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Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2 Fuji X-Mount Review | As Good on Fuji?
Sep 23, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott takes a deep dive look at the Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2 for Fuji X-mount. Is this a suitable alternative to the much more expensive XF 56mm F1.2 WR? | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/PRO56xreview | Purchase the Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2 @ Viltrox https://geni.us/Dustin56E (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 5% off) | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3UNnaeZ | Adorama https://howl.link/zcqxfxp4ehehy | Amazon https://amzn.to/4mK8CJs | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4mDnR6G | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3Vn21Z4 | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/41vV3Vn | 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]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my review of the Fuji Xmount version of the Viltrox Pro AF 56mm F1.2.
0:20
Now, I did release my review of the Sony E-mount version about a month ago.
0:25
However, in this case, there's been so many other new releases that have come in between, but I did have a copy of
0:32
both mounts of the lens at the same time, and so it gave me a unique opportunity to compare and contrast
0:38
them, number one, but then also on Fuji, I have already owned the Fuji XF 56mm
0:44
F1.2 WR, which is really the most logical competition for this lens on any
0:50
platform. So, it's enabled me to do a fair bit of head-to-head, and I will release a subsequent video where I just
0:57
look at those those two lenses directly head-to-head, but also a chance to evaluate how well this Viltrox lens
1:04
survives the transition to Fuji Xmount. And so, over the course of this review,
1:09
we're going to be looking at the areas in which it does differentiate a bit when from the E-mount version, when it
1:15
comes to the build, to the autofocus, and even to the optical performance. considering here I have an opportunity
1:20
to test on Fuji's extremely high demand 40 megapixel sensor. And so today's
1:26
review, we're going to dive into all of those different aspects. I am going to film and am filming all of the outdoor
1:32
segments on the lens and so you have a chance to see how it renders and also an extended look on how well it handles at
1:39
least this kind of autofocus. But we'll detail that a little bit more in that particular section. And so without
1:45
further ado, we're going to dive into it. And I will say before we do that, in full disclosure, this lens was sent to
1:51
me by Viltrox for evaluation. However, as always, they have had no input in my
1:57
findings, nor have they seen this video before you do. Let's jump in. All right, so let's dive into the build and
2:03
handling. So, just so you know, I'm filming this segment, the indoor segments, on the Sony E-mount version of
2:10
the lens. And so, this whole video will be shot on the 56mm f1.2, do either on
2:15
the Fuji version or the Sony version. This lens is currently available in Sony
2:20
E-mount and Fuji Xmount, both of which I've now covered. There is an upcoming
2:27
Zmount version in the future. And so that's good news for those who are Nikon APS-C shooters. So, this is a lens
2:34
designed for APS-C. And in my Sony E-mount version test, I did discover that it definitely does not cover the
2:40
full-frame image circle. This is an APS-C lens. uh 56 millimeter is very
2:45
popular for APS-C because that translates with the 1.5 times crop factor and to essentially an 85
2:52
millimeter lens. It's about 84 millimeters if you do the math. And so obviously that's right in the sweet spot
2:57
for portraiture and a very popular focal length in general. The price at $580 is
3:04
really competitive here on the Fuji platform where Fuji lenses tend to be tend to be a little bit more expensive
3:10
because they are, you know, they're a little bit more premium lens lenses whereas some other manufacturers are
3:15
making kind of their top lenses are more full-frame lenses. When it comes to
3:21
Fuji, they haven't done full-frame and so they're making more premium lenses in the APS-C space. So, their lenses do
3:27
tend to be pricier. And of course, the one that we're comparing to here is about $1,200. And so at $580
3:35
less with the coupon uh discount code that you can find in the description down below, uh you can get that
3:41
obviously cheaper still. You know, the Sigma, for example, there's a Sigma 56mm f1.4 that's available on uh Xmount, but
3:50
it's going to cost you, you know, about the same price as the Viltrox lens. And
3:55
so if size is not a priority, you can get this Vtrox lens with definitely some superior performance areas for cheaper
4:03
or at least the same price as the Sigma lens. Now, as far as the features set
4:09
here, first of all, in in Fuji speak, there are basically three kind of areas
4:14
that designate more premium lenses on Fuji. And so one of those is R, which is
4:20
the most common. That means that it just has an aperture ring, which we do here. Um, then the second is WR, which means
4:26
that it has weather resistance or weather sealing. We have a thorough weather sealing here. I haven't seen a diagram, but previous lenses in this
4:33
series are anywhere between 10 and 12 different seal points. There's a nice thick gasket at the lens mount, coating
4:39
on the front element, seals throughout at the switch points, at the rings, and so it is a professionally grade weather
4:46
sealing that is there. And then on top of that, you know, on Fuji, it's LM, which stands for linear motor, meaning
4:52
it's got a more premium focus system. And while this isn't an linear motor per se, the HyperVCM focus motor means that
4:59
you're getting a premium autofocus system in this. And so, it basically checks all the boxes of what a high-end
5:05
premium lens on Xmount would have. This is very slightly the smallest lens in
5:12
the series. It is almost identical in dimensions to the 27mm f1.2 2, a lens
5:17
that I really love, but it is just a hair narrower than that lens and then
5:23
thus it is just a hair lighter as well. And so it's not by any kind of meaningful margin. Really the outlier
5:29
here is the 75mm f1.2 which is a fair bit bigger and heavier than either the
5:34
27 or the 56 millm lenses. So that shakes out at being 78.4 mm in diameter
5:40
or 3.08 in and 92 mm in length or 3.61
5:46
61 in. Now, that does make it about 16 mm longer than what the Fuji uh WR lens
5:53
is. Though, the Fuji is just a bit wider in diameter. It's only about a mill millimeter, so nothing significant
6:00
there. The weight comes in at 570 g, which is right over 20 ounces. And so,
6:06
that does make it significantly heavier than the Sigma, for example, which is 280 g, though the Sigma is only f1.4.
6:14
The Fuji is 445 gram. And then the Srii Sniper, which is an F1.2 lens as well,
6:20
it weighs in at 419 g. And so this is definitely the heaviest by a, you know,
6:26
a a fair margin there in the case when you're looking versus the the Fuji lens.
6:32
We're talking, you know, roughly 130 grams difference there. It has 67mm front filter threads, same as the 27
6:39
millimeter. Also the same as the WR lens from Fuji. It does have the USB C port
6:45
in the dock and so you can do firmware updates and certainly uh Viltrox is very
6:51
thorough at doing those and making sure that the lens stays supported along the way. Inside the aperture uh Iris we have
6:59
11 blades again same as the Fuji. And as mentioned already we do have an aperture ring. This is a clicked ring. It does
7:06
have light clicks at all the 1/3 stop detents and then a harder uh you know a
7:12
little bit more resistance and a longer throw between F-16 and automatic mode.
7:17
Now what we don't have is an iris lock here which is true of the the Sony version as well. However, what we're
7:24
lacking relative to the Sony version is that we have uh we have no AFMF switch.
7:29
We have no custom or function button and we have no ability to de-click the aperture. And the reason for that is
7:35
that these are features that are just not supported here on Fuji. Actually, the first 75mm f1.2, it did have an AFMF
7:42
switch. And you could tell that, you know, Viltrox was trying that because it came to Fuji first. However, I also
7:49
found that it did cause a little bit of of quirks at times, uh, because, you
7:54
know, the way that Fuji mostly works is that it's relying on a button or a lever attached to the camera body as opposed
8:01
to the lens. And so they have a different standard than the other brands. And I think that Viltrox has
8:06
basically had to come back and conform to that standard, which unfortunately it just feels like you're getting a lens with less features because well, that's
8:13
exactly what's happening. The problem here is not really Viltrox. The problem is is that it's really time for Fuji to
8:18
update their standard particularly considering that they have so many camera bodies that are very, very capable for video. So why not allow for
8:26
some video specific features in the lenses, you know, like being able to de-click the aperture, for example.
8:31
Right now, as it stands, you know, Fuji apertures are really not useful for doing aperture racks or things like that
8:37
because everything is in these, you know, little set aperture steps along the way. And so that's something I would
8:43
love to see changed. Now, one thing that is good here, uh, the manual focus ring is beautiful. It's everything is metal
8:49
here. The whole body is is metal construction. It is very high-end construction and there's a beautiful uh
8:56
manual focus ring here and as compared to the you know the premium lens from
9:02
Fuji I vastly prefer what happens here on the Viltrox. For one thing this is a much better autofocus motor but when it
9:09
as it translates to manual focus it means that there there's you actually have this smooth linear focus which
9:15
feels like true manual focus as opposed to on the Fujil lens it still feels like little steps. And if particularly if
9:21
you're trying to do pre be precise, you can feel focus move in chunks as opposed to a nice linear process. And so um I
9:29
definitely prefer what I'm getting from the Vtrox lens when it comes to that. Minimum focus distance here is 50 cm,
9:35
same as Fuji, and magnification of 0.13 times is not exceptionally high, but it
9:40
is enough to be useful. And of course, having that f1.2 aperture means that depth of field is tiny. As you can see
9:47
here, shooting uh Viltrox's new flash. It's about to come out. Uh you can see that the depth of field is tiny there.
9:53
And so you can see that the 16,000 megahertz is uh actually you can see
9:58
that but anything even in that little millimeter deeper than that is is out of focus already. And so depth field is
10:05
tiny at that point but it's has nice good contrast and resolution at that point and is very useful. I will note
10:12
one other thing before we move on. The lens hood here is improved over some of
10:17
the earlier iterations in the series. Some of the early ones did not click indefinitely, whereas this one
10:23
definitely does. And one other thing that's interesting is that while this uh lens is it is uh longer as we've already
10:31
determined, the lens hood from the Fuji lens is kind of massive. And so what you actually end up is when you have the
10:37
lens hoods mounted, the two lens, I mean, the Viltrox is still maybe a couple of millimeters longer, but it
10:42
basically eradicates that difference in overall length because the Fuji hood is so large. And the other thing I will say
10:49
about that is the Fuji hood is also a much wider in diameter. And so you can
10:54
see that while the Vtrox hood doesn't quite fit inside, it actually fits somewhat inside here. And so this
11:00
actually takes up a little bit more room in your bag than what the Viltrox hood does because the Viltrox hood does fit a
11:07
little bit more tightly like that. And so just something to be aware of. One other thing I will point out before I I
11:13
move on from this is that this does employ floating elements to allow for better uplose performance. So if the
11:20
lens is detached or the camera is off, even if it's attached to the camera, you
11:25
will feel something moving around inside. You're going to find that to be increasingly more common in the future because this is a means by which uh
11:33
engineers can eliminate other flaws in the optical design and get higher performance. But what happens is that
11:39
once the lens is energized, the camera is turned on. That clunk will go away
11:44
and that's just because those elements are now energized and they're responding and so they're not, you know, kind of floating anymore at that point. So just
11:51
something to be aware of. There's nothing wrong with your lens. If you feel something moving around in there, turn on the camera and if it goes away,
11:57
that means that it's perfectly normal in operation. All told, this is a although it's a stripped down version relative to
12:02
the Sony and I don't like that. This is a beautifully made lens. It's a very good-look lens. Great looking finish on
12:08
it. I really like it. Now, we know from the Sony review already, those of you
12:13
that have watched that, that this is the first of the Pro Series lenses from Viltrox to get their higherend hyper VCM
12:20
focus motor. So that is a voice coil motor which means it's a much more sophisticated
12:27
motor compared to their older SDM motors that has, you know, more complexity, more thrust. It's quieter. It's just a
12:34
higherend autofocus motor generally. And at least on the Sony version, it was able to do some pretty awesome things.
12:41
Unfortunately, as is always the case as I transition over to Fuji, the hardware
12:46
of the lens is held back somewhat by the hardware of the camera. And then also I suspect somewhat by the focus algorithms
12:53
involved here. Fuji's autofocus is just not as sophisticated and it does show up. Whereas relative to other Fuji
12:59
lenses, I actually felt like I had good autofocus for stills. I did have a few more misses than what I did with the the
13:05
uh Sony version of the lens. And what's more, I also found that, you know, focus is just not as fun, if I could use that
13:13
word. I did use it in a wedding setting. And what I found there is that actually
13:19
I was able to get the shots that I wanted. Sometimes I felt like I was struggling a little bit more to land them what I than what I would have with
13:25
an equivalent Sony camera. However, I was able to get shots even in more high-pressure situation where there
13:31
wasn't a lot of reaction time, say couples coming in from a bright outside into a dimmer interior. You know, it's
13:37
kind of a difficult transition and and I was able to get decent shots in that setting even though they're moving or
13:42
dancing or doing something as they came in. Likewise, the ability to nail like very narrow depth of field shots at
13:48
f1.2, but also to get good accurate autofocus was very useful for a lot of
13:54
different settings and produced, you know, images that I really liked as a byproduct. I also did a bit of a mini
14:01
portrait session with my son and then also I was using their there's a new Viltrox Spark flash that's uh just
14:08
coming out and and I wanted to test that at the same time and I found that in that setting I I did get typically well
14:14
focused results you know but there was a you know maybe two or three shots that weren't perfectly focused and frankly on
14:21
Sony these days I'm always shocked if I have any missed portrait shots no matter the lens because you know it's always
14:26
really really good and that was the case with the E-mount version of this lens. And so in general, I think focus for
14:33
stills was good. And I would say that relative to other lenses on the platform, very good. And certainly if
14:40
you look at the quality of focus, comparing this lens to the Buzzy Micro motor that's on the 56mm F1.2 WR, this
14:50
Viltrox lens is way better in performance. It's a nicer lens use and I did feel more confident using it even
14:56
though at the end of the day I'm not sure that my keeper rate would be radically different. It's the quality of focus that is definitely superior. So
15:03
how about video AF? I continue to be very frustrated with the Fuji platform
15:09
generally when it comes to autofocus but in particular for video autofocus for
15:14
having cameras that are so good at recording video. As you can see right now, they really are not backed up by
15:21
very effective autofocus systems when it comes to the hardware underlying in the camera itself. The Viltrox is definitely
15:28
not going to dissuade me from that opinion. You can see here in my focus pulls test that when I try to do touch
15:35
to focus, and I hate doing touch to focus on Fuji generally because you get a wide variety of responses. Sometimes
15:41
it'll actually do what you want it to do. Sometimes it seems to do nothing for several seconds. there's a big lag and
15:47
then focus will begin to happen and then sometimes I sit there waiting say well it's going to happen it's going to happen and it never does and I have to
15:54
touch again and again maybe trying to find a little different spot to tweak it to try to get it to do what I want but
15:59
even when it did do those focus pulls you can see that they're blocky there lots of visible steps a lack of
16:06
confidence there's nothing about it that I like so I wondered is the Fuji lens going to be any better which I could
16:12
hardly imagine that it could be because it's built-in autofocus in the lens. The focus motor is so terrible, but it was a
16:20
little bit better. It's not great. There's still a really some obvious stepping particularly at the end as it
16:25
settles in, but it is a smoother transition even though it made a lot more noise in the process. I saw
16:31
something similar when I did my hand test that the transition from my hand to my eye, it was a little bit better on
16:38
Fuji than it was on the Viltrox because sometimes the Viltrox didn't really make the transition. But what I did notice is
16:44
a lot of the time the Fujif focus was on my ear and not really on my eye. So even then with this $1,200 Fuji lens, it
16:51
really wasn't all that great. When I tried to approach the camera, as I've been doing in this shot a little bit,
16:57
but I then stepped out of frame, the Viltrox, it focused to the background, but then it never picked me back up when
17:03
I stepped back in frame. The Fuji lens did, but it also kind of cheated. It
17:08
predicted that I had stepped out of frame and I was going to step back in and so it never shifted focus. So when I stepped back in, I was still in focus.
17:16
That did tell me something though and that is that clearly Viltrox is not getting access to the same focus
17:22
algorithms that Fuji's own lens did. And so in this case, even though the Fuji lens has the inferior autofocus motor,
17:30
which is really obvious in operation, it is able in some situations to get a
17:35
little bit better focus results because of those focus algorithms. I likewise
17:40
found when I was shooting with the Viltrox lens that, you know, ordinary transitions from one subject to another
17:47
where I wasn't trying to touch to focus, they went okay, but there's obvious stepping. It's not smooth. It's not
17:54
cinematic. I also saw in this clip when I had locked onto a subject and I tried to approach it with the camera that you
18:01
can see focus slips and goes in and out. It's just not what any of us would want for our content creation. And so at this
18:09
point with the state of the focus algorithms and the state of the hardware on the Fuji platform, I think you're
18:16
probably going to be better off if you're serious about video and using first party Fuji lenses, even if they
18:22
aren't really all that much better either. Okay, let's talk image quality here. Same as the Sony version, we've
18:30
got the same optical design, 13 elements in eight groups. There are three high refractive index elements, one extra low
18:36
dispersion and then one ultra-large aspherical element and that element is a new one for Vtrox that I've not seen
18:43
previously. The MTF looks really really great. You'll see that there's low aigmatism in both the sagittal and
18:49
meridial lines are they stay close together and at f8 it's basically a straight line across the top. You know
18:56
that this is a very high performing lens. in the other metrics as we break it down and I will have a more thorough
19:01
deep dive in the optics at the end of the video. So, I'm just going to jump through it more quickly here. The big
19:07
difference here on Fuji obviously is you're moving to a much higher standard when it comes to the sensor demand if
19:13
you're shooting with the 40 megapixel sensor as I am here. And so 40 megapixels on a 1.5 times APS-C crop is
19:20
the equivalent of over 90 megapixels on a full-frame sensor in terms of pixel density. That's a really demanding
19:26
platform. And so we'll see if this uh lens can survive that transition. I looked at it at 26 megapixels on Sony.
19:33
That's a much lower standard relative to 40. And so we'll see how that plays out here. But in terms of some of the other
19:39
optical um issues that are there as when I tested for vignette and distortion, there is the tiniest amount of
19:45
distortion. It's pretty close to neutral, but there's about a minus one of pin cushion distortion to correct. By
19:50
the way, that's same as the uh the Fuji lens in terms of the vignette. Vignette
19:56
was a little bit heavier on Fuji than I saw on Sony, but it's it's not a huge difference. I used a plus 62 to correct
20:03
here. In the same test, I needed to use a plus 52 to correct for the Fuji. So, the Fuji has ever so slightly less uh
20:10
vignette than the Viltrox lens, but it's very, very close. I found that when I tested for a longitudinal style
20:17
chromatic aberration, there is a little bit of fringing before and after the plane of focus, but it's minimal. When I
20:23
looked here at a three-dimensional subject, my dad's old SLR, I found that there again is a tiny bit of fringing,
20:29
but not enough to be obvious unless you're looking at 100% magnification level. And so, no big problem there.
20:35
There's a bit of lateral style chromatic aberration in the corner, but again, it's very, very tiny and you only see it at very high levels of magnification.
20:42
not really a real world issue. I found that when I begin to test for resolution
20:48
and contrast, so here we're looking at that 40 megapixels and crops are going to be shown at 200% magnification. You
20:54
can see that the crops look consistently good across the frame. This is a lens that's very sharp in the center, very
21:00
sharp in the mid-frame, and only slightly less sharp in the corners. And just for a quick comparison to the Fuji
21:06
lens, you can see that uh basically at every point across the frame, there is just a little bit more sharpness and
21:13
contrast for the Viltrox as opposed to the more expensive Fuji lens at f1.2.
21:19
And if we really want to see how great this is compared to a a more closely
21:24
priced alternative, the Suré Sniper 56mm F1.2, do. Uh you can see here in
21:31
comparing to it that it it just it's it's night and day at f1.2 in the center and in the corners. The Viltrox lens
21:37
just blows it out of the water. You will see mild improvements as you stop down. As soon as f1.4 a little bit more
21:44
contrast. By f2 really looking good. And by f2.8 the corners are basically razor
21:50
sharp. And that's going to stay that way through f8. Landscape images look amazing. lots of detail, lots of
21:56
contrast, and of course, lots of pixels on all of that if you're shooting on this high resolution sensor. By the time
22:02
you get to f11, you'll start to see some defraction and a little bit more pronounced at f-16, which is the minimum
22:08
aperture. But even on this really pixel dense platform, I didn't find that defraction was necessarily terrible
22:14
either. And so, you know, you might be able to get away with shooting at f-16 in some situations.
22:20
The bokeh quality from this lens is really, really nice. Now, when I say really nice, that doesn't mean perfect
22:26
geometry at f1.2 with, you know, no cat eye type look. You'll see as you stop
22:31
down here that, you know, that that does get nice and circular as you get to towards f2 in particular, but um it's
22:38
more that just the overall background is very soft. The bokeh is very soft. I will release that head-to-head with this
22:45
lens, but frankly, it's very hard for me to determine backgrounds between the two lenses. And that's amazing because this
22:51
is a beautiful performer in that metric. You see in this video of um uh use the
22:56
sprinkler and some evening directional light. You can see just you know that really nice specular highlights from
23:02
that. And this shot here I love it. Just shows off the best qualities of this lens. It's really really crisp and
23:08
detail at f1.2 and where it matters. And then the background is just beautifully soft and it has that ability to just
23:14
kind of swirl together colors in a really pleasing fashion. And so all of that I think is really really nice. One
23:20
of the great things about a lens like this f1.2 lenses on APS-C is it does allow you to reclaim some of that uh
23:27
full-frame look to where you can get a very shallow depth of field and thus a a
23:33
unique dimensionality of your subject versus the background. And I did find the colors were great. I did shoot a lot
23:39
of people photos with this. And of course I do love Fuji sensors. I critique things about Fuji particularly
23:45
when it comes to autofocus. But I do love their their sensors and the color science. And so this was a nice match
23:51
for that. I did note that there are some minor flaring and flashing issues uh at
23:56
wide apertures. You're going to see that, you know, a little like, you know, kind of almost like light leak type
24:02
looks or, you know, just little blotches in certain compositions. Um to me, it's artistic there. However, you know, your
24:09
mileage may vary. As you stop it down, it becomes a more traditional pattern where you're going to see a little bit more ghosting. And the biggest thing to
24:15
me is actually not the ghosting. I find that if the the sun or the light source is right in the frame, those the streaks
24:21
coming off of that, you know, the sun rays, if you want to call them that, they're just a little dominating to my
24:28
taste. And and so this is not a perfect flare resistance, but again, you know, f1.2 lenses, it's tough to get perfect.
24:35
And so I think that they've done a fairly good job. I think it's very easy to avoid anything negative just through
24:40
composition and choosing your aperture wisely. So, at the end of the day, I mean, you're not going to find a better
24:47
optical performance, particularly at this price point and maybe at any price point at this focal length right now,
24:53
uh, on the Fuji platform. It's fantastic. So, in conclusion, in the previous two Pro Series releases for
25:00
APS-C, they've actually released the Fuji Xmount versions first, and then several months later, they released the
25:07
Sony E-mount versions. And so, in those previous cases, I've had a chance to evaluate the lens first on Fuji and to
25:13
kind of accept it warts and all that comes as a part of the Fuji package. And then a few men months later when I have
25:19
a chance to test the E-mount version, it's like I get new features, I get better performance. It's great. It's not
25:25
so great when you go the other direction. And so I did the review of the Sony version first where I had more
25:32
features. I had better autofocus performance. And of course, the one thing that does differentiator is that
25:38
this Fuji sensor is a really, really interesting. It's challenging, but this is a lens that's up to that. But in many
25:44
ways, it feels like I'm getting less of what I got on Sony. And that is the unfortunate reality for many Fuji
25:50
shooters in general right now. Fuji shooters are very loyal to their system for good reason. There's a lot of things
25:56
that Fujifilm does really, really well. And there's a lot of things that I like about their cameras, but they
26:01
desperately need an autofocus improvement and upgrade at this point to become competitive with the other
26:07
packages. And I also want to see them to embrace some more video specific features. It's clear that these lens
26:13
manufacturers have the ability to produce those features because they're doing it on other platforms, but it is
26:19
Fuji's own kind of standard that is holding them back at this point. And I really want to see that improved. So, at
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the end of the day, this is a really, really intriguing lens still here on Fuji despite those warts. And when you
26:32
look at it compared to the main competition in the XF 56mm F1.2 WR, it's
26:38
hard to see the Viltrox as being anything but compelling. considering you can get it for less than half the price.
26:44
So, at the end of the day, I do think that there is a market for this lens on Fuji. And of course, all of us are
26:50
awaiting the day that maybe Fuji's next camera is going to unlock that superior autofocus that we have been looking for.
26:57
And when that day comes, I hope that this lens shines on that platform. Now, if you want more information, you have a
27:03
couple of options. I do have a full text review that is linked in the description down below that is unique to the Fuji uh
27:09
Xmount version of the lens and also if you're want that deeper dive into the optical performance, I'm going to jump
27:16
into that right after this. So stay tuned. Okay, we'll start with a look at vignette and distortion. You can see
27:22
that if you look at the image on the left, which is an uncorrected raw, it is pretty close to distortion free, but
27:28
there is just a tiny tiny little amount of pin cushion distortion. A minus one
27:34
straightens that right up. Again, that's just like the WR lens from Fuji. There is some obvious vignette in the corners,
27:40
a little bit more than what I saw on Sony. A plus 62 to corrected that out and gave us a basically a perfect manual
27:48
correction, which is great to see. So, just a little bit more vignette than the Fuji lens, but they're close. Taking a
27:54
look at longitudinal style chromatic aberrations before and after the plane of focus. I see a bit more actually on
27:59
the magenta end than I do on the green end. after the plane of focus. Uh it's not bad or strongly pronounced. If I
28:06
take a look here really close at uh my dad's old SLR, you can see that very
28:12
good contrast in this zone here. A tiny bit of fringing on some of those shiny surfaces, but nothing extreme at all. No
28:19
major problem there. I found in shots like this, glass can obviously be a a big factor, but you can see it's really
28:26
nice and clean. No frringing showing up in this particular image. And so overall, um, I'm pretty impressed with
28:32
the I don't think that any of the those aberrations are going to have real world implications. Likewise, there is a
28:38
little bit of lateral style chromatic aberrations. You can see here in these transition zones, not too bad, however,
28:44
and also a little bit less than what the Fuji has. So, I mean, again, I I look for them in real world images. I
28:50
couldn't really find them. It's only at these really high level of magnification that they show up. Okay, so for a look
28:56
at the test chart, this is going to be shown at 200% levels of magnification. Center of the frame, we've got great
29:02
detail, great contrast. This is looking really, really awesome. Mid-frame looks exceptionally good. Really, really
29:08
strong and consistent. If I pan down this way, we see that there's a good consistency from here to here without a
29:14
really obvious drop off. All the way down to here, still looking very sharp. And really right off to the corner, you
29:19
see all those fine details. The contrast isn't quite as high, but all those fine details are still being rendered. So,
29:25
that's impressive. So, for a quick look of a comparison here, which I'll do a lot more of in the actual head-to-head
29:30
video, you can see in the middle of the frame, there's a little bit more contrast and detail for the Viltrox lens
29:36
versus the more expensive Fuji. Likewise, in the mid-frame, there's an edge there. And off into the corners,
29:42
that edge remains there. And uh whereas the Fuji, I think, matches it in terms of contrast. Definitely not as much
29:49
detail there in the corners. We look over on this side and we see that here I
29:54
would say the Fuji is closer and up in this zone I would say the Fuji looks a
30:00
little bit better up into the upper left corner again Fuji is looking better. So um it's the Fuji unfortunately I I
30:06
really tried I shot this you'll see this is chart test number three. I shot this again and again trying to make sure it
30:12
wasn't kind of a balance issue for me. I do think that there's a bit of a centering issue very slightly on the
30:19
Fuji lens. The Viltrox is a more consistent performance. Fuji is a little bit more biased to the left side. But to
30:24
give you some context on how all of this looks real world f1.2, you can see that we've got lots of detail on these girls
30:33
at f1.2. Uh in this shot of my son at f1.2, you can see lots of skin textures,
30:40
plenty of plenty to work with even at f1.2. Likewise here, you know, wide open f1.2. I think any portrait photography
30:48
would be fine with that to work with for shooting like fine details here in a wedding setting. You can see that
30:54
there's plenty of contrast to hold up even at close focus distances. All of that is good. This shot of Nalum moving
31:01
along, good detail, good contrast, and then of course a nice really shallow depth of field look, which is hard to
31:07
get on APS-C unless you're shooting with an F1.2 lens. Now on some sharp lenses,
31:12
you basically get as much as you're going to get wide open. And in this case, there is more left in the tank.
31:18
And so here, even at f1.4, you can see there's just a little bit more contrast and a little bit more fine detail there.
31:25
From f1.4 to f2, contrast increases yet more. And you can see looking here at
31:31
the mid-frame, looking really, really fantastic. The corners are looking much brighter as you can see. And thus
31:37
allowing more contrast and detail to show up there. And here into this upper left corner, you can see it's also
31:43
improving here as well. quick pop back in uh with the Fuji lens. And so in the
31:49
middle of the frame, Fuji's taken nice strides. And I would say at f2 here, it is very similar. It's very close in
31:56
contrast, maybe even a hair more. In the mid-frame, the two lenses are pretty closely matched. I don't see a major
32:02
difference there. And down into the corners, I would say that the Viltrox is still rendering details a little bit
32:08
better, but the Fuji's contrast looks really good. And as before, we saw that it was stronger on this side. it.
32:15
There's still a little bit of advantage, I think, particularly in contrast, but it's not strongly pronounced at all. But
32:20
I think a little bit better on this left side, the Fuji looks pretty strong there relative to the Vtrox. So, at f2.8, more
32:27
contrast still, and then obviously by f5.6, we're definitely into the peak levels of performance. If we look here,
32:34
we can see that the corners are looking really crisp, particularly as you get to f4 and f5.6.
32:40
Great detail and contrast there. I mean, everywhere you look, it's just really, really great. Really strong. Good
32:46
contrast, good delineation of all of those fine details. Very impressive. So, out in the real world, even in a shot
32:53
obviously that has a lot of depth to it. You can see right here into the corners, great details that are showing up there.
32:59
And as we look into the distance, you know, all throughout the image from side to side, it's really consistent. It's um
33:06
you're not seeing like a big drop off of contrast or detail somewhere. So, an impressive performance overall for
33:11
landscape work. Now, by f11, you'll start to see a little bit of softening due to defraction and a little bit more
33:17
pronounced at f-16. However, unlike some lenses, I don't find like it just turns
33:22
to mush at the minimum aperture. It still looks pretty good. It's a little bit less contrast, but detail still
33:28
looks good. And so, I I do think that at 100% magnification, it would still be very usable. Now, the uplose performance
33:35
is strong. Even at f1.2, two. You can see good contrast and good detail that's
33:40
being rendered there. And so it's holding up very nicely. Here's a three-dimensional object here. This is
33:46
their new spark flash that is coming out. But you can see if we look here at a pixel level that while depth of field
33:53
is really small, like this is obviously out of focus where it's we have the 1600 MHz, you can see it's really rendering
34:00
that very very fine detail quite nicely. As I mentioned, this image kind of depicts my favorite things about this
34:07
lens. Great detail and contrast where it supposed to have it and then a very nice
34:13
soft defocused area in the background. You can see here a little bit closer look at what the geometry is like. There
34:18
is a bit of a swirl effect at a certain distance. You may not like that. I do. I
34:24
find that to be very very cool for portrait work. And so something to consider. Uh obviously the ability at
34:30
f1.2 to to really nicely isolate subjects. And so we can see the subject is, you know, really sharply delineated,
34:35
but everything else is out of focus. And so it allowed me to use these ladies as a natural frame looking towards the cake
34:42
there. Again, this is another image that shows off nice detail and contrast in
34:48
the subject matter. And then a very nicely defocused background. Uh here just kind of isolating a few flowers
34:55
within this wedding tent. Here you can see that the background moves towards defocus nicely. Look at the cake and you
35:01
can see again it's it stands out, you know, very sharply delineated with a soft background. All of that is good
35:09
again at flare resistance. We'll take one final look here. You can see there's almost a little bit of a like a light
35:15
leak kind of look there. Um, and a little bit of a ghosting down here. A little bit of veiling loss of contrast,
35:21
but overall not bad there. Stopping down here to more of a mid-range. And you can see a little bit of a a blob for
35:28
ghosting there. The other light leak has gone away and there's a little bit more of a pattern here. Then by f11,
35:35
the ghosting blobs are a little bit more obvious and they're darker and so that's a bigger problem. And then as I
35:41
mentioned, I don't love these really long shafts of light that are to me is kind of just dominating. It's probably
35:46
going to be rare that you'd be shooting at f11 with this lens into the sun, but you know, just in case you do know that
35:52
that is a possible side effect. Overall, this is a nice strong optical performance. So, thanks for sticking
35:58
around until the very end, and I hope the deep dive into the optics has helped you to decide whether or not this is the
36:03
lens for you. As always, thanks for watching. Have a great day, and let the light in.