I've had this recording on my work drive for many years at this point. I went to a beautiful Japanese garden, used these lenses, and took some photos. The video is about the lenses, but also about the type of photography and the ways that I use the lenses.
Watch the video on YouTube here.
First off, we have the 7Artisans 18mm f/6.3. This lens has a fixed aperture and is very compact. It's a really nice combination with the M6 Mark II or any small camera. This APS-C only lens will not cover a full-frame imaging circle besides the fact it's EF-M mount which never had larger than APS-C sensors.
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| A view of the Japanese Garden with the Canon EOS M6 Mark II, ready to shoot. |
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| The 7Artisans 18mm F6.3 lens, very compact. |
It's basically a body cap lens. The main consideration, and actually the main downside of this lens, is its fixed focus, with what they'd probably call "acceptable focus" at 0.35 meters (13.77 inches). This is limiting, especially with the style of photography I did here. Even so, it's a pretty nice combination just based on size.
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| Webpage for the 7Artisans 18mm F6.3 lens. |
On their website, 7Artisans makes a few interesting comments. It is widely used as a "in humanity lens" and has a "Biscuit Head" design, lol. It's a pretty fun lens to use, very simple, very to the point. You only have to adjust shutter speed and ISO, with that fixed aperture and fixed focus.
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| Example photo, taken with the 7Artisans 18mm, showing pathway in the garden. |
There were quite a few times in this photo walk that I was too close to the intended subject. It looks so out of focus that it destroys the photo. You can consider using some type of macro extension tubes to get closer. Landscape photos at a distance can work out nicely. Considering what it is, and the price, it's decent for those situations.
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| Landscape photo with the 7Artisans, demonstrating a fair amount of detail. |
You will get color fringing on edges especially, but there is a fair amount of detail. And the M6 Mark II is a high-resolution camera, so not too bad.
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| Waterfall photo using the 7Artisans lens, capturing the subject well. |
The waterfall photos with this lens are good. A mix of decent framing captures that subject well.
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| The 7Artisans at its worst. |
This lens does not handle flare well at all. You might have to block light with your hand, or position yourself to stop it from happening.
Some of the fish photos turned out really nice.
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| Koi fish photo, showcasing the 7Artisans lens' ability in certain situations. |
A lot of the photos I did use the EF-M 11 to 22mm lens.
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| Switching to the EF-M 11-22mm lens on the Canon EOS M6 Mark II. |
The main downside of this lens, clearly, is the aperture range at f/4 to 5.6. It does have stabilization, so that's a nice benefit. But in this specific instance, it's just fine.
Even this limited zoom range does have benefits to the photography. You can capture subjects in different ways with that mix of 11 or 22mm, and in between if you want to do that.
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| The Canon zoom lens at its widest. |
This lens excels at getting close up to subjects while still having a wide-angle look. I really like that aspect of the lens. I do miss it. There were a lot of nice benefits to the lens. You can capture a lot while having a somewhat intimate feel to the images.
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Using the sun with this lens at the edges of the frame, usually, that adds a nice look. It has those beams of light coming in. Works out well. Nice, unique, punchy images. Also works with leaves.
Overall, a fun photo walk with these two lenses. I think either one would be nice to walk around, take some pictures, whatever you want to do. It's not always about perfect image quality, enjoy your hobby.
I don't have any of this equipment anymore. I did really enjoy the M6 Mark II for various reasons.