PRO vs EVO vs SE II | Budget 85mm Showdown

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[Music]
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[Music]
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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I am here
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today to give you another three-way
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comparison. This between three of the
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least expensive 85mm options on Sony
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E-mount. We have the Viltrox Evo 85mm F2
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that I reviewed several months ago,
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which I think is fantastic. And then we
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have the two newest 85mm options from
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Mike. And so a little bit older is the
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85mm f1.8 pro lens. And then their newer
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release is the 85mm f1.8 Mark II. That
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is the least expensive of the bunch as
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we'll see in just a moment. But we're
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going to see which of these three lenses
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makes the most sense if you're looking
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for an inexpensive 85mm lens. Now, as
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you can see, it is snowing yet again.
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So, I'll be filming some of this indoors
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today and so that I can crunch the
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numbers for you and demonstrate
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different things. All three of these
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lenses have been sent to me by the
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various manufacturers for a review and
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comparison. However, none of them had
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any input in my review process. This is
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an entirely independent review. Let's
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jump in and see which one of these 85
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millimeter lenses gives you the best
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bang for the buck. Now, on our first set
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of comparisons, we're going to take a
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look at the build, handling, size,
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weight, things like that. We'll start by
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taking a look at price. And price is
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where the new SE Mark I from Mike takes
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the win. You can get it for just $230.
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You're going to pay $275 for the Vtrox.
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And then for the Pro from Mike, it is
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$340. So, the most expensive by a decent
1:44
margin there. Now when it comes to size,
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the uh smallest here is the Evo lens. It
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is only 69 mm in diameter and just 76 mm
1:54
long. Whereas the two mic lenses are
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considerably bigger. The uh Pro lens is
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76 mm in diameter and 95 mm long both.
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And then the SE Mark II is 76 millime in
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diameter also, but it's 100.2 mm. So
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just a little bit longer. I will note
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that both of the mic lenses have a uh
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filter thread size of 62 mm whereas the
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Viltrox has a smaller 58mm front filter
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thread. And so the when it comes to the
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size definitely the Evo lens is the
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clear winner in terms of compactness.
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That carries forward into the weight as
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well with the Evo weighing 340 grams.
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You know, it's very small but it's it's
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dense because it's it's got a lot going
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on here and it does have a very nice
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build quality. 340 grams. The SE Mark II
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weighs in at 369 grams. And our
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heavyweight here is the Pro from Mike at
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389
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gram. So again, when it comes to size,
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weight, the uh Viltrox Evo lens is the
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winner. It's also a clear and easy
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winner when it comes to the feature set.
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Its feature set includes having an AFMF
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switch, having a custom or function
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button, not only having an aperture
3:07
ring, but the ability to have that
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aperture ring clicked or decllicked.
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This is a more high-end lens feature set
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and it is the clear winner in that
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regard. On the Pro lens here, it
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basically has just the AFMF switch and
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then it has an aperture ring. No custom
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or function button and it has no ability
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to declick that aperture. When it comes
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to the SE Mark II, there really are no
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bells and whistles here. It just has the
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AFMF switch on the side, which I'm glad
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for that, but it is the clear third
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place when it comes to feature set with
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the Viltrox as the clear winner. Now
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things flip around when it comes to the
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quantity of aperture blades with the SE
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Mark II having 11 aperture blades while
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the Evo and Pro lenses have the more
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pedestrian nine aperture blades. Now
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when it comes to manipulating that
3:55
aperture, the Viltrox is the winner.
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It's the only one because of its ability
3:59
to declick that you can actually do
4:01
aperture racking. And so that's one
4:03
advantage it has that the other two
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lenses lack. When it comes to minimum
4:07
focus distance, our closest focus comes
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from the SE Mark II, which can focus
4:11
down to 65 cm and gives us the highest
4:14
magnification of 0.15 times.
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Unfortunately, as we'll see later on in
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the image quality section, it's also
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unfortunately the weakest when it comes
4:22
to its uplose performance. The EVO
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splits the difference between the two
4:26
mic options. It can focus as closely as
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74 cm and has a 0.13 times
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magnification. The Pro lens can only
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focus as closely as 85 cm and has a
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fairly low 0.11 times magnification. Uh
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so in that case, the win goes to the EVO
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for excuse me to the SE Mark II for its
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close focus abilities. Though
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unfortunately its performance doesn't
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necessarily back that up. There isn't
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really any kind of winner when it comes
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to weather sealing. They all do have a
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weather seal sealing gasket at the rear
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of the lens. The Viltrox does have a
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special coating on the front element,
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but I suspect that the mic has some
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lenses have something similar than that.
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So, and not none of them claim to have
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any kind of internal seals. So, they all
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have, you know, in some ways a similar
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level of build quality, though the
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Viltrox feels the nicest. That may just
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be subjective, but it's the one that
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also it's got all the things that the
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others do, plus some additional
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features. And so, after this first
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round, our winner going out of the first
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round is the Evo lens. It's got four
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points whereas the SE Mark II has three
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points and the Pro racked up zero points
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in that first round. All right, let's
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talk autofocus here. Now, this is
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probably the metric where there is the
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least variance between these three
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lenses. All of them feature an STM or a
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stepping focus motor. And what I found
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as I begin to do all of the various
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tests I do as a part of lens reviews is
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that I found that focus speed was about
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the same. uh there if there is any
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difference between them it is a
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split-second difference and so I
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couldn't really point and say here was a
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clear winner and as you can see shooting
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indoors and outdoors all three of these
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lenses move with the same kind of basic
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pace which is nice and fast it's not the
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fastest the most instantaneous I've seen
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but it's very quick and moving from one
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focus point to another without any kind
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of hesitation or reluctance so no
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problems there what's more I found when
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I switched over to the video side of
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things that the video AF was about the
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same. As I would begin to approach the
6:34
camera using each one of these three
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lenses, I would approach, allow it to
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track me as I came close, and then I
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would, you know, step in and out of the
6:43
frame and watch how quickly it picked me
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back up. And as I went through my test
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across all three of these lenses, I
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found once again that I saw about the
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same results that it both all three of
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them did a very good job consistently
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tracking me as I approached the camera.
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When I stepped out of frame, they went
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to the background. When I stepped back
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into frame, they snap back onto my face.
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And so I found all three of them did a
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good job there. I found similar when I
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did things like my hand test that I
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would say maybe the slightest edge to
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the Pro. And I'm going to also give a
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slight edge to the Pro when it comes to
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video pulls. Mostly because I felt like
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it had just kind of the most thrust in
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going back and forth. And also it
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exhibited along with the Viltrox the
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lower levels of focus breathing. Now,
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when it comes to focus breathing, the SE
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Mark II actually has noticeably more
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than either the Evo or the Pro series
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lenses. And so, I'm going to give a
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point to both of them. They both have
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equally small amounts of focus breathing
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I would say whereas the SE Mark II is
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the loser there. And so in this although
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it was very very similar we ended up
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getting a couple of points for the Pro
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when it comes to autofocus and another
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additional point for the EVO when it
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comes to its overall performance there.
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leaving us with a total at this stage of
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five points for the Evo, three points
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for the uh SE Mark II and then a couple
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of points for the Pro that got managed
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to get onto the leaderboard.
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We're going to start by taking a look at
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the actual bokeh quality. And my winner
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here is the SE Mark II. You can see that
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the bokeh circles, they are nice and
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clean inside. There is a little bit of
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external outlining, but it's not too bad
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relative to the others. On the right,
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you have the Viltrox. And while the
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Viltrox also has nice clean interiors of
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the bokeh circles themselves, what we
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find is that obviously you have they're
8:38
not quite as soft and they're not quite
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as large because of a smaller maximum
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aperture there. And if we compare to the
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Pro version, if we zoom in and take a
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look at the Pro version, we see a fair
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amount of busyiness inside there. And so
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I don't like the overall look of the
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bokeh quality there when it comes to
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specular highlights as well. And so a
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win to the SE Mark II on that front. I
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also give a win to the SE Mark II when
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it comes to the quality of the bokeh
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when it comes for portrait work. We can
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see here if we zoom in for a moment that
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we'll as we'll explore a little bit
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later. Number one, the SE2 is the
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sharper of the two mic options here. And
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so uh that is to its credit. But then
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also as we look towards the background,
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we can see that it's delivering the
9:22
softest specular highlights with the
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least amount of outlining. Over in this
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zone here, they are nice and soft. And
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if we compare to the Viltrox, we find
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that the Viltrox is even better in terms
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of sharpness and contrast, which we'll
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dive into in just a moment. But when we
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look at the out of focus backgrounds,
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you can see that they're just there's a
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little bit more edging. It's not quite
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as soft a background as what we were
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finding from the SE Mark II. So, a win
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for it in that metric as well. Now, when
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it comes to uh fringing, we find that
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the Viltrox is the winner in this
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metric. None of these lenses is too bad,
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but we can see a little bit more
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fringing here on the SE Mark II. When we
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look at some of these shiny bits and
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look in this area here, you can see a
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bit of fringing here, whereas the
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Viltrox has very little. Likewise, with
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the Pro lens, you can see that it's got
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some fringing in some of those areas
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that stands out more so than what we are
10:15
seeing from the Viltrox. And what's
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more, you can see with the Pro that it
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actually has some fringing around the
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specular highlights. And so in this
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case, I give the Viltrox the win here
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with second place going to the SE Mark
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II and then third place going to the Pro
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lens. Now, when it comes to sharpness
10:32
and contrast, Viltrox is always really
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amazing in this category. And you can
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see with the worst of the three lenses
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here, the Pro here on the right, we can
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see that the Viltrox is just blowing it
10:43
away. If we stop the Pro lens down to
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f2, it doesn't really help. The Viltrox
10:48
is still just obviously much much
10:50
better. And that's true in the
10:52
mid-frame. That is true down into the
10:55
corners. It's true basically everywhere
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that I look. I find the Viltrox to be
10:59
really strong. Now, if I put the SE Mark
11:02
II here, the margin isn't quite as bad
11:05
as comparing with the Viltrox lens, but
11:07
it it's still the Viltrox is clearly the
11:09
obvious winner in the center of the
11:10
frame, in the midframe, and then down
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into the corner here, we have while I
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would say here the Viltrox still
11:17
stronger, right off near the edge is
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where the SE Mark I shows its one
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advantage there in terms of sharpness,
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but I found same results as I stopped
11:26
the lenses down. The Viltrox is the
11:28
obvious sharper lens throughout the
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range. Those of you that are keen of
11:32
eye, however, may have noticed that when
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it comes to the light transmission, the
11:36
Viltrox is the loser here. Both of the
11:40
two mic options give her give more than
11:42
just that one/ird stop advantage. We can
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see here that we're looking at more of a
11:47
twothird stop advantage in terms of
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light transmission. And so, they are the
11:51
brighter lenses quite easily. Now, how
11:53
about in terms of contrast? If we zoom
11:55
in with the two mic lenses, we can see
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that the SE Mark II is clearly
11:59
delivering more detail in the eyelashes,
12:02
the eyebrows, and the lips compared to
12:05
the Pro lens that just isn't as sharp.
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Now, if we throw the Viltrox into the
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mix, we see that the Viltrox is just a
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little bit sharper and higher contrast
12:14
here than what even the SE Mark II is
12:17
with just a little bit more detail in
12:19
all of these places. And the hair,
12:20
there's a little bit more uh contrast
12:23
and delineation there. And so our
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Viltrox Evo is the highest contrast lens
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in the bunch. We can see even shooting
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at f2 with the EVO lens that it is able
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to produce just amazingly crisp results
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with beautiful, beautiful contrast. And
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so it is a definite winner when it comes
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to contrast. Now, while both of the mic
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lenses are quite good when it comes to
12:46
vignette, both of them have minimal
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amounts of vignette with the Pro having
12:49
the least and the SE having the second
12:52
least. We can see that there's a pretty
12:54
obvious difference when it comes to
12:56
distortion. There is a fairly obvious
12:58
amount of pin cushion distortion for the
13:00
SE Mark II, while the Pro lens is fairly
13:04
neutral. The Viltrox is also uh neutral
13:07
when it comes to the distortion. Both of
13:09
these just need a minus one to correct.
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But you can see that the vignette is
13:13
considerably heavier here. And so the
13:15
SE2 is the loser when it comes to the
13:18
amount of distortion with both the uh
13:21
Pro and the EVO lenses having lower
13:24
amounts of distortion. Now when it comes
13:25
to the vignette side of things, our
13:27
winner is the Pro lens that needed just
13:30
a plus 16 to correct for the vignette in
13:32
the corners whereas I needed more like a
13:34
plus 60 to correct for the Viltrox lens.
13:37
The SE Mark II needed about a plus 21.
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So just a tiny bit more than what we see
13:42
here on the Pro lens. Now, earlier we
13:44
saw that the SE Mark II gives us our
13:46
highest level of magnification, and you
13:48
can see that here. Unfortunately, it
13:50
isn't nearly as good as our second place
13:52
winner in terms of magnification, the
13:55
Viltrox, when it comes to the actual
13:57
uplose performance. You can see that
13:58
it's quite soft at its minimum focus
14:00
distance, whereas the Viltrox is
14:02
retaining good levels of contrast and
14:04
detail. Likewise, the Pro, while it
14:06
offers the lowest level of
14:08
magnification, it is still quite good up
14:11
close and is giving good detail and
14:13
contrast, though not quite to the level
14:16
of what we see from the Viltrox lens.
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So, after this round, the Viltrox Evo
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picks up an additional five points. The
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SE picks up another three points, while
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the Pro picks up two points. And so in
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our final final tally, the Viltrox has
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10 points, the SE Mark II has six
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points, and the Pro Lens ends up with
14:37
just three points. Now, when it comes to
14:40
the number one here on the pedestal, I
14:42
am not particularly surprised. I was
14:45
really, really impressed when I reviewed
14:46
the Viltrox Evo 85mm F2, and I
14:49
particularly love the fact that it just
14:51
has so much going on in such a compact
14:53
package. And I don't know that there is
14:55
a better 85 millimeter lens that I have
14:58
ever tested. If that is part of the
15:00
equation, if you want, you know, great
15:02
optical performance, good autofocus
15:04
performance, nice feature set, and a
15:06
really small package, this one is top.
15:08
Now, it's not quite as bright as the
15:10
others, and that goes beyond just that
15:11
one/3 stop aperture. I think it it
15:14
doesn't have quite as good light
15:15
transmission as the other two, but in
15:17
most of the optical metrics, it is
15:19
either in first or second place at the
15:21
least. The lens that actually surprised
15:22
me is our second place finisher. And
15:25
while I would consider the Evo to be the
15:27
best package, I went into this thinking
15:28
that the Pro lens from Mike would
15:30
probably be the better because it just
15:32
felt a little bit better, has a little
15:33
bit more features. But in the final
15:36
analysis, I actually found that this new
15:37
SE Mark I from Mike was really quite a
15:41
nice little lens. I reviewed the first
15:44
generation 85mm f1.8 from Mike and I was
15:47
really unimpressed by that lens. This
15:49
lens surprises me, however, and I would
15:51
say this. If you're just looking for a
15:52
really nice portrait lens, an
15:54
inexpensive 85mm lens for portrait, I
15:57
would actually maybe go with the SE Mark
15:58
II because it uh doesn't have quite as
16:02
much resolution contrast, but certainly
16:04
plenty for portrait work. And it comes
16:06
with just a little bit softer, more
16:09
defocused background. And I would say
16:11
that in portrait shots generally, I
16:13
found them just maybe a little bit more
16:15
pleasing than the EVO. If you're looking
16:16
for more of a general purpose lens, go
16:18
with the EVO for sure. The lens that I
16:21
would say that is left out of this
16:22
comparison as the least likely that I
16:24
would recommend would be the Pro Series
16:26
lens. And that did surprise me. But the
16:28
Mic Pro 85mm f1.8 just feels like it
16:31
isn't quite at the same level as the
16:33
other two optically and thus it kind of
16:35
started to fall out of consideration as
16:37
I went through my test. As always,
16:39
however, I hope that this has helped you
16:41
in making a more informed buying
16:43
decision. I do have full reviews of the
16:45
Viltrox lens that are linked to in the
16:47
description and there are some buying
16:48
links there for all three. As always,
16:50
thanks for watching. Have a great day
16:52
and let the light in.
16:53
[Music]

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PRO vs EVO vs SE II | Budget 85mm Showdown

Dustin Abbott

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PRO vs EVO vs SE II | Budget 85mm Showdown

Dustin Abbott