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Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5 Chip Z-Mount Review | The Most Fun for Under $100
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May 31, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a review of the Nikon Z-mount version of Viltrox's tiny autofocusing pancake lens- the Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5 VCM...and it's just $95! | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/28CHIPreview | Visit the Image Gallery https://tinyurl.com/28CHIPpics | Purchase the 28mm "Chip" at Viltrox https://geni.us/Dustin28Z (use code DA28CHIPZ5) for 5% off | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3FAtGS6 | Amazon https://amzn.to/4mGy56C | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3Npb2Ng | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3Yq0HHx | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/43Jbkq9 | Pergear https://tinyurl.com/28VCMpergear 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 Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you a review of Viltrox's 28mm
0:15
f4.5 autofocusing chip lens They call it
0:19
the chip because it is so thin Now I've
0:22
already looked at this lens previously
0:24
on Sony and Fuji but surprisingly I've
0:27
actually enjoyed it on Nikon more than
0:29
what I did on either one of those
0:31
platforms I've tested it primarily on my
0:34
Z8 because of the higher resolution but
0:36
I was intrigued with putting it on a
0:39
smaller body than the Z8 And fortunately
0:41
it coincided at the time I was able to
0:43
do my Z5 Mark II review And so I've
0:46
really enjoyed it there as a truly
0:49
portable lens At just 95 bucks I suspect
0:53
Viltrox is going to sell a number of
0:55
these on on Nikon as well because
0:58
frankly it's a lot of fun This will be a
1:00
quicker review because I've already
1:01
covered it thoroughly multiple times Do
1:04
want to give you a quick disclosure
1:05
before we jump in This lens was sent to
1:07
me by Viltrox for assessment However
1:10
they have had no input on my review They
1:12
will not see it before you All of my
1:14
conclusions are my own This is an f4.5
1:19
lens That means it has a fixed aperture
1:21
of f4.5 There is no stopping it down
1:24
further Furthermore it is autofocus only
1:27
There is no manual focus ring You are
1:29
going to be solely relying on autofocus
1:32
There is no front cap or front filter
1:35
threads All you've got here is a little
1:37
lever that allows you to open or close a
1:40
covering over the front glass there or
1:42
the front element Now I will note as I
1:44
have previously that it does a little
1:46
bit of a pulse when you first turn it on
1:48
And if this is open it will extend
1:51
beyond that If it is not open obviously
1:53
it's not going to extend beyond that and
1:55
won't do so until you actually open that
1:58
front So know if you haven't if you look
2:00
through the viewfinder and you do see
2:02
black you need to remember to open that
2:04
up This lens is not much thicker than a
2:06
lens cap and it has grown a little bit
2:09
because Zmount is the largest of any of
2:11
these mounts and so as a byproduct the
2:14
lens by necessity had to grow a little
2:15
bit but it is still unbelievably tiny I
2:18
mean you really have never encountered
2:20
an autofocus lens that is really quite
2:22
this small It's it's quite impressive in
2:24
that regard 63 1.5 mm or 2.57 in in
2:28
diameter And so that is 5 mm larger than
2:32
what it was on Sony for example It is
2:34
16.8 mm in terms of its thickness if you
2:39
want to call it that its length It
2:41
hardly feels like any kind of length at
2:43
that point So that is 1 and a half
2:45
millimeters longer or so it's a total of
2:48
0.66 in And so less than 3/4 of an inch
2:52
from the uh from the back of the lens to
2:55
the front of the lens It weighs in at 80
2:58
g And that's you say that's really
2:59
really light Well that's by far the
3:01
heaviest iteration of this lens At 80 g
3:04
it is 20 g heavier than the E-mount
3:06
version And but it still is only 2.11 oz
3:10
This is one you'll throw in the pocket
3:11
and forget that it's there Now one
3:14
change that they have made is that the
3:16
lens mount material is now a black
3:19
aluminum alloy It looks really cool Just
3:21
kind of ties the whole thing together
3:22
aesthetically Definitely my favorite of
3:24
the look so far instead of a shinier
3:26
chrome like material We do have a USBC
3:29
port here for firmware updates However
3:32
that is the only thing even close to a
3:34
feature we've got There's nothing on the
3:36
barrel There's hardly any barrel and no
3:38
filter threads nothing like that Inside
3:41
we have seven aperture blades They are
3:44
not rounded and obviously because you're
3:46
not opening and closing It's just not
3:48
really even blades It's just a seven you
3:51
know seven pointed opening to the
3:53
aperture iris You can focus down as
3:56
closely as 32 cm but your magnification
3:59
is very low just around 0.10 or so times
4:03
There is no weather sealing on the lens
4:05
However that little bit of front glass
4:08
is covered with an HD nano multi-layer
4:10
coating that they say is waterresistant
4:13
and uh fingerprint resistant Although
4:15
it's such a small opening you're going
4:16
to have to work really hard to get
4:18
fingerprints on there How about
4:20
autofocus autofocus is comes via a VCM
4:23
or a voice coil motor It is quiet and it
4:26
is reasonably fast I mean this this lens
4:29
is so tiny that you don't expect a lot
4:31
from it and autofocus you can actually
4:35
the difference is you can see it
4:36
happening There is some thrust uh that
4:38
you can see here back and forth and you
4:41
do will see occasionally some pulsing as
4:43
well as a part of it It's not always
4:45
super confident It's like it's got
4:46
thrust and speed but not always
4:48
necessarily uh accuracy at least as far
4:51
as that first pull However once you know
4:54
focus is refined here on Nikon it is
4:56
good and accurate I found that IAF
4:58
worked well Uh it nailed the various
5:00
targets that I pointed at And it's good
5:02
because you need good focus accuracy
5:03
because there is no manual focus to back
5:06
it up And so it does fine with that In
5:08
lower light situations you are going to
5:10
slow down a bit because it's a maximum
5:12
aperture of f4.5 Uh but I found that it
5:15
was able to focus okay without any
5:17
issues there On the video side of things
5:19
autofocus pulls are not impressive Uh
5:22
here on Nikon they are poor than what I
5:24
saw on Sony Definitely a lot of pulsing
5:27
And you can see it's like it's got that
5:28
thrust but it doesn't know what to do
5:30
with it And so I think probably a
5:32
firmware update or two down the road may
5:34
refine that behavior a bit but as it
5:36
stands right now it's a little bit rough
5:38
It does obviously also show some
5:40
significant focus breathing Not
5:42
surprising in a lens so small There's
5:44
not a lot of places inside the lens
5:47
barrel for the elements to go My hand
5:50
test on the other hand where I could put
5:52
you know my actual program settings in I
5:54
thought it looked better than just the
5:56
pulsing back and forth and the focus
5:57
pulls and it would did showed a
5:59
reasonable amount of confidence in going
6:01
from my eye to my hand and back and
6:03
forth And so your mileage is probably
6:05
going to vary according to circumstance
6:07
when it comes to video AF
6:10
performance Now optically I'm not going
6:12
to do a deep dive because I've done that
6:13
previously If you want that you can
6:15
check out the Sony review for example
6:17
which is at even higher resolution In
6:19
this case however the lens continues to
6:22
have the same optical design on Nikon
6:24
It's six elements in six groups Two of
6:26
those are extra low dispersion Two of
6:28
them are asphericals uh MTF actually
6:30
looks pretty quite good really
6:32
particularly in the center and you know
6:34
and still good in the mid-frame dropping
6:36
off a bit into the corners What
6:39
surprised me is that this lens exhibited
6:41
what I felt like was better contrast in
6:43
a lot of situations on Nikon I can't
6:45
really tell you why but on my Z8 I was
6:48
actually I was pleasantly surprised by
6:50
how crisp a lot of real world images
6:52
look Now I will say at the same time
6:54
however this lens continues to have
6:56
somewhat of an old school look and that
6:59
the coatings don't feel like that modern
7:01
super high corrected It's not a very
7:03
viltroxy kind of Viltrox lens Viltrox
7:05
typically has very good corrections And
7:07
so in this case there's almost a bit of
7:09
a glow if there is any kind of like side
7:12
light at all And so it it almost looks
7:14
like you're shooting um in like a log if
7:17
you're shooting coming from a video
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perspective where the contrast is just
7:21
raised a little bit However um you'll
7:24
find that if you have less you know side
7:27
lighting you'll get more contrast But at
7:29
its best this lens does look better for
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some reason on Nikon On the technical
7:34
side of things it does have just the
7:36
tiniest amount of distortion I only used
7:38
a minus one to correct it but you can
7:39
see it's not completely even There's a
7:41
tiny bit of a mustached pattern there
7:44
and if it had more distortion it' look a
7:45
lot uglier Fortunately it doesn't It
7:48
does have a ton of vignette here on
7:51
Nikon and I'm not surprised that you
7:53
know from Sony it's relatively small you
7:56
know lens mount opening you scale up to
7:58
Nikon's much larger and vignette becomes
8:01
more of an issue and it's been the case
8:02
on basically every third party lens that
8:04
I've tested Sony first then Nikon
8:06
afterward in this case you have to max
8:08
out the sliders 100% to uh get that
8:11
vignette taken care of now you can do it
8:13
but uh it does take maxing that out not
8:16
really any kind of longitudinal signal
8:18
style chromatic aberration No frringing
8:20
before and after plane of focus There is
8:22
a bit of uh fringing in the corners
8:24
Lateral style chromatic aberrations not
8:26
strong not really a big issue You'll
8:29
find that in terms of resolution
8:31
remember there's only one aperture value
8:32
to shoot it at So it's going to be quick
8:34
in the center of the frame Really really
8:36
great And so if you're composing I would
8:38
say even within the rule of thirds this
8:40
lens is surprisingly sharp for such a
8:42
tiny little optic Uh so the center looks
8:44
really good mid-frame is a little bit
8:46
less good but still in the good level I
8:48
would say And the corners are they stay
8:51
largely good until you get to that final
8:53
little percentage right at the edge and
8:55
then things drop off But I shot a number
8:57
of landscape images at f4.5 That's the
9:00
only option And they looked really quite
9:02
good And so I was happy overall with the
9:05
results that I got Uh in good situations
9:07
you can get a surprising amount of
9:09
contrast and images that really do have
9:11
a fair amount of pop to them Again it's
9:14
pretty amazing when you have basically
9:16
what looks like a lens cap mounted to
9:17
your camera The bokeh quality is only so
9:20
so Again you can't focus super close You
9:23
only have a maximum aperture an aperture
9:25
of f4.5 And so you're not going to get
9:27
strongly to focus backgrounds And I do
9:29
think that there's a little bit of
9:30
outlining there It's not amazing It's
9:33
not the worst I've seen either Color
9:35
rendition is good I like Viltrox's
9:37
optical glass And here on Nikon it was a
9:39
nice fit good colors and sometimes you
9:41
do get that unique look to it because of
9:44
the contrast being raised and so you'll
9:46
either like or hate that flare
9:48
resistance is not fantastic There is no
9:50
lens hood and you know I don't know what
9:53
the coatings are like here but there's a
9:55
variety of different flare artifacts
9:57
that you will encounter Some of them as
9:58
you can see of this quick shot of my
10:00
wife with the sun behind her It's pretty
10:03
dominating to the image and you can also
10:05
see that that sunburst effect which
10:07
again you have no control over that
10:08
because it's f4.5 all the time It's
10:12
going to it's going to be present and
10:14
you're going to have to decide how
10:15
you're going to compose to deal with
10:16
that My conclusion is however that for
10:19
less than a hundred bucks this lens is a
10:22
lot of fun and if you're looking for an
10:24
inexpensive lens just for like walkound
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uh shooting maybe some street shooting
10:30
this lens is surprisingly fun It could
10:32
be an interesting lens to just drop into
10:34
your bag if you're traveling if you're
10:35
primarily shooting with longer focal
10:37
lengths to give you a wider angle of
10:39
view It's actually a fun lens and uh I
10:42
gave my my daughter a new camera this
10:44
year and I gave her the E-mount version
10:46
of the the Viltrox and uh it's it's been
10:49
the lens probably that she's used the
10:50
most because it's just fun to use It has
10:53
a unique rendering so if you're not
10:54
really into clinical overcorrected you
10:57
might love the look of the images you
10:59
get out of this I think it's going to be
11:01
a cult classic It has obviously sold
11:03
very well on these other lens mounts I
11:06
see no reason why it should do any less
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good on Nikon It's little money and
11:10
potentially a lot of fun I'm Dustin
11:13
Abbott If you want more information you
11:15
can check out the description down below
11:17
I will throw the link to the full text
11:19
version of the Sony E-mount version of
11:21
the review if you want to check that out
11:22
there There are buying links if you'd
11:24
like to purchase one As always thanks
11:26
for watching Have a great day and let
11:28
the light in