Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2 E APS-C Review | Viltrox Steamrolls the Competition

0:00
[Music]
0:10
Other lens makers must hate it when Viltrox comes out with a new product, particularly if that product happens to
0:16
be in their pro series for APS-C. These lenses have all been serious disruptors
0:21
with the 75mm F1.2 really raising the bar for what was possible from an APS-C
0:27
telephoto prime. They followed that up with the 27mm f1.2 which I think at this point still
0:34
remains maybe the best of the standard primes that is available on APS-C if you
0:39
can handle the size and weight. And now they have gone directly head-to-head with some of the other 56 millimeter
0:45
competitors including on the Fuji platform the Fuji 56mm F1.2 WR along
0:52
with the Sira Sniper 56mm F1.2 two and then older lenses like the Sigma 56
0:58
millimeter f1.4 as we're going to see. However, Viltrox
1:03
is going to manage to raise the bar once again. But this is the first of their APS-C lenses in the Pro series to
1:10
receive the hyper VCM focus motor that first debuted on the Lab series. So, now
1:16
we have a lens that has the absolute top-notch autofocus along with absolute
1:21
top-notch build quality, feature set, and optical performance. Yeah, this lens
1:26
is going to be a serious winner. At $580, it isn't necessarily the cheapest lens
1:32
in the class, and it's certainly not the smallest lens in the class, but as we're going to see in today's review, it may
1:37
just be the best lens in the class. The Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2, too, whether
1:43
be it on Sony E-mount, Fuji Xmount, or Nikon Zmount, is going to be a serious
1:49
disruptor. And today, we're going to explore just why. Today's episode is sponsored by Skillshare. I'm about to
1:55
head out on a photography road trip to Canada's East Coast, and it's always helpful to do a little research to make
2:01
sure I'm ready to get the best photos. I'm currently watching Street Photography, an in-depth and complete
2:07
guide by Troy Bard in order to get ready to nail those street shots while navigating Halifax in Quebec City. Sure,
2:14
there are a lot of free videos on YouTube, but when you really want to learn, Skillshare helps you to level up
2:19
by giving you class materials, the chance to submit projects, enter into discussion with other members, and even
2:25
to earn certificates. There are thousands of classes on Skillshare that cover a huge range of topics, including
2:31
art and illustration, animation, photography, graphic design, productivity, all of which you can use
2:38
to start learning today. The first 500 people to use the link in the description or scan the onscreen QR code
2:44
will receive a one month free trial of Skillshare. So, get started today. Now, in full disclosure, this lens was sent
2:51
to me by Viltrox for evaluation. In fact, they sent me both the Sony E-mount and the Fuji Xmount for evaluation and
2:57
in particular so I can compare the Fuji Xmount directly to the Fujifilm 56mm
3:03
F1.2 WR which I happen to own. I will be doing a subsequent video on the Xmount
3:09
version and we'll be doing a head-to-head video with those lenses in the future. As always, however, Viltrox
3:15
has had no input on my actual review and they will not see it before you do. This is a completely independent review and
3:21
all findings are my own. So, we're going to talk build and handling. So, for consistency sake on these indoor
3:28
segments, I'm going to be filming on the lens as well for these. It works well for this kind of setting. And so, on
3:33
camera here, I've actually got the X-mount version rather than the E-mount version, which I'm currently filming on
3:39
right now. This lens, as mentioned, does come in E-mount, then in Xmount, and then it will also be in Nikon Zmount for
3:46
APS-C as well. Now 56 millimeter is a very popular focal length because with
3:52
the 1.5 time crop factor it is an 84 millimeter equivalent or essentially an 85mm lens. Couple that with the big
4:00
maximum aperture of f1.2 and all of a sudden you have got a APS-C lens that
4:06
gives you pretty close to the equivalent of a nice 85mm portrait lens on a
4:13
full-frame lens and that's one of the advantages that we have here. Now, the price at $580,
4:19
just to give you some kind of points of comparison, the Sigma 56mm f1.4, which
4:26
is four or five years old at this point, it's available for $529,
4:31
but that's with a current discount of $50 off. And so, it typically is basically uh much identical in price to
4:38
the Viltrox lens. And of course, you can get the Viltrox lens for cheaper if you use the discount code in the description
4:44
down below and buy from Viltrox themselves. The probably the most direct price comparable and performance
4:51
comparable is Fuji's own 56mm F1.2 WR and that lens of course retails for
4:58
$1,100. There is a Sur 56mm F1.2 from their
5:03
sniper series. it optically is not even in the same ballpark nor in autofocus or
5:09
any other area. And so I I don't think that that it's a it's a compelling alternative in my opinion to this lens.
5:16
The Viltrox, of course, is the best of this trio when it comes to the feature set and all that it's got going on. Now,
5:23
it is still a big lens, but it is very slightly the smallest in the series. Uh
5:28
at 74.8 mm in diameter or 3.08 08 in. It
5:34
is very slightly narrower than the 27 millimeter f1.2. And at 91.7 mm or 3.61
5:41
in in length, it is very slightly shorter. Now, if you look at the 75mm, it's a fair bit bigger both in diameter
5:48
and length. And thus in weight, it is considerably heavier as well. But this is still a heavy lens. It weighs in at
5:54
570 gram in E-mount version or right over 20 ounces. And so that's
5:59
considerably heavier than the Sigma at 280 grams. Of course, the Sigma is only F1.4. And so when with the F1.2 uh
6:07
competitors, the Fuji is 445 g or a little over 100 grams lighter. The Suré
6:14
is 419 g or about 150 g lighter. And so
6:20
definitely this is the largest and heaviest of this group. Although it also has the most here in terms of the
6:27
feature set. And it also has an amazing build quality. This is actually a really great looking lens. And it kind of
6:33
stands out. Even when I was taking my product photos, I thought, man, this is a lens that looks really, really good in product photos because it is so nicely
6:40
executed. It's got that anodized satin black finish. It's, you know, it's just a wellexecuted package. It's all metal.
6:48
It feels fantastic. Up front, we have 67 millimeter filter threads. Those are
6:53
shared with the 27mm f1.2. and of course a host of other lenses as well. All of
6:59
these Pro Series lenses have come with a thorough weather sealing and I haven't yet seen the diagram of the internals
7:05
for this lens, but in the past these lenses have all had at least 10 plus
7:11
seal points throughout and sometimes up into the 121 13 range, which I suspect is going to be true for this lens as
7:18
well because it's sealed at the gasket. It's sealed at the rings and the switches, all of the transition points
7:24
in the lens. Plus, it has a florine type coating that is going to resist fingerprints, you know, water, those
7:31
kind of things up front. And so, this is it's Pro Series, but it is a professional grade of its build quality
7:36
as well. And so, that's really, really nice. Actually like the E-mount version with the orange red type weather sealing
7:44
gasket, which I think just gives a little bit of of visual flare to it. So, I actually like it than the more sedate
7:50
X-mount version. Now, as mentioned, it does have a thorough feature set. So, not only is there the gasket there at
7:56
the lens mount, there is that USBC port for doing firmware updates. Then on top of that, we have got full aperture
8:03
control. And so, on E-mount, that includes the ability to either have the aperture clicked or decllicked. In the
8:09
decllicked mode, you can do pretty good aperture racks. And then, so you can see here gliding back and forth. So, that's
8:15
obviously very useful. Then in clicked mode, you've got the one-/ird stop to tense. And I will note that the detents
8:22
aren't as heavy as what some other lenses are. It's a little bit lighter on that front, but it does have a nice gap
8:28
between f16 and then the automatic mode. It's an actual longer gap and there's a
8:33
little bit more obvious resistance there. So, I like that there is no iris lock here to keep you fully locked out,
8:39
but at least you have that kind of tactile response to let you know you're straying out of that. Now, on the
8:46
E-mount version, you also have a couple of other features. You've got an AFMF switch. You've got a custom or function
8:52
button there that can be programmed to whatever functionality that you want. And as we're going to see on the XMount
8:58
version, they've aligned the Xmount version with Fuji standards, which I'll detail in that review. And so, it has a
9:04
little bit different a feature set and unfortunately not quite as many features on it. The manual focus ring is all in
9:12
metal. It's nicely ribbed and it has a good damping to where it actually feels like it has some weight to it and great
9:18
precision. And of course, we've got that more responsive focus motor. And so that means that there's not any uh apparent
9:25
lag as you're doing manual focus. And so I actually like the ability to focus with precision with that. It didn't feel
9:31
like it was I was manual focusing in little steps, but rather a more linear smooth process in that. And so all of
9:37
that is good. This is a lens that also has the there's a couple of average
9:43
standards as you look through these various 56 millimeter lenses. And so those that have weaker magnification
9:49
tend to focus only as closely as 60 cm. In this case, we can focus as closely as 50 cm, which ties it with lenses like
9:56
the Fuji and the Sigma and gives you a maximum magnification of 0.13 times.
10:02
Now, that isn't high in an absolute sense, but for an 85 mmish type lens,
10:08
that is actually on the higher side of the spectrum. The highest that I've ever seen on an 85 mil non- macro style 85mm
10:16
lens is 0.14 times. So, that's a very competitive figure. And what's more, this lens is fantastically good. Even at
10:22
f1.2 at that minimum focus distance, very high detail, nice flat plane of
10:27
focus, all good. And so I really I think that there is some definite value for that for augmenting maybe portrait or
10:34
wedding shots with some uplose um you know you can't get macro level magnification but you can get in there
10:40
and shoot some details. And by the way this is a lens I think that would respond very well to throwing an
10:45
extension tube on there if you want to increase that um macrotype performance because it actually has the optical
10:51
performance to pull that off. And so I I think that that is a worthy consideration as well.
10:57
The lens hood is also an improvement over previous lenses in the series. Not that it's radically different, but it
11:02
just bayonets on with more precision. There's a really, listen to that. There's a very precise click as it goes
11:10
into place, which was not true in the earlier uh the 75mm or the 27 millimeter. And so definite improvement
11:16
there. It's a nice, you know, robust made lens hood. Everything here, the whole package is fantastic. And so if
11:23
you can get over the size and the weight, this is a gorgeous lens that definitely feels prograde. So let's talk
11:30
autofocus. This is, as I mentioned, the first of their APS-C lenses to receive the
11:36
HyperVCM focus motor, which is of course their new premium autofocus system. That
11:42
hyper VCM stands for a voice coil motor. And so what we have got is a more powerful motor with more thrust, greater
11:49
efficiency, and also it is quieter in operation. Put simply, this is probably
11:54
the best focusing system that I've ever seen implemented into an APS-C lens lens
12:01
outside of maybe some of the very best from Sony before. Focus here is really fantastic. And as you can see, it goes
12:07
pretty much instantly back and forth from uh subjects to near and far, whether it's indoors or outdoors. Of
12:14
course, having that f1.2 aperture certainly helps indoors. I found that I had perfect autofocus uh in all of the
12:21
settings that I use it in, and that included shooting another number of casual type portraits, shooting in and
12:26
around a wedding rehearsal that I was a part of on the Fuji version. I also shot
12:32
some other portrait sessions as well. And what I found is that particularly on the Sony E-mount version, focus is just
12:38
effortless and it is flawless. and shooting shots of Nala, you can see that not only is it perfectly focused right
12:45
on the iris, but even at f1.2, it allows the amazing optics of this lens to
12:50
really shine. And to give you a better sense of how it's performing, all of these outdoor segments, I'm filming on
12:56
the lens mounted on a Sony A7R Mark 5. And so you can get a sense of how it focuses in these kinds of settings and a
13:03
bit of a sense of the quality of the footage. And I'm shooting all of it at f1.2.
13:08
Put simply, when it comes to stills, there was nothing negative to report. I don't recall any missed shot, even if I
13:15
was shooting at very narrow focus subjects. And as I looked at image after image, they were all just exceptionally
13:20
well focused. What more can you ask for? It's fast, it's silent, and it's accurate. That's pretty great. So, let's
13:28
talk video autofocus. With the HyperVCM focus motor, you've got an advantage over the older STM type focus motors and
13:35
that we're not going to see visible steps as a part of focus pools. And in fact, when I did my formal test going
13:42
back and forth with focus pools, I found that as you can see that they are really nicely damped. This is a focus motor
13:48
with obviously a lot more thrust than previous focus motors. However, I think that Viltrox has done a nice job of
13:53
damping it to where those transitions back and forth are nice and smooth and a little bit more cinematic. And that's
13:59
helped by the fact that focus breathing is really quite low, which is important in a third-party lens because unlike a
14:06
native Sony lens here on the Sony platform, there's no potential on Sony for having that software compensation
14:13
for focus breathing. And so the the fact that the lens has very low native focus breathing is really important for that.
14:20
Now, the fact that it is nicely damped means that it kind of out of the box, it's not going to be maybe as reactive.
14:26
And so when I did my hand test, while the results are mostly good and of course that low focus breathing helps it
14:31
to not be like this abrupt pull back and forth, but what I did see there is that,
14:37
you know, in some situations it's not as reactive in jumping off my hand to my face or vice versa. Now obviously you
14:43
could tune that differently through the in camera settings. I I didn't try to compensate for that. Just be aware if
14:49
you want more reactive focus, you're probably going to need to achieve that through the camera settings. Out in real
14:55
world transitions, however, I I think it actually mostly worked good because again, it helps to avoid those abrupt
15:01
just kind of jumps from one subject to another with a more natural flow, which I think is probably going to be
15:07
preferable for most people in most situations. The accuracy of this, as you've been able to see on all these outdoor
15:13
segments, is very good. It's very consistent. If I'm approaching the camera, it's tracking well, doing all of
15:19
those things that we would want from video autofocus. And so, I have no reservations. I think this is doing a
15:26
fantastic job. Okay, let's talk optics together. This is an optical design of 13 elements in eight groups. And that
15:33
includes three uh high refractive index elements, one extra low dispersion element, and then one which I think is a
15:39
newer glass element for uh for Viltrox that I've not seen them have before. and they call it a ultra large special
15:47
aspherical element. And so the ability to start to grind some of these more exotic elements really helps to unlock
15:54
things. That's made a huge difference for uh for Sony and then for Sigma. Uh I've seen them be able to start to
16:00
achieve new things because they can start to grind elements that enable different levels of performance or size.
16:08
That is true here. I think that this element is an important one as a part of the MTF chart looks great, which is true
16:14
of all these Pro Series lenses, but what really stands out to me is how low the aigmatism is. And so that on those those
16:21
bottom lines, which you know is that that represents the most challenging of conditions at f1.2 30 lines pair, you
16:28
can see that the sagittal and meridian lines are staying very close together. That means lowest stigmatism. That means
16:34
you're going to get great contrast. you're not going to have any of that kind of surface blur and so the textures
16:41
are going to pop and that certainly is what we find in real life. There is a little bit of fade towards the corners
16:47
but not high at all. And if you look at the f8 result here on the MTF chart, it's just a straight line all across the
16:52
top. It is literally perfect as well as you're going to be able to achieve here. And certainly when we look at the more
16:58
the details of optical performance, there is no real measurable distortion. I might be able to correct a minus one
17:04
of pin cushion, but it's not not even worth doing. Vignette is surprisingly moderate for an F1.2 telephoto lens at
17:12
plus 42. There's many situations where you don't have to correct it. And the only one that I really saw is where I
17:18
had a a sky that didn't have much going on. And you can see some shading up in the corners on this. But outside of
17:23
that, most shots, like this shot of my grand nephew, it's f1.2. It's uncorrected, bright corners, and it
17:29
looks bright. So, I mean, most situations not bad at all. Likewise, I found that I saw very, very low
17:36
longitudinal style chromatic aberration. None really on my test chart. I did see a bit of fringing on a
17:42
three-dimensional. My dad's old SLR that I shoot for this. I could see a little bit of fringing on that, but nothing bad
17:49
at all. Likewise, lateral style chromatic aberrations, not a problem at all. Nice, clean, high contrast corners.
17:55
For those of you that are interested in full-frame coverage, this is not a full-frame lens. It's an APS-C lens.
18:01
You're going to get some hard mechanical vignette there in the corners. That's true even with uh shooting video as
18:07
well. What I found is that if I cropped in on the full-frame image, I could get about 30 megapixels without any kind of
18:14
vignette interference from it. And so the APS-C crop on A7R5 is 26 megapixels.
18:21
You're not adding a whole lot. A few extra pixels in the edges. certainly not worth buying it for full-frame if that's
18:28
what you're considering doing. What I found when I begin to test for sharpness and contrast and so again, this is at 26
18:34
megapixels on the Fuji. We'll show you the results on a that higher uh
18:40
resolution 40 megapixel Fuji sensor, which is super demanding. So, check back for that. But here on Sony, we see
18:46
really consistent results in the crops. They look good in the center, good in the mid-frame, good in the corners, just
18:53
very, very consistent, very high level of performance. And and in real world shots, this shot of Nala, for example,
18:59
at f1.2 just shows you how much detail and contrast is there. It's really, really amazing. I found that there was
19:06
very minor but steady improvements as I stop the lens down, primarily in contrast, and you can see at f1.4 a
19:13
little bit more contrast. Then at f2 and f2.8 8 a little bit more. And finally,
19:19
by f4, the corners are looking pin sharp in a way that most lenses never really
19:24
achieve. Biggest difference I found when I shot a wide openen landscape versus an f5.6 landscape is you can see that
19:31
there's more contrast, but there's still tons of detail there. And and frankly, you could add in the contrast in post
19:38
even at f1.2. And so, it's a really really strong lens. landscape details at
19:43
at smaller apertures, f4 to f8. They're just flawless. I mean, detail all across the frame. Really, really fantastic. On
19:51
Sony, although there is some effects from defraction, so a mild softening at f11, then a little bit more at f16. It
19:58
wasn't actually particularly strong here. I suspect it'll be stronger when we look at Fuji's Xmount on the 40
20:04
megapixel sensor. But in this case, I think you could probably still shoot at f16 and be happy with the results that
20:10
you've gotten. So, it's perfectly usable from f1.2 all the way to f-16.
20:15
Now, a lot of times when you have a lens that has this high of contrast and resolution, the trade-off is that the
20:20
bokeh is not fantastic. That was my takeaway with the Sigma 56 millimeter
20:26
f1.4. It's a super sharp high contrast lens, but the the defocused backgrounds
20:32
are really meh to me. Uh just really not all that inspiring. This lens, it's it's
20:37
awesome. I mean the it doesn't matter really what the focus distance is. And so at close focus distances going to be
20:43
able to blur out the background into just cream. It's just gorgeous at a you know a little bit further out distance.
20:50
It's very very nice even in this really difficult situation. I shoot this dead pine tree because it's just hard edges
20:57
and it's really hard to resolve. This is a great job of handling this scene. And if I stepped back a little bit, not only
21:04
do I get a nice three-dimensional quality at a, you know, a medium diff distance of, let's say, 3 to four
21:11
meters, but there's also a little bit of that swirl in the corners that I actually personally like. Uh, and if you
21:18
don't like that, all you got to do is stop down a little bit by f2. You get round specular highlights all across the
21:24
frame. It's fantastic. I mean, it's the ability to just get all of these very
21:29
nice looking looks out of an APS-C lens is fantastic. And so, it's really nice
21:34
for layering in shots. And you maybe have seen that in some of my outdoor video shots as well. It just it's it's
21:40
really really nice in the rendering. It's a great subject isolation. Colors look very, very good. Skin tones were
21:47
nice in all the different shots. I I shot this at a wedding rehearsal and uh
21:52
just I got really nice looking results there. On the flare side of things, uh
21:58
there is some minor flaring, slight slash flashing issues, particularly a
22:03
little bit of flashing when the bright light is right out in the corners, but it's not like an ugly look. It's it's actually kind of a cinematic look for
22:09
that. Uh stop down, you're going to see a little bit more of that ghosting pattern, which is probably my least favorite thing. But frankly, I don't
22:16
know why I would be shooting this lens at f11 and pointing it at the sun in real world use anyway. I'm far more
22:22
likely to do that at wide apertures with a backlit portrait subject. And I I like
22:27
what happens with the overall flare effects there just fine. So, you know, your mileage may vary on that in terms
22:34
of what you prefer, but optically there's really not any flaws here. This
22:39
is an amazingly wellexecuted lens. Frankly, I don't know how Viltrox does it. And uh I, as I said in the intro,
22:48
other companies must hate when one of these new Pro Series lens comes out because they are just so good. So my
22:54
conclusion is that this is obviously an incredibly attractive lens. And I think that in some ways, while the Viltrox Pro
23:00
series for APS-C has been consistently fantastic, this lens in some ways may be the best of the bunch for the simple
23:06
reason that the addition of the Hyper VCM autofocus elevates the autofocus tool level that is now on par with the
23:14
optical performance. This is a lens that really is basically good at everything.
23:19
The biggest downside is really the fact that the lens is big and heavy like all of the other Pro Series lenses. But if
23:25
you can get over that fact, you're going to have a lens that with its f1.2 aperture allows you to get images that
23:31
you simply can't get with other lenses. There are some very good lightweight um
23:37
f1.7 and f1.8 lenses available here on the platform. However, in this case,
23:43
that f1.2 aperture and the fact that this lens is so good at f1.2 to is really makes it one of the best lenses
23:50
available for giving you more of a full-frame look on that smaller APS-C sensor. You're going to be able to get
23:57
that really unique subject isolation and dimensionality that is hard to achieve with the smaller sensor, but this lens
24:03
is going to enable you to do that. And I think that in some ways people might have a little bit more of a tolerance for a bigger lens when it is one that
24:10
can be used for portrait type work. And it's not to say that this lens is so large and heavy that it's it's hard to
24:16
bring along. It's not. The weight is moderate in an absolute sense, but obviously there are lighter options
24:22
available. I'm not sure that there are any better options available. This lens, I think, is probably the best allround
24:29
package that I've seen for a 56 millimeter or equivalent type lens on
24:34
APS-C and certainly would be my personal top top pick. At $580,
24:39
it's not cheap, but again, relative to some of the competition, I think that it makes a very compelling argument for
24:46
itself, particularly when you consider that Fuji's own 56 millm f1.2 WR, which
24:52
is really the most direct competition. The fact that it cost essentially double what this lens does makes the price
24:58
point seem quite reasonable by comparison. Now, if you want more information, you can check out my full
25:04
text review that is linked in the description down below and is on the newly updated dustinbott.net.
25:11
Uh, come and check out the site. We're still a bit of a work in progress, but I'm really happy with the direction that
25:16
it's going and the way that the information is presented there. So, come and take a look at that. And if you want
25:22
a deeper dive into the optical performance, we're going to jump into that right now together. Let's dive in
25:27
and take a look. All right. So, first of all, we'll take a look at how it handles full-frame coverage. So, here on the
25:32
left, we've got a full-frame image. You can see that there is definitely a part of the frame that is clipped off that
25:39
it's just not covering. And so, here's what the APS-C crop looks like. Now, here on the left, I have cropped out the
25:46
uh basically the hard vignette. You can see there's still just maybe a tiniest shred there. So, this comes out to about
25:51
30 megapixels versus the 26 megapixels of an APS-C crop. And so yes, you can get very very slightly wider on full
25:59
frame in a usable way. I don't think that it's worth it, however. Now, we can see if we take a look at vignette and
26:05
distortion here that there is a little bit of uh shading here in the corner. No
26:10
big deal there. And distortion is basically non-existent. I dialed in a minus one because there's the tiniest
26:16
amount of pin cushion distortion. About a plus 43 to correct for vignette in the corners. Not too bad there. Now here in
26:23
this shot without any kind of vignette correction you can see there is a little bit of shading in the corners at f1.2 uh
26:28
as you start to stop the lens down by f2.8 almost all the vignette is gone altogether. So here at f5.6 you can see
26:35
the corners are nice and bright a little bit darker by comparison if we compare the uh f1.2 to the f5.6.
26:43
Really that last shot was the only one where I saw the vignette in real world shots. This shot for example has not
26:49
been corrected. It is f1.2 too. And you can see that the edges still look pretty bright even without any kind of
26:55
correction. Now, on my test chart, I really didn't see hardly any longitudinal style chromatic aberration.
27:00
It's really, really clean. No real fringing to see on my dad's old SLR. If
27:06
I go all the way into a This is 200% magnification here. You can see there's
27:11
a little bit of fringing that shows up here on some of those shiny surfaces. And looking up here, there's a tiny bit
27:18
of fringing on the bokeh highlights. That's about as bad as you're going to see. Lateral chromatic aberrations, not
27:24
a problem. And you can see there's the tiniest bit of fringing here, but it's not enough to show up in any kind of
27:30
real world shots. This is a very high level of magnification. And so it's exaggerating it. So you you can see that
27:36
something there, but real world, not a problem. So here again, 26 megapixels on a APS-C mode of a Sony A7R Mark I. And
27:45
so you can see in the center of the frame, resolution looks good. Contrast looks good even at f1.2. The mid-frame
27:52
looks really crisp and sharp, nice and bright. As I pan down, very good consistency between here and here. Not
27:59
much of a drop there. As we look to the corners, I would say there's maybe a little bit of softening right about
28:04
here, but really the consistency is quite good all across the frame. So at
28:09
more typical levels of magnification, 100% for example, you can see even at f1.2 to there's that perfect contrast
28:16
and delineation of all those little fine hairs. Focus is perfect right on the
28:22
iris. This shot again, another subject that could fall apart because it is it's
28:27
it's a lot of very fine textures here. And you can see that it's all resolved very nicely. My lock shot you sometimes
28:35
I get such wide variety of results on this. A lot of times contrast is really poor on this. But you can see here it's
28:42
it's pen sharp. Great contrast, great detail, and a nice falloff to defocus as
28:47
well. Now, stopping down to f1.4, you can see there is an increase of contrast
28:52
already. Just looks a little bit crisper at various places that we look. From f1.4 to f2, you can see that contrast
29:00
has increased even more. And so, it's now extremely high. All these textures
29:05
are just popping here at f2. And if we look towards the corners, which by the
29:10
way, the centering is really excellent on the lens, uh, you can see that the corners are starting to look really,
29:16
really crisp. Um, as everywhere that we look throughout the frame, we can see a nice consistency of performance. Corners
29:23
are also looking brighter, as you can see with the contrast extending right into the corners. Here's an F2 shot. And
29:29
so you can see nice defocus in the foreground, nice bokeh in the background, got all those nice circular
29:34
bouquet highlights. But as we look at the contrast and detail, it looks fantastic. Really, really excellent. By
29:40
f2.8, even for this landscape shot, you can see that the detail looks really good
29:46
everywhere that we look. And so, right off here to the very edge, detail is holding up right there. As we look into
29:53
the draw distance, there's just lots of information that is there. Great contrast. It looks fantastic. This shot
29:59
of a group of guys at f2.8, You can see that if we jump into a pixel level, I can pan across. Great detail on
30:07
every face. It's just really, really nice. This is a beautiful lens optically. So, by f4, you can see that
30:14
even the corners are looking really fantastic. And so, for landscape type work, as we've already seen, this lens
30:19
is going to just delight. Now, by f11, we're starting to lose some contrast due to defraction. But you can see that even
30:25
at 200% magnification, it still looks quite good. And at f-16, while there is a bit further loss of contrast, we're
30:33
still at a decent enough level that I think you would be still happy with images at f-16. So don't want to avoid
30:39
that if you want lots of depth of field. Now, here's another look at minimum focus distance. And I'm quite impressed
30:45
by how good the detail and contrast looks even at f1.2.
30:50
And so again, if you added on extension tubes and you increase that magnification, you could get some really interesting results because this lens is
30:56
able to resolve at such a high level. That also means though that your uplose shots, they have really good contrast.
31:02
There's none of that kind of spherical aberrations that bleed off contrast. The
31:07
textures are looking really crisp and the bokeh quality here is really nice. And so you can see good subject
31:13
isolation. There's a little bit of that lemon or cat eye shape towards the edge of the frame, but in some cases that
31:19
really works. Again, the ability to get up close and to have nice detail and contrast and then a nice fall-off to
31:25
defocus is great. Here at, you know, a relatively close distance with the background a little further away, it's
31:32
just very, very soft and creamy. And as I mentioned earlier, this kind of shot where a lot of times contrast is lost
31:38
and um you know there's fringing and just blooming on the textures. You can see the contrast is really great. But
31:44
then as we transition towards defocus, there's no like really hard edges. It's I mean it's still not a pretty image,
31:51
but it's handled for the scene really well. And as I said, if you step back a little bit, if you like that swirl look,
31:58
you can get a little bit of that at medium distances that you know you might enjoy and then stop it down if you don't
32:04
want that and you'll get a a different look. And obviously the contrast here looks fantastic. And so for such a
32:11
complex background, it's really holding up quite well. Now, as we've already seen, there is a bit of flare uh issues
32:18
with a little bit of flashing, a little bit of of ghosting, but really not too bad. See a little bit more ghosting with
32:25
the lens stopped down and the flashing just the nature of it changes a little bit. But I think in the way that this
32:30
lens will actually be used that this won't be a major problem. So, hopefully the optical deep dive has helped you to
32:36
determine whether or not that this is the lens for you. As always, thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the
32:42
light in. [Music]

Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2 E APS-C Review | Viltrox Steamrolls the Competition

Dustin Abbott

Laowa AF 12mm F2.8 Zero D Lite Review | New Wide Angle King?

Sigma 12mm F1.4 DC | CONTEMPORARY (APS-C) Review | The UWA Prime of Choice

Sigma 200mm F2 DG OS | SPORT Review | Sigma's New Halo Lens?

How We Use ConvertKit to Sell on Autopilot

New Advanced Form Block in Kadence Blocks 3.1 [Update]

YouTube Video Outline (Better Than Writing a Script)

We Tried The Least Popular Fast Food Items

How To Add Images On Videos In Shotcut | Shotcut Tutorial

How To Overlay Videos In Shotcut, Make Multiple Videos All In One | Shotcut Tutorial

How To Create Deepfake Videos In 5 Minutes (Hindi)

Dynamic Content in Salesforce Messaging Component

Affiliate Lead Video | Essential SQL

Up next in 10

Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2 E APS-C Review | Viltrox Steamrolls the Competition

Dustin Abbott