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Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 FE Review | All This for $275?
Oct 20, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott takes a deep dive look at the Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 FE - a mid-tier full frame prime for Sony. Just $275! | This episode is sponsored by Fantom Tracker. Visit store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN20 for 20% off. | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/EVO85review | Purchase the Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 @ Viltrox https://tinyurl.com/BuyEVO85 (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 5% off) | B&H https://bhpho.to/47cGW9u | Adorama https://howl.link/c7eoxbojzefg1 | Amazon https://amzn.to/3KUzZSO | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3IWiW2j | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/47cGFmY | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/48vTs6i | Pergear Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:11
Uh-oh. Viltrox is back with yet another
0:14
new series of lenses. And this one
0:17
really kind of bridges the gap between
0:18
the Air and the Pro series. Earlier this
0:21
year, I reviewed the Pro Series 85mm
0:24
F1.4. An amazing lens. However, it
0:27
weighed in at 800 g, which is pretty
0:30
hefty for most people. The new Evo
0:33
series from Viltrox comes with some of
0:36
the lightweight qualities and more
0:38
compact size of the Air series. This
0:40
lens weighs 340 grams, but it also comes
0:45
with the greater complexity of the Pro
0:47
Series lenses, including more features,
0:51
uh, some weather sealing things like
0:52
that, making this a amazing kind of
0:56
mid-range lineup for Viltrox. The new
0:59
85mm f2 from their EVO series, as we're
1:03
going to see, is amazing optically, has
1:06
good autofocus, and is very featurerich,
1:08
but comes at a price tag of just $275.
1:12
That makes it basically the cheapest
1:14
lens in the class outside of a few
1:18
attempts at 85 millimeter lenses from
1:21
some other brands that were really
1:23
lowbudget quality. But this is anything
1:26
but. And that tells me that this is
1:28
going to be yet another seriously
1:30
disruptive series from Viltrox and may
1:33
hit the sweet spot for a lot of people.
1:36
I see this as the kind of lens for those
1:38
that really love Sigma's IER for
1:40
example. And today we're going to dive
1:43
into this particular lens and see if it
1:45
should jump to the top of your list if
1:47
you're looking for a compact 85mm prime.
1:50
Sound interesting? Let's dive in and
1:52
take a look. Today's episode is
1:54
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and use code dustin20 for 20% off. Now,
2:47
in full disclosure, this lens was sent
2:49
to me by Viltrox for evaluation. As
2:52
always, they have had no input on this
2:55
review, and they will not see it before
2:57
you do. This is a completely independent
2:59
review, and all of my findings are my
3:02
own. All right, let's talk build and
3:04
handling. As I mentioned earlier in the
3:06
intro, I think that the new Evo series,
3:08
in many ways, is a an effective hybrid
3:11
of the Air and the Pro series. And so it
3:14
is a slightly scaled up version of the
3:17
Air series in terms of the size. A
3:19
little bit larger body than what those
3:21
lenses are, but still in a very moderate
3:24
kind of way. Likewise, it is essentially
3:27
a scaled down version of the Pro series
3:29
where it has a lot of the features of
3:31
that, a bit of the weather ceiling, but
3:34
maybe not to that same degree. And so it
3:37
really produces a a nice kind of medium
3:40
level that I think is going to attract a
3:42
lot of people. This really does have a
3:44
very nice build quality. And I will note
3:46
that relative to all the other lenses
3:48
that are competing in the 85mm f1.8
3:51
space here on Sony FE. This lens
3:53
definitely has the biggest feature set.
3:56
And so that includes having a robust
3:58
approach to aperture. None of the others
4:00
have the aperture ring, but this has the
4:02
full featured aperture where you can go
4:04
through with clicks at 1/3 stop to tint.
4:07
You can declick the aperture with a
4:09
switch on the side and then you can do
4:11
smooth aperture racks which is going to
4:14
be more useful for video. Uh it doesn't
4:17
have an iris lock but there is a little
4:19
bit firmer detent and a little bit
4:20
bigger space between f-16 and automatic
4:23
for control within the camera. The
4:25
aperture Iris itself has nine blades
4:28
inside and you can see as you go through
4:30
that rack again it does maintain a
4:32
fairly circular shape. You can see the
4:34
aperture blade shape just a little bit,
4:36
but the overall effect is going to be a
4:39
circular aperture shape. Also, here we
4:41
have an AFMF switch and a focus hold
4:45
button. So, just to give you an idea of
4:46
some of the comparisons, I uh reviewed
4:49
earlier this year a lens that I actually
4:50
really like. It's the LK Samyang 85mm
4:53
f1.8 Prima lens from them. And so, this
4:57
has essentially the AFMF switch on the
4:59
side. And that's it as far as the
5:02
features there. It does have some
5:04
weather sealing. The Sony 85mm f1.8. It
5:09
has an AFMF switch and it has the focus
5:11
hold button and it has some degree of
5:14
weather sealing, minor degree of weather
5:16
sealing, but it does not have anything
5:18
in terms of aperture control. Likewise,
5:21
the Zeiss Battis, which is about $1,000
5:24
more than this lens, it has basically
5:26
the same feature set as does the Sony.
5:29
And so we're getting a very fullfeatured
5:32
um a full set of features here relative
5:35
to the competition. As far as the finish
5:38
here, it is a mixture of metals and
5:40
high-grade engineered plastics. It
5:42
definitely has a higher grade feel than
5:44
what the Air series does. It feels like
5:47
a lightweight premium lens uh to be sure
5:50
and so definitely feels a little bit
5:51
more upscale than what this Prima lens
5:53
does and frankly more upscale than the
5:56
Sony lens even though the Sony is more
5:58
than double in price. Got a nice new
6:01
shiny EVO badge here on on the side.
6:03
It's a great looking lens and it is a
6:06
highly functional one as well. It does
6:08
come with a hood and the lens pouch. The
6:11
hood itself um it is plastic but it is
6:15
thick plastics. It doesn't feel chintzy
6:17
at all and it does bayonet on with good
6:19
precision and once it's there it
6:21
actually locks in place quite well.
6:22
There's no lock but it does bayonet on
6:25
there tightly. All good there. Now in
6:27
terms of the size it is 69 mm in
6:30
diameter or 2.71 in. That's a little bit
6:34
slimmer than any of the competition.
6:36
just a little bit slimmer than the LK
6:37
Samyang, but more like five six centime
6:40
or millimeters, not centimeters, uh
6:43
slimmer than what the Sony lens is. And
6:46
so it is nice and slim. It's 76 mm long.
6:50
And so that is longer than the Samyang
6:52
as you can see from this photo here, but
6:54
it is shorter than the Sony lens. The
6:58
weight here is 340 g or 12 oz. And so
7:02
that's a little bit lighter than the
7:04
Sony lens, 371 gram, and it's a little
7:07
bit heavier than the LK Samyang lens,
7:10
which is 272 grams. The Zeiss baddis
7:13
lens is heavier than any of these. So
7:16
overall, we have got a compact size.
7:18
Now, yes, we do have a slightly smaller
7:20
maximum aperture. Uh this at f2 that is
7:23
one-third stop less bright than the f1.8
7:26
aperture of the opposing lenses. So that
7:28
does need to be taken into
7:29
consideration. However, we do have a
7:32
nicer build quality and also a more
7:34
robust feature set. And so again, I
7:37
think that I think the Viltrox has done
7:39
a good job of keeping the weight
7:40
moderate here under those circumstances.
7:43
Front filter thread is 58 mm. That is a
7:46
little smaller than the competing
7:47
lenses. And again, it's probably because
7:48
of that F2 maximum aperture. At the
7:51
back, we'll see a signature USBC port
7:55
for doing firmware updates. And Viltrox
7:57
is good at updating their firmware and
8:00
supporting their lenses at least in that
8:01
regard. And you also will see a orange
8:04
colored red orange colored uh gasket
8:07
weather sealing gasket that is here. So
8:09
there's definitely a gasket here. They
8:11
do mention in their literature that
8:13
there is a coating on the front element
8:15
to help with fingerprints, moisture
8:17
there. What I think we don't have is
8:19
internal seals because there's no
8:21
mention of those. Whereas with the Pro
8:23
and the Lab series, it does mention the
8:25
internal seal. So, I think that this is
8:27
a degree of weather sealing that's
8:28
similar to Sigma's ieries, for example,
8:31
where we've got a coating and we've got
8:32
a rear gasket, but we don't necessarily
8:35
have internal seals. At the same time,
8:38
however, I mean, something is better
8:39
than nothing. And so, I'm thankful to
8:41
have that. Minimum focus distance is 74
8:44
centimeters. So you can focus a little
8:45
bit closer than competing lenses which
8:47
tend to be in the 80 centimeter range.
8:50
But your maximum magnification of 0.13
8:53
times is just a little bit better than
8:54
some and ties others. And so 85
8:58
millimeters lenses rarely have a strong
9:01
maximum magnification. So about the best
9:03
that I've seen in the class outside of a
9:05
few macro exceptions is about 0.14
9:08
times. So this is right in the hunt of
9:11
being at the better end of this
9:12
particular class. And so up close
9:16
performance is very strong. It's a nice
9:18
flat plane of focus, good contrast, good
9:20
detail. All of that is very, very good.
9:23
So I think that this is a really
9:25
compelling package here. I think that
9:26
they've done a fantastic job of finding
9:29
a great balance of getting lots of
9:31
features, nice build quality, but also
9:33
keeping the size smaller, lighter, and
9:36
more reasonable in that regard. Good
9:38
job, VT trucks. So, let's talk
9:40
autofocus. I'm shooting all of these
9:42
outdoor segments on the Evo lens mounted
9:45
on my Alpha 1 Mark II. And to give you a
9:48
sense of how well it tracks and renders
9:50
here outdoors. Now, the EVO series, at
9:54
least in this particular iteration, is
9:55
going to be powered by an SDM rather
9:57
than their HyperVCM focus motors.
10:00
Voltrox obviously has evaluated that STM
10:02
is sufficient for this lineup because of
10:04
the smaller glass elements that it needs
10:07
to move. And so so far it looks like the
10:09
Pro Series lenses have a single single
10:11
HyperVCM focus motor whereas the Lab
10:13
series employ multiple HyperVCM focus
10:16
motors to drive those bigger heavier
10:19
glass elements. Truth of the matter is
10:21
is that while I prefer the higherend
10:22
system, the STM works great here. And
10:25
you can see that focus speed, if not
10:27
instant, is very quick going back and
10:30
forth. What's more, the focus system is
10:32
smooth and it's not quite as quiet as
10:35
the HyperVCM focus motor, but it's quiet
10:38
enough that I can only hear a very faint
10:40
clicking if I focus with the lens right
10:42
next to my ear. And so, in actual
10:44
operation, you're probably not going to
10:46
hear any kind of focus sounds at all.
10:48
Furthermore, I found focus had no
10:50
problem in snapping into place. For
10:52
example, this shot, I only had a split
10:54
second to get it because I had to walk
10:56
past someone and try to quickly shoot
10:58
before uh someone else walked into frame
11:00
and also to try to time catching my son
11:03
kind of hitting the right spot that I
11:05
wanted him in time. Focus snapped on no
11:07
problem. Likewise, in other situations
11:10
when I was shooting either portrait type
11:12
shots or uh just shooting uh while out
11:15
hiking, things like that, focus was
11:18
always accurate and quick, locked on and
11:21
delivered very well focused results. And
11:23
so for all the applications I used it
11:25
for, for stills, I had no concerns at
11:28
all. Autofocus did everything that I
11:29
wanted it to. And while, you know, on
11:31
paper I might prefer the higherend focus
11:33
system, the truth of the matter is is
11:35
that it does everything you need it to
11:37
right here with the STDM focus motor.
11:39
So, I have no problem with that. So,
11:42
let's talk video autofocus. You can see
11:44
that if I approach the camera and I duck
11:48
in frame and out of frame, that
11:50
autofocus snaps right back with good
11:52
accuracy and good confidence. What's
11:54
more, you can see even when it goes to
11:56
the back and then back to me, it does so
11:58
with nice smoothness as opposed to just
12:00
a big jump in one direction. Likewise,
12:03
when I did my focus pulls, I saw
12:05
something similar. And despite this
12:06
being a stepping motor, there are no
12:08
visible steps that I could see. There
12:10
was no settling. There was no pulsing,
12:12
but rather it was good smooth sweeps
12:15
back and forth. And you'll see that
12:16
while there is some focus breathing
12:18
there, it's actually fairly well
12:20
controlled for an 85 millimeter focal
12:22
length, particularly when we're shooting
12:24
at the maximum aperture of f2. Likewise,
12:27
when I did my hand test, while there
12:29
were a few occasions where focus stayed
12:31
locked on my face, which tends to be the
12:33
case because the camera is predicting
12:35
that's what you want in focus, um the
12:38
transitions to and from my hand worked
12:40
just fine. And so, uh, all things
12:42
considered, I think that autofocus did a
12:44
good job with that. What's more, with
12:47
shots outdoors like this, or in some of
12:49
the segments where I've done talking
12:51
head like this, focus has been nice and
12:53
stable without any pulsing around or
12:56
losing focus on me. And so, in that, all
12:59
of my video clips, focus has been
13:01
stable. And I would say in general, I am
13:04
very pleased with the way that autofocus
13:06
has performed on the Evo 85mm lens.
13:09
Okay, let's talk image quality. This is
13:11
an optical design of 10 elements and
13:13
eight groups. Relatively simple. There
13:16
are two extra low dispersion elements,
13:18
two high refractive index elements. And
13:20
you can see here that that produces an
13:22
MTF that is just great. Uh everything
13:25
we're say the far corners. It's very
13:27
very sharp in the center, very strong in
13:28
the mid-frame. And then from the
13:30
mid-frame there is a slow slide towards
13:32
the corners. but uh at a better degree
13:35
for example all across the board than
13:37
say this LK Samyang lens by the way this
13:39
is a lens I love optically and so the
13:41
fact that the Viltrox is even sharper
13:44
and higher contrast is impressive again
13:46
particularly when you consider the price
13:48
also interesting is the MTF chart shows
13:51
the f8 performance and while it's a
13:53
little less sharp in the center and the
13:55
mid-frame it is very very consistent
13:57
it's pretty much a straight line all
13:58
across the frame which tells us that at
14:00
smaller apertures while you aren't going
14:02
to get the same degree of punch in the
14:04
center of the frame, you're going to get
14:05
a very even performance all across the
14:07
frame. When I compared my results
14:11
between these two lenses, and I will do
14:12
a deeper dive between the two because I
14:14
think that these are the two lenses that
14:16
might get the most cross shop. So,
14:18
somewhere in the future, you can expect
14:19
a video on that. But in terms of just
14:21
raw sharpness and optics on my test
14:24
chart, I found that the Viltrox
14:26
definitely produced stronger images in
14:27
the center of the frame, as you can see
14:29
here, more contrast. It kind of pops
14:31
more. mid-frame also looks considerably
14:34
stronger. And while both lenses are
14:35
weaker in the corners, the Viltrox is
14:37
less so and so just sharper all across
14:40
the frame. Other metrics, I'll give you
14:42
a quick overview here. And if you want
14:44
the deep dive, that'll come at the end
14:45
of the video. But there is a tiny amount
14:48
of pin cushion distortion, just a minus
14:50
two to correct, and you would be fine
14:52
not correcting it. Vignette is another
14:54
story. However, it is fairly strong at a
14:56
plus 71 to correct for it. However, I
15:00
will say this on the positive note for
15:02
the vignette that the nature of the it
15:04
has a nice linear flow towards the
15:06
center of the frame. And the byproduct
15:07
is is it's kind of a Zeiss type feel,
15:10
which I surprised me to say about a $275
15:14
lens, but it really does have a bit of
15:16
that overall look of color contrast and
15:18
then vignette that creates a look that
15:20
is kind of special actually. And so, um,
15:24
I'm I'm not trying to underell the
15:26
vignette there, but I will say that in
15:27
certain situations, it works. Other
15:29
situations, you're going to want to
15:30
correct it. Fringing is extremely well
15:33
controlled. There's on my test chart,
15:34
almost none before and after the plane
15:36
of focus in terms of longitudinal style
15:38
chromatic aberrations. I also found that
15:41
it held up well when it came to shooting
15:43
my dad's old SLR. And you can see very
15:45
low levels of fringing there. Also, in
15:47
high contrast situations, it looks good
15:49
there as well. And so all of that is
15:52
very good. Likewise with lateral style
15:54
chromatic aberration in the corners of
15:56
the frame. Well controlled there. As I
15:58
as I mentioned the Zeiss quality. This
16:00
lens actually reminds me in some ways of
16:02
its performance of the Loxia uh 85mm
16:06
f/2.4. Another 85mm lens that has a
16:09
smaller than average maximum aperture,
16:12
but it is really really fantastic wide
16:14
open and has a really punchy look to it.
16:17
This lens is very similar, which is
16:19
impressive considering it's $1,000
16:21
cheaper. Uh, in terms of real world
16:23
sharpness,
16:25
I just I found that it looked great. Um,
16:27
if you're talking portraits, there's
16:29
plenty of detail and pop, particularly
16:30
in those critical areas around the eyes
16:32
and the lips, just looks fantastic. Even
16:35
at f2. When I moved to my test chart, I
16:37
found at 200% magnification on a 61
16:40
megapixel body that results great.
16:42
centers very punchy mid-frame excellent
16:45
and then of course in the corners uh
16:48
softer but still very usable there and
16:51
what I found as I begin to stop down
16:53
f2.8 in the corners not a big
16:55
improvement looking better by f4 between
16:58
and then a little bit better by f5.6
17:00
six. As you can see by those landscape
17:03
apertures, results are very sharp all
17:05
across the frame. Great detail, great
17:07
contrast, great color, all excellent
17:09
there. And then at f11, you're going to
17:12
start to see a little bit of softening
17:14
due to defraction. By f16, that's going
17:16
to be a little bit more obvious at that
17:18
point. I would say that I was very
17:22
impressed by the rendering from this
17:23
lens. I wondered about that because
17:25
sometimes with a smaller maximum
17:26
aperture, you are a little bit
17:28
disadvantaged in terms of your outfocus
17:30
rendering. In this case, however, while
17:32
you're not going to have the subject
17:33
separation of a larger maximum aperture
17:37
lens, what you do get is really good
17:38
quality of the outfocus rendering. So,
17:41
at its most minimum focus, as I'm
17:43
holding this leaf and the background's a
17:44
little bit further away, of course, you
17:46
can achieve a really strong background
17:48
blur and that looks great. a little bit
17:50
further out. However, in shots like
17:53
this, and I'm still really impressed.
17:54
While the background isn't as defocus,
17:57
what is there is is very nicely
17:59
rendered, very soft and creamy, at
18:01
medium distances, I still felt like not
18:03
only was the bokeh rendering decent, but
18:06
because there's such good contrast and
18:08
detail on the subject, there's still a
18:10
very nice amount of subject uh
18:12
separation. And this image probably
18:14
represents the worst that I saw because
18:16
it's an unfavorable ratio of, you know,
18:19
the the foreground pops really well, but
18:21
the background is not enough defocus and
18:23
it's busy. And so it looks a little bit
18:24
busier, but you know, again, it's it's
18:27
not a terrible rendering of that. Not a
18:28
lot of hard edges or general jitteriness
18:32
and any of that. So overall, I was very
18:34
impressed. Colors are really excellent.
18:36
Viltrox took a big turn for the better a
18:38
few years ago with their optical glass,
18:41
and it really shows at this point. I
18:42
feel like their optical glass it is it's
18:45
it's pretty close to as good as what I'm
18:47
seeing from any other brand here on the
18:49
Sony platform. Looks great. So, no
18:52
hesitation, no concerns there. Flare
18:54
resistance is a little bit of a mixed
18:56
bag. In the way that I actually use a
18:59
lens like this, it actually did really
19:00
well. Uh this backlit image, bright sun
19:03
in it, but it held up really well.
19:05
Whereas focusing on a subject at a large
19:07
aperture, no real issues with with
19:09
veiling or ghosting. Likewise, in shots
19:12
where the sun is maybe just a little bit
19:14
out of frame, I get just a little bit of
19:16
a glow there. That is nice. If I pan
19:18
right across the sun, uh, at f2, you can
19:21
see that at some angles there's a little
19:23
bit of flashing. There is some veiling,
19:26
a little bit of ghosting, mostly in the
19:28
form of like a halo corona type effect.
19:31
Stopping down at f11, things get worse
19:35
uh to where everything is just
19:36
exaggerated a bit more. the flashing is
19:38
stronger, the rays from the the sun
19:41
stars to dominate. So you get a lot of
19:43
these kind of rays that are coming into
19:45
it. So I don't like that as well. But
19:47
again, in a real world situation, I
19:50
never do that outside of testing a lens.
19:53
It's just not a practical way of using a
19:55
lens like this. So I mean, I think that
19:56
if you're careful, flare resistance is
19:58
just fine. My summation is that this is
20:01
a massive amount of optical performance
20:04
for such an inexpensive lens. Once
20:06
again, Viltrox is delivering uh image
20:09
quality that is competitive with the
20:11
very best on the platform for a whole
20:13
lot less money. And so, what's my
20:15
conclusion? I'm really really impressed
20:18
by what Viltrox has done with this lens.
20:20
In many ways, it satisfies a lot of what
20:22
I am looking for in lenses. I do like
20:25
having more flexibility when it comes to
20:27
controls, and I like my lenses to be a
20:29
bit more featurerich. However,
20:31
particularly if I'm traveling, I'm going
20:33
to reach for a small compact lens every
20:36
time over a bigger large aperture lens.
20:39
If I'm shooting close to home or I'm
20:41
doing portraits or things like that,
20:42
sure, I'll reach for the big heavy
20:44
lenses. But in many cases, I'm going to
20:46
reach for the smaller simply for the
20:48
reason that they're easier to bring
20:50
along. And if they can produce results
20:51
as good as what the Evo 85mm can, well,
20:55
there's not a lot of motivation to grab
20:57
a bigger, heavier lens. What's more, the
21:00
value of this lens is undeniable. At
21:03
$275
21:05
or even less if you use the discount
21:06
code, it just it undercuts pretty much
21:09
everything when it comes to price while
21:11
delivering actually in this class more
21:14
features and higher performance than any
21:16
of the competing lenses. That's a very
21:18
winning combination. And I think that
21:20
this lens is going to satisfy a lot of
21:22
people. And I'm actually really
21:24
intrigued to see what else they could do
21:26
in this Evo series. I see a lot of
21:28
potential for maybe F2 variants of
21:31
lenses, but even beyond that, maybe them
21:33
exploring with outside of just f2, uh
21:36
exploring some different focal lengths,
21:39
you know, 135mm f/2.8 for example, or
21:42
something in that class that will allow
21:44
you to have some options as opposed to
21:46
the optically amazing but big and heavy
21:49
lenses that are often available at these
21:51
other type focal lengths. Viltrox has
21:53
shown that they have a great deal of
21:55
confidence in just going after pretty
21:58
much all the market segments at this
22:00
point outside of zooms and god help the
22:03
other companies if they ever start to do
22:04
that. So at the end of the day I think
22:06
that the Viltrox Evo 85mm f2 is another
22:11
huge win for them and certainly a lens
22:14
that I would personally be interested in
22:16
myself. Now if you want more information
22:18
you've got a couple of options here. You
22:20
can check out my full text review that's
22:22
linked in description down below on the
22:24
newly redesigned dustinbott.net. Check
22:26
it out. It's worth visiting. Beyond
22:28
that, if you want a deep dive into the
22:30
optical performance, you're in the right
22:32
place. We're going to jump into that
22:34
right now together. All right. We'll
22:36
start by taking a look at vignette and
22:37
distortion. You can see a tiny bit of
22:39
pin cushion distortion right there in
22:41
the middle of the frame. You can also
22:42
see I had no problem doing a manual
22:44
correction and it corrected in a nice
22:46
linear way. So, no problem there. You
22:49
can definitely see some vignette
22:50
concentrated in the corners. It took a
22:52
plus 71 to correct to the level that you
22:55
see there. Now, that vignette is not
22:57
going to be desirable in all situations,
22:59
obviously, but in some situations, the
23:01
kind of linear nature of this really
23:04
actually plays well in a shot like this.
23:07
You can see there's, you know, great
23:09
detail on the subject, but you can see
23:11
that the vignette kind of subtly draws
23:13
your eye into the center of the frame
23:15
where the subject is. This is a look
23:17
that I do associate a lot with Zeiss
23:19
type lenses and so I'm actually fairly
23:21
impressed with how good this looks.
23:23
Viltrox has done a good job of
23:25
engineering out the longitudinal style
23:28
chromatic aberrations. Very little
23:29
fringing before the plane of focus, very
23:32
little after the plane of focus. Uh
23:34
zooming into my dad's old SLR here, I
23:37
don't see anything uh messing up in
23:40
these contrast points here with the
23:41
lettering. Then as we look at the shiny
23:43
bits on the SLR, all looks clean there.
23:46
Likewise in the area around the specular
23:50
highlights, you can see no fringing
23:52
there. All good. I was also impressed in
23:54
very high contrast situations. For
23:56
example, the light, I mean, obviously
23:58
very intense light coming through all of
24:01
this where there's tons of potential for
24:03
fringing. You can see it's holding up
24:05
really nicely. Likewise with lateral
24:07
style chromatic aberrations near the
24:09
corner of the frame. There's tiny bits
24:11
of fringing, but it is very, very mild.
24:13
Not anything that you're going to see in
24:14
any kind of real world image where it's
24:16
not exaggerated like this. So, how about
24:19
resolution and contrast? This is 61
24:22
megapixels and we are testing here at
24:25
200% magnification. You can see in the
24:27
center of the frame, it just pops.
24:29
There's lots of that mo because it is
24:32
just so sharp showing up there.
24:34
mid-frame looks fantastic. I'm really
24:37
impressed by how good all of that looks.
24:39
Likewise, from here to here, very little
24:42
drop off. And really, it's only at the
24:45
very corner of the frame where things
24:47
start to really start to soften up. So,
24:50
in general, a very strong performance.
24:52
To put that all in perspective here, you
24:54
can see versus the LK Samyang stop down
24:57
to f2. You can see in the center of the
24:59
frame, there's no question the Viltrox
25:01
has higher contrast and detail.
25:03
Likewise, if we move to the midframe,
25:05
you can see the same is true here. It's
25:08
just really popping by comparison. And
25:10
down into the corner, you can see that
25:12
the same is true there. The Viltrox is
25:15
just basically consistently better all
25:17
across the frame and also a very even
25:21
performance everywhere. Really pretty
25:22
impressive. Really, the only place that
25:24
any kind of sharpness improvement is
25:26
needed is in the corners. And we can see
25:27
that at f4 it's getting better. And then
25:30
at f5.6 six, it is better still. And so,
25:33
you're going to see really good
25:34
landscape images at these smaller
25:37
apertures. Here's a good case in point
25:39
because if we take an f2 image and an
25:41
f5.6 image, we look in the center of the
25:44
frame. There's not really much of a
25:46
difference there. I mean, contrast and
25:47
detail looks fantastic on both. We can
25:50
see as we pan towards the side that they
25:52
stay largely the same until you get out
25:54
towards the edge. And you can see here
25:56
the f2 image has some softening towards
25:59
the edge, whereas the f5.6 six image.
26:01
It's maintaining that really brilliant
26:04
sharpness and contrast right off into
26:06
the corners of the frame. And so that's
26:09
where I mean stopping down is really
26:10
going to give you the biggest difference
26:12
is really towards the periphery of the
26:13
frame. Expect to see some defraction
26:16
starting at f11 and then a little more
26:18
pronounced at f-16 that starts to soften
26:20
the image. You can see our contrast is
26:22
dropping due to the effects of
26:23
defraction. Unfortunately, it's physics
26:25
and you can't really avoid that. Here's
26:27
another look at our minimum focus
26:29
distance and maximum magnification is
26:31
0.13 times. We can see if we punch in
26:34
here at 100% that there's very good
26:36
detail and contrast. Very crisp looking
26:39
up close and you can see that a fairly
26:41
flat plane of focus and so we've also
26:43
got good detail on the things that fall
26:46
in frame here. All of that is looking
26:49
quite good. I'm really impressed with
26:50
shots like this where depth of field is
26:52
very very narrow, but you can see that
26:54
that contrast and detail really holds up
26:57
nicely for such an inexpensive lens.
27:00
Here you see the maximum potential for
27:03
bokeh. So, um, I've got this leaf here
27:05
at minimum focus. And so, the background
27:07
of course is really soft and creamy.
27:09
here. As we move out to a more distant
27:12
subject, you can see that there's a
27:14
little bit of busyiness here, but it's
27:17
really it's it's handled quite nicely,
27:19
and the subject just pops. That contrast
27:22
and detail there at um medium distance
27:25
is really really impressive. This is the
27:27
image that I mentioned earlier as being
27:29
kind of I I would consider the the least
27:32
favorite as far as the bokeh rendering.
27:34
It's a very complicated scene and you
27:37
know I'm just shooting basically a
27:38
little section that's sticking out on
27:40
this area. You can see how great the
27:42
detail and contrast is of the subject
27:44
and there's a little bit of busyiness
27:45
here but in general it's not bad. If I
27:48
take this into a portrait situation you
27:50
can see again the detail and contrast
27:52
are fantastic. Brilliant. It looks
27:55
really great. Looking at this defocused
27:57
area maybe a little more outlining than
27:59
what I would like. And of course at only
28:01
f2 it's not as out of focus as what I
28:04
would prefer. But it also doesn't look
28:06
bad. It's not a lot of hard edges. And
28:09
again that looks amazing in this
28:11
portrait image here. You can see you
28:13
know the background. It's it's not as
28:15
defocused but it's still looking nice.
28:17
Subject is amazing. Very consistently
28:19
crisp here. Again looking at this angle.
28:22
You know there's hard edges on the wood
28:23
pile. It doesn't look too bad to me. And
28:26
detail and contrast look amazing. And
28:29
when it comes to flare resistance, we
28:31
can see that if we look at the actual
28:33
area of focus, that detail and contrast
28:35
is holding up nice even though we have
28:37
bright sun right there. So all of that
28:40
is good as mentioned previously. Here
28:42
you can see some of that corona type
28:44
effect here. A little bit of veiling in
28:47
this position with really really bright
28:48
sun. So not perfect there. And as you
28:51
stop it down, I don't love this. I just
28:53
find that starts to dominate the frame
28:55
because that sunburst just gets way too
28:58
big. This is at f11. But again, as I
29:00
said previously, I wouldn't actually
29:02
ever shoot like this in real world
29:04
situations. So, generally, I would say
29:06
that the optical performance is really
29:08
excellent, particularly for such a
29:10
budget lens. So, hopefully the optical
29:12
deep dive has helped you to determine
29:13
whether or not this new Evo 85
29:15
millimeter is the lens for you. As
29:17
always, thanks for watching. Have a
29:19
great day and let the light in.
29:22
[Music]