Viltrox LAB 135mm F1.8 Review

I’ve just wrapped up a review of Viltrox’s smallest, lightest, and cheapest lens: the AF 28mm F4.5 “Chip” – a micro-pancake lens just 15mm long. That makes it somewhat ironic to immediately pivot to what is easily their biggest, heaviest, and most expensive lens to date. I’ve been excited about reviewing the Viltrox LAB series ever since they announced it in 2023 as a part of their roadmap ahead. The LAB series is to be Viltrox’s “Otus” series; an optically superlative lineup of lenses that will eventually include 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm F1.2 lenses in addition to the 135mm F1.8 LAB lens that I’m reviewing here. Viltrox is unique in my experience in that they tend to announce their development cycle well ahead of releases rather than hide them until they are ready for release. We’ve had more than a year to get excited about the LAB series, and I’m delighted to finally get my hands on one of them. So is the LAB 135mm worth getting excited about? That may depend on your tolerance of large, heavy lenses, but if that doesn’t turn you off, then the LAB 135mm is about as close to optical perfection as you’ll find. It is Viltrox’s most expensive lens, yes, but at a price tag of $899 USD it still is a pretty huge value (and if you use code DUSTINABBOTT at checkout at Viltrox, you can get an additional 8% off!). Find out more in either the video review below or by reading on in the text review.

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Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV and the Sony Alpha 1.

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I have an interesting relationship with 135mm lenses. I fell in love with the Canon EF 135mm F2L a decade ago, and held onto it for years. I replaced it with the amazing Zeiss Milvus 135mm F2, a lens that I called worthy of being labelled an Otus. As I began to shoot Sony more and more, I eventually replaced the Milvus with the outstanding Sony FE 135mm F1.8 GM lens. I finally parted with the GM lens in order to purchase the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM instead, but only because I found the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 good enough that I felt I could sell the 135GM and get both the Samyang and the 50mm GM lens for roughly the same money. In short, I have owned a premium quality 135mm for just about as long as I have been a professional photographer. I value the focal length above all for the utterly unique portrait shots you can get; shots the feature extreme isolation and wonderfully creamy bokeh.

But the biggest downside of a 135mm lens for many of us is the simple fact that it isn’t the most versatile of focal lengths. You often need a fairly large amount of working room to do portrait work, so many people prefer an 85mm lens even though the 135mm images are bit more special. I loved the 135mm GM lens but was willing to part with it because I had a lot of money invested in it but didn’t reach for it as often as what I would like. Can the Viltrox LAB 135mm provide GM levels of performance for $1300 less? While I think there is at least one area where the GM has an advantage, the optics definitely aren’t it. After using the LAB 135mm for a month, I’ve concluded that it has the peerless microcontrast of the recent Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II while also delivering smoother, creamier bokeh. Yes, this is one of the best lenses optically that I’ve tested. Take a look at this unedited shot.

Nice, right? Nice colors, smooth bokeh. But when I hit the zoom button on the back of my Alpha 1, here’s what I saw:

That was a bit of a “jawdrop” moment, because that level of microcontrast and detail at F1.8 is pretty amazing. From landscapes to portraits to general purpose shots, the LAB 135mm delivered results that I simply loved.

Sound interesting? Let’s take a closer look.

Viltrox LAB 135mm Build and Handling

In many ways the preview for Viltrox’s future blueprint for their higher end lenses came with the release of the fantastic 16mm F1.8 that came first for Sony FE and then later for Nikon Z. That lens has a lot of the same design language and pioneered some of the new features that we’ll see here. Viltrox did deviate from the formula a bit, but I’m not sure it is for the better.

In many ways the new LAB 135mm feels like a blend between a Canon L series and a Zeiss Batis lens. The overall feel of the lens and its textures reminds me of a Canon L series, while the top mounted LCD screen reminds me of a Batis lens. It is almost ridiculous to put Viltrox’s two most recent lenses side by side:

The LAB lens is huge; the 28mm F4.5 pancake is the smallest autofocusing lens I’ve ever tested. The LAB 135mm is the largest and heaviest 135mm lens I’ve ever tested. It is 93mm in diameter (3.66″) and a whopping 145.7mm (5.73″) in length. The Samyang is 130mm in length, which is actually perhaps the longest 135mm that I had previously tested, but it is very obviously shorter than the LAB 135mm.

That makes the LAB a full 18mm longer than the GM (127mm). And, at a whopping 1300g (45.85oz), it is a full 450g heavier. The Samyang is just 772g, which is getting perilously close to half the weight of the LAB 135mm. Do not buy this lens if you are adverse to some weight. Why is it so heavy? Above all, it has a LOT of glass inside.

Viltrox has demonstrated that they are capable of producing small, lightweight lenses with good optics, but that’s not the point of the LAB series. These are like autofocusing Zeiss Otus lenses. I once reviewed a Zeiss Otus 28mm F1.4 that was nearly the size and weight of this lens, and that was without an autofocus motor, weather sealing, or any features! The brief for the Otus series is similar to that of the LAB series: build the best lens optically at the focal length that you can, and don’t worry about the size and weight. These types of lenses are not for everyone, but some photographers simply want the optical best. If the LAB 135mm is anything to go by, photographers may get just that.

Up front we get a large 82mm front filter thread, though that is pretty common for any 135mm lenswith an F1.8 aperture. You can’t beat physics!

The Viltrox 16mm F1.8 had a traditional approach to aperture similar to either Sony’s GM series or Sigma’s better DN prime lenses. That was a marked aperture ring that could either be clicked or declicked. For some reason Viltrox left that tried and true approach for a new approach more dependent on the LCD screen. The first ring on the lens is for aperture, but it is an unmarked ring that relies on the LCD screen to show you the selected aperture. You still have the option to have the ring either clicked or declicked, but in the clicked mode it has clicks at every 1/9th aperture stop rather than the typical one third aperture stops. I assume the logic is to provide more precision, but frankly it is wasted when A) Sony cameras only register one third stops and B) the LCD screen shows only one third stops between the full stops like F2 and F2.8. In real life it just feels like too many clicks, and I don’t enjoy it. A more traditional aperture control setup would have been preferable all around. You can still rotate all the way to the left and move into automatic mode, and I suspect some people will probably prefer to just control aperture from within the camera. You do have the option to turn the clicks off as well via a switch on the left side of the barrel.

When you turn the clicks off you can smoothly move through the whole aperture range without defined slots.  This allows for smooth video aperture racking and has become an expected pro-grade feature on modern lenses. There does seem to be less lag in the aperture iris than many lenses, however, making smooth aperture racks more possible. This is the rarely lens that I prefer the aperture clickless rather than clicked even for stills.

The iris itself has 11 aperture blades, and these make for a nicely rounded aperture even when stopped down a fair bit.

Beneath the declick button there is a three position focus limiter that allows you to select the full range, up close (0.7-2m), and to eliminate the close focus range (1.5m to infinity). The LCD screen also functions as a distance scale, showing you the focus distance in large letters while showing a scale above in smaller letters.

Further up the barrel is an AF | MF switch along with two FN (function) buttons.  The top one functions like the typical function button, performing whatever function you have that button programmed to in camera.  The second button is going to be used more commonly for video functions, however, as when in manual focus mode it allows you to preset two focus positions and automatically switch between the two at the press of the button (A-B focus).  This works in conjunction with the LCD screen on the top of the lens (more on that in a moment).  You can preset the focus position(s) by long pressing the FN 2 button, and then access the focus changes by short pressing it. 

Now to that LCD screen.  The LCD functions in many ways like those found on the Zeiss Batis lenses, though with some improvements.  The screen itself is nice and bright, allowing for good visibility even in bright conditions.  It solves the problem of a distance scale (something missing on most mirrorless lenses), as it gives you a large font telling you the precise focus distance along with a distance scale above that.  The bottom part of the screen gives you a readout of the current aperture.  It also gives you some information related to the function buttons however, with the Fn icon lighting up when the first Function Button is depressed, and then the A or B function lights up when you are presetting focus distances.    There’s actually a lot of useful information on the LCD screen once you get familiar with how it is all being displayed, though I’m sure a lot of people will still find it somewhat of a gimmick.

The manual focus ring is slightly raised and has a rubberized, ribbed texture.  It moves smoothly and with nice damping. It isn’t linear, so the amount of focus covered will depend on the speed in which you rotate the ring. Using the A/B focus is a much more precise way to set up repeatable focus pulls.

We also have weather sealing on this lens that starts with a unique maroon-colored gasket at the lens mount along with other seal points through the lens (a total of 12 of them, by my count).

This is an internally focusing lens, so there is nothing that moves where dust might intrude. There’s also an HD-Nano multilayer coating on the front element to help with water and fingerprint resistance, making the front element easier to clean.  As always, however, “moisture-proof” does not mean “water-proof”, so don’t go crazy! This is a professional grade lens with professional sealing.

Viltrox continues with a trend that other lens makers are now imitating by including a USB-C port in the lens mount that allows you to do firmware updates right to the lens.  I’m a fan of this approach, as it eliminates the need for a separate dock or lens station for firmware updates, and I find the process a little more intuitive than even doing firmware updates through the camera.  This allows Viltrox to future proof their lenses and continue to improve them through firmware.

But Viltrox never seems to rest on their laurels. They’ve added a Bluetooth module to the lens, and through their new app for IOS or Android, you can also update firmware wirelessly. Right now the app function seems to be limited to just firmware updates, though the promise is that they will add more functionality to the app control in the future.

There is no lens based stabilization, so you will need to rely upon the in-camera stabilization if your camera is so equipped.

One thing worth noting is that when the lens is powered off, there will be some movement/clunking if you rotate the lens up and down. This can be very disturbing if you are not familiar with modern lens design. Many high end modern lenses employ floating elements that allow for better up close performance. The lens groups are not fixed, but float in a certain area, so when they are not energized they will move around a bit. This is by design, however, and when the camera is powered on, those elements will be energized and will not move any longer. You can rotate the lens up and down without anything moving around. The LAB 135mm doesn’t have the smoothest implementation of this that I’ve seen, however, so you will get a bit of a “clunk” when the lens is powered on and those floating elements lock into place.

This does allow the lens to have a very good close up performance, however, which is often not a strength for Viltrox lenses. You can focus as closely as 72cm, giving a maximum magnification figure of 1:4, or 0.25x, which is right there with the Samyang (0.24x) and the Sony (0.25x), though the actual up close performance of the Viltrox is better than either of them.

At 200% magnification, look at how much better the contrast and detail is for the LAB 135mm (left) vs the Samyang on the right:

That’s macro lens levels of performance there!

Viltrox has redesigned the front lens cap with a bevel along the front that makes it feel slimmer (good, as this is their biggest front lens cap so far). The lens also comes with the hood and a nicer than usual leather pouch (similar to Canon L-series lenses). There is some cushion on the bottom, but I don’t find these pouches nearly as useful as a good padded nylon case like what Sigma provides.

The LAB 135mm comes with the nicest lens hood that I’ve seen on a Viltrox lens. The plastics are extra thick and sturdy. There is a felt lining inside to keep light from bouncing around, and there is a rubberized transition section that helps to protect the lens from bumps and also makes a nice option for placing the lens facing down. The lens doesn’t have a lock, but does have a firm bayonet into place that sits securely. I had no issues with it coming loose. I will note that it can reversed for storage but fits very tightly, so it can be a little work to get off sometimes as the rubber of the hood grips the rubber of the focus ring.

As noted, the lens barrel construction reminds me a lot of Canon’s better L- series lenses, with an magnesium alloy body, which is the same material used in expensive camera bodies. The new LAB badge on the side of the barrel reminds you that this is from this new premium series of lenses.

While I don’t agree with all of the ergonomic choices Viltrox made with the LAB 135mm, I do think that this is a very nicely executed package.  The lens feels high quality in the hands, and it handles like a premium lens. In many ways this feels like a much more expensive lens than the $899 USD price tag. The finish feels durable and I would expect the lens to hold up well for the long haul. This is a big, heavy lens, so that will obviously be a deterrent for many. But while this is the most extreme example on the market, it’s not like any of the alternatives are small and light. You’ll have to decide for yourself if that extra weight is made worth it by the sections to follow…

Autofocus and Video

I was excited to see that Viltrox was pioneering a new autofocus system on their most recent lenses, as I felt like A) they had gotten about as much out of their STM motors as they were going to get and B) a premium lens like this with big, heavy glass elements needs as much thrust in the focus motor as possible. This is their lens to receive not just a VCM (voice-coil motor), but dual “Hyper VCM” motors that work in harmony to drive autofocus. This is a similar approach to what Sony did with their 135mm F1.8 GM lens, and it great to see a third party company doing the same. The Samyang AF 135mm is very good optically (about the same as the GM), but there was big difference in autofocus performance. The Samyang focuses fairly well, but lacks the extreme thrust and confidence of the GM lens. Viltrox has managed to close that gap a lot with the dual Hyper VCM motors in the LAB 135mm. It’s hard to beat a premium first party lens on their own brand’s cameras, so the win goes to the GM lens for a few reasons, but using the Viltrox lens alongside the Samyang showed me that the AF in the LAB 135mm is much closer to the GM performance than the Samyang. I was able to snap up and immediately acquire birds in flight…even at F1.8.

I have been reviewing a prerelease copy of the lens, so the lens arrived without the final “retail firmware” update. AF worked fine on my Alpha 1, but wasn’t fully stable on my a7RV. Fortunately I was able to update the firmware to version 1.14 via the app and got stable performance on both platforms after that.

Autofocus speed is very good. Not quite instant, but near to it. Even major focus adjustments arrive quickly, and I saw good focus confidence even in dimmer lighting. I got this shot of a bookcase and photo on a shelf in a nearly dark room (1/25th of a second, F1.8, ISO 12,800).

Focus was a hair longer than good light, but it found proper focus very quickly.

I was able to track basketball players on the court without issue, with focus having enough speed to keep up with fast and erratic action.

Focus sound is near silent, with a very light whirring sound as focus moves back and forth. Focus confidence is very high, even when shooting through layers of grass to capture this dandelion bud.

I had pinpoint accuracy on the eye of a speaker in church even in profile. I took a number of photos and they were all well focused.

Perhaps most important, however, is the focus for portraits. I shot an extended portrait session with the LAB 135mm, occasionally switching over the Samyang 135mm for comparisons. The Viltrox was a champ in that setting, with perfectly focused results at all focus distances.

I doubt there is a lens out there that is going to give nicer results for portrait work (as a complete package) for this price.

Here’s a look at that kind of focus accuracy, even when depth of field is incredibly tiny (F1.8 here):

By comparison the Samyang lacked confidence, with more pulses and not that instant acquisition of the subject. And, when comparing the results side by side, I definitely preferred the Viltrox. The results are better focused, there is better microcontrast on the textures, and even the bokeh is more pleasing to me.

This is definitely in the upper tier of autofocus performance for third party lenses. It’s amazing how far Viltrox has come in just a few short years.

I will add one caveat, however. While the Viltrox is fast enough to keep up with a quick moving action, burst speed is limited by Sony to 15FPS. If you are using one of their sports bodies, like my Alpha 1, that means that you can only achieve half the maximum burst rate that you can with a Sony lens like the GM. That difference will be even more pronounced on a camera like the a9III. Fortunately when this lens comes to Nikon there will be no such limitation.

The focus excellence carries over the video side of things. Video focus pulls are smooth, quick, and confident. The advantage of not having a STM (stepping motor) is that there are no visible steps, allowing focus to move consistently and smoothly from one subject to another without any visible pauses. There is some focus breathing, but its not terrible for a such a long focal length.

My “hand test” where I alternately block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it went exceptionally well. Focus confidently moved from my hand to my eye and back without any settling or lack of confidence.

Overall video focus was excellent. Here’s a frame from a video where I was moving focus back and forth between two subjects. You can see that focus is excellent in this frame.

Viltrox clearly wanted the LAB series to be a statement in every area, and fortunately that includes autofocus. The dual Hyper VCM motors allow autofocus to keep up with everything that you’ll want to do with the lens, and, in particular, makes shooting portraits a painless joy.

Image Quality Breakdown

Ahhh, and now to my favorite part, because the LAB 135mm is just a special, special lens. I fell in love with the Zeiss Otus lenses because, despite their being ridiculously big and expensive, they were just so good optically. It might be heresy to say, but the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB is just that kind of lens. The optical design is 14 elements in 9 groups, with four of those being ED (low dispersion) elements and two of them being HD (high refractive index) lenses. The MTF is fantastic, with an absolutely stunning center and midframe performance that isn’t quite the same in the corners. At F8 the MTF is pretty much a straight line across the top, i.e. perfect.

Not everyone reads MTF, but if you do, here are the Samyang 135mm F1.8 and Sony GM 135mm F1.8 MTF charts for comparison.

On paper the Samyang lens is better than the GM and even slightly better than the LAB, but after testing multiple copies of the Samyang (and owning one), I can say that the LAB just delivers better microcontrast and more detail in real world results. I did several dozen head to head comparisons, and the LAB lens won all of them.

In fact, the Viltrox LAB 135mm F1.8 delivered once of the best all-round optical performances that I’ve ever seen and is essentially strong to extremely strong in all areas that I test. It is the rare lens that is both technically and artistically excellent.

More on this in a moment. Let’s look at the technical side of things.

I was expecting a lens well corrected for LoCA (longitudinal chromatic aberrations), and that is the case here. I see mostly neutral results on either side of the plane of focus without any fringing.

I intentionally put the lens is some of the most intensive scenarios to produce fringing that I could devise, but it did brilliantly well in all of them. Here are some deep crops from three images that should have LoCA but clearly do not.

We’ve also got perfect corrections for LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations) that typically show up along the edges of the frame with high contrast transition points.  You’ll see no fringing on either side of the black and white transition areas.

Viltrox lenses have not always had great profile support, and if there is any advantage to this it is that they have gotten accustomed to doing a lot of the corrections optically rather than relying on software corrections. Never has that been truer on this lens. Check out my vignette and distortion test:

You may have noticed that the image on the right looks just like the image on the left. That’s because for the first time that I can remember there was nothing to correct. No distortion, no vignette. Here’s an uncorrected RAW image at F1.8. Notice that the corners look flawless.

In fact, I actually find that when stopping the lens down the corners almost look a little too bright! I would probably add a little vignette to this F5.6 shot to achieve my desired result.

We’ll move on to inspecting our test chart.  This test has been done on a 61MP Sony a7RV sensor.  I use a high end tripod and two second camera delay to ensure vibration doesn’t affect images.  Here’s a look at the test chart that we will examine at high magnification:

If we take a look at crops (at 200%) at F1.8 from the center, mid-frame, and lower right corner, we find that center and mid-frame performance is exceptionally good, and the corners are good but a bit softer.

So let’s put that in perspective. The premium lens in the class is the Sony 135mm GM. The LAB 135mm is sharper everywhere save in the corners, where the GM might have the slightest edge. (*this comparison is done on the 50MP Sony Alpha 1, as that was the camera that I tested the GM on)

The Samyang AF 135mm is also an extremely good lens optically, but the Viltrox shows a similar level of dominance everywhere but the extreme corners, which are close but might slightly favor the Samyang.

In real world directly compared shots with the Samyang (as I have it on hand right now), I found that the LAB consistently won all the comparisons. I feel pretty safe in saying that this is the sharpest 135mm lens that I’ve ever tested, though frankly all three of these lenses that I’ve mentioned are amazingly sharp.

Another thing worth noting is that the LAB 135mm consistently metered a little faster than the Samyang in my comparisons while delivering similar brightness levels, so I also believe that the T-stop is about one third stop faster than the Samyang. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to find that the LAB’s T-stop is very similar to its F-stop.

For the fun of it, let’s also compare it to the recent Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II, which is the sharpest 85mm lens that I’ve ever tested (and perhaps the sharpest lens I’ve ever tested, period). It has a little advantage in this comparison in that I’ve stopped it down to F1.8 to match the maximum aperture of the LAB 135mm.

The LAB 135mm still manages to take a win the middle, though the GM shows superiority in the mid-frame and corners. If I stop down to F2.8, the Viltrox slightly wins in the midframe, but the corners still belong to the 85GM II. But bottom line is that the Viltrox LAB 135mm F1.8 is in the very top tier of lens sharpness, with a center and midframe sharpness that rivals the very best lenses I’ve seen.

I found it much like like the 85GM II in terms of microcontrast, as when I would zoom into images I would discover even more detail than expected time and again. Take this shot at F1.8 of some little thistles catch the faint sun on a foggy morning.

It’s a pretty image, but the amazing part is when you zoom in (here at about 115%) and discover that in the narrow plane of focus all of the little water droplets on the thistle as clearly delineated, and you can even see all of the little droplets of moisture in the air.

Or with this portrait shot, where even when shooting at a distance (I was separated from the subject by a small body of water), I was able to get a clear separation of the subject from the background (and great detail on my model).

The extremely low vignette meant that I could shoot (uncorrected) in the very last light of day get evenly illuminated results even when the corners needed to be bright.

You can probably tell that the optical performance here has left me very impressed.

Stopping down to F2 didn’t really offer any boost that I could see, but I did see a slight improvement at F2.8. You can see a definite improvement in the “two dollars” area on the lower right side of this comparison.

Somewhat surprisingly, there is even more sharpness available at F4, and now the corners are pin sharp.

F5.6 has a hair more contrast, and image quality is just exceptionally good everywhere. Landscape results in the F4-F8 range are just exceptional, with amazing color, contrast, and detail.

Physics will affect even the mightiest of lenses, however, so expect diffraction to start to soften the image by F11 and more obviously by F16, which is minimum aperture (though this lens is still sharper than many lenses at its weakest!)

So, the Viltrox LAB 135mm has delivered near APO levels of sharpness and contrast. But what few lenses are able to achieve is a blend of incredible sharpness and contrast while also delivering soft bokeh. That was arguably the weakest aspect of the Sony 135 GM. It was so well corrected that the bokeh wasn’t quite as exceptional as what I would like. The LAB 135mm is the rare lens that also manages to deliver really beautiful bokeh, however.

First of all, it does very well with specular highlights. Here’s an F1.8 image that shows that there is some geometric deformation near the edges of the frame, but overall the bokeh looks great. Many times the specular highlights in an image like this are tainted by some fringing around the edges, but the LAB 135mm handles that with aplomb.

If you really want all round specular highlights, stop down to F2.8, and it is nearly perfect there.

The close focus capabilities combined with the long focal length and large maximum aperture of the LAB 135 mean that it is easy to very strongly blur a background.

The next two images show what happens as you move progressively back a few steps, and, in the case of the latter image, even when stopping down to F2.5:

But arguably the most unique and valuable thing about a 135mm lens, and, in particular one like the LAB 135 that had the heady combination of sharpness/contrast and soft bokeh, is the ability to strongly separate your subject from the background even at a distance. This shot is far greater than full length, and yet there is still great subject isolation at F1.8:

I love images from a 135mm where you have both big scale but still have that very professional subject isolation – a “cutout” type look.

135mm is a great outdoor portrait lens, but there are some potential downsides. You need some working room with a longer focal length like this, so it isn’t as flexible indoors. And, even outdoors, working with a 135mm lens means that sometimes communicating with your subject is difficult. I was probably 60+ feet away from my model for the shot above, which means that I would have to shout at him to be heard. This is part of the reason why many portrait photographers stick with an 85mm lens. I do find that 135mm images are more special, however.

In the early stages of Viltrox’s lens development their optical glass was, well, more budget oriented, but that has radically changed in the past couple of years. I find Viltrox’s current optical glass to be excellent, and it tends to be very neutral. Colors are rich, but not oversaturated. The images are neither warm nor cool, allowing you to choose your preference either in camera with the white balance or in post.

Autumn in Ontario, Canada where I currently live is a gorgeous season, and I enjoyed shooting a few of those beautiful scenes with this lens.

Flare resistance was also very good on the LAB 135mm. It actually has a shallower lens hood than the Samyang 135mm, and that is because it doesn’t need it as badly. The Samyang isn’t bad, but the Viltrox is definitely better at resisting flare. You can see the exact same shot side by side here, and see how much more veiling there is with the Samyang:

The Viltrox holds its contrast much better along with the color fidelity.

I shot into intense sun a number of times but without any kind of negative impact. The LAB 135mm shows an amazing performance for this type of lens, and, as you can see below, did it a variety of aperture values (shown below are F1.8, F11, and F5.6).

This adds a lot of additional versatility for portrait photographers, as they can shoot backlit subjects without fear of their images falling apart. This image shows amazing contrast at F1.8 despite the intense sun reflected off the water near the boat.

One a final note on the optics, I was able to test one very early morning for coma. This makes yet another interesting application for this lens, as the longer focal length lends itself to a different perspective on astrophotography. Coma was very well controlled even into the corners, and the extremely low fringing assures that bright heavenly bodies aren’t ruined by some nasty color smears around them.

The bottom line is that this is one the most complete lenses that I’ve tested optically, and I would be hard pressed to point to a better optical performance from any lens priced under $1000, and could probably count the number of better optical performances, period, on one hand. If you’d like to see more images in my extensive image gallery, just click here.

Conclusion

The Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB is a rare treat for a reviewer like me. To do my job correctly I need to invest a lot of time and care into using and evaluating a lens rather I personally enjoy it or not. It can be very frustrating to have a camera in hand in a beautiful photography opportunity and be stuck with a lousy lens attached to the camera because that’s what I happen to be testing. But the LAB 135mm has allowed me to both do my job (as a lens tester), but do photography with one of the nicest optical instruments I’ve had the privilege to use. As I got towards the end of this review I had a hard time even choosing which images to conclude with as there were so many great photos yet unused in the review.

The long leadup to the release of this first LAB lens has allowed a lot of anticipation to build. Viltrox has been demonstrating that they are a serious new player and capable of making amazing lenses, and this series was to be their best yet. And thus far I am not disappointed, as while the LAB 135mm is big and heavy, the great autofocus and amazing optics make it a joy to use nonetheless.

Yes, it may be too big and heavy for some. And yes, there are a few ergonomic choices that I question, but at the same time Viltrox has once again seriously advanced to the next level. Their new Hyper VCM AF motors are definitely next level in speed and smoothness. The optical performance from the LAB 135mm is near perfect. The build quality is premium throughout. And, the price tag of $899 is nothing short of a tremendous bargain for a lens that matches or exceeds the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM in almost every category…and that lens costs $2100. The Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 is an excellent lens, and is $100 cheaper at $799 USD, but other than weight and price, the Viltrox wins every comparison that I put them through, with superior autofocus, optics, build, and more. If you have GM tastes but don’t have a GM budget, then put your money down for the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB; you won’t regret it!

Pros:

• The LAB series is supposed to be Viltrox’s BEST…and it shows
• Beautiful built lens
• Feature rich
• Very good weather sealing
• USB port for firmware updates along with Bluetooth for wireless access
• New Hyper VCM motors are fast and accurate
• Focus pulls are nicely damped
• Exceptionally sharp lens that matches or bests the very best in the center and mid-frame
• No distortion or vignette
• Exceptional control of fringing
• Colors look great
• Amazing contrast
• Gorgeous bokeh
• Great flare resistance
• Low coma
• Amazing price to performance ratio

Cons:

• Big and heavy
• Don’t love the aperture ring design
• Some might be put off from the “clunk” of the floating elements

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GEAR USED:

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