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Yongnuo 11mm F1.8S Review | Is the Wireless Control More than a Gimmick?
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May 9, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of the Yongnuo 11mm F1.8 S DA DSM WL wide angle prime lens for Sony E-mount APS-C cameras. Is its unique wireless functionality more than a gimmick? | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery: | Purchase the Yongnuo 11mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3ULQ7ZB | Amazon https://amzn.to/4dtNbYT | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4a4EJfE | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4aXqFFY | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3Qyb4oi Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.me/cjU0LKdp3LN Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro 1:20 - Build and Features
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0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my review of the Yongnuo 11mm f1.8
0:17
lens and we'll break down all the other letters that are associated with the title in just
0:20
a moment. Now, my familiarity with Yongnuo over the years has been more with their flash triggers
0:26
which I began to use probably at least 10 years ago and they have served me well over
0:31
the years. But I didn't really spend any time with their early lenses, however, as they appeared to
0:36
be clones of existing products. And so I kind of shied away from them for that reason
0:42
But when Yongnuo approached me about reviewing their new 11mm f1.8, I did a little research
0:49
and I found two things that interested me. Number one, it was an original design, not derivative of anything else
0:55
And number two, it had a number of innovative features that I found interesting, some of
1:00
them completely unique that I had never seen before. So after spending some time with this lens, a little wide angle prime that costs less
1:08
than $300, there are a lot of things that I'm very positive about here today
1:13
And we will explore both the strengths and weaknesses and give you a conclusion on them
1:18
in today's review. Let's dive in together. So as noted, there are a lot of letters that are involved in the kind of extended version
1:25
of the lens designation. Seems like they have borrowed from Fuji the idea of basically having a feature list as
1:31
a part of the name designation. And so technically this is the Yongnuo 11mm f1.8 S DA DSM WL lens
1:41
So the S stands for Sony or Sony E-mount here. DA stands for the fact that it is an APS-C design
1:49
DSM refers to the digital stepping motor, the autofocus system. And WL refers to the fact that this is a wireless control image
1:57
And that wireless control is one of the most interesting parts of the design
2:01
This lens actually has a 2.4 gigahertz wireless radio built into it
2:08
And you can purchase a separate little accessory here. Costs about $25
2:13
And it allows you to have some really unique remote control over it
2:17
Now most remote controls, they're pretty basic. They allow you to start and stop, you know, maybe access the custom button function
2:24
But in this case, it all is designed around a little bit of a wheel that allows you to
2:29
both select functions, but then also to really control things. You can control things like aperture, for example, remotely
2:36
And so you could do an aperture rack without actually touching the lens and introducing
2:40
any kind of vibration. You can set up for manual focus to where you can actually control focus remotely from it
2:47
And in a very interesting thing, you can also easily set up an A and B focus point and then
2:52
do quick focus pulls from one to the other. These are a few of the functions that are available
2:58
There are a few others as well, but it makes for a really interesting thing, particularly
3:01
for the video side of things, because you can make these changes without physically
3:05
touching the lens and thus introducing some vibration into your shot. Now if you're not interested in that and you think that that's gimmicky, it's no problem
3:13
You can do it by the lens, obviously, without having the remote control function
3:17
Now when it comes to the lens itself, as you can see, this is a compact lens designed for
3:21
APS-C cameras. It is 66 millimeters or 2.6 inches in diameter. It is 69 millimeters, 2.7 inches in overall length
3:30
It weighs in at 260 grams, which is 9.2 ounces. So it is a little bit bigger and heavier than what the Sony 11 millimeter F1.8 lens is
3:40
though obviously it also has a number of additional features that the Sony does not have
3:45
Up front we have a very common 58 millimeter front filter thread
3:49
There is a decent lens hood that is included. It's plastic. It's nothing necessarily fantastic, but unlike some lens hoods that are used, it doesn't
3:57
feel flimsy. It feels like there's quality plastics there and it bayonets into place with, if not a
4:03
very firm lock, at least with a little bit more precision than what I see in some inexpensive lenses
4:09
Now there are a plethora of different features that are built into this lens
4:13
It is perhaps the most feature rich under $300 lens that I've seen before
4:18
We have a USB-C port for firmware updates. It does have a little bit of a rubber gasket cover on there that you have to remove to
4:26
access it. So make sure you watch where you put that little thing down. It could be easy to lose
4:31
There is a weather sealing gasket at the lens mount, plus a flooring coating on the front element
4:36
So some weather sealing that's involved here. On the side, we have a function button along with a custom switch
4:44
And how to access that, you can actually see in my written review. I'm not going to go into all the details here, but you can set it up to where number one
4:51
position is autofocus. Number two position allows you to use manual focus
4:57
So to have direct manual focus access. You can also set it up alternately to where it functions as the wireless control, turning
5:03
wireless function on and off. The fact that you have a wireless radio built into the lens, you would hope that it is going
5:10
to turn off when the camera is powered off. But to be safe, you might want to make sure you put that switch into the position where
5:17
it's turning the wireless signal off, just to make sure that it isn't causing any kind
5:21
of battery drain. Now we have an aperture ring here with one third stop to tense
5:26
We have a hard stop before you get to the automatic mode where you can control it from
5:31
within the camera. But interestingly, and very rare for a lens that costs this little, is we actually have
5:37
a switch on the side that allows you to declick the aperture and so that you can do smoother
5:41
focus racking. Now I think that if you're wanting to do focus racking, this actually makes more sense to
5:47
me again, because your hands are off the aperture ring altogether. But great to have that kind of functionality in a lens that is this inexpensive
5:56
The aperture iris itself is made up of seven rounded blades. Seems to do a pretty good job of maintaining a circular aperture shape
6:03
Minimum focus distance is 15 centimeters and you get about a 0.15 times magnification
6:09
Again, a little bit less than Sony, but enough here to be useful and even actually blur out
6:14
some backgrounds. So overall, obviously there is a lot going on here in terms of the functionality of this
6:19
lens, making it a very, very strong value in that regard. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the autofocus performance here
6:28
As noted, this has a DSM or a digital stepping motor. I found that the focus motor itself was extremely quiet in operation
6:35
Even if I put my ear right up next to it, I could just barely hear a little bit of whirring inside
6:40
Nothing you're ever going to pick up on the microphone. I also found that its focus speed is very good
6:45
Now, of course, wide angle lenses, depth of field is larger, so focus changes are easier
6:49
because there's less focus possibilities. But nonetheless, I could tell that this focus motor was doing a great job of snapping back
6:56
and forth, whether indoors or outdoors. And of course, having a maximum aperture of F1.8 is going to help in lower light situations
7:04
to make sure that you get plenty of light to focus with, to make sure that focus speed
7:08
stays up even in dimmer conditions. I also found that autofocus accuracy was good
7:14
It was good for any kind of normal subjects and normal shots
7:18
Now, you can see here that when I did some sequences of Nala walking towards the camera
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I didn't find that the AF quite kept up with that persistent movement
7:27
And after a bit, I saw a bit of back focus where weather than locked onto her eye
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It was about the middle of her back. It didn't like completely stop as some lenses do, but it wasn't quite keeping up
7:38
So again, if you're looking for capturing maybe more sports, something more active
7:42
you might want to spend the extra money to go with the Sony lens, which cost a few hundred dollars more
7:47
Now, on the video side of things, I found that the video AF pulls were smooth and quick
7:53
nice back and forth there. No problem with that. I did find that on the foreground, I felt like the focus was just not quite there as
8:00
you can see. Now, obviously that's something you can easily solve if you're wanting to do a repeated shot
8:05
with this and using the AB focus. And if you use that remote and you set that AB focus, you can make sure that the focus
8:12
was just nailed on both ends of that. And so again, I don't consider it to be a huge problem
8:17
I did find that with my hand test, switching between focus on my eye to my hand, that
8:22
the transition was good and confident there. There is very little focus breathing here
8:27
And so that certainly helps because it draws less attention to that transition, making
8:31
it very nice and smooth. It also meant that focus transitions out in real world shots were smooth as well
8:39
And so what I found is that as I moved along from one subject to another, there was nothing
8:43
abrupt or that would pull you out of the shot, but rather it was a smooth, nicely damped
8:48
transition from one focus point to another. Overall, autofocus is great. Just don't expect it to be keeping up to the fastest of action
8:58
Now on the image quality side of things, it is mostly good, but a little bit of a mixed
9:03
bag here. This is optical formula is 10 elements in nine groups
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And so almost all of those are exotic elements. As you can see from this diagram, a lot of great glass in there
9:15
The MTF chart shows good center performance, good mid-range performance, but you can see
9:21
the corners are obviously weaker. And what I was really impressed with, where I thought the lens was great, is within the
9:27
rule of thirds, kind of the center two-thirds of the image frame, I found that sharpness
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even at F1.20, was really excellent in that zone. But the corners are considerably weaker
9:38
So I actually liked the lens, ironically, less as a landscape lens, more as a wide-angle
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perspective lens for shots that didn't require super sharp corners. I did find that there is basically no longitudinal chromatic aberration, but I did find some
9:54
lateral chromatic aberration, again, in those corners that are a little bit weak
9:58
There is less barrel distortion by a significant amount from the Sony 11mm lens, though that
10:04
distortion is complex. And unfortunately, there is no correction profile right now, unlike the Sony, and so
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it's actually harder to correct for, even though there is less distortion, because by
10:14
correcting the center lines, I found that I introduced some distortion into the corners
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And so it's not a linear distortion pattern. There's a fairly significant amount of vignette
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I've carded about a plus 74, almost three stops, to correct for
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And so, again, no profile correction even for JPEGs in-camera, and so that does mean
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that there's a little bit more work on the processing end of things
10:37
Now when it comes to testing the sharpness, as I've already indicated, my real-world results
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showed very good sharpness in the center of the frame, in the mid-frame, with weaker corners
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So I tried focusing in the corners, and I did find a minor amount of improvement when
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focusing in the corners. So there's a bit of field curvature there, but for the most part, it's just that the
10:57
lens isn't as good in the corners. And so, I mean, focusing in the corners might get you a tiny bit more, and so it does mean
11:03
if you're shooting in the corners more for maybe a close shot where you have a subject
11:09
in the foreground, it's probably going to work okay for that. But don't expect that it's going to be really sharp for landscape-type images as a byproduct
11:16
of that at wide apertures. You will get a little bit better corner performance and edge performance as you stop down
11:23
You can see a comparison between f1.8 and f5.6 here that the corners are definitely
11:27
sharper, but they're never pin sharp either at any point. There is some diffraction that will start to set in around f11 and f16, which is not
11:36
so much about the lens, but more about the camera that it's mounted on. It's not extreme, however, but you're going to get more sharpness shooting at f8 and wider
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than that. If you go narrower than that to f11 and f16, you'll see some diminished returns when it
11:51
comes to sharpness. The bokeh is actually pretty decent for a wide-angle lens like this
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It's not like a bokeh monster or anything, but I did find that it was able to produce
12:03
fairly soft backgrounds, decent-looking specular highlights. Not bad. I also found that flare was a bit of a mixed bag
12:12
When you're shooting at wide apertures and the sun's in the frame, it did just fine
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It had a nice glow to images, but nothing distracting in terms of ghosting artifacts
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What I found is that if the sun or the bright light was located more up in the corner of
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the frame, and particularly as you start to stop the lens down, you've got increasingly
12:30
obvious flare patterns that were there and ghosting. So I didn't like it as well stopped down
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Though, I will say, when stopped down and shooting in a way to where the flare issues
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are mitigated, it did have quite nice sun stars, and so I did appreciate that aspect
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of it. If you want a more detailed breakdown of the optical performance, I will do that right
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after we do our conclusion here, so stay tuned for that. So in conclusion, this is a lens that has a lot of bang for the buck
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And to put it all in perspective, I went back and did a little bit of research and saw that
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10 years ago, I paid $100 more for a manual focus only Samyang 12mm F2 APS-C lens that
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had no features and no better optical performance, certainly. In this case, you've got a lot of features and you've got a really strong autofocus performance
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as well. And the optical performance is good. Not great, but good
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It actually reminds me a lot of some of the older Viltrox lenses before they switched
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to the higher-end Hoya optical glass, in that I found that the optics were good, but the
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colors were just not top tier. And Viltrox has really stepped up their game
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Maybe Yongnuo can head down the same road in the future. But this is a lens I think that most people will be happy with, satisfied with the results
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and definitely a lot of value for the money. So, who should spend the extra money for the Sony lens
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I would say the people that are interested in better corner sharpness and slightly faster
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autofocus for action. Those people I would think that spending the extra money for the Sony might be worth it
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But for many people, I think that the versatility here, particularly if you want to do some
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video work, is going to be very, very appealing. For video work, that corner sharpness is maybe a little bit less of a factor
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And some of these innovative video features will make it a really useful and very valuable lens
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So I would say that I think that Yongnuo has done a lot of really interesting things with
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this lens. And I think it is the beginning of a whole series of lenses that will adopt these features
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So I look forward to seeing what they bring out in the future. If you want more information, you can check out my written review that is linked to in
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the description down below. There's also linkage to a photo gallery from the lens and buying links if you'd like to
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purchase one. You can also stay tuned right now and we'll do an optical deep dive together to give you
14:48
a closer look at the lens performance. So invariably one of the first questions that I always get asked with APS-C lenses is how
15:03
much of the full frame image circle does it cover? Well, here's your answer right here
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Definitely some hard vignette areas where you can see it is not covering the total of
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the sensor. Now at the same time, when I cropped from that image I just showed you, I was able to
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get about 40 megapixels out of it versus 26 megapixels on the APS-C crop
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So I mean, there is more information in the frame, though I will point out what you're getting is more of the area where the lens is the weakest
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And so as you can see up here in this corner, you're getting a lot of essentially extra
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mush, you know, that is worse than what the performance of the lens and the corners actually is
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So as alluded to earlier, the Yongnuo has much less overall distortion than what the
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Sony 11mm f1.8 does. You'd see there's a massive amount there for the Sony
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Unfortunately you can also see it's true with both lenses, but we're looking at the Yongnuo
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that it has a very much a nonlinear pattern here to distortion
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So when I go to manually correct that, you can see that by trying to straight the lines
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in here actually end up inverting into pin cushion distortion in the corners
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And so it's because of that nonlinear nature, it's just difficult to manually correct well
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unless you want to crop off some of the corner of the image. You can also see that vignette is quite heavy in the corners of the frame
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It's nearly three stops of correction, a plus 74 to correct for that in the corners
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Now I didn't really find any kind of issue with longitudinal type chromatic aberration
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before and after the plane of focus. But what I did see a fair of is these lateral chromatic aberrations that come near the edges
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of the frame. And you can see them around areas of high transition like here
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Now this is the one click solution type correction. So it does correct pretty well
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I do find that there's a little bit of image destruction that takes place through that
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correction, but obviously this is a more desirable end result than what this, what the fringing is
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Now as the MTF chart suggested here, looking at 200% magnification, the center is very sharp
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You can see the midframe also very sharp. As we pan down, we can see that we're starting to get a law of diminished returns
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Look here compared to here, for example. And by the time we get to the corners, you can see that the corners are getting progressively
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softer, even from here to here. Now we reviewed the Sony 11 millimeter on a lower resolution point, 24 rather than 26 megapixels
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So you do see that difference in the amount of magnification at 200%
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And so just bear that in mind. We can see that in the center of the frame, the two lenses are fairly close in performance
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maybe just a little bit more contrast for the Sony. In the midframe, again, they look more similar than different, although a little bit more
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contrast for the Sony. Down in the corners, however, there is a significant difference
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You can see that it is much softer for the Yongnuo than it is for the Sony lens
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We hop over to the other side of the frame. We can see that it is true on both sides of the frame
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Now to be fair, that Sony mark was really, really exceptionally high
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I thought that lens was fantastic. And coming back here to the Yongnuo, you can see that even at F1.8, the lens is capable
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of some pretty amazing resolution and contrast. I think that that looks really, really fantastic
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Here's another shot here of Nala. And again, you can see if we pop in there a little bit, just how much detail is present
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in the fur. Again, F1.8 background looks really nice. There's a lot of good going on here optically
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I thought this image was pretty fantastic. Again, you can see that amount of detail and contrast that is there
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And again, the transition to defocus is really not bad for a wide angle lens
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So stopping down a bit from F1.8 to F2, you wouldn't expect a big difference
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You don't see a big difference. It is largely the same, just a little bit more contrast that is present
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We see a bit more of a jump from F2 to F2.8, though again, it's not significant
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In the corners, you can see the corners are still not sharp, but the contrast is getting
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better and better. From F2.8 to F4, there's a little bit more detail in the corner
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And from F4 to F5.6, again, a small gain. Now, to put things in perspective, more towards just the edges of the frame, you can see that
19:13
here everything looks really, really crisp. No problem there. Looking at the other side of the frame, again, it's not off the charts good, but it's not
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bad by any stretch. It's quite good looking up here in the upper left corner
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And again, the same is true. You can see that it looks good, not exceptionally good, not pen sharp, but looks quite good
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Now starting at between F8 and F11, diffraction will start to soften the image somewhat
19:38
And you can see that that progresses, whereas by F16, the image is softer still
19:44
Now at the minimum focus distance, there's a couple of observations. Number one, in the area where focus is there and the plane of focus is flat, it actually
19:52
looks really great. Good contrast, good detail. We can also see, however, that there is definitely some curvature taking place and you're going
20:00
to, as a result, get much softer towards the edges. Again, as we would expect with the overall performance
20:06
Here is minimum focus with a three-dimensional subject. And you can see up here looking pretty great
20:12
You can see a little less great down towards the bottom. There is also some exaggeration of the distortion up close here as well
20:20
Fairly close here, but looking more now at bokeh. You can see detail is fantastic on the subject
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Quality of the bokeh blur is really pretty decent for a wide-angle prime like this
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Like this image, I think actually looks great. Some transition area stuff and it really doesn't look too bad
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And maybe a little bit more outlining around some of the specular highlights than what I would like
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But overall, I think a nice-looking image. I thought this image looked great and I really think there's a little bit more of the creaminess
20:47
that I like in the bokeh quality. And again, some outlining of these specular highlights, but not bad
20:53
Again, this is a pretty good performance. Now that flare resistance that I referred to, as we just saw in the previous image
20:59
it held up just fine. Here with the sun in the corner is where it suffers
21:04
So you can see that included in the frame is going to be a bit of a ghosting pattern
21:08
Not too destructive here, but as you stop down, that ghosting pattern just gets more
21:13
and more obvious. And at f11, it's just a little too intense
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To me, that's dominating the image, so I don't like it. So the optical performance is nuanced here, but for the most part, I would say there is
21:26
more good than bad. So hopefully the optical breakdown has given you a better sense of the overall feel and
21:31
performance from the lens and can help you to make an informed buying decision
21:35
As always, thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in
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