Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 Nikon Z-Mount Review

Last month I reviewed the incredible new Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 lens on Sony FE, and while we’ve had to wait at times to see such lenses come to Nikon Z-mount, Viltrox has accelerated the timeline, and this sweet new options is already here on Z-mount. The Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 Z goes directly at Nikon’s own 85mm F1.8 S, though at a fraction of the price. This new EVO 85mm is aggressively priced at just $275 USD, 315 euro, or 265 GBP (less, if you buy from Viltrox and use the code DUSTINABBOTT for 5% off!), and has more features than the first party challenger. Has your new favorite 85mm lens arrived? Find out more in either the video review below or by reading on in the text review.

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 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here. You can find the product listing for the Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 Z here.

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Viltrox EVO Series Lens Reviews

EVO 85mm F2

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AI SUMMARY: The Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 Z lens is an impressive and affordable option for Nikon Z-mount users, offering high optical performance at a fraction of the price of first-party lenses. It features a compact, lightweight design with a sturdy build, including a responsive aperture ring and programmable button, along with decent weather-sealing features. The lens delivers outstanding sharpness, contrast, and color rendition, particularly at wider apertures, while maintaining good autofocus performance for stills and video. However, it has some limitations, such as minimal weather sealing, some vignette and softness in the corners at wide apertures, and no lens-based stabilization, requiring reliance on camera stabilization systems.

Strengths:

Outstanding sharpness, contrast, and color even wide open at F2
Compact, lightweight, and well-built with a feature-rich design
Excellent value for the price, outperforming many competitors
Good autofocus performance with smooth video AF and minimal flare

Weaknesses:

Limited weather sealing, potentially only partial protection
Vignetting and corner softness at wider apertures needing correction
No lens-based stabilization, reliance on in-camera stabilization
Autofocus motor is not as silent or fast as higher-end systems

I’ve previously reviewed this lens on Sony FE, but I will make some updates to this review to reflect the unique performance on Nikon as well as the unique Z-mount alternatives. There are three primary alternatives on Nikon. The first and most obvious is the Nikkor 85mm F1.8 S, a well regarded lens that costs $750 as of the writing of this review. There is a less expensive alternative from Sirui in the Aurora 85mm F1.4, which currently costs $440, and finally (and perhaps most confusingly), there is an older Viltrox 85mm F1.8 STM (their very first autofocus lens), which costs $329 USD. Of these lenses, the EVO 85 Z is the smallest and lightest (but also has the smallest maximum aperture), but is also the most feature rich and possibly the highest performing. At $275 or less, it is also the least expensive, making it a very intriguing option.

85mm Comparisons

F2 is not a particularly bright maximum aperture for an 85mm lens, but the EVO 85mm compensates by delivering outstanding sharpness at F2. Images have a lot of pop, with excellent contrast, color, and detail.

This is a lens that actually feels a lot like the F1.8 S-line lenses in terms of the wide open pop and contrast.

Let’s explore the details…

Viltrox EVO 85mm Build and Handling

I absolutely love the formula Viltrox has chosen for this new mid-level series, as it checks just about all the boxes for me. The first is a robust approach to aperture control, starting with an aperture ring that can be used with traditional “clicks” at the one-third of a stop points throughout the aperture range. This is more accessible than the customizable control ring on most Nikkor lenses, giving you a dedicated aperture and focus ring rather than combining the two as the 85mm F1.8 S does.

The aperture ring works perfectly here, with markings at the one third stop positions and light detents at those places if you have the “clicks” on. You also have a declick option where you can smoothly rack from F2 to F16. There is a firmer detent between F16 and the A (automatic) option which will allow aperture to be controlled from within the camera. The one aperture feature that is missing is an iris lock which would allow you to either lock into or out of the aperture ring.

I was able to perform aperture racks in the declicked mode without visible steps, which is a nice bonus on a lens in this class.

The iris itself has 9 aperture blades, and these make for a nicely rounded aperture (though with a slight outline of the blades) even when stopped down a fair bit. Here’s what the bokeh geometry looks like from F2.8-F5.6:

There aperture iris itself looks pretty cool when closed.

Other features include an AF | MF switch and a custom/Fn button that can be programmed to various functions from within the camera.

The custom button is a feature you won’t find on the S-Line lens, though the Sirui Aurora lens has a similar feature set.

We’ve got a shiny new EVO badge on the side of the lens.

The EVO line doesn’t have as thorough a weather sealing as the Pro or LAB series, but what we do have is a weather sealing gasket at the lens mount and a special coating on the front element to resist fingerprints and moisture. It is definitely better than nothing!

You probably also noted the 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. Viltrox gives you a variety of ways to do the firmware updates. Here’s the screen I got after doing a firmware update via their PC app.

The build materials feel like they fall somewhere between the AIR and PRO series. The body is engineered plastics rather than the magnesium-aluminum alloy found in the PRO series, but the finish is more upscale. It’s a great looking little lens and doesn’t really feel any “cheaper” than the Nikkor lenses.

This is an extremely nice build quality for this price point.

Included is a small pouch and the lens hood. The lens hood is plastic, yes, but it is also fairly thick and robust. It bayonets on a little too tightly for my tastes, but on the upside it locks into place with good firmness and doesn’t move around.

There is no lens based stabilization, so you will need to rely upon the in-camera stabilization if your camera is so equipped. This is true for all the comparative lenses, too, so not unique to the Viltrox.

The EVO 85mm is a moderately lightweight lens that actually competes nicely in this class of lens, where it is easily the smallest and lightest of the four competitors. It is slimmer in diameter at 69mm (2.71″) where alternative lenses are anywhere from 75-80mm and is just but is a bit longer at 78mm (3″) in length where alternative lenses are from 92-103mm. It weighs in at 360g (12.69oz), where the Nikkor weighs 470g and the older Viltrox lens a whopping 540g. This is definitely the best 85mm option on Nikon if you want to travel light.

The Z-mount version looks a lot like the E-mount (see above) save that the mount diameter is wider to accommodate the larger Z-mount and the length is very slightly longer. Those two tweaks result in the Z-mount version weighing 20g more, though, as we’ve seen, that’s still significantly lighter than any competing lens.

The front filter thread is the smallest in the class at just 58mm. Perhaps this is a byproduct of having a slightly smaller maximum aperture.

The manual focus ring is tightly ribbed and moves nicely. It has a medium weight to it, but is nicely reactive and doesn’t have any apparent lag. I was able to focus smoothly and with precision. Full time manual override is available if you have that set as the value for the customizable control ring.

The EVO 85mm can focus as closely as 74cm and produces a decent 0.13x magnification. In an absolute sense, 0.13x is unimpressive, but 85mm lenses have a low standard in this metric. This is a closer minimum focus distance than all the competing lenses, and the maximum magnify either ties or betters all of them. Here’s what the magnification looks like.

Up close performance at F2 is excellent, with a nice, flat plane of focus and good sharpness and contrast.

If the Viltrox AF 85mm F2 EVO is anything to go by, the EVO series is going to hit the sweet spot for a lot of people. This is a LOT of lens for the money, but thankfully it isn’t a lot of lens when it comes to traveling! $275 (or less!) is amazing value for the quality of lens you are getting here; the build and handling are excellent. It is perhaps even more attractive on Nikon considering the dearth of alternatives.

Autofocus for Stills

Viltrox has now moved to higher end HyperVCM (voice-coil motor) focus in their recent premium lenses, but it looks like they will be sticking with their STM motors for the AIR and EVO series. These lenses have smaller optical elements to push in their focus group, so the STM (stepping motor) produces enough thrust. The alternative lenses on Z-mount all have STM motors as well, so there is no clear advantage for any other lens. I found that focus generally felt pretty confident on my Z8, with no problem picking up Nala as she rolled around.

People shots were fine, with eye detect working properly and delivering accurate results.

The focus motor is quiet but not as silent as their HyperVCM focus motors. There’s a very light whirring to be heard if you put your ear right up to the lens barrel, but it is very quiet.

General purpose results, with nice, precise focus that allows the excellent optics to shine.

You can see how excellent focus is of Ferrari even though the glass door.

In general I found focus to be pretty great. This felt like a more confident performance than I see with many third party lenses.

Video AF

STM motors definitely cover a spectrum of performance, and fortunately the STM motor in the EVO 85mm is one of the better ones. While my touch to focus video pull test isn’t as effective on Nikon (you have no control over the speed and quality of focus pulls), real world transitionis have a more cinematic feel. There is some focus breathing, but not bad for an 85mm lens. I would consider the quantity of focus breathing to be on the lower side for an 85mm, though I don’t think this lens will supported by any focus breathing compensation algorithms in camera.

My “hand test” where I alternatively block and unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand went well, with smooth and confident transitions from my hand to my face and back, and approaching the camera was smooth and accurate. When I stepped in and out of frame, I found that focus picked me back up quickly and accurately. Focus was also stable when I was on camera filming the video review.

It feels like Viltrox is growing in confidence with their Z-mount autofocus performances, making this a really excellent third party alternative.

Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 Image Quality

The EVO 85mm sports a fairly simple optical design of 10 elements in 8 groups. This includes 2 ED (extra low dispersion) elements along with 2 HR (high refractive index) elements. The MTF shows an exceptionally sharp center and midframe, but a fairly steady decline from there to a fairly weak extreme corner. As has been the case with a number of recent Viltrox optical designs, the F8 performance isn’t quite at sharp in the center and midframe as F2 but stays remarkably consistent right into the far corners.

Here on Nikon the resolution standard isn’t quite as high, so if the EVO 85mm handled my 61MP Sony a7RV, then it should have no problems with resolution on my 45MP Nikon Z8. You can in fact see the high levels of detail in Nala’s fur in this real world shot.

There is a mild amount of pincushion distortion (a -2 to correct) along with a heavier amount of vignette. I needed +76 to correct for the vignette on Nikon, which, surprisingly, wasn’t much more than I needed on Sony.

That vignette is enough that you’ll probably want to work to correct it. You can definitely see some shading in the corners of this real-world F2 shot if I turn corrections off.

Color fringing on the other hand is extremely low. I see little evidence of longitudinal chromatic aberrations either before or after the plane of focus.

The same is true if I look for fringing on my Dad’s old SLR. I don’t see anything on the letters on the lens nor on the shiny bits of the body.

This allows the EVO 85mm to easily handle high contrast situations, like this:

I saw minimal lateral style chromatic aberrations (LaCA) found in the contrast transitions near the edge of the frame.

Other than some vignette, this is a lens that takes care of the optical problems through optical corrections.

So how about resolution and contrast? These results are shot on a 45MP Nikon Z8 and the crops are shown at roughly 200% magnification level. Here’s a look at the test chart that the crops are taken from.

If we zoom in and look at the 200% crops at F2 from the center, mid-frame, and lower right, we discover that sharpness and contrast are excellent in the center and mid-frame, with a fade into the corners (though they are far from bad).

A tight crop from a portrait shot (taken from the Sony review) shows a beautiful mix of sharpness and contrast on the subject’s face and a lovely degree of defocus beyond.

There’s a fantastic amount of detail even at F2.

The only place where there is really any room for improvement is in the corners. Stopping down to F2.8 nicely brightens the corners, with contrast and detail improving. The corners are actually quite sharp right out until the very edge, which is still a bit softer.

I saw a quicker improvement here on Nikon with the lower resolution level. There are further improvements by F4, and by F5.6 the lens reaches a level of corner performance that is nothing short of impressive.

That means that landscape style results at smaller apertures are truly impressive. Great colors, great contrast, and great detail. At the same time, real world corners also look pretty good, too. I didn’t see a major difference when I compared real world results at more typical (100%) magnification results.

Here’s a F2.8 landscape shot:

Diffraction is an unfortunate reality on higher resolution cameras, so you will see a faint softening by F11 and a more obvious softening by the minimum aperture of F16, though frankly results at 100% will still look fine.

There’s no question the EVO 85mm is a sharp lens, but can it also produce the kind of rendering we want from an 85mm lens?

With a maximum aperture of F2 subject isolation won’t be as pronounced as it would be with a lens with a brighter maximum aperture, but the longer focal length can still produce very shallow depth of field at close to medium distances. At the minimum focus distance and with some separation from the background, you can achieve a dramatic amount of defocus.

At a little further distances the background won’t be strongly defocused, but the rendering still looks quite good.

The intense contrast allows for the subject to pop even though the background isn’t completely defocused.

I would argue that the combination of contrast, rendering, and vignette actually reminds me a bit of Zeiss lens, which, from me, is pretty high praise.

There’s really nothing to complain about from the rendering. I think it is really quite for an F2 lens.

I was also pretty impressed with flare resistance. It feels like Viltrox’s coatings are getting better. I was able to shoot into intense sun with this shot and retain excellent contrast and color, with minimal ghosting and veiling. I’m taking the flare shots from the Sony review due to testing the Z-mount version during an extended grey/snowy season. It is the same optical design.

In the critical shots where the sun was right out of frame, I got nothing more than a nice glow.

When shooting right into intense sun I saw a bit more veiling and a bit of a corona halo. At smaller apertures like F11, I saw a bit more flashing with the sun right out of the frame and some long shafts of the light from the sun that were more intrusive. The sunstar at F11 gets a little dominant.

So not a perfect performance, but in the real world situations where I was shooting (in a natural fashion), I was very happy with the results.

The bottom line: this is a fantastic optical performance for a lens that you’ll be able to buy for under $275. Amazing.

Enjoy the images in the mini-gallery here.

Conclusion

I suspect the EVO series of lenses is going to be another big hit for Viltrox. Many people love the AIR series which combines simple design with a cheap price and excellent optics, but the EVO series is really going to appeal to those want a more feature rich lens but don’t want to deal with the bulk of the PRO series. The Viltrox AF 85mm F2 EVO just works, and I love the feature set, the compact size, and, of course, those impressive optical chops don’t hurt. This feels like a great budget alternative to the 85mm F1.8 S.

We don’t get the higher end focus system reserved for the Pro and LAB series lenses, but the smaller glass elements in an F2 lens (versus F1.4 or F1.2) are easier to move anyway, and autofocus performance was generally excellent anyway. I was delighted to find that the autofocus performance translated quite well to Z-mount, with the lens really feeling close to a first party lens.

And where Viltrox always shines is in the price-to-performance ratio. This is an excellent optical performance that bests all the other lenses in this class, and yet the price point of $275 USD undercuts almost all of them. You can use the code DUSTINABBOTT at Viltrox to shave a extra 5% off the MSRP. The EVO 85mm has a slightly smaller maximum aperture than the competition (one-third of a stop less bright), but the impeccable wide open performance helps offset that disadvantage. I love the design philosophy and packaging for this new EVO series, and definitely looking forward to future additions in the series. This is definitely one to consider for your Z-mount camera, and should Nikon ever produce a compact full frame travel camera, the EVO 85 Z should be at the top of your list for a short telephoto option.

Pros:

Both compact and feature rich
Offers more than the competitors for less
Some weather sealing
USB port for firmware updates
Clean and elegant design
STM focus motor delivers fast, quiet, and accurate autofocus
Focus pulls are nicely damped
Comparatively low focus breathing.
Exceptionally sharp lens that competes with the very best
Extremely sharp across the frame at smaller apertures
Little distortion
Solid control of fringing
Colors look great
Amazing contrast
Gorgeous bokeh
Amazing price to performance ratio

Cons:

Slightly slower maximum aperture than competitors
Fairly heavy vignette

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