56mm Showdown: Viltrox vs TTArtisan | Best Bang for Your Buck?

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott
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Over the last couple of weeks, I have released reviews of two very interesting new 56mm options
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Right now for Fuji X mount, which is where I reviewed them both, but also soon to be available for both Nikon Z and Sony E mounts as well
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I give both of these lenses very positive reviews. largely because they were capable of performing well even on my very high resolution
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Fujifilm XH2 with its 40 megapixels of resolution. Now the fact that these were released so close together are fairly similarly priced
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and have very similar focal links and maximum aperture beg the question by you and by me
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which one of these is a better bang for your buck, a better option for you
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if you are looking to invest in a budget portrait lens. The answer is we're going to see is a little bit complicated, but I'm going to dive in today
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and what I'm going to do is I'm going to first give you some reasons to choose the Viltrox
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I'll give you some reasons to choose the TT artisan, and then I'll give you a conclusion
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followed by a detailed optical comparison if you really want to see how they fare out in a variety of situations
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I've actually been testing these lenses in a lot of different ways because I've had early access to both of them
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So I've had quite a long time to spend with them and to kind of compare and contrast
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And so I'm going to try to give you quickly the benefit of my experience and having used them
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So let's talk about some reasons to choose the Viltrox here instead
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Now, the first of these is price. The Viltrox retails for $139 U.S. dollars, while the T.T. Artisan retails for $168 U.S. dollars
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Now, obviously, neither one of those is all that expensive. However, one is about $30 cheaper
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Now, the second of those is size. You can see with them side by side that while they share a similar diameter, both of them are 65 millimeters in diameter
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Both of them have a 52 millimeter front filter thread. The Viltrox is a full 7 millimeters shorter, and it weighs in at about 65 grams less
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So the Viltrox is 171 grams versus 236 grams for the DT artisan
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Now, while being a little bit smaller and lighter, we get to our third. third advantage, and that is that it is just a little bit brighter
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Philtracks went with a somewhat unconventional F.1.7 maximum aperture versus the more typical F1.8 maximum aperture on the TT artisan
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That's not a huge difference, obviously, but it's about a 12% difference in light gathering
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potential, and so it means that if you're shooting an equivalent situations, the
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Viltrox is going to be just a little bit brighter, and that could have some advantages in a variety
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of different situations. In terms of a handling area that I prefer the Viltrox, the Viltrox has an integrated USBC port for firmware updates
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That is located in the lens mount. T.T. Artisan has gone a little bit different route in that they have a USBC port in the actual rear lens cap
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And so to do the firmware updates, and by the way, the firmware update process is very similar
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but it requires having the lens mounted on that cap. I prefer the integration of the Viltrox for the simple reason that it is possible to lose these caps
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which would put you in a situation where you're unable to do your firmware updates, whereas having it attached to the lens means that it's always there
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Another handling advantage is that the Viltrox has a shallow but normal style lens hood here
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and so it's going to do all the typical things. It's not perfect. It doesn't bayonet in place as precisely as what I would like
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but it's fully useful. You can use filters while using the lens hood
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You can reverse it for storage, if so desired. It is typical in its operation
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That's a positive here. Meanwhile, on the TT artisan side of things
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we have what almost looks like an anamorphic adapter for a front lens hood
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It's a really unconventional design. And while it does integrate into the lens better
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and it bayonets into place better, so there's an ergonomic advantage in that sense
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it is a very odd functional lens hood and that you cannot use filters
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and get at them when you have that mounted. Also, its design means, of course
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it's impossible to reverse it for storage. So essentially, this is either an always off
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or an always on type proposition for most people. If you plan on using filters
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it's probably an always off. But if you want to have the shade and the protection
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it's an always on type proposition because there is no way to just reverse it for storage
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So I would say that functionally, there is a pretty clear advantage for the Viltrox, despite the fact that the build quality of the TTRsons is actually a little bit nicer
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Now, as noted, there will be a breakdown on some of these optical points I'm going to draw
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but I just going to list them now and we evaluate them later together The Viltrox is the more consistent optically of the two When it comes to sharpness and contrast it is sharper across the frame It is more consistent across the actual aperture range
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It is just a stronger lens optically when it comes to the basic sharpness and resolution
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and its consistency across the frame. I also found when shooting portraits that I slightly favored the results from the Viltrox
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and that while in many ways, as we'll see, they're very, very similar, the Viltrox has just a little bit more contrast, just a little bit more sparkle when it comes to things like the eyes and the lips, things that can be really important for that
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So I do give it a slight kind of thumbs up when it comes to portrait work
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I also found that as far as that consistency, there is no focus shift here
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I did notice a little bit of focus shift, I believe, with the TT Artisan as you stop the aperture down
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Not true with the Viltrox. I also found that the Viltrachs had a flatter plane of focus
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And so you can focus anywhere on the frame and get flat results even on my test chart
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Whereas with the TTIRisan, as we're going to see, that wasn't true. So there's definitely some compelling reasons to consider the Viltrox
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There's also some very compelling reasons, however, to consider the TT artisan
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First of all, the build quality is not even close. The TT. Artisan is a surprisingly nicely made lens for the money
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And so it's all an an adadized metal finish here, whereas the Viltrox is, I think it's a tough lens
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Nothing wrong with it, but it's very much plastic. And so as far as the overall aesthetic of the lens, this is a much more attractive lens and it just feels more premium in the hand
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Now that build quality also has some practical advantages. For example, the focus ring here is just better implemented. It's wider. It has a nicer feel to it. There is no sound associated in it. So it's a very nice manual focus experience. While I like the damping of the Viltrox, if you listen in a quiet environment, you can actually
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hear a little bit of drag there as you rotate the ring, and so it's just not as nicely
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implemented as what we see on the TT Artisan. I also found that although TT. Artisan is very new
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to doing autofocus, when it comes to these two lenses on Fuji, I prefer the autofocus from
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the TT Artisan. As you can see here, as I do focus changes inside, it's not like lightning
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quick, but it is smooth and it is confident in going from one subject to another, and that's true
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indoors and outdoors. When it comes to the Viltrox, I found more visible steps along the way
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some unnecessary defocusing. It's just more inconsistent and the speed is not as fast as what I saw
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with the TT. Artisan. And so overall, whether you're looking indoors or outdoors, I actually
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preferred the results from the TT artisan. And the Viltrox, it's fine for most applications
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but it is definitely more leisure in getting to its focus. That was true
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to a lesser extent when it came to video focus as well. Unfortunately, again, things are just
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not fantastic on, in my opinion, on Fuji when it comes to autofocus for video on Fuji bodies
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anyway. And so you get these third-party lenses and there's even more that's lost in translation
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sometimes. So neither one of them is fantastic, but if I was pushed, I would choose the TT Artisan
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by a slight bit. The only thing that I'll say for the Viltrox is that it's autofocus is just a little
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bit quieter, but the overall focus quality is better from the TT artisan. One undisputed
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area of advantage for the TT artisan is that it has higher magnification. It can focus a little bit
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closer, and as we're going to see in our optical breakdown, while they have the same focal length
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listed on them, the TT artisan is noticeably tighter in its framing. And so it's a longer focal length
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than what the Viltrox is. Viltrox, I think, is a little bit wider than 56mm. I'd say the TTRatis
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is a hair longer, and so as a byproduct, there's probably about a two millimeter difference between
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the two, and so it definitely shows up. And so it can focus closer. It's a little bit longer in focal
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length. In result, as a maximum magnification is 0.14 times for the TT artisan, whereas for the
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Viltrox, it's only 0.1 times. And so, and by the way, that difference, as we'll see, is very
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very noticeable. I also noted that the TT artisan was much better in its up-close performance. It
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cannot just focus closer and give you more magnifications. Its performance is much, much stronger
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up close than what the Viltrox is. The Viltrox gets a little bit soft and lower contrasts as you
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focus very closely. I also found that while it's not by a wide margin, both of them are
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roughly the same when it comes to distortion. There is a little bit less with the TTR to some. Both
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them are roughly the same when it comes to Vignette, but the TTRRRRRRisan is also just a little bit
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better in that metric as well. When compared side by side, I did prefer the sun star from the TT
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artisan, just a little bit cleaner looking than what I saw from the Viltrox. And surprisingly to me
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I actually found when I was doing direct comparisons that the TT artisan had a little bit better flare resistance than what did the Viltrox That was with both of them with their lens hoods attached but I found that the end results were just a little bit better from the TT Artisan
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And so there you have it. It's a bit of a mixed bag. And so if you would like my recommendations
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I would say that by the TT Artisan, if her photography includes close-up work
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Say even if you're doing portraits, but you want to maybe catch some of the close-up details
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you're going to be able to do that more effectively with the TT.R. you are with the Viltrux. It also feels nicer in its build and it focuses a little bit better
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on Fuji. And so if you have a Fuji body and you're looking for the little bit better
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auto focus experience, I would go with the TT Artisan. I would go with the Viltrox if you want
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the most consistent image quality performance. You definitely want sharp corners as a part of your
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package, for example, and you want a little bit more detail and contrast in your portraits
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It's also a little bit lighter and a little bit cheaper. And so if either one of those things
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matters to you. That is certainly a reason to consider the Viltrox as well. In a perfect world
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if you could blend the strengths of both of these lenses, you would have maybe the best under $200
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telephoto lens ever made before. There's so much good going on in both of these lenses. It's just
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that both of them have a few areas of strength that really do offset something in the other lens
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And so at the end of the day, it's really hard for me to declare an absolute winner. And so hopefully the
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information that I have given you, helps you to make a decision as to which lens is actually
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better for you. Now, if you want more information on either one of these lenses, I have linked to my
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individual reviews of them, both text and video, in the description down below. And if you want
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a head-to-head comparison optically, stay tuned with me as we dive into that together
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So we'll start out this comparison by pointing out a pretty fundamental difference between
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these two lenses. They're both stated to be 56 millimeters, as you can see
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But here's set up at an equal distance, you can see that the framing is pretty radically different
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So here we're taking a look to see how they compare for longitudinal chromatic aberrations
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So we're looking for evidence of fringing as we go out of the plane of focus
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Now, in this case, I'm looking at a 200% magnification because I'm really trying to find if there is something there to be seen
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And as we can see, frankly, there isn't a whole lot on either one
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Now, taking a quick look at vignette and distortion, you can see that even with an uncorrected raw from either of these lenses, we're not going to have any kind of issue when it comes to distortion
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It's basically just a non-factor with either one. Both of them exhibit some levels of vignette. We'll see how that compares
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So the TT Artisan, which for some reason identifies in Lightroom as MJ 56mm F1.8X, DADSM. Obviously not correct, but that's just the way it shows up
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No kind of distortion correction needed a zero there and a plus 68, a little over two stops to correct for the vignette
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Now, the Viltrox is a minus 3 to correct for a very minor amount of distortion, and you can see that the vignette is just a little bit heavier, a plus 75
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So there we're going to give a win to TT Artisan. Now, one area where the TT Artisan is unquestionably superior is when it comes to minimum focus and maximum magnification, and also performance
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at close focus distances. We can see not only is it capable of higher degree of magnification
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it is much better contrast and just better in performing up close
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as we compare the two lenses. Now, this is true with a three-dimensional object as well
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so taking the look here at this Typox lens, we can see that with both of them at F2
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the amount of magnification is certainly higher for the TT artisan, and we can also see if we zoom in that the up-close contrast
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is vastly superior for, again, for the TTRs and versus the filter rocks
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Now, to get these lenses, their best shot I have for this test chart segment
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I've used the enhanced in our method through a lightroom. It is right now amongst all the options I found the best sharpening results
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that I can get for a Fuji camera. And so taking a look in the center of the frame
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you can see that comparing one at F1.8, the other at F1.7
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you can see that they are very, very close in the center of the frame, both high performing there
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In the mid frame, you can see a clear advantage starting to emerge for the Viltrox, however
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which is much sharper in the mid frame. And as we come down here, you can see that's consistently true there
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When you get to the corners, it's not even close. There is so much more detail in contrast for the Viltrocks than what there is for the T.T. Artisan
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So for the fun of it, I went back and did a secondary comparison. in the corner for the TT Artisan
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I did the same for the Viltrox, but I got very consistent results no matter where I focused
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Here you can see that clearly I can get a better result in the corner if I focus there It still not great and so you can see that it a combination of not a completely flat plane of focus but then also the fact that it just not as sharp in the corners if we pop back to the center
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however you can see that focusing in the corner has really negatively impacted the center of the
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frame so obviously that negative impact on the center is for the most part not going to be worth it
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and so i would only focus in the corner if you have an object that it's going to be a shallow depth of
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field that you want to be focused on there so if we continue on in this at f-t
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where now our apertures are, you know, completely consistent. You can see that, again, the midframe
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looks roughly the same. So stopping down to F2, so now we have more of an apples to apples
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comparison as terms of aperture. You can see that in the center of the frame, the two lenses
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remain largely the same. In the mid frame, the Viltrox advantage continues as it does down in the corner
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Finally, at F5.6 to see them both stop down a ways. You can see that here the Viltrox is definitely
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crisper in the center of the frame better there the viltrox is also better in the mid frame and it remains
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better in the corners and that's true here we can see even if we look over on the left side as well
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so when stopped down the viltrox is just more consistently sharp across the frame so how about for
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portrait work here both of them at f2 and you can see that shutter speed is just there's a minor
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variants there, but mostly similar here, apples to apples. So we can see taking the look here that
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there's definitely a little bit more pop in the contrast. And so for portrait work, I find there's just
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a little bit more sparkle around the eyes, around the mouth for the Viltrox lens, just a little
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bit stronger there. As far as the color and the skin tones, you can see that they look really quite
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similar. And as far as the, you know, like the colors on the dress, they look very, very similar. Now, as far as
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the bouquet quality here. Again, I see far more similar than I do different. Neither one of them
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looks particularly softer. The boca stands out in some way compared to the other, and so I
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would say it's mostly a draw. Now when it comes to wide open flare resistance in this position
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here, I would say that I prefer what I see from the TT artisan. You can see that the sun
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effect is a little bit softer and there is just a little bit of a halo here
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but you can see far more prismatic effects coming from the Viltrox lens
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Now, when stopped down, I would say I continue to prefer the TT artisan over the Viltrox
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There's fewer flare artifacts, but you can also see that the sunburst to my eye is a little more pleasing looking
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We can see if we put the sun right in the center, you can see that sunburst effect a little bit more
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To me, the TTRRisan is a little bit more symmetrical looking, and both of them show a similar kind of prism pattern here
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It's just a little bit more pronounced on the Viltrox than it is on the TT. Artisan
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Now, what I found when I compared some real-world results is that I found these two lenses a little hard to pin down
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So in this shot, for example, you can see that clearly the Viltrox looks better
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It's got better contrast. It has less of this kind of nervous look that the TT. Artisan has here
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As we look towards the defocused area, I would say that the TT. Artisan is very slightly soft
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but that is in large part because it is a longer focal length
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and so the background is more defocused. Stopping down to F2, and the same kind of pattern remains
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The Viltrox is definitely sharper and just a more stable-looking result. Looking towards the defocused area
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again, it's about the same mix. But then with this shot, if we take a look at a pixel level
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you can see that I would definitely favor the TT Artisan here
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I don't find that, the contrast is quite as good on the Viltrox
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And so it looks just a little bit better to me on the T.T. Artisan, looking towards the background
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I would say in this shot, I would probably still very slightly favor the TT. Artisan
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Both of them show a little bit more edging than what I would like, but there's a little bit more
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contrast in the Viltrox result that produces a little harsher shadows in the defocused area
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And so I would slightly favor the TT.Artisan here. Now in one final shot here we can see taking a look in, we look towards our subject
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In this case, I favor the TT Artisan, which is kind of funny because it's a similar distance in what we saw on the lock
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but I just like the result here better. And looking towards the background, in many cases, looks more similar than different between the two
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And so there really is some interesting kind of given take with these two lenses
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So you've stuck around to the very end. Hopefully this comparison has shed a little bit of light for you and help you to make a more informed decision
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Thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in

56mm Showdown: Viltrox vs TTArtisan | Best Bang for Your Buck?

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56mm Showdown: Viltrox vs TTArtisan | Best Bang for Your Buck?

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