ARTRA LAB MOTUS 50MM F1.6 PAN TILT Review

Here is my Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 review! I was always curious to use a pan tilt 360-degree lens. So the opportunity arrived and I received this lens from Artra Lab to test it and share my opinions.

Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 pan tilt 360º lens

But even if I was curious I wasn’t pumped to do this, because I thought I would not like such a lens. Probably it’s just a toy lens, I will use it just for the review and then I’ll throw it in my lens drawer.

But boy, I was wrong! After using it, I fell in love with the lens, and I can’t imagine how I lived so much without a tilt lens – because this lens is the KING of magic!

Table of Contents

What is Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 Pan Tilt 360?

Artra Lab Motus has 14 aperture blades for creamy bokeh!

First, it is a 50mm full frame lens available for every mount:

Sony E full frame / APS-C mount
Fujifilm X mount
Nikon Z mount
Canon R mount

Next, it’s a lens that can pan and tilt in all directions – 360 degrees. This means, that you have full control over your plane of focus – over the depth of field. This will help you create, in camera amazing “WOW” optical effects!

The bike is just entering into the focus plane and all is nicely melted with Artra Lab 50mm f1.6 TILT & PAN lens.

The name “motus” means “movement” in Latin. Yes, you can move the entire barrel of the lens 360 degrees and obtain all kinds of selective focus in your pictures.

Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 Pan Tilt 360 Sepcifications That Matters

Artra Lab Motus has an f/1.6 aperture opening and it’s a 50mm full-frame lens that works also on APS-C cameras.

Focal Lenght – 50mm
Max Aperture – f/22
Min Aperture – f/1.6
Filter Size – 43mm others 46mm
Stabilized – no
35mm equivalent – 50mm on full frame / 75 mm APS-C
Angle of view – 46°
Internal focusing – no, it’s a manual focus lens
Maximum magnification – no data
Min Focus Distance – 0.5m
Lens structure – 6 elements in 5 groups
Aperture Blades – 14 pcs
Weight – 200 g Sony version / 222 gr other versions
Weather sealing – no
Product detail page click here.

Build Quality of Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6

The build quality is very good. I’m impressed with how sturdy is the build of the lens and at the same time how smooth is the aperture ring and the focusing ring.

The lens is fully metal built – the lens mount is brass, and the body is aluminum.

The lens cap is also metal, with the printed logo “ATRA LAB”.

Handling of Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6

Depending on your camera sensor APS-C or full frame you’ll have a different field of view.

The lens size is small to medium. So it stays very well on any camera body.

The focusing ring is smooth and has some indicators that show the focusing distances.

The aperture and focusing rings have different indentations so you will know which one you use without looking.

The aperture operation is smooth, well built from f1.6 to f22 without aperture clicks – so a de-clicked aperture ring (which is great news for a lens like this – that videographers for sure will want to use)

Let’s see how this lens is handled on different camera bodies.

Handling Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 on APS-C Bodies Like Fujifilm, Sony, Nikon, Canon

On an APS-c body Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 it will give you a 75mm field of view. Ideal for this kind of lens and effects. It’s still easy to be focused and to compose. Because if you want a selective focus, it will be very easy on any APS-C camera to see which part of your image is in focus.

*Artralab Motus 50mm f1.6 on APS-C Sony A6400 – look how sharp it is!*

Of course, you can use focus peaking, or punch-in zoom to acquire focus.

Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 on Full Frame Bodies Like Sony, Nikon, Canon

The native field of view of this lens is 50mm in full frame terms. The lens pairs great with Sony A7C, A7CII, and other full-frame bodies like Nikon Z and Canon R.

On my Sony A7C full frame Artra Lab Motus was easy to focus and to handle. The image was clear and it was very easy for me to identify when I have the subject in focus without using focus peaking!

Why is that?

Because of tilt-pan, you’ll have a very shallow depth of field and it’s easy for you to see when the subject enters the clear zone.

Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 Image Quality

I didn’t use this lens without tilting – of course! So my impressions are based on this.

The image quality is very good for the purpose of this lens. This is a fun lens, a painter lens, an artist lens by design.

It’s like a paintbrush that helps you make digital paintings in camera using optical effects.

It’s very sharp at f1.6 on full frame and also on APS-C.

I’m playing here with the pan tilt 360º mechanism of the Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6

Depending on how you rotate the 360º pan & tilt mechanism is possible to have some vignetting in corners on a full-frame sensor – this depends on you, how you set the lens.

I’ve observed some purple fringing in contrasty areas that can be easily corrected in post processing.

The lens flare is very well controlled – outstanding for a lens like this. In real-world use I’ve got flare just in 1 picture from 500 pictures plus!

So, for what this lens is – a fun paintbrush to make an outstanding fine art street photography portfolio, or fine art wedding photography and videography I would give the note 9 out of 10 for image quality!

Why? Because the lens is very sharp at f1.6 and it was very easily for me to nail focus in difficult situations.

The f1.6 sharpness is the cherry on top and it was need it for this lens to shine! Because you have a blurry background and foreground, so you need good details on your subject.

Conclusion

This is the lens to get if you want a true artist lens. We can call other lenses artistic lenses, or lenses with character, but this is designed like this because of the 360-degree pan-tilt mechanism.

This unique feature is helping you get an impossible combination of different planes focused and not in focus.

Some people may argue that you can get these effects using Photoshop. Probably yes, but I would never think looking at a simple picture how I would think with a lens like this in the real world.

Seeing before your eyes the desired result, being able to compose and adjust the effect, or just being surprised by the unexpected factors that can happen, will bring you a lot of joy, fun and revelations.

Also, the Artra Lab Motus 50mm f1.6 is great to be used when you are bored with your photography, and you want something new.