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hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here for
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another one of my head-to-head videos
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yongno has released its first art series
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lens and I'm not a fan of them
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appropriating Sigma's brand which I made
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clear in my review but to be fair they
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did move the needle a bit in terms of
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optical quality with their new 35mm f1.8
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art lens but the question is is it
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enough enough to shake up the sub $200
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APS-C uh 35mm market vtrox's Air 35mm
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F1.7 has been out for about 6 months and
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it has been probably my favorite
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inexpensive 35mm lens that has been
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released on APS-C so today's comparison
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is to see whether or not the Yong no can
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dethrone what has been my favorite now
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before we dive in let me give you a
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quick disclosure both the Yong no and
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Viltrox lens were sent to me for testing
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by their respective companies neither
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have sanctioned this head-to-head
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comparison and neither have had any kind
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of input on my creative process they
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will see this video when you do and my
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thoughts here are my own we're going to
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start by taking a look at what is
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similar between these two lenses
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obviously they both are the 35mm focal
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length which translates to 52.5
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millimeter full-frame equivalency so
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these are essentially normal lenses
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giving you that normal angle of view
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both of them have a featureless design
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in that there are no switches there's no
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aperture ring there's nothing on the
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barrel besides the an actual manual
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focus ring both of them have a similar
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price now the price of the Yong new is
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not actually settled at this point i've
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been told that it will be under $200
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since I do know the price of the Viltrox
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it's MSRP is $180 you can get a little
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bit cheaper with a discount code but
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that tells me that the price is going to
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be at most within $20 and so I doubt
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that that is going to be enough of a
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determining factor to break the bank in
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either direction both of them as you can
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see do come with a lens hood both of
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them use STM focus motors both of them
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have 52 millimeter front filter threads
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both of them have nine aperture blades
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the specifications on paper are pretty
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pretty close between the two there's
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also a couple of differences that I
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can't say because it's more of a taste
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thing as to whether or not it is an
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advantage for one or the other i'll let
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you decide so we'll call these neutral
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differences both of them dist exhibit
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just the tiniest amount of distortion
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now in the case of the Yongno that is a
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tiny amount of barrel distortion in the
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Viltrox it is a tiny amount amount of
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pin cushion distortion neither one of
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them makes any difference because it's
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so minimal that you probably don't even
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need to correct it so but if you prefer
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one or the other there's your difference
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now a more noticeable difference between
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the two is when it comes to the color
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tone of the optical glass the Yong Nuo
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is definitely the warmer of the two
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lenses and even with every all settings
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equalize same white balance it's going
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to consistently deliver a noticeably
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warmer image than with the Viltrox so
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you can decide whether or not from the
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comparisons whether the Viltrox is
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cooler or if the Viltrox is neutral but
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there definitely is a difference in the
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color tone between the two and you might
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prefer one look compared to the other
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we're going to start by some reasons to
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choose the Yong No lens it does have the
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nicer build quality it is made of nice
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metals it has that anodized finish that
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uh feels nice so the materials are a
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little bit more premium here it does
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have some element of weather sealing it
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has a gasket at the rear mount it has a
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flooring coating up front uh Viltrox has
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their nano HD coating up front but there
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is no weather sealing gasket so at least
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you get some weather sealing on the Yong
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No so that is an advantage while both of
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them have SDM focus motors I believe the
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Yongno focuses a little bit faster and
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you can see here that it if not instant
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it's very close and going back to forth
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in my indoor test and the Viltrox is
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good as well but it's just a hair slower
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and so there is a bit of an advantage
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for the Yongno there the Yongno also
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exhibits less vignette and so where
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where I needed a plus 55 to correct it I
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needed closer to a plus 73 or so with
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the Viltrox and so nearly another stop
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of vignette in the corners so certainly
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an advantage there so there are some
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reasons um to choose the Yongno there
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are also some reasons to choose the
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Viltrox while the Yongno has the nicer
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build quality the Viltrox is much more
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compact in fact while they have a
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similar diameter the Viltrox is 54.3
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millimeters in length whereas the Yongno
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is nearly 80 millimeters in length so
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it's a plus 25 difference between the
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two lenses 25 millimeters of extra
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length on the Yongno and so even when it
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comes to storage in a bag it may be a
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make orb break situation for you and
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because of this the Viltrox is also
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noticeably uh lighter they call it the
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Air series for a reason and so it weighs
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in at 170 g versus 265 g for the Yong No
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so that means that it is a full 95 g uh
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lighter so in this case that's you know
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a third of the weight and so that is
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significant very obviously so there is
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some trade-off for the metals that are
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being used in this versus the tough
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engineered plastics that are being used
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in the Viltrox uh you know one feels a
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little bit more premium but so far these
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Air series lenses have actually held up
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really well for me so I don't think that
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it's actually a poor build quality the
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Viltrox surprisingly considering it's
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not the one that's advertising it being
5:51
the Art series is actually slightly
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sharper less noticeable in the center of
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the frame but certainly in the mid-frame
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and in the corners and if you stick
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around for the optical comparison at the
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end you'll see that that is consistent
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throughout the tested apertures that it
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just stays a little more consistently
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sharp across the frame surprisingly
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although the Viltrox has a plastic
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manual focus ring and the Yongno has a
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nicer metal at least in terms of feeling
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uh manual focus ring the action of the
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Yongno is not as good it's not
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engineered quite as precise and so it
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feels like there's a little bit more
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rubbing the Viltrox moves more
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consistently with a better damping it
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also focuses manually focuses better
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it's a little more consistent it's
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easier to do manual focus consistent
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manual focus pulls i found with the Yong
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No it's very very speed sensitive and
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because the focus ring isn't perfectly
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smooth i just found it a lot harder to
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get repeatable uh focus results there so
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score another win for Viltrox there i
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also found that the Vtrox had better
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specular highlights and so there's less
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activity inside of them they are a
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little bit rounder and so just in terms
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of the consistency there I preferred
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bright specular highlights bokeh balls
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if you want to call them that i
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preferred them from the Viltrox lens the
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Viltrox also is able to focus a little
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bit closer 33 cm versus 35 cm and
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achieve a little bit higher level of
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magnification it's rated at 0.13 times
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versus 0.12 times and surprisingly that
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difference is fairly noticeable as you
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can see in this comparison here I also
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found when it comes to the bokeh quality
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that as we'll see in the optical
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breakdown in many situations they're
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more similar than different but I did
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find that in the transition zone that
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there's a little less hard edges on the
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Viltrox and so in that really important
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transition area which can really make or
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break images neither one of them are
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like Sony GM quality however I do find
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that the Viltrox is ever so slightly
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smoother in those situations my
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conclusion having spent a lot of time
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with both lenses and shot a lot of
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head-to-head comparisons is that in many
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ways they're are very evenly matched
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lenses the Yong No gives you this
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slightly nicer build but at the cost of
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extra size and weight i feel like
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Viltrox is maybe the more polished
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product it nails the fine details a
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little bit better it's more portable and
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so if you're looking to travel light
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which many people will with lenses like
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this it definitely wins that comparison
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they're both fine lenses and they both
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actually have a really strong optical
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performance relative to their price
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point you're going to be happy with
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either lens optically I suspect i'm not
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sure that the art label is warranted for
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Yongno because I would expect something
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a little more groundbreaking to
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associate that and I was actually kind
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of surprised to find that the Viltrox if
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anything was actually the sharper of the
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two lenses and so that tells me that
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this is feels like a little bit of
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stolen valor when it comes to Yongno
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using that art label that has been
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proprietary to Sigma for over a decade
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at this point you can check out the full
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text or video reviews of both these
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lenses in the description down below or
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you can stick around right now and we'll
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put them head-to-head and look at how
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they compare let's dive in and take a
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look all right let's start by taking a
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look at vignette and distortion
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throughout this series of comparisons
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I'm going to have the Yong No on the
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left the Viltrox on the right so you can
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see that the Yongno has a tiny bit of
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barrel distortion the Viltrox a tiny bit
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of pin cushion distortion both of them
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have some vignette in the corners
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however it is heavier on the Viltrox
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both lenses manually correct fine again
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Yong no left Viltrox right and you can
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see there's no negative impacts left
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after correction they look nice and
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clean now we'll take a look at
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longitudinal style chromatic aberrations
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so if we zoom in here we can see that
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there is a little bit more fringing from
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the Viltrox than what there is on the
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Yongno it's not a significant difference
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as you can tell neither is going to be
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enough that you're going to see it in
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real world images however I do think the
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Yongno is a little bit better you can
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also see that in this real world
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comparison remember I'm looking at 200%
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magnification right now so this is
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exaggerating it uh however you can see
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there is a little bit more fringing here
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in the Viltrox in this area than what
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there is in the Yong no about equal
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levels of contrast and detail in this uh
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real world shot however a little bit
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more fringing other thing you're going
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to see as a trend here in general and
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that is that the Yongno renders even
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with the exact same settings in terms of
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white balance it renders significantly
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warmer than what the Vtrox was and
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you'll see that as kind of a common
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thread throughout this you can see
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looking at the defocused area back the
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background they look largely similar and
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we'll we'll kind of hyper analyze that
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in just a moment now when it comes to
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lateral style chromatic aberrations you
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can see that this is an area where the
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Yong no is behind the Viltrox the
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Viltrox is nice and clean here there's
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just a tiniest bit on this very definite
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line more so however on the Yong No and
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definitely the Yongno is showing some of
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that false color on these transition
11:06
areas whereas the Viltrox is nice and
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clean so how about resolution and
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contrast again we're showing at 200%
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here and this is at 26 megapixels here
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on Sony wide open i would say that I
11:18
slightly favor the amount of contrast
11:20
that is shown on the Viltrox the level
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of resolution is similar uh there's not
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a lot of difference there we can see
11:27
that little bit of difference when it
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comes to the metering and thus the
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overall exposure that is you know it's a
11:34
little bit faster a shutter speed on the
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Viltrox because of that slightly faster
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maximum aperture if we move into the
11:40
mid-frame however I think more of an
11:42
advantage emerges for the Viltrox that
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definitely has more uh clear contrast
11:47
and thus the details look a little
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crisper that's true down into the corner
11:51
as well where you can see it definitely
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favors the contrast definitely favors
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the Viltrox lens we'll pop up into the
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upper left corner here as well and you
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can see it's if anything it's even more
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obvious up here i think that does bear
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out in this real world shot here as well
12:07
even though they both I think look great
12:09
if you look in the overall textures here
12:11
of the sail on this model ship you can
12:14
just see there's more definite contrast
12:16
thus the details just pop a little bit
12:19
better when you compare the two stopping
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both lenses down to f2 so we have really
12:24
more of an apples to apples comparison
12:26
here you can see that the contrast still
12:28
favors the Viltrox the amount of
12:30
resolution is just very very similar in
12:33
the center of the frame still very
12:35
slightly favoring the Viltrox here in
12:37
the mid-frame though I think that that
12:39
margin is closer up in the corners
12:41
however the Viltrox still maintains a
12:43
pretty significant advantage that
12:45
advantage remains at f2.8 popping back
12:48
to the center for the moment it looks
12:50
less obvious there but definitely in the
12:52
corners you can see it if we go to
12:56
f5.6 we can see that they look pretty
13:00
similar in the center of the frame
13:02
mid-frame still slightly Viltrox and up
13:05
into the corners again it's closer now
13:08
but it still favors the Viltrox and I
13:10
think that's true in both corners that
13:13
you look at viltrox just definitely wins
13:16
for I would say mid-frame and corner
13:18
sharpness all across the two lenses are
13:21
pretty close in the center of the frame
13:22
now the Viltrox wins in terms of minimum
13:25
focus distance and thus maximum
13:26
magnification and you can see here that
13:29
it definitely is showing a higher level
13:31
of magnification and if you look up
13:33
close I would say that it's doing a very
13:35
slightly better job in terms of the
13:37
contrast there in the area of focus now
13:40
interestingly in this kind of using a
13:42
three-dimensional object I actually
13:43
liked the way that the Yongno handled it
13:46
better i feel like the uplose contrast
13:48
uh it favored the Yong no a little bit
13:50
and that could be you know depth of
13:52
field is small in these kind of
13:53
situations plays a factor but I just
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feel like it's controlling the contrast
13:58
a little bit better and basically
13:59
anywhere that I look anything that's in
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focus I think that the Yongno is a
14:03
little bit better up close now this
14:05
comparison shows us a couple of things
14:07
first of all levels of contrast in this
14:09
three-dimensional setting very very
14:11
similar you can see that mild difference
14:14
when it comes to fringing you You can
14:16
see it's pretty neutral here there's a
14:17
little bit of a green fringing here and
14:19
then also in this area more obvious
14:20
fringing nothing significant however if
14:23
we look at the specular highlights I
14:25
definitely prefer the Viltrox the Yangno
14:28
has this kind of weird little cutout
14:30
shape and it's also just got a lot more
14:32
basic busyiness going on the amount of
14:35
the geometry is similar but very
14:37
slightly better on the Viltrox just
14:40
keeps a more consistent type of shape
14:43
and thus a little bit less of that um
14:46
that kind of lemon shape in the corners
14:48
it's there on both of them but more
14:50
prominent on the Yongno if we stop down
14:53
to f2 we can see that neither of them
14:55
has perfect specular highlights the
14:57
Viltrox wins for having very slightly
15:00
slightly rounder and then also just
15:02
slightly larger and softer looking and a
15:05
little bit less of that deformation in
15:08
eight this the Viltrox is definitely
15:11
winning here because they're just
15:12
getting a little bit weird shaped on the
15:14
Yongno neither one of them has like
15:17
perfect circular shapes all across but
15:18
the Viltrox is much closer to achieving
15:21
that so if we go out into the real world
15:23
and we compare the performance there
15:26
when it comes to overall rendering again
15:28
contrast and detail is close i slightly
15:31
like the Yongno better however if I look
15:34
at a few zones like this I feel like in
15:37
this transition zone the Yongno isn't
15:39
quite as good up here as well we can
15:41
just see that there's a little bit more
15:42
hard edges it's still not great here on
15:45
the Viltrox but just a little bit
15:47
smoother in general looking into this
15:49
zone however I think that they look more
15:51
similar than different not a tremendous
15:54
amount of difference there but once
15:56
again I think in this zone right here
15:58
even though it's I still still see some
16:01
outlining it's a little smoother whereas
16:03
here I definitely see some of that more
16:06
busy outlining that catches my eye and
16:08
so Viltrox I think is a little better in
16:10
the transition zones here's another shot
16:12
where I think the results other than
16:14
that being warmer as I've pointed out
16:16
previously I think that the end results
16:18
are really more similar than different
16:20
they both have similar levels of
16:22
contrast if you look at areas like this
16:24
they don't really look very different
16:27
the specular highlights that are shown
16:28
here because they're a little less
16:30
definite they really don't look all that
16:32
different and I don't see like a huge
16:34
advantage for the f1.7 versus f1.8 in
16:37
terms of the general defocus of the
16:39
background couple of final shots where
16:41
there is sun right out of frame and I I
16:44
did see situations where the Yong no
16:46
showed a little bit more flare but
16:48
putting them in this identical situation
16:50
my biggest takeaway is mostly that how
16:52
much warmer the Yong no image looks as I
16:55
look at the subject area they seem to be
16:58
showing similar levels of detail as I
17:00
just look generally at the background
17:02
here which is a little further away you
17:04
know they both look about the same uh
17:07
the sun's coming in through here but I
17:08
don't see any flare artifacts from
17:10
either one of them moving back a little
17:12
bit further again the sun is right up in
17:14
this area right out of frame it's the
17:17
same truth it's the biggest takeaway is
17:19
that the image looks warmer from the
17:21
Yong No and the settings are identical
17:22
in terms of white balance here so
17:24
Filtrox definitely looks cooler yonglow
17:26
looks a little bit warmer and as far as
17:30
the overall rendering of the scenes I
17:32
think they look very very similar so
17:34
thanks for sticking around to the end
17:36
hopefully a look at the optical
17:38
performance of these two lenses has
17:39
helped you to decide which one is the
17:42
one for you or you say maybe neither of
17:44
them it's your money thanks for watching
17:47
have a great day and let the light in
