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I am Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my standard review of the Viltrox 23mm f1.4
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lens. Originally I was going to film outside and a thunderstorm came through. I decided I'd come
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inside to film instead here today. So of course the 23 millimeter joins the 33 millimeter in
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kind of fitting the niche of the standard prime lenses for APS-C cameras like Fuji X-mount
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which I've got that in here, and then Sony E-mount APS-C, which I've got in the 23 millimeter
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And so the 23 millimeter, you apply the 1.5 times crop factor, comes out at 34 and a half
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millimeters rounded up to around 35 millimeters equivalency on full frame. Likewise, you apply the
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1.5 times crop factor to the 33 millimeter and you end up with a 49.5 millimeter or 50 millimeter
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equivalent lens. And so while these are not typical focal lengths you might see, that's the reason
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for that, allowing them to give you the standard angle of views that are so prized, of course, on
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any kind of camera system. And in this case, of course, you also get the advantage of a wide
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maximum aperture of f1.4 which gives you a lot of versatility on your depth of field how you're
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going to frame your shots and also of course the amount of light that you can operate in and still
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get very good photos and so certainly a very valuable option to have and of course we've got
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a nicely compact prime lens here it's basically all metal including a metal lens hood very very
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nicely built. It is only 72 millimeters long or 65 millimeters in diameter, a little under
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three inches, 2.83 inches in overall length. And it weighs in at 260 grams or 9.17 ounces
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We've got a front filter thread of 52 millimeters and that is also shared here on the 33 millimeter
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And so that gives you an ability, obviously, to share filters across both of those lenses
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So the 33 millimeter only weighs about 10 grams more. It's pretty similar in its overall length
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However, as you can see, it has a slightly deeper lens hood. That accommodates the slightly longer focal length that we are covering here
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Build quality is actually really, really nice. This actually has a feel of a premium lens because of the grade of materials It has a very slick looking you know kind of a high end physical design to it Like mostly more like Fuji lenses
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It does have a kind of a bifurcated approach to your way to a control aperture to where
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you do have the ability to go throughout all of the aperture values
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In this case, it is de-clicked and so you can rotate smoothly through all of them
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The only place where you feel a bit of a detent, which is nice, is at F16, which is the last
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threshold before you switch over into the A mode for automatic, where you can control it from within
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the camera. So it is nice that you have a little bit of a tactile feedback there to let you know
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if you're actually leaving the manual range and moving over into the automatic. Outside of that
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there are no switches on the barrel. There is no weather sealing gasket. But what there is
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which is a great aspect of Viltrox design is a micro USB port in the actual lens mount. And that
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allows you to do firmware updates very simply. Once you figure out the process, it's very simple
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very quick to update the firmware. And Viltrox has proven that they will continue to support
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their lenses and improve aspects of autofocus and overall behavior through firmware updates
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So kudos to them on that. This lens is also equipped with a nice focus motor here that
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I actually found it operated fairly nicely on my Sony bodies that I used it on here. I find Sony
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focuses a little bit more sophisticated than what Fuji is and so as a result I felt like the 23
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millimeter focused a little better than the the 33 millimeter but I think it was more the difference
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in the two different systems that I worked on. In both cases you also have a fairly nicely damped
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manual focus ring as the alternative for focusing there. It's also nicely ribbed all in metal feels
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very premium. In terms of the autofocus as you can see here the focus pulls are fast and confident
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There's not any kind of pulsing or seeking. You will hear a little bit of noise in video operation
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overall however that's really not too bad and i did find when i recorded the definitive review
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i actually filmed using this lens on a sony a9 in super 35 mode and as a result i actually found that
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the focus stayed nice and stable and i didn't have a problem with it you know kind of going
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in and out unnecessarily. Now in terms of the image quality I found that you actually have
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quite good sharpness across the frame even at f1 It is I would say a cut above what I typically see of at least of the least expensive lenses that have a maximum aperture of f1 and that you do have usable sharpness right into the corner of
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the frame. What isn't amazing, however, is wide open contrast. And while it's not bad, it's not
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exceptional. There isn't really a problem so much with purple fringing. However, what you will see
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is some green fringing in the bokeh. And, you know, for example, in my test here, you can see
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a little bit of the purple beforehand, but more pronounced the green. And I really find that that
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mostly shows up not so much as fringing on the subject, but more in bokeh highlights
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Byproduct of that is that you do, to me, the bokeh becomes a little bit busier than what I
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would like to see as a result of that. Mostly because you tend to have a fair amount of
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outlining that makes the bokeh circles show up a little bit more pronounced. But overall, a good
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sharpness at f1.4, usable sharpness, stop down to f2. And then particularly at f2.8
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things start to really pop in terms of contrast. And at small apertures, you can see from this shot
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you have a great amount of detail. And even if I zoom all the way into a pixel level here
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you can see that contrast and resolution at f5.6 is really, really strong there
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So a nice result there. One negative that you will encounter is that the vignette is fairly
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strong at f1.4. It's less at f2 and less so again at f2.8 and beyond. But at f1.4, there's definitely
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some strong vignette there that is going to be a factor for you. In some cases, it may have a
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pleasing application, but there are going to be other situations where you're going to definitely
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want to correct for that. And so overall, a fairly good image quality performance. One of the things
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that I did note is that the flare resistance is not too bad and I actually rather liked the sun
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star when it was pointed down. It's a little more higher number of blades maybe than what I'd like
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It's a 9 aperture blade so that 18 pointed star can get a little bit busy but I saw in a number
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of photos that I took I actually really liked the look of the sun star and so to me that's another
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kind of nice little detail that can really set your images apart. I found color saturation to be
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a little bit on the heavy side for my taste. It's not quite neutral. It's just a little balance
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towards oversaturated, although it will be a look I suspect that many people will also like as well
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It really depends upon your taste when it comes to all of that. IEF seem to work fairly well. You
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know, with a wider focal length, you really have to be fairly close before it really starts tracking
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the eye in a visible kind of way And so in many cases expect to see something more like face detect rather than eye detect but it seemed to do the job fine And my focus accuracy was very good except for one or two And this is out of the
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whole series of shots that I took as a part of my lens review. And a couple at smaller apertures
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like FFIP 5.6, I found that for whatever reason, it showed lock. For example, you can see in this
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case when really nothing is in focus. But as I said, that only happened once, maybe twice in my
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whole review period. So at the end of the day, I think that you've got, again, you've got a really
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competent little lens for not a massive amount of money. This lens retails for $299 or around $300
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US for the Sony E-mount. And for some reason it's about $30 more expensive at $329 or $330 US for
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the Fuji X-mount. But on either system, I feel like you're getting a fairly strong value for a
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wide maximum of aperture, good autofocus, good optical performance, and a really, really nice
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build that is definitely a cut above the kind of lenses you typically see or the kind of build you
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typically see from lenses at this price point. I think as always, the attraction is going to be
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strongest on the Fuji platform where there really is almost no third-party options. And thus, you
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you know, you have the opportunity to get a lens like this at, you know, $330 US compared to $900
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US for the Fuji equivalent. And so obviously that's going to make a lot of sense for people
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Now on the Sony side, you tend to have a few more third-party options, including some really strong
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lenses from Sigma, one that's close to this focal length. And so you do have more options there
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closer to the price point. But even on Sony, I think that this remains a good option if you are
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interested in a lens like this and what it has to offer. And one thing it does have relative to the
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Sigma 30 millimeter f1.4 is that it does have considerably lower distortion. And so that could
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be a factor depending upon your application. In fact, that was one area where I found, you know
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it was a good lens for interiors because the distortion was fairly low. So I do see this as a
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you know, a bonus for someone that maybe does wedding photography on a tighter budget. And so
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anyway, worth your consideration. Certainly. If you want more information, you can check out my
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definitive video review where I cover everything in detail. Beyond that also, I do have an image
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gallery if you want to check out photos from it. And there is also some buying links there if you
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would like to purchase one for yourself. As typical, there is also linkage there to follow
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me on social media, to become a patron, to sign up for my newsletter. And if you haven't already
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please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Have a great day
