The angular free play is slightly more than normal, you might wanna replace it. Like the other comment mentioned, the play alone shouldn't affect focus.
My l mount artisan lens feels pretty good to use, solid mounting.
this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2025
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Film Photography
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Yes I got the same evaluation in the Photography community. It shouldn’t be that much play.
Unfortunately I bought this lens specifically to scan film negatives, that play is enough to mess with the focus.
I use pic highlighting and x2 zoom to focus on the film grain, then manipulating the camera menus or adjusting others settings. I often need to get back to x2 zoom and use the free play alone to get back to optimal focus. Not a tripod issue, nor a negative holder slide on the table.
That sucks, definitely a QA problem.
Definitely send it back. The mount should not have enough play to affect focus. It doesn't matter you're scanning negatives with it, if it's in the lens focus range, it should not be an issue.
Some level of rotational play on lenses is normal, but one wouldn't normally put enough torque on the lens for it to be an issue. It sounds like the focus ring is a bit stiff? It might loosen up some with time, but I have not ever used any TTArtisan glass.
Simply rotating the lens relative to the body shouldn't impact focus. Focus is all about the distances between elements relative to the sensor and rotation shouldn't change that.
If you're looking for opinions it might be worth popping over to something like Fred Miranda or DP Review if no one else here can chime in. Sadly, the fediverse is somewhat small and those sites have big/active forums.
I think using this lens as a portrait lens or something might be perfectly fine.
In my use case : a small Fuji body and the 40mm macro as a glorified film scanner, it is a pretty anoying issue because it is suffisent to mess with the focus, in an unpredictable way.
Scanning is already a delicate subject as you certainly know.
Your precision about how the rotation should not affect focus makes sense. But I see the focus assist highlights slightly fade or enhance just by going to the free play. Could it be insignificant, like an artefact of digital treatment of the focus assist? Or the sensor getting slightly different lighting (like some kind of polarization)?
Thanks for the pointers to big forums, I purposely avoided them to see how Lemmy communities would respond to such a specific subject. Not disappointed that’s great I received many mindful replies.
Are you using something to hold your camera, like a tripod, and some kind of jig/fixture to hold the film in place? Ideally you wouldn't need to touch the camera and the film would be positioned consistently between shots. Without some kind of setup scanning will be very fiddly as you need to be perfectly centered/squared/etc.
Could the camera possibly be moving some between shots? Are you shooting wide open?
As for focus changing with lens rotation, that would indicate something in your lens lacking axial symmetry. An uncentered/decentered element, an element that's not ground just so, etc.
I use a sturdy tripod, the camera doesn’t move or drift between takes.
The lens is set to f5.6 as a rather delicate balancing between the light source, shutter speed and ISO settings. I would prefer f8 but it is not ok
I do hit the camera with my arms and hands from time to time, then I redo the focus but that is on me.