Viltrox AIR 14mm F4 FE Review

Viltrox’s AIR series has become one of the most fascinating lineups in the lens market today. Not because they are fancy (they aren’t) or feature rich (ditto), but because they are small, light, inexpensive, and, most importantly, optically impressive. While the earlier lenses in the series tended to fall into the traditional categories (35, 50, & 85mm and their APS-C equivalents), we’ve started to see a few more unique options arriving. Most recently that was in the form of the 15mm F1.7 lens for APS-C. This time, however, Viltrox is doing something a little different – they are releasing full frame and APS-C equivalent versions of a lens on the same day. We have the lens we are reviewing today – the Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR – for full frame cameras, but also the Viltrox AF 9mm F2.8 AIR for APS-C. Multiply that 9mm by the 1.5x crop factor and you have a 13.5mm lens (113.8° angle of view vs 112° for the 14mm lens), and the F2.8 aperture helps to compensate for the smaller sensor as well. That’s not to say that these are the same lens, but they clearly share some commonality of design. I’m not sure that I’ve seen something like this done before, but the end result in both cases is quite compelling. Getting that wide of a focal length in such a compact, inexpensive package (the price is about $200 USD, though you can save 5% off that by using the code “DUSTINABBOTT” at the Viltrox store) is going to be extremely handy. The true revelation, however, is just how impressively sharp this tiny wide angle prime is. Find out why I find this little lens so compelling by watching the video review below or reading on in the text review.

Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review loaner 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. You can find the product listing page for the Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR here.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Viltrox AIR Series Reviews:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

AI SUMMARY: The Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR lens offers an exceptional blend of compact size, affordability, and impressive optical performance, making it a standout choice for photographers seeking a wide-angle lens. Despite its modest price, the lens remarkably delivers high sharpness even on high-resolution cameras like the Sony a7RV. It boasts low distortion and vignette, excellent control of chromatic aberrations, and sturdy build quality, enhancing its value as a versatile lens for landscape, architecture, and street photography. The lens also surprises with its effective autofocus system and robust handling of lens flare, further cementing its worth in various shooting conditions.

Strengths:

Extremely sharp optics even on high-resolution sensors.
Compact, lightweight design with solid build quality.
Excellent control of distortion, vignette, and chromatic aberrations.
Affordable price point for wide-angle performance.

Weaknesses:

F4 aperture may limit low-light performance compared to faster lenses.
Absence of weather sealing.
Limited bokeh effect due to wide angle and aperture.
Complex distortion correction without software profiles.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

This is not only the widest focal length we’ve seen in the AIR series, it is the widest lens that we’ve seen from Viltrox, period. The 112° angle of view is extremely wide, though not as wide as some other 14mm prime lenses. Sony’s 14mm F1.8 GM is 114°, while the Sigma 14mm F1.4 ART is wider still at 114.2°. For comparison, the Laowa 15mm F2 is 110°, so the Viltrox AIR 14mm lens in between…perhaps technically closer to 14.5mm. That is still very wide, however, with the view to my feet a long way down.

What is absurd about this little lens is just how sharp it is even on a high resolution camera like my 61MP Sony a7RV. Engineering wide angle lenses is difficult, and they often suffer from soft corners, heavy distortion, and other optical flaws. I was impressed with the recent Schneider x LK Samyang 14-24mm F2.8 zoom lens (a $1200 zoom!), but this inexpensive Viltrox is able to slightly win in the center and roughly match the corner performance…even at 200% magnification on a 61MP camera.

This allows one to get very high contrast, high detailed images from a package that is just over 56mm in length and weighs just 170g. Impressive!

What’s more, distortion is relatively well controlled, allowing one to get decent architectural shots even without correction. This shot is a RAW image straight out of camera other than to increase exposure in the shadows a bit.

All of that is pretty impressive from a lens costing under $200. Let’s dive into the details.

Build and Handling

The theme for the AIR series is “Carry Less, Capture More”. Sometimes Chinese expressions get lost in translation to English, but I think this one works. The key attribute of the AIR series that makes me personally want them in my kit is how easy they are to throw into the bag and bring along while knowing that I’m still going to get great optical results. Initially I was far more excited by the notion of their PRO and LAB series of higher end lenses, but Viltrox has won me over with just how good these AIR lenses are. Both the 9mm and 14mm AIR series lenses look like twins…and both are equally easy to bring along.

The build quality of the AIR series is basic but tough. There is a metal lens mount complete with a USB-C port for easy updates and then an engineered plastic outer shell. The firmware update process is very simple; just unzip the upgrade folder, drag the firmware update file to the folder that shows up when the lens is attached to the computer, and the update is done in seconds.

Those plastics feel very tough and well made. I’ve had the earliest AIR series lens (the 20mm F2.8) since its release several years ago, and it has held up very well. I never recommend dropping lenses for obvious reasons, but these AIR lenses have been tough enough to handle some knocks.

This is an extremely compact lens, measuring 65mm (2.55″) in diameter and just 56.4mm (2.22″) in length. It adds very little bulk to any camera that it is mounted on, and would be a great fit on a smaller body from the a7C series.

The front filter size is 58mm, making filter sharing easy across other lenses (including several of the AIR series lenses).

The lens weighs in at 170g (6oz) in E-mount form and 185g in Nikon Z-mount.

It seems like Viltrox has switched from the more confusion sensor dimensions they previously had on their lenses (43.3mm) to just including the term “full frame” there instead.

There is an included lens hood made in high quality, thick plastics. It bayonets into place precisely and stays locked there.

A lens pouch is also included. The pouch doesn’t add a lot of protection value, but, like the hood, at least it is included. There are many more expensive lenses that include neither a pouch or a hood.

There is no manual aperture ring or any swtiches on the lens barrel. The only feature on the lens barrel is a wide manual focus ring. The manual focus ring has a nice amount of damping and moves smoothly. All manual focus aids (including automatic magnification of the focus area) will work with the Viltrox, and I appreciate the fact that manual focus speed is improved to where you can make larger focus changes with one twist of the wrist, particularly if you move faster (this is a non-linear focus ring). The manual focus experience on Sony is good.

The Viltrox AIR 14mm has 7 blades in its aperture iris. You won’t have a lot of situations where you can achieve round specular highlights stopped down with such a wide len, so more important is the fact that achieve a rather nice looking 14 bladed sunstar.

This sunstar is a little cleaner to my eye than the one you can achieve with the 9mm F2.8.

Viltrox lenses have frequently had less-than-impressive minimum focus distances and maximum magnification figures, but the 14mm AIR is the exception to the rule. It can focus down as closely as 13cm and achieves a maximum magnification figure of 0.23x, which is very useful. Here’s what that looks like.

While the plane of focus is not perfectly flat at this very close focus distance, the detail and contrast remain high in the area of focus. You can get some creative shots by getting very close to your subject (13cm is just 3.5cm beyond the lens hood) and blurring out the background a bit.

It is an interesting way to add some storytelling to your images and I appreciate the additional creative options that it provides. I found the background blur more pleasing from the 14mm than the 9mm despite the APS-C lens having the larger maximum aperture.

Viltrox’ more expensive lens series have weathersealing, but the budget AIR series does not. The AIR 14mm does have a HD Nano multilayer coating with water-resistant and antifouling coating on the front element.

Though the AIR series is short on bells and whistles, the Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR, like other lenses in the series, feels sturdy and well made. It is lightweight, will balance easily on a wide variety of camera bodies and sizes, and doesn’t really feel “cheap” in any way.

Autofocus

The Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR, like other AIR lenses, utilizes a lead-screw type stepping focus motor (STM) that makes for fast and quiet focus changes. Focus felt silent unless I put my ear up next to the barrel, and even then I could hear very little focus noise other than a slight click from the aperture blades at first. The combination of a wide focal length and a small maximum aperture means that focus changes are minimal, and the result is that autofocus basically feels instant all the time.

The tall grasses in this shot are a bit of a extreme exception to the rule. If you look at the video review, you’ll see a video of this setting and how the grasses were wildly blowing around. I let autofocus just track the grasses and grabbed this frame as it blew close. In this case the depth of field is shallow, but only because the grasses were right on top of the camera.

This shot I took while moving fast on my bike (as you can see from the foreground). Focus had no problem locking on, however, and giving a good result.

This shot of my son and I in his new dorm room shows that focus has no problem in normal brightness.

F4 is going to be limiting in some lighting conditions (the camera has less light to work with), but frankly focus systems have gotten good enough that this will rarely be a serious problem. In extremely dim conditions (shooting at ISO 6400 and 12,800 and still only getting shutter speeds around 1/2 of a second), focus did definitely slow, but locked on accurately and delivered well focused results.

In most situations focus will be so fast that you don’t even think about it. No problem there.

Video AF

Video AF is also good in the ways that matter. The amount of focus change is minimal, allowing focus pulls to be very subtle. There is a bit of focus breathing, but it isn’t pronounced.

My hand test (where I alternately block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it) went fine, though the focus changes are so subtle that you scarcely notice if focus is moving from my hand to my eye and back.

Perhaps more important for this lens was my vlogging test, where focus had no problem staying locked on my face as I moved around walking with the camera. This should be a really great option for vlogging, particularly if you are using a compact full frame camera like the a7C series.

I also did some action sequences, like recording while riding my bike, and focus was smooth and stable. This is an excellent option for use on a gimbal, with a great field of view, small size, and stable autofocus for video work.

Image Quality

The Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR has an optical design of 12 elements in 9 groups. A whopping eight of these are exotic elements, including four ED (extra-low dispersion) elements, 2 HR (high refractive index) elements, and 2 ASPH (aspherical) lenses. The MTF is interesting, as it suggests the AIR 14mm is the rare lenses that is sharper wide open than it is at F8. To be fair, that maximum aperture is only F4, but Viltrox has wisely engineered this lens to deliver peak performance at the wide open aperture. That just means that you don’t have to stop the lens down further to get reasonable performance. The MTF shows an extremely sharp center and a fairly steady but mild slide to the corners. Astigmatism is low (the sagittal and meridional planes stay closely aligned), suggesting strong contrast even in to the corners.

Real world results certainly affirm that, as the lens delivers surprisingly strong, high contrast results all across the frame.

This is a lens that can easily handle even the highest resolution sensors on Sony, which is really pretty mind-blowing from a sub-$200 lens.

We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette.

The upside on the distortion front is that the overall quantity of distortion is very low for a 14mm lens. I had to use a massive +29 to correct the barrel distortion on the Schneider/Samyang 14-24mm, but the AIR 14mm only required correction in the +7 range. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the correction is fairly complex, and the process of correcting some barrel distortion in the heart of the image creates some pincushion distortion near the edges. Fortunately the correction profile (which should be available by the retail release of the lens) will undoubtedly correct the distortion in a more linear fashion.

Even uncorrected, however, the low amount of the distortion meant that I could shoot without concern of seeing distortion on most subjects. This bridge, for example, doesn’t get distorted near the edges of the frame.

Architectural lines also looked nice and clean, without obvious bulges.

Bottom line is that the wide angle of view and low native distortion could make the AIR 14mm a great starting lens for someone doing real estate work on a budget.

The amount of vignette is perhaps aided by a relatively small maximum aperture and required just a +48 to correct (under two stops). That’s far less than most 14mm lenses that I’ve tested, though, to be fair, F4 is a smaller maximum aperture than most. That amount of vignette is enough to notice in some images but not enough to dramatically influence the image. The most obvious example from my tests was a shot of my son’s dorm room that has bare painted cinder blocks. I could notice a bit of shading in the corners, but you can see that correcting the vignette doesn’t radically alter the image.

Viltrox seems to have discovered the formula for largely eliminating fringing in their lenses. The 14mm F4 shows almost no longitudinal chromatic aberrations. Fringing is pretty much perfectly corrected.

Lateral Chromatic Aberrations usually show up along the edges of the frame as fringing on either side of high contrast areas (like bare branches framed at the edge of images). there is a very mild amount of fringing on the highest contrast areas, but hardly enough to notice in real world use.

So how about resolution and contrast? All chart tests done with the a7RV (61MP) using a tripod and a two second timer. Here’s a look at my test chart:

And here are the crops (at roughly 200% magnification) from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at F4:

The results are really excellent. The center is fantastically sharp, but the midframe also stands out as being exceptionally good. The corners show some fade out near the edge, but are very good relative to many wide angle lenses.

Wide angle lenses have so much in the frame that it can be hard to get a flat/uniform subject to get real world results of corners. Depth of field at F4 is big, but not big enough to include the foreground and background in most situations. Still, if I take this shot and show you crops from the middle and then the edge, you can see that contrast and detail is exceptional across most the frame and only starts to fade near the very edge.

That is really awesome for such a compact wide-angle prime. It reminds me of the 17mm F4 from Sigma’s i-Series, though much wider than that lens. Images have a lot of pop even at F4.

Stopping down to F5.6 doesn’t change things much across most of the frame, but does improve the corner performance.

Though the MTF doesn’t suggest it, I found that I got the best extreme corner performance at F8.

I got very impressive results at landscape apertures like F5.6 and F8, with good detail and contrast across the frame. This is an excellent landscape lens.

Shooting up close produced strong results as well, with good detail and contrast on the subject, and a background blur that isn’t terrible.

Diffraction will show up as usual at smaller apertures, with some softening by F11 and more obvious softening at F16.

Bokeh from the AIR 14mm is definitely smoother than the 9mm F2.8, but there are limits. A wide angle lens with an F4 aperture is not going to strongly blur out backgrounds, but the backgrounds look okay on those rare occasions when you do get close to your subject.

You don’t buy a lens like this for that purpose, but the close focus abilities of the lens do allow you to create some unique images where the background is defocused.

I’ve been noting the improvement to Viltrox colors over the past two years since they switched suppliers for their optical glass. Once again I’m very happy with the color rendition from the lens, which feels neutral in color balance, nicely saturated, and with good contrast levels in the colors.

I could get wide angle shots that I just thought looked good, period, which is remarkable for such an inexpensive lens.

Flare resistance is incredibly important in a wide angle lens like this, as the sun will often be either in the frame or right out of it. The AIR 14mm does well in this metric, too, for even when I was panning across the sun while shooting video, contrast held up and ghosting was minimal. You’ll see a tiny bit more ghosting stopped down to small apertures like F11, but nothing particularly damaging to images.

I was frankly pretty shocked by this lens. I’ve never seen such a compact lens this wide before, and the fact that it was so good optically kind of blew my mind…though maybe with Viltrox it shouldn’t at this point. Here’s a mini-gallery of other images for you to enjoy.

Conclusion

The Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR is a definite triumph, exceeding my expectations in almost every way. Getting such a wide angle of view in such a compact, inexpensive package is revelatory, and this lens is going to make it into my bag regularly when traveling for just that very reason. It was sharper than expected, had higher magnification than expected, and had lower distortion and vignette than expected. Frankly I’m not quite sure how they pulled this one off.

We have gotten far too accustomed to lens makers lazily using software corrections to make wide angle lenses “work”, but Viltrox just showed that it doesn’t have to be that way. Sure, the maximum aperture of F4 isn’t remarkable, but frankly that is typically less of an issue in a lens this wide. If you are looking for a prime astro or low light lens, there are better options, but if you are looking for a compact wide angle for landscapes, architecture, or street, the F4 aperture won’t be much of a liability.

Many people have never shot with a lens this wide, but I feel like the AIR 14mm is going to make this focal length far more accessible. While it takes a little practice to use a wider lens well, you can produce really fun, dynamic images. What’s more (as demonstrated in the two images above), the AIR 14mm will allow you to compose a scene both from the broad perspective along with the intimate, giving you a chance to do more elaborate storytelling. If you want a compact, wide angle prime lens, and F4 is wide enough for you, the Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR might just be the best $200 you’ve ever spent.

Pros:

Widest full frame lens for Viltrox ever
Lightweight, compact design
Lens feels tough and well made
Well executed, smooth manual focus ring
Includes lens hood and pouch
USB-C port for firmware updates
Excellent focus accuracy
Good focus speed
Strong video focus
Low focus breathing
Exceptional sharpness from F4
High maximum magnification
Great contrast
Low distortion
Moderate vignette for so compact a lens
Good color rendering
Good flare resistance
Fantastic price to performance ratio

Cons:

No weather sealing or features
Maximum aperture of F4 less useful in low light situations
Distortion a bit complex

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox AIR 14mm F4, Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR, AIR, Viltrox AF, Viltrox 9mm, Viltrox 14mm F4, f/4, 14mm STM, AF, Alpha 1, a7RV, Review, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, #viltrox, #letthelightin, #viltroxAF414, #DA, #viltrox14air, #carrylesscapturemore, #viltrox14AF, #viltroxAIR414