Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1 2 vs Fuji XF 56mm F12 WR Best Portrait Option

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I've really enjoyed my time with the new Fuji XF 56mm f1.2
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Before I've sent it back, I wanted to compare it to what is also a really excellent portrait
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option that is on X-mount and that is the Viltrox Pro AF 75mm f1.2
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Now realize the focal length is not the same, the aperture is however, and in many ways
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the performance is the same. So I thought that I would kind of do a deep dive into them and compare them in a variety
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of ways to maybe help you make an informed decision if you are looking for what is the
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better option for you when it comes to your portrait work or for a kind of a short to
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medium telephoto lens with a very large maximum aperture. Both these lenses are extremely capable on 40 megapixels, zero problems there
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In terms of absolute sharpness, you're not going to have any issue with either one of them
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The answer as to which one is better is a little bit complicated. First of all, as noted, these aren't the same focal length
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We have what is an 85mm equivalent on full frame and then a unique focal length that
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is 112.5mm in the Viltrox. So kind of splitting the difference between 85mm and 135mm, it's actually a really interesting
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focal length for portraiture, but we'll dive into that in just a moment
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Both of these have 11 rounded aperture blades, so do a good job of keeping a circular shape
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when they're stopped down. Both of them have thorough weather sealing. In fact, they have identical nine different seal points starting with the gasket throughout
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the lens itself and then a special coating on the front to help with fingerprints and moisture
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So in many ways, very, very similar lenses in terms of some of the premium options here
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but we're going to break down what is, I think, strengths for either lens
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And then if you want an optical deep dive, we'll do that at the end until you can see
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them compared in a variety of settings side by side. So first of all, let's talk about reasons to choose the Viltrox, which is over here
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to my left. The first reason for that is price. You can get the Viltrox for $549 US dollars versus on sale right now, $899 for the Fuji
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though there's a discount coupon code that's in the description down below where you can
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get the Viltrox even cheaper, about 8% off of that price. And so you can get a really good value for the Viltrox compared to the Fuji
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So if budget's an issue, the Viltrox might be a compelling option
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If it matters to you having an AF-MF switch, it is something that the Viltrox has and the
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Fuji does not. Now I will say that on a practical level, because Fuji designs their lenses to not have
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an AF-MF switch, it's not necessarily always practical to have one for the simple reason
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that the most typical way that you're going to control that is through the actual switch
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or lever on the camera itself. And so it is an alternative, but if you're accustomed to shooting Fuji all the time
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probably your muscle memory is to switch through that camera-based switch rather than the lens
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barrel itself. So, but anyway, it's something that the Viltrox has that Fuji does not
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I found that in my comparison test that while both of these lenses are quite excellent when
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it comes to controlling chromatic aberrations, the Viltrox is a little better still
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It is close to app chromatic levels, basically hardly any kind of fringing of any kind on it
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So it's really exceptional in that regard. Now when it comes to autofocus, this is Fuji after all, and so autofocus is a little bit
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of a mixed bag as we're going to see. But I would say that the Viltrox, if I'm comparing them side by side, I'm going to give a win
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to the Viltrox when it comes to quieter autofocus. And while there is some issues here, you can see the Viltrox pulls back and forth and you
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can see there is some stepping, some of those things that unfortunately are pretty common
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on Fuji. At the same time, however, it is noticeably quieter when you are actually focusing
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One I did note when I was doing my side by side short portrait session to test these
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two lenses and attempting to get identical conditions, the Viltrox was perfectly focused
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every single time, whereas there was one miss for the Fuji. So just ever so slightly better focus accuracy in my portrait setting
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Now because the focus motor here is smoother and quieter, I also found that I got a better
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manual focus experience. Most lenses use a focus by wire system, which means that input on the focus ring is mounted
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through the focus motor. And so unfortunately, the focus motor really comes into play with that
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And in this case, because the Viltrox's focus motor is a little bit smoother and quieter
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it's a lead screw type STM versus a DC motor in the Fuji lens, meant that the manual focus
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experience here, the kind of the simulation of manual focus was just a little bit better
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with the Viltrox. I also found in terms of some of the optical strengths that this Viltrox has slightly softer bokeh
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It also has, because of having a longer focal length and a variety of situations, it has
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more potential to produce a more strongly blurred background. It will allow you to have more subject separation because of that bit of compression
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So if your preference is shooting more like full body portraits, the Viltrox is going
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to give you a little bit more distinct images in that setting
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I also noted that when you're shooting at wide apertures, it is slightly sharper in
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the center of the frame and in the mid frame. And so that is a, and again, it's not by any kind of significant margin
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These lenses are very close optically, but the Viltrox is slightly the winner in those metrics
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So how about some reasons to choose the Fuji here? Now, the size of the Fuji is kind of off put by the fact that it's got a rather huge lens
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hood here. So particularly if we eliminate these lens hoods, you can see both here on my table
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but also in this comparison shot that the Fuji is significantly smaller
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It is 80 millimeters versus 87 millimeters in diameter, which means that we've got a
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6-7 millimeter front filter thread versus a 77 millimeter front filter thread
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So significant difference there. There's even more significance in the size when it comes to the length
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The Fuji lens is only 76 millimeters in length, whereas the Viltrox is 101 millimeters
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So that's an additional 25 millimeters, basically 25% longer. And so obviously that's going to be significant
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That also kind of carries on to the weight. The Fuji weighs in at 445 grams, while the Viltrox is a fairly hefty 670 grams
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And when you're holding these two lenses side by side, you can definitely feel that difference
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This is a lens that if you're someone that gets fatigued carrying around a heavier lens
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Viltrox is probably not going to be the one for you. A huge improvement to the WR version of the Fuji here, this newest lens, is it has a significantly
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improved minimum focus distance and maximum magnification, up to 0.14 times magnification
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whereas the Viltrox is stuck at a quite poor, similar to the old 56 millimeter lens, 0.10
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times magnification. So as you can see here, you can get significantly closer with the Fuji lens and you can get
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a significantly higher degree of magnification. So it opens up more versatility for the kinds of shots that you're going to be able to get
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with the lens. Now surprisingly, considering it has the smaller diameter, the Fuji lens is actually the one
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with the less amount of vignette. It's about a full stop difference of vignette in the corners
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And so this lens gives you less of a heavy vignette. And so that's going to impact your image quality
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I also found that it was a little bit sharper in the corners, whereas the Viltrox has more
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of an advantage in the center and midframe. Definitely when you get out to the corners, I favor the performance of the Fuji lens
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And I also noted just kind of comparing images side by side on a global level, not the micro
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contrast, but on a global level, I felt like the Fuji images had just slightly more contrast
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pop to them compared to the Viltrox lens. Again, both these lenses are fantastic optically
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Those are just a few kind of subtle differences between the two. So I would say that both of these lenses are obviously great portrait options
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So why should you choose the Viltrox? Choose the Viltrox if you're looking for more background compression and subject isolation
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Particularly if you want to shoot full length portraits, it's a really tempting option for that because it's going to behave a lot like 135 millimeter type lens in that regard, particularly
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when it's paired with such a huge maximum aperture. I think in many ways it is a superior alternative to a lens like the 90 millimeter F2, obviously
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for a lot less money. The 56 millimeter F1.2 WR is what I would consider a more versatile lens
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It is more versatile in the sense that that shorter focal length, you can do more things
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with it. You need less operating room to work with. I also find that because of that close focus ability, it opens up more options
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Say if you're a portrait photographer or a wedding photographer that likes to maybe isolate
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a few details, you have more options to do that with the 56 millimeter than what you
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do with the Viltrox 75 millimeter. At the end of the day, there's also the consideration of budget
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So is the Fuji lens worth about $350 more? Well, obviously that's something that you're going to have to decide for yourself
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Now, if you want even more information, you can look in the description down below and I do have linkage to both my text reviews for either of these lens and also their individual
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video reviews if you'd like to see that. You can stay tuned right now and we'll do a deeper optical dive together so you can
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really see them side by side. So let's start by taking a look at vignette and distortion
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You can see for really neither of these lenses is any kind of distortion and issue
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So that's not really worth talking about. Viltrox exhibits just a little bit more vignette than what the Fuji does
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If there's any plus to the Viltrox, you can see here that it is quite a linear pattern
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And so it is, it can be quite complimentary to portrait work, kind of depending on it
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The Fuji is a little bit more concentrated in the corners and so thus a little bit less
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linear in its process, but definitely the Fuji has less a distort, but definitely the
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Fuji has less vignette wide open. Now for these comparisons, we're going to keep the Viltrox on the left, the Fuji on
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the right. This is a 200% magnification, 40 megapixels here. So obviously lots of resolution
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So we can see looking in the center of the frame that there is just a little bit more
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contrast for the Viltrox lens. You can just see there's a little bit more texture in the lines here than what you can
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see over on that side. If you take a look at here, there's just a little bit more rich details in this area
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Also in the text there, if we look at the mid frame, it's a little bit more obvious
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a win for the Viltrox, just a little bit better detail and contrast there
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Moving down to the corners, however, we can see the Fuji takes over with the win outside
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of maybe just that last little bit. For some reason, the Viltrox kind of bounces back, but overall I would say the corners
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look better on Fuji. We can see that's true over this side as well, where there's definite improvement here and
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then into the queen's face over on the Fuji side of things
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We stop both lenses down to F2. We can see that the results are largely the same
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I think that the Fuji has sharpened up nicely and so it's more competitive in the center
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of the frame. In the mid frame, there's still a little bit better result for the Viltrox
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You can see the Viltrox is looking stunningly good. Moving down into the corners, however, that advantage remains the same as it did, looking
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better for Fuji than what it does for Viltrox. Now, stopping down a little bit further to F4, we can see that in the middle of the frame
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I would say that the Fuji looks a little bit better to me now. It's maybe pulling off a little bit better a result as it's stopped down
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I think that's true here as well. And if we look into the corners, the Viltrox is obviously looking better in the corners
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but I would say that stopped down, the Fuji is just a little bit more consistent in terms
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of its sharpness. Now, neither one of these lenses is what you would call a paper tiger
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Even when you're talking about real world, three dimensional objects, you can see that
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both of them hold up really, really fantastic. I mean, the detail and contrast here is just fabulous
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Just zero issues with either one of them. For either one of them, it looks really, really amazing
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I can't really pick a winner. They both look fantastic to me. Now, as we already noted, the amount of magnification possible here is exhibiting the maximum magnification
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for both lenses. And so there's an obvious win for the Fuji in that regard, the ability to get closer
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And if we look here, when it comes to the chromatic aberrations here, we can see that
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both of them are controlling CA really well. However, the Viltrox just a little bit better
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So just a little bit less fringing here, as opposed to what you're seeing on the Fuji
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side of things. Again, neither one of them is bad, but there's just a little bit more showing on the Fuji side
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Now, obviously, if you take the minimum focus distance out of the equation and you shoot
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from the same distance, the Viltrox is going to have some advantage
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It's going to have the advantage in a higher magnification of the subject and thus more
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defocus on the background. And so there's some give and take when it comes to this
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It's a bit more obvious in this particular comparison in that you can see that I did
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move a little bit closer for the Fuji shot, but that the ability of the Viltrox to really
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compress the background means that, as you can see here, there's just a softer overall
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background compared to the Fuji has a slight bit more busy business here than what the
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Viltrox does. It can make that background just a little bit creamier. Again, both of them do a great job on the actual subject
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Subject looks fantastic, but the background does slightly favor the Viltrox. You can see in this shot, I've worked a little bit harder equalizing the overall size of
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the object in the frame. And it's hard to do with different focal lengths to get it perfect because it never quite lines
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up perfectly. But you can see the way that they're going to render a background is different as a byproduct
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There's more compression involved. Even moving the Fuji ahead, the Viltrox has more compression
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Thus the background is more strongly defocused. And so that's just a consideration you have to take in mind
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Looking at the two images side by side, both of them have really great looking contrast
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for an F1.2 lens. There's something about the Fuji's rendering that maybe is just slightly better
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Though again, if you look up close, you can see that the micro contrast on the Viltrox
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lens is really fantastic. And so I'm looking more at maybe the global contrast here
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Now I was shooting this particular image to try to evaluate color between the two
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And I would say that I do very slightly kind of instinctively favor what comes from the Fuji
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But at the same time, you can see with them side by side. There's really not much of a difference
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Very very slight differences of color tone in the greens. We're going to see here in a moment with skin tones, the Viltrox is slightly cooler than
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what the Fuji lens is. But there really isn't a radical difference in their color
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Now both lenses are good with their micro contrast. And we can see here composed out towards the edge
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Both of them look good. I will say that the Viltrox looks a little bit better
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Their near-achromatic design here looks really fantastic in these fine details. But neither image is falling apart as far as the fringing in these high contrast areas
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So a good job from both of them. So we'll take a quick look at a series to evaluate the bokeh quality here
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To just give you an idea of how it plays out. And so as far as the wide open look and thus the geometry here
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You can see that the Viltrox is very slightly rounder than what the Fuji is
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The Fuji has a little bit more of a cat eye shape towards the edge of the frame. However what I also see is that where it's nearly perfectly round
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The Fuji has a little bit rounder a shape. Whereas you can see even at f1.2
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You can see a little bit of the aperture iris shape there from the Viltrox
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So a little bit of give and take between the two. Now you can see by f2 that both lenses are capable of producing very round specular highlights across the frame
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So that's not an issue. What we can also see is that even when I try to kind of equate for the size difference
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You're always going to get very slightly and bigger bokeh specular highlights out of the Viltrox lens
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Because of that longer focal length. Thus a little bit more compression
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Now our final comparison is a couple of portrait side by side shots
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And so here taking a look at them globally at f1.2. You can see the background is going to be a little bit more defocused
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Even though I moved in to try to get the same kind of framing with the Viltrox
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Or excuse me with the Fuji. You can see that again the Viltrox capable of just slightly more background blur
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Now if we jump in and take a look at our faces here
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You can see that as I noted skin tones are a little bit cooler
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And a little on the Viltrox a little bit warmer on the Fuji
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Now as far as the amount of contrast that is there. There is a little bit more from the Viltrox wide open
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I would say if you look at the area around the eyelashes. You can see that there is just a little bit more contrast here than what there is here
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In both cases I would say that the skin tones look nice. It really comes down to a taste
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If you like a little bit warmer the Fuji is nicer. If you like a little bit cooler the Viltrox is nicer
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Both of them are doing a fabulous job here. One thing I will point out is that if you are looking in tight like this
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There is obviously just a little bit more blur from the Viltrox
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Looking towards the background compared to the Fuji. But I mean again without seeing them
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Without them being side by side like this you probably wouldn't notice it. So finally let's take a look at an F2 comparison
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So stop down a little bit more. You can see once again the Viltrox background is going to be a little bit more blurred for
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the reasons we have already discussed. One other thing I will also point out is the difference in the focal length here
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So you can see that the 85mm equivalent here gives a little bit narrower a face shape than
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what the Viltrox does. It's a little bit more compression so the face looks a little bit rounder
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And so just maybe something to consider if you are a portrait photographer
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Something to play with there. So again we can see skin tone difference here
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It also kind of plays out in the hair. You can see where the hair looks a little bit lighter for the Fuji and a little bit
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darker for the Viltrox. Again this is really down to taste at this point
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Technically both of these lenses are doing a really really great job
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Hopefully however this does help you to get a better sense of which you prefer optically
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So hopefully this optical review has helped you to decide which one of these lenses appeals
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to you more. Or maybe neither one of them. And that's fine too
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Thanks for watching. Have a great day. And let the light in

Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1 2 vs Fuji XF 56mm F12 WR Best Portrait Option

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Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1 2 vs Fuji XF 56mm F12 WR Best Portrait Option

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