GM VS LAB: 35mm Showdown | Do We Have a New Champion?
Apr 6, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a comparison between the two HEAVYWEIGHTS in the 35mm Sony E-mount space - the Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM and the Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 FE. Has the amazing GM lens been dethroned?
GM Reviews: Text: https://bit.ly/35GMreview or Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8-4XGP1jqQ
LAB Reviews: Text: or Video
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=============================
Table of Contents:
=============================
0:00 - Intro and Concept
1:40 - Similarities
2:51 - Neutral Qualities
3:41 - Reasons to Choose LAB
8:03 - Reasons to Choose LAB
12:59 - Conclusion and Recommendations
15:51 - BONUS OPTICAL COMPARISON
---------------------------------------------------------
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Keywords: Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE, Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM, 35mm GM, Viltrox AF, LAB, Viltrox LAB, #LAB, #LAB35, #explorebeyond, Viltrox 35mm, Normal, Full Frame, F1.2, f/1.2, Hyper VCM, Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 FE, Viltrox LAB 35mm Review, Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 FE Review, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I am here for
0:12
another showdown i love being able to
0:15
take these new third party lenses like
0:17
the Viltrox Lab series and putting them
0:19
up against the best in this case that is
0:23
the Sony 35mm F1.4 G Master which I've
0:26
now owned for about four years it's a
0:28
lens I'm very familiar with and if you
0:30
have kept up on my reviews you know that
0:32
I love this lens i've done both my
0:35
initial reviews and then long-term
0:36
reviews and I think it's in many ways
0:39
one of the best 35mm lenses ever made
0:42
it's small and compact it focuses
0:45
quickly has great optics even has great
0:47
magnification the Viltrox 35mm f1.2 is
0:51
the new heavyweight and I mean that in
0:53
every way it comes with even more
0:55
features quad focus motors incredible
0:58
optics and the price tag is $400 plus
1:02
dollars less now both of these lenses do
1:05
have some very unique advantages and
1:07
I've been really kind of going hard
1:09
shooting a lot of different kind of
1:10
scenarios putting them side by side and
1:12
just trying to figure out where they
1:14
excel relative to one another so which
1:16
one of these is today's champion well
1:18
let's jump in and we're going to find
1:20
that out today by the way if you want a
1:23
really kind of deep comparison into the
1:25
optics the about last third of the video
1:28
after my conclusion I'll jump into all
1:30
of that and so those of you that want
1:32
just the facts you can just stay for the
1:35
first part of the video those of you
1:36
that want the deep dive stay until the
1:38
end and you'll get all of that i like to
1:41
start these uh comparisons by looking at
1:44
what's similar between the two in both
1:46
cases I would say things that I would
1:48
say are equal on par with each other is
1:51
that both of them have
1:52
professional-grade build quality they
1:54
both have thorough weather sealing
1:56
including flooring or similar coatings
1:58
on the front seal seal gaskets all
2:01
throughout and then a gasket at the lens
2:03
mount they've both got all of that they
2:06
have a mostly similar feature set which
2:09
includes the ability to manually control
2:11
aperture an AFMF switch custom function
2:14
switches the ability to click de-click
2:17
the aperture all of those options are on
2:19
both lenses i found as far as an a few
2:23
optical similarities that I would say
2:25
that they both deliver a roughly equal
2:28
coma performance and so if you're
2:30
shooting the night sky one advantage you
2:32
know very slight advantage that's going
2:33
to be there for the Viltrox is that you
2:35
can obviously open up the aperture a
2:37
little bit wider to f1.2 but as far as
2:39
the actual coma performance and how the
2:41
images look they're roughly a wash and
2:43
then I also found they had about similar
2:45
flare resistance they're both
2:47
exceptionally good for 35mm lenses but
2:50
about equally good now there is a
2:53
difference that I'll point to that I'll
2:55
call a neutral difference and so Sony
2:58
obviously has Sony's typical approach to
3:01
aperture the lab lens however takes
3:03
something more akin to Nikon and their
3:06
S-line series of lenses approach to
3:08
aperture and I do hope to be able to do
3:11
a comparison to the f1.2 S-line 35mm
3:14
lens when a I have access to that and
3:17
when a Zmount version of the lab comes
3:20
out but if you're coming from the Nikon
3:22
side of things then this approach is
3:24
going to seem more familiar if you're
3:25
coming from the Sony side of things the
3:27
uh GM version is going to seem um you
3:30
know more familiar to you i actually am
3:33
because I am more familiar with this
3:35
approach this is my preference
3:36
personally uh the Sony side of things
3:39
however I do recognize that this is more
3:41
of a taste thing i'm going to start by
3:42
taking a look at reasons to choose the G
3:44
Master the biggest reason I think that
3:47
is going to equal out above all others
3:49
is the fact that it is much smaller and
3:52
lighter at 525 grams which makes it 395
3:57
less than the Viltrox is 920 grams and
4:00
so if you're wanting to travel light
4:01
there is a very obvious difference
4:03
between these two lenses i would say
4:05
that relative to their overall size they
4:07
have a similar feeling of heft of
4:10
density to them but there's a lot more
4:12
lens when it comes to the lab lens thus
4:14
it feels a lot heavier and so that's a
4:17
huge difference in weight it's also as
4:19
you can see it is much smaller it is 13
4:22
millimeters uh smaller in diameter it is
4:25
a whole 25 mm shorter in overall length
4:29
and so again if you're wanting to travel
4:31
compact and light the GM is an easy
4:33
winner there the GM also has a much
4:36
higher magnification level it can
4:39
produce a 0.26 two six time magn
4:41
magnification while the Vtrox is 0.17
4:44
times and as you can see in this
4:46
comparison that is a notable difference
4:49
i also noted that a couple of functional
4:52
improvements with the GM versus the lab
4:55
lens with the GM lens both apertures can
4:57
be declicked but with the GM I can do
5:00
smoother aperture racks that show no
5:02
visible steps and so you can see here as
5:05
I rack through the GM I can make it
5:08
perform pretty much like a true manual
5:10
aperture ring and that I can go smoothly
5:13
through that and you can see the
5:14
specular highlight shrink and then
5:16
expand but no visible steps whereas if I
5:18
do the same thing with the lab lens even
5:20
if I do my best to be smooth you can see
5:22
some visible steps even with the
5:24
aperture decllicked it's not the worst
5:27
that I've seen but it's definitely not
5:29
as good as the GM i would say the same
5:32
is true in my opinion when it comes to
5:33
manual focus as far as the feel of the
5:36
ring both of them have quite similar
5:38
feel in terms of the overall damping and
5:41
smoothness but I did find for doing
5:43
actual manual focus pulls that the focus
5:46
throw is a little on the long side at
5:48
least at the closer focus distances for
5:51
the lab lens and so I could do it with a
5:53
little less effort and a little bit more
5:55
precision because I wasn't having to
5:57
rotate my wrist quite so far uh as I did
6:00
with the lab lens and so I do prefer the
6:02
manual focus it's very slight there but
6:04
I give a slight win to the GM lens sony
6:08
bakes in a few advantages that you do
6:10
need to be aware of for their first
6:11
party lenses and so as it plays out here
6:14
while both of them can focus extremely
6:16
fast as we'll get to in just a second
6:19
the on if you're using a sport related
6:22
body one of the Alpha 1 or the A9 bodies
6:25
you're going to be able to achieve
6:27
whatever the maximum burst rate of the
6:28
camera is with the GM lens whereas with
6:31
the Lab it's going to be a limit of 15
6:33
frames per second on the upper end a
6:35
secondary issue there or advantage that
6:38
Sony bakes in is that some of their
6:39
newer cameras have a feature called
6:41
focus breathing compensation so if
6:43
you're shooting in video work you can
6:45
eliminate focus breathing in which both
6:47
of these lenses have some and the Sony
6:49
has even more but you can eliminate that
6:51
though at the cost of a crop factor as
6:53
you can see here by turning on that
6:56
focus breathing compensation that's an
6:59
advantage that the lab doesn't have
7:00
because Sony only enables that for
7:02
first-party
7:03
lenses wide open f1.4 versus f1.2 i felt
7:08
like in a few situations I saw a very
7:12
slightly less fringing with the GM lens
7:15
and that will be broken down in a little
7:17
bit more detail a little bit more nuance
7:19
in the deep dive at the end of the video
7:21
if you stop both lenses down to f1.4 I
7:23
think that advantage probably goes away
7:24
but wide open there's maybe a little bit
7:26
of an advantage for the GM lens when it
7:28
comes to fringing and while the GM has a
7:31
little bit a tiny bit more quantity of
7:34
distortion that distortion is more
7:35
linear and thus easier to correct than
7:38
what the Labs which is slightly more
7:40
complex and also similarly the GM lens
7:43
has very slightly less vignette than
7:45
what the Lab series lens does and again
7:49
with wide open F1.4 versus F1.2 too the
7:53
GM has very slightly sharper corners
7:56
relative to the Lab series lens and so
7:58
there are some of the reasons to
8:00
consider the GM lens over the Lab series
8:02
lens so how about reasons to choose the
8:05
Lab series and there certainly are those
8:07
as well so the 35mm f1.2 Lab uh the
8:11
first and obvious reason to choose it is
8:13
going to be price it currently uh has an
8:16
MSRP of
8:17
$999 but if you use the discounted link
8:20
in the description below you're going to
8:22
get that at about
8:24
$949 and so that is $450 less that's
8:28
significant another very obvious
8:30
difference an advantage for the Lab lens
8:32
is that it has a faster maximum aperture
8:34
about a half stop difference between
8:36
f1.2 and f1.4 and so that means you're
8:39
going to be able to it's going to be a
8:41
little more useful in low light
8:43
situations you're going to get more
8:44
shallow depth of field and you'll see
8:45
during our optical breakdown at the end
8:48
how some of those advantages play out
8:50
when it comes to that larger maximum
8:52
aperture you're also going to find that
8:54
even when the settings are equalized
8:56
that the lab lens has better light
8:58
transmission and what I found is that
9:00
even when shooting my chart that
9:03
typically I was seeing at least a
9:05
between a third and a half stop better
9:07
light transmission with the lab lens
9:09
than what I did with the GM lens even
9:11
when all other settings were equalized i
9:14
also found that due to that larger
9:16
maximum aperture and the effect that it
9:18
has it has bigger softer specular
9:21
highlights and so um even with equaliz
9:24
settings you're going to get bigger
9:26
softer specular highlights bokeh balls
9:28
if you want to call them that um with
9:30
the with the lab lens and what you are
9:32
with the GM lens the lab lens on a
9:35
feature set side it is a little bit more
9:38
customizable it's got this LCD screen
9:40
and that does allow for a few additional
9:42
features one of those is that there is
9:44
an extra function button and that extra
9:47
function button is largely designed
9:50
around at least natively around being
9:51
able to set AB focus which is a really
9:54
can be a very useful feature to where
9:56
you can preset two focus positions and
9:58
at a touch of a button you can toggle
10:00
between those two and that has
10:02
definitely some very interesting
10:03
applications for both stills and video
10:06
work um you also have the ability there
10:09
is a an app that Viltrox has that allows
10:12
you to customize that uh the function of
10:15
those f those function buttons and so
10:17
even beyond what you can do within the
10:18
camera because there are two of them you
10:20
have the ability to have both of them
10:22
achieve different functions and so
10:24
that's another area that is useful there
10:27
i also found it useful when to consider
10:29
the fact that the LCD screen shows a
10:33
distance scale and that's something that
10:34
is just missing on mirrorless lenses
10:36
relative to manual focus lenses or even
10:38
SLR lenses to where a lot of times it
10:41
would show a distance scale and and
10:43
through this you do and so if you're
10:45
trying to do like hyper focal work for
10:47
example um and you can actually see how
10:50
the depth of field expands as you rotate
10:52
the aperture ring and so that you you
10:54
open up the quantity of of uh depth of
10:57
field that's available to you through
10:59
that and so I think that that's
11:00
interesting here's something that was
11:02
wholly unexpected in going into this
11:04
review because I consider the GM lenses
11:06
to basically be the best focusing lenses
11:09
of their type across any platform that
11:12
may no longer be true because of the lab
11:14
series lens uh while they had dual of
11:17
their new HyperVCM focus motors on the
11:20
135mimeter lab in this 35mimeter f1.2 2
11:23
lab they have gone with quad focus
11:26
motors and I suspect that's probably
11:27
going to be the formula we'll see for
11:29
the 50 and 85mm f1.2 lenses as well so
11:33
having all of that thrust available
11:35
means that focus is basically instant on
11:38
the 35mm lens and while both of them are
11:40
lightning quick in my test I found that
11:43
both in the experience of shooting and
11:45
then reviewing the footage afterward
11:47
that focus is just a hair faster with
11:50
the Viltrox than what it was with the
11:52
Sony and that is a shocker to me as
11:56
noted it's not just the specular
11:58
highlights but also when I do a very
12:00
careful examination of overall rendering
12:02
and bokeh quality not just in specular
12:05
highlights i find that the backgrounds
12:07
are just softer and a little bit more
12:10
pleasing i would say that I slightly
12:11
prefer the rendering from the Lab lens
12:13
in general as compared to the Sony GM
12:16
lens the Lab lens is also the sharper
12:19
lens it's sharper in the center it's
12:21
sharper in the mid-frame and as noted
12:23
it's a little behind in the corner and
12:25
that kind of depends on which corner you
12:26
look but if you stop the Lab down to
12:29
f1.4 it's now sharper everywhere um
12:33
everywhere across the frame and I find
12:35
that it has a competitive advantage even
12:37
when stopped down further with both
12:38
lenses stopped down further that it is
12:40
just the sharper lens which again is
12:43
pretty amazing i also find that the lab
12:45
lens has consistently better contrast
12:47
and so whether it's fur on an animal or
12:49
it's skin textures on a human or in a
12:51
landscape scene the lab lens has the
12:54
ability to resolve fine details just a
12:56
little bit better than what the GM lens
12:59
does so that brings me to my conclusion
13:02
and and to me this is a pretty
13:04
remarkable thing one of the exercises I
13:06
like to do if I'm doing this kind of
13:08
comparison is to say well if price was
13:11
no consideration which one of these
13:12
lenses would I I buy because obviously
13:15
you know price is a a real consideration
13:17
for most of us and in this lens I have
13:21
to say that even if the prices were
13:23
equal I might still choose the lab lens
13:26
which really really surprises me but I
13:29
just thinking objectively there are some
13:30
real advantages for me personally
13:33
because I can live with the weight not
13:35
everyone can but because I can live with
13:37
the weight I would say that the
13:39
advantages that the lab lens offers
13:41
means that I feel like I might just
13:43
prefer it the Sony to me gets really
13:46
high marks it always has it always will
13:49
for being such a high-erforming lens in
13:51
such a compact package this is the
13:54
premium lens that actually feels more
13:55
like a midsize lens and I really really
13:58
appreciate the fact that Sony is with
14:00
their G Master lenses has so often been
14:02
able to produce lenses that stay really
14:05
high performing but also are smaller
14:08
than basically all the other plat what's
14:10
available on any other platform in terms
14:12
of this type lens and so I still give
14:14
them huge credit for that but I also
14:17
have to give Viltrox credit for being
14:19
able to pull off something that's pretty
14:21
remarkable and that is that they have
14:22
produced an F1.2 2 lens that is
14:25
basically better at f1.2 than what the
14:28
premium lens in the department is at
14:32
f1.4 a lens that is sharper at f1.2 than
14:35
than another premium lens that is f1.4
14:38
has been a very very rare thing and
14:40
what's even more surprising and I give
14:42
it even higher marks for is that it is
14:45
actually faster focusing at f1.2 than
14:48
what the GM is at f1.4 and as an f1.2 2
14:51
lens you just don't see that i would say
14:54
that this is probably the fastest
14:56
focusing 35mm f1.2 lens is that that I
15:00
have ever seen now I haven't yet
15:02
reviewed the Nicor Sline lens but I
15:04
wouldn't be surprised because of those
15:05
quad motors in the lab if it's still a
15:08
little bit faster in focus speed overall
15:11
so that is amazing to me so I would say
15:14
go with the GM if you want to keep
15:16
things light or if you don't really
15:18
trust third parties and I get that and I
15:20
would say go with the lab if you want to
15:22
save $400 plus or if you just want that
15:26
extra bit of special sauce that an F1.2
15:28
lens can give you now again if you want
15:31
more information you can check out the
15:33
either text or video reviews full
15:35
reviews of both of these lenses i'll
15:37
have those linked in the description
15:38
down below there's buying links there if
15:40
you want to explore that avenue now if
15:42
if you want to see how I kind of got to
15:45
these conclusions and look at some of
15:47
these head-to-head comparisons then stay
15:48
tuned with me right now and we'll jump
15:50
into that deep dive together so let's
15:52
start by taking a look at vignette and
15:54
distortion the Sony actually has more of
15:57
the overall distortion uh the Viltrox is
15:59
a milder amount but what happens here is
16:02
on Sony it's it's quite linear it's all
16:04
a consistent ping cushion distortion
16:06
whereas on the Viltrox it's mostly pin
16:09
cushion dis distortion in the corners
16:12
but if you start to correct for that it
16:13
actually causes a bulge here as we'll
16:15
see so as I start to try to correct for
16:18
those corners what happens is the center
16:19
starts to bulge out whereas you can see
16:22
with the Sony it actually corrects
16:24
pretty cleanly even manually obviously
16:26
correction profile would take care of
16:28
either one of these but the nature of
16:30
the distortion is easier to deal with on
16:33
the GM lens now as far as the vignette
16:36
the quantity is similar however there is
16:39
a bit more on the Viltrox and so it's
16:42
basically the difference between less
16:44
than a third stop of difference or
16:47
roughly a third stop and so probably not
16:49
significant either direction now I don't
16:51
want to draw too many conclusions from
16:53
one single shot here when it comes to
16:56
fringing um what I found is that there
16:58
was a little bit of give and take as I
17:00
looked at the two lenses but what I see
17:02
at least in this shot is just a little
17:05
bit more fringing to my eye on the
17:07
Viltrox you can see it particularly on
17:10
this side whereas the Sony is a little
17:12
bit more neutral and so it's again
17:15
neither one of them has any kind of
17:17
significant amount of fringing but I
17:19
think that the Sony takes a mild win
17:21
there so next we'll take a look at the
17:23
overall resolution so I'm showing this
17:25
at a 200% magnification and this is 61
17:28
megapixels on an A7R Mark 5 so you can
17:31
see in the center of the frame the
17:33
Filtrox even at f1.2 versus F1.4 is just
17:36
resolving more fine details and so you
17:39
can see it there in the sales you can
17:41
see it here in this text that it's just
17:43
crisper has better contrast if we move
17:45
off towards the midframe you can see
17:48
that while they're close the uh black
17:50
levels are lower in the Viltrox and so
17:53
it has just better contrast in general
17:55
bit more detail that's available
17:57
throughout the the face that is there
17:59
the only kind of difference is that if
18:01
you move down into the corners while
18:03
there's not a significant difference
18:05
here in the corner I do think that it's
18:07
a little bit muddier here on the Viltrox
18:09
and a hair better on the G Master if we
18:12
move up to this corner however it's I
18:15
would say that it probably slightly
18:17
favors the um the the Lab instead of the
18:21
GM lens now if we move to an apples to
18:24
apples comparison with F1.4 versus F1.4
18:28
four a couple of things that stand out
18:30
to me first of all the Viltrox looks
18:32
even better second thing I do want to
18:34
point out is the Viltrox has superior
18:36
light transmission you can see that it's
18:39
metering faster and producing just as
18:41
bright an image and so probably at least
18:44
a third stop better of light
18:45
transmission even with equal settings we
18:48
can now see that that advantage in the
18:50
mid-frame looks a little bit more
18:51
significant down here in the corner this
18:54
corner I don't think looks radically
18:56
different up in this corner however the
18:59
Viltrox definitely is looking better
19:01
than the G Master by a pretty obvious
19:03
margin likewise here obviously the
19:06
Viltrox looks much stronger if we look
19:08
up in this corner it's I would say it's
19:11
the opposite i think the GM looks a
19:13
little bit better so it seems like the
19:14
GM a little bit better on the right side
19:16
maybe the Viltrox a little bit better on
19:18
the left side however the Viltrox it's
19:22
not consistently true cuz the Viltrox I
19:24
think looks better here than what the GM
19:27
does if we move on to uh F2 both of them
19:31
are now just they're ridiculously sharp
19:33
however the Viltrox is obviously sharper
19:36
and just produces more detail more
19:38
contrast they both look great i mean
19:40
it's this is totally splitting hairs at
19:42
this point but they both have you know
19:45
unique strengths but I would say in
19:48
general they both look pretty fantastic
19:50
at f2 um just great all the way across
19:53
the frame we'll go as far as f2.8 at
19:56
f2.8 the Vtrox kind of takes another
19:58
leap ahead in the center of the frame
20:00
and so it's now kind of next level
20:02
relative to the GM but again I don't
20:04
know if you would notice that without
20:06
them 200% side by side you can see for
20:09
example even here in this text you can
20:10
just see it just kind of stands off the
20:12
page bolder whereas it looks a little
20:14
bit flatter on the GM lens this text
20:18
looks more three-dimensional kind of
20:19
pops off as you can see relative to what
20:22
the GM provides up here into this upper
20:25
corner you can see it looks amazingly
20:26
crisp now up here and the GM also looks
20:29
very very good it's just the Viltrox is
20:31
just a has just a little bit more pop to
20:33
it and you can see here that once again
20:36
it's exposing or metering with faster
20:40
but it's producing at least equal
20:42
brightness if not more so now when it
20:44
comes to the minimum focus distance this
20:46
is an easy win for the GM lens it
20:49
produces as you can see a much higher
20:50
level of magnification they both have a
20:53
usable and useful amount of
20:55
magnification but the GM is definitely
20:58
more so i can't really draw too many
21:00
conclusions about uplose performance
21:02
from this for the simple reason that the
21:05
there's going to be more depth of field
21:06
on the Viltrox just because it's further
21:08
away and the depth field is going to be
21:10
more shallow because it's up close here
21:12
on the GM i would say what we can tell
21:16
is that both of them look good uh very
21:18
good detail and contrast and we can also
21:20
tell that there's not issues with
21:22
fringing in these bright areas they're
21:24
both holding up nicely in that regard so
21:26
how about some portrait comparisons
21:28
again as in this all the series Viltrox
21:30
is going to be on the left and the GM on
21:32
the right now I'm going to move the
21:35
faces around a little bit and so they
21:37
match as much as possible we can see
21:39
that there is a little bit different
21:41
rendering in terms of the color science
21:43
and I would say that the Viltrox is
21:45
rendering just a little bit warmer when
21:47
it comes to skin tones also even at f1.2
21:50
versus f1.4 for the Viltrox has the
21:52
superior contrast if you look around the
21:55
eyelashes and even into the the beard
21:58
there that uh and you know skin textures
22:00
in general the Viltrox is showing more
22:03
in this case I don't know that there's
22:05
really much of a difference that I can
22:06
see as far as the defocus area we'll
22:09
look more at that a little bit later
22:10
this home sign back here is obviously
22:12
going to be a little bit more blurred
22:14
because again it's f1.2 versus f1.4 so
22:18
this shot is f1.4 4 versus f1.4 and I'll
22:21
let you kind of absorb it in general
22:23
i've turned corrections off on either
22:25
one of them so this is completely
22:26
uncorrected this is a raw image right
22:29
out of camera with no corrections at all
22:31
so as far as the detail I mean again
22:35
we've already kind of had this dance and
22:38
we know that the Viltrox is the sharper
22:41
higher contrast lens of the two and if
22:43
you put them both at f1.4 there's just
22:46
more pop for the Viltrox and so that's a
22:49
win there as far as the overall color
22:51
rendering you can see again the
22:53
difference is subtle it's again it's
22:56
it's I would say very slightly more
22:58
neutral or even a hair cooler on the GM
23:01
a little bit warmer on the lab lens uh
23:04
frankly in this particular setting I
23:06
probably would say I favor the warmer
23:08
look but that's entirely a taste thing
23:10
and you could very easily process these
23:12
two to match here now at f2 and so you
23:16
can see again the backgrounds they look
23:18
to me they just look really similar
23:19
there's I can't draw too many
23:20
conclusions from the background again
23:22
colors are close very slightly different
23:25
and now of course we know that they're
23:27
both really really sharp but the Vtrox
23:29
still looks a little bit sharper as far
23:31
as the overall skin textures and
23:33
contrast both of them I think produce
23:35
nice skin tones skin tone doesn't look
23:37
waxy or anything to me and so overall I
23:40
think they look pretty great this shot
23:42
here allows you to take another look at
23:45
overall kind of just the scene in
23:47
general terms of the defocus both of
23:49
them at f1.4 for this shot and amazingly
23:52
I managed to get Nala in pretty much the
23:55
same position which was somewhat of a
23:57
miracle i would say that again I think
24:00
that the contrast levels are superior on
24:02
the Viltrox and here there's window
24:04
light so it's it's fairly aggressive
24:06
light and so it's going to produce some
24:08
kind of hot spots there what I'm finding
24:11
is that if you look around the eyes the
24:14
uh contrast levels they're deeper on the
24:16
Viltrox and so it just makes the eyes
24:18
pop a little bit more a little bit more
24:20
detail in the the uh fur there um that
24:23
you can see looking at that looking at
24:25
the scene at large the bokeh quality
24:28
really I can't draw any conclusions from
24:31
this i don't think that they look it
24:33
looks any really any different to me we
24:36
see here there is a contrast point where
24:38
there could be some fringing and in this
24:39
particular shot fringing looks equal um
24:42
on the two of course this is both at
24:43
f1.4 whereas before the Vtrox is at f1.2
24:47
and so I think all things being equal it
24:50
looks like the if you're at
24:52
f1.4 in this shot at least the Viltrox
24:55
probably is showing a little bit less
24:56
fringing than what the GM is now this is
24:59
going to be an interesting series
25:00
because it allows us to look a little
25:01
bit more at the bokeh which is my
25:03
priority here it's less about the focus
25:06
you know I've tried to get focus in the
25:08
same zone here and so that's important
25:10
but just look at some first of all at
25:12
specular highlights we can see here that
25:15
they are softer with the Vtrox is at
25:17
f1.2 it obviously has an advantage and
25:19
you can see that it looks just softer in
25:21
that zone also in this zone here those
25:24
specular highlights look softer but some
25:27
somewhere in like this zone where
25:28
there's a little bit extra maybe
25:30
busyness more going on here the Viltrox
25:32
definitely looks softer in this area
25:34
here and so if I back back out for a
25:37
moment and we just kind of look at this
25:39
area it's going to look a little softer
25:40
and creamier on the Viltrox so how about
25:43
if I make the Viltrox f1.4 well taking a
25:46
look at those specular highlights again
25:47
one of the things that some people don't
25:49
know about larger aperture lenses is
25:51
that even when you equalize the aperture
25:53
settings they for whatever reason tend
25:56
to have softer larger specular
25:58
highlights anyway and so that's
26:00
certainly the case here uh we can see it
26:02
in this zone as well that everything's
26:04
just a little bit bigger and thus a
26:05
little bit softer a little bit less
26:07
outlining and into this zone here even
26:10
though it's same aperture now it's still
26:12
a little bit busier and a little bit
26:14
less soft on the uh GM versus the
26:17
Viltrox which does kind of a superior
26:19
job in this area of just keeping
26:21
everything soft and creamy looking here
26:24
if we look at them both at f2 uh we can
26:26
see looking up here once again you know
26:29
rounder softer specular highlights in
26:32
these zones and so the Vtrox is
26:35
basically always going to win that
26:36
particular comparison and I think that
26:38
it continues to win the comparison
26:40
through here as well where everything
26:42
just stays a little bit softer and a
26:44
little creamier on the Viltrox lens
26:46
likewise here and I think with these
26:47
greens I think you can see that
26:49
definitely the greens look a little bit
26:51
warmer on the Vtrox than what they do on
26:54
the GM just again it's a taste thing
26:56
you're going to like one or the other
26:57
probably instinctively and whichever one
27:00
you like better there's your answer as
27:02
far as this defocused area again at f1.2
27:05
the Viltrox is going to win and that's
27:08
the advantage of an F1.2 lens the depth
27:10
of field is shallower and thus
27:12
everything that is out of focus is just
27:15
softer looking creamier looking and I
27:17
think that that holds up here and again
27:19
that continues to be true even if I stop
27:20
the Viltrox down to uh f1.4 and so still
27:25
this area looks softer uh it's just more
27:27
defocused the background is it's just
27:30
creamier looking and so I think in terms
27:32
of general rendering I'm going to favor
27:34
the Viltrox just because of its ability
27:36
to make everything softer and here in
27:38
this zone which is kind of a transition
27:40
zone again I think that while it's not a
27:44
huge margin if we look at it globally
27:46
it's just a little bit more eye-catching
27:48
with the GM um and a little bit softer
27:51
on the Viltrox so finally looking a
27:53
little bit more carefully at those
27:54
specular highlights so our point of
27:56
focus in this shot is here and you can
27:58
see I mean they're both brilliantly
28:00
sharp lenses depth fields a little more
28:02
shallow on the Viltrox obviously at f1.2
28:05
too but it is every bit as sharp and as
28:08
good a contrast so here you can see that
28:10
there's a bit more fringing on the
28:13
Viltrox and we'll revisit that when
28:14
they're both at f1.4 if we look at the
28:17
specular highlights you can see that
28:19
they are very noticeably bigger and
28:21
softer um for the Viltrox than they are
28:24
for the GM lens both of them start to
28:26
exhibit some cat eye near the corner but
28:28
you can see that it's a little bit less
28:30
so on the Viltrox than what it is on the
28:33
GM lens so now with both of them at f1.4
28:37
we can see that the advantage that was
28:39
there as far as fringing has gone away i
28:41
mean they basically look equal here both
28:44
of them have just a tiny bit of green
28:45
fringing but I wouldn't say that one has
28:48
more than the other again we see that
28:50
same truth here and that while both of
28:52
them are f1.4 specular highlights are
28:55
still bigger and thus more out of focus
28:58
than what we see with the f1.4 lens and
29:02
so it's just an advantage that carries
29:04
on there even if you have all other
29:06
settings being equal so as we get to the
29:08
conclusion of that section you can see
29:10
that both of these lenses are impressive
29:12
but I would say that at least as far as
29:14
the optics go the Viltrox is a little
29:16
bit more impressive as always thanks for
29:19
watching have a great day and let the
29:22
light in
29:23
[Music]
Science

