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The Latest News:
7Artisan’s AF 35mm F1.4 APS-C Lens for X-Mount
credits: 7Artisans
7Artisans released their new 35mm f/1.4 AF Lens for Fujifilm X-mount, and it’s looking like a great pick for street shooters, portrait lovers, and just overall everyday photographers. On Fuji’s APS-C bodies, it gives you about a 52.5mm equivalent, super close to what the human eye naturally sees, so you can capture both the environment and your subject without swapping lenses all the time.
Thanks to its f/1.4 aperture, you get about 1.65x more light than an f/1.8, meaning cleaner images with lower ISO and less noise, especially in low light. It’s light and travel-friendly at around 184g, with a sleek metal and polymer build that’s waterproof, has an anti-fouling coating, and even includes a Type-C port for firmware upgrades.
Optically, it’s built with 8 elements in 5 groups, a 7-blade aperture for smooth bokeh, and can focus as close as 0.35 meters. It’s very compact too, just 68mm wide and 49mm long.
You can see full details and sample images on 7Artisan’s website here
TTArtisan’s Interesting New Dual Bokeh Lens
credits: TTArtisan
TTArtisan just dropped a pretty wild new lens: the 35mm T2.1 Cine Dual-Bokeh. It’s a full-frame cinema prime that lets you actually switch how your bokeh looks no matter if you are shooting photos or videos. Slide a little tab on the lens, and you can go from a super soft, dreamy blur to a punchy, bubble-like bokeh with more defined highlights.
In soft mode, you can focus very close, down to just under a foot, and you get a long, super precise 313-degree focus throw. In bubble mode, you lose some of that close focus (you'll need about 1.8 feet of distance) and the focus throw shortens to 131 degrees, making it a little quicker but less fine-tuned. Optically, it’s built with 10 elements in 7 groups, has an 11-bladed aperture for smooth out-of-focus areas, and covers a T2.1 to T22 aperture range.
It’s fully manual, built like a proper cinema lens with standard gear rings, an 82mm filter thread, and it weighs a manageable 670 to 735 grams depending on the mount. At $380, it's a lot more affordable than most cinema glass, and it’s ready to go for Canon RF, Fuji X, L-mount, Nikon Z, and Sony E systems.
You can see full details on TTArtisan’s website here
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Weekly Photo Technique Exploration
Welcome to a new section of the magazine where every week we will explore a new photography technique from across various photography genres.
This week’s technique: Kaleidoscope Photography
What Is Kaleidoscope Photography?
Kaleidoscope photography is creating repeating patterns and symmetry in your shots. You can either do it the old-fashioned way, so with an actual kaleidoscope attachment in front of your lens or fake it with mirrors, prisms, or of course by editing your images afterward. The whole point is to take something ordinary like a flower, person, cityscape building etc. and flip it, mirror it, and repeat it until it doesn’t even look like the original thing anymore. Instead, it turns into this intricate, mind-bending pattern.
What you’ll need
You’ve got a few options, depending on how you want to approach it:
A kaleidoscope lens filter or kaleidoscope prism you can hold in front of your camera
Regular prisms or mirrors if you wanna get crafty
Your camera and a good lens (something sharp, like a 50mm, works well)
Or editing software if you want to create the kaleidoscope effect afterward
You don’t need anything fancy, you can even DIY it if you want.
How to set it up
Option 1: Old-school, in-camera magic
Attach a kaleidoscope filter or hold a prism in front of your lens. Move it around until you get a pattern you like. Sometimes it’ll be messy, sometimes it’ll be perfect—that’s half the fun. Focus can get tricky because the reflections mess with your camera’s autofocus, so manual focus is your friend here.
Option 2: Mirror trick
Set up a few small mirrors around your subject. The mirrors bounce the image back and forth, creating that repeating pattern look. It’s a little fiddly, but it looks awesome when you nail it.
Option 3: Cheat a little with editing
Take a simple photo (something with strong colors or shapes works best), bring it into Photoshop or whatever you use, and start duplicating, flipping, and rotating sections of the image. In just a few clicks, you’ve got yourself a DIY kaleidoscope.
Tips for better shots
Keep it colourful. Bold colours and strong contrast really pop when they’re repeated. Colour is Key.
Look for simple shapes. A busy scene can get overwhelming once it’s mirrored a few times.
Move your lens or prism slightly while shooting to create different variations without changing your subject.
Embrace the chaos. Part of the charm is that you’re not in total control, you’re kind of collaborating with the light and reflections.
Why should you try it?
Because it’s pure creativity, plain and simple. You’re not just taking a picture, you’re building a pattern, almost like visual music, like a composition. Plus, it’s a great way to shake yourself out of a creative rut. If you’re stuck shooting the same old stuff, kaleidoscope photography forces you to literally see and imagine differently.
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