Suspect Photography

As many of us, I’m a gear freak and love optics. I was poking around the Nikon Z lens options on the B&H Website and came across this lens, the TTArtisan Tilt 50. It’s part of this wave of ‘cheap cost’, but ‘not cheaply made’, Chinese lenses. The 70’s were a hey-day of weird, wide, and tele lenses from oddball companies; and then in the 2000’s Lensbaby hit the market. Now with the rise of easy manufacture (barring tariffs) lenses, and manual film/video lens needs, there is a plethora of this type of equipment to try out. Long story short: I bought the lens on speculation, and was pleasantly surprised on all fronts!

I slapped the lens on a Nikon Zf with focus peaking turned off (I found it hard to “see the image” with the shimmering distraction), auto iso on, aperture mode, B&W switched on, Raw. Making sure “ok to shoot without lens” setting is checked. I took a morning stroll on the Highline excited to try out this fine feeling lens.

The lens has two unique controls, one for the tilt and the other direction of the tilt axis. By strategically turning these two, in tandem with the manual aperture, you gain access to a “strip” of in focus view. You can “spin” the lens to make that strip go anywhere. The lens also has a wonder full depth of field bokeh and close 19.7″ / 50 cm minimum focus.

The actual sharpness of the lens is questionable, it’s not a view camera, but that’s not the point. Straight on at F8 it’s sharp, but it falls off the more wide we open. However I found it sharp enough to certainly buy and keep in my gear bag. It’s fun to use and produces unique results.

The lens likes height to give it perspective. Walking the Hhighline was actually perfect with its vantage points and strong horizontal lines.

We cruised out to celebrate the fourth of July out in the Hamptons in the Buick and I grabbed the same combo.

Couple of notes, you have to have deft and strong fingers to maneuver the tilt and rotation functions. A tripod couldn’t hurt, but I used it handheld during my exploration of the lens.

My favorite wall north of MoMa. Vintage camera wall by Brandon Remler.

Shot this one at f16 amined up into the sun through the trees. I wanted to see how much wackadoodle the flare would cause. The result, enough!

Shooting the Tilt 50 at f. 2 to 4 seems best. Shooting wide open at 1.4 makes the circle very tight. Opening up two stops is the “sweet spot”. It’s the dreamy effect. I dig it. Is it gimicky like full frame fish eye? yes. But the Tilt 50 does have its place. I’m thinking a start and finish workout project, shot only with the Tilt 50. The tilt effect makes things tiny and if used correctly, can help telling the story by highlighting via focus on subjects.

I don’t recommend it for straight shooting. Not having the effect makes it less desirable, but still, the bokeh is outstanding and for the cost… Certainly less than Eisenhower’s collar.

That’s the great night photographer Gabriel Biderman and the president of the Duran Duran fan club, Nancy (only kidding, Nan is one of the finest people I call a friend). But in all seriousness, this image illustrates the way the tilt 50 can assist story telling.

It’s a heavy weight lens at 15.9 oz / 452 g. The focus is smooth as well as the click less aperture ring for those who might consider using it for film making. Which by the way, I suspect would be outstanding. Like a way to shoot a memory or a dream sequence. The lens also has satisfactory knurled rings if you were to use with a follow focus device.

Here’s my plan. I’m keeping the lens. At $229 using a payboo card it has great potential with insignificant investment. In the spring I bought the 14-24 2.8 S lens and love it, but at it’s hefty 2k price it doesn’t do what this little extra nifty fifty can do. It comes in all the mounts including Fuji X, Canon, Sony and micro 4/3. Go buy it at B&H and tell me how you like you it.

~David July 2025