photograph didn't glow and didn't look quite as clear and colorful as I expected. But when going through the photos made with the 75mm f/1.25, it's obvious that the clarity is missing.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
If you photograph with a Leica 90mm APO-Summicron ASPH f/2.0, the colors are clearer (brighter and cleaner) than what the eye sees. the Leica 90/2 APO has the perfect optical precision match of red, green and blue light rays, which is what optics are about. The Leica 50mm APO-Summicron has the same, and the Leica 50mm Summilux M ASPH f/1.4 is also a master in that.
These lenses are all different creatures, and much more expensive. I just mention them to give an idea about what type of clarity I'm talking about. What is obtainable if - as we discussed just before - money is not a barrier to getting what you want.
 Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Besides that, the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 lends itself to color photography. Can't say why, but that's just how it came out. Most of the photos I do with the 75mm f/1.25 come out as color photos.
Los Angeles. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Lexington in Harlem. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Los Angeles. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Stewardesse in Los Angeles. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
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What the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 sees
It's a fun lens to use, and it's compact and cheap too. No reason not to love it, except that other lenses can do a better job. If you have $14,000 to spend on perfection, step up from the 7artisans 50mm f/1.25 to the real deal, the Leica 75mm Noctilux-M ASPH f/1.25. But until then, enjoy the almost free ride with a fun lens.
What would make you want to upgrade, is what the 7artisans doesn't get. In this simple black-and-white-scenario below from JJ Hat Center in New York, the Leica just captures the texture of the steam better. The first one is the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25, the second one is the Leica 28mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4:
JJ Hat Center. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
JJ Hat Center. Leica M10-P with Leica 28mm Summilux-M ASPH f/1.4. © Thorsten Overgaard.
A fun lens that invites creativity
No doubt that a 75mm f/1.25 will spark your creativity, no matter what. It's a fun lens, it will widen your vision and creativity.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Bentley. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Portrait in Los Angeles. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
 TWA Hotel, New York. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Flare and bokeh
The bokeh of the 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 is not silky soft, but has some shapes that never turn into sharp edges, but maintains some shapes that you may find charming or annoying.
There is no correct bokeh, the word bokeh simply means how pleasing or unpleasing the out-of-focus areas are. But it's up to you to decide if you like or dislike what you see.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Stewardesse in TWA New York. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
The 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 as a portrait lens
Mainly, this lens is a "short tele" lens, or a portrait lens. Fundamentally, you want a portrait lens to isolate the subject, show features with a glow of life, but not with too many details. After all, nobody wants their skin captured in every detail for the world to examine.
Portrait. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
The 7artisans 75mm f/1.25 does all this. It can create beautiful portraits. Sometimes with a distinct special look only a lens like this can produce. Mostly without the glow of details that a better designed lens would capture as well. I'm talking about the glow of the eyes.
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A great portrait lens captures the eyes in every detail, very alive so you can almost touch them and feel the wetness of the eye - but then the narrow focus steps in and hides the lines and skin details of the face that are best left as a texture with a slight haze. The narrow depth-of-field also hides the ears in a slight blur, and there’s no need to worry about the background because it's a complete blur: The further away the background is (long shots, meaning down a street or hallways for example, or with a large room behind the subject), and if the background has some highlights or strong reflections, these may help the bokeh become sparkling and pleasant.
Celso Barriga. Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
Here's your problem
I hope you enjoyed this article and the photographs. You are now an informed reader, and I'm sorry if I caused your fingers to itch to get to play with a lens like this.
Now I is the time where I leave you alone to decide which one to get. The 7artisan 75mm f/1.25 is a fairly economical lens to get and have fun with. Only $449.00 in the 7artisan.shop.
As always, feel free to e-mail me with questions, suggestions, comments and ideas.
Until next time, "Always Wear a Camera" and remember to share them with friends, family and the world.
Leica M10-P with 7artisans 75mm f/1.25. © Thorsten Overgaard.
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