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Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5 VCM X-Mount Review | Make Your Camera Pocketable
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Feb 17, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review the new X-mount version of the Viltrox AF 28mm F4.5 VCM "Chip" lens. Does it work on Fuji? | Read the Text Review: | Visit the Image Gallery | Purchase the 28mm "Chip" at Viltrox https://tinyurl.com/Buy28VCM | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3NxIfGl | Amazon https://amzn.to/3U9lQmL | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3Npb2Ng | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3Yq0HHx | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3ZZNN45 | Pergear https://tinyurl.com/28VCMpergear Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off Fioboc Clothing: https://tinyurl.com/FiobocDA20 and us code DUSTIN20 for 20% off Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott in Fall of 2024 I
0:13
released a review of the vro autofocus
0:16
28mm f4.5 chip lens for Sony it was the
0:21
most compact autofocus lens that I had
0:23
ever reviewed and one of the interesting
0:25
pieces of feedback that I got in the
0:27
aftermath of the release of my review
0:29
was a lot of people saying I would love
0:30
to have a lens like that for Fuji it
0:33
struck me almost a little bit odd
0:35
considering the fact that it was a
0:36
full-frame lens but then later on when I
0:38
was reviewing the Fujifilm xm5 and
0:41
thinking man a lens like that an
0:43
incredibly compact lens like that would
0:45
make a camera like the xm5 a truly
0:47
pocketable camera and all of a sudden it
0:49
made a lot more sense to me obviously V
0:52
tro was thinking along the same lines
0:54
cuz here we are 6 months later and we
0:57
have an x-mount version of this V fo AF
1:00
28mm
1:02
f4.5 now it's only $99 but the question
1:05
we're here to address is is that $100
1:08
well spent if you're looking for
1:10
something for your Fujifilm camera let's
1:12
dive in let's find out one of the first
1:14
things we need to address is that this
1:15
is a fullframe lens now on an apsc body
1:18
so that means that the focal length is
1:20
going to change because of the 1.5 times
1:22
crop factor on the Fuji body and so
1:24
rather than 28 mm uh this is now a 42mm
1:28
fullframe equivalent lens 42 mm while
1:32
it's not a traditional focal length is
1:34
really actually in a sweet spot that's a
1:36
lot of fun to use so I have no
1:38
hesitation about recommending it as a
1:40
focal length here the aperture remains
1:44
f4.5 now that is not a maximum aperture
1:47
of f4.5 that is an aperture of f4.5
1:50
there is no adjustable aperture it is
1:52
f4.5 all the time that is both the
1:54
maximum and the minimum aperture and so
1:57
of course that comes with you know some
1:59
con potentially you don't have the
2:01
ability to open the aperture up wider
2:02
neither do you have the ability to close
2:04
it down to get more sharpness or deeper
2:06
depth of field essentially they've tried
2:08
to come up with a focal length and an
2:11
aperture value that will work reasonably
2:14
well in enough situations but you do
2:17
need to be aware of that also this is an
2:19
autofocus only lens it's kind of ironic
2:22
and that most lens that I've seen that
2:23
are anywhere near this this compact are
2:26
manual focus only this is the opposite
2:28
there is even though it's all along the
2:30
edges it's not a focus ring that's just
2:33
grip and design there is no manual focus
2:35
here so we need autofocus to really work
2:38
because there is no manual focus to back
2:40
stop it it is incredibly compact in fact
2:43
it's really not it's not really much
2:46
bigger than what a rear lens cap would
2:48
be and to that end it is not threaded
2:50
for filters up front neither does it
2:52
have a front cap instead we have this
2:55
little lever that is a slide across the
2:57
front that either uh opens or closes a
2:59
protect Ive cover over the front element
3:01
of the optical design now unfortunately
3:04
there doesn't seem to be any changes
3:06
relative to what I saw on Sony and there
3:09
were concerns on Sony that that does
3:11
tend to be a bit of a vulnerability and
3:13
the reason for that is when you first
3:15
turn on the camera you'll see a quick
3:17
pulse forward and same is true here on
3:20
Fuji as the Focus motor kind of
3:21
calibrates and runs back and forth the
3:24
problem is is that it seems to extend
3:26
past the point where that that that
3:29
actual a cover comes in would seal over
3:31
the top which means that if you have
3:33
that cover closed it means that there's
3:35
the potential of those elements are kind
3:37
of coming up or that you know the actual
3:40
focus group is coming up against that
3:42
and you know it's I haven't had any
3:44
issues with it but certainly it could be
3:46
a potential vulnerability point and it
3:48
seems like the function here is the same
3:49
as what we saw on the emount version
3:51
that was probably the chief thing that I
3:53
saw in terms of complaints from people
3:55
in terms of the optical design now if
3:58
you look at the front of the lens there
3:59
is a couple of new things here first of
4:01
all over on if you're you're facing it
4:04
on the right side whereas before it gave
4:06
the sensor diagonal size for a fullframe
4:09
sensor instead here it says apsc frame
4:12
and so it's recognition that this is now
4:15
an apsc lens so it still is it's it's
4:17
over over engineered for apsc the other
4:19
thing over on the right or the left side
4:22
if you're facing it is the fact that
4:23
there is a very slightly different
4:25
minimum Focus distance on the emount
4:28
version full frame it was 32 CM here it
4:32
is 34 CM so we have a little bit longer
4:36
Focus distance minimum Focus distance
4:38
but remember the focal length is also
4:40
behaving like 42 rather than 28 mm so
4:43
what I found is that you do end up with
4:45
a significantly higher magnification
4:47
amount that was a weakness on the
4:49
e-mount version it's less of a weakness
4:51
here because you get a more usable
4:53
amount of magnification and actually
4:55
felt like it performed pretty well there
4:57
up close and so overall that's certainly
5:00
a step in the right direction now other
5:02
than those minor changes to the front
5:04
the overall size of the lens is almost
5:06
identical as before it's still 60.3 mm
5:09
in diameter or 2.77 in and it is only
5:15
15.25 millim deep and so the emount
5:18
version was 15.3 so we've gone down a
5:22
fraction of a millimeter here and so
5:24
that is uh 0.6 in in terms of overall
5:28
length the L weighs as before 60 G or
5:32
2.11 o so very small very light however
5:36
it doesn't feel cheaply made it is all
5:38
built around a metal Mount there's an
5:40
aluminum alloy here I will note there is
5:42
the traditional
5:44
USBC uh Port there on the actual lens
5:46
mount to allow for firmware updates in
5:49
in case you happen to be curious this
5:50
lens doesn't seem to be compatible with
5:52
the wireless a firmware update through
5:55
the vro app I can't get it to recognize
5:57
that and so that seems to be a feature
5:58
that's reserved for the their higher end
6:00
lenses at this point there are seven
6:03
blades in the apture iris and those are
6:05
designed to where they are obviously
6:07
there's only one apt value so they're
6:08
not retracted they show and so they've
6:10
kind of biased things here to work while
6:13
that does allow specular highlights they
6:15
you will see the aperture blades it does
6:17
allow you to get also a little bit of a
6:19
Sunstar effect so it's again this lens
6:22
is all about kind of compromising
6:23
between the between the two extremes
6:26
there are no weather ceiling uh on the
6:28
lens itself is no know buttons or
6:30
switches obviously no manual focus ring
6:32
none of those things exist on this lens
6:35
but what we do have while there's no
6:36
weather seing we do have their HD Nano
6:38
multi uh layer coating on the front
6:41
element though obviously if you are
6:43
traveling with the lens not being used
6:45
you're going to want to keep that window
6:47
closed and so it protects that front
6:48
element a little bit more with that
6:50
plastic Shield this lens is so
6:52
incredibly compact when it's on the
6:54
camera I actually had it on a strap
6:55
earlier today I took just had it slung
6:57
around my back while I went CrossCountry
6:59
skiing and my companion while I was
7:00
cross country skiing they saw that I had
7:02
a camera on but they wondered if I'd
7:04
remember to put a lens on it because
7:06
this is so incredibly compact it's it's
7:08
basically like just having a a front
7:10
camera cap on there it is incredibly
7:13
incredibly small so how about autofocus
7:16
this was really kind of the critical
7:17
area for me because Fuji's autofocus
7:20
even though I'm using one of their best
7:22
cameras it tends to be just less
7:24
sophisticated than Alternatives and
7:26
unfortunately that does play out in a
7:28
couple of areas some ways I was
7:30
pleasantly surprised other ways I had my
7:32
unpleasant expectations met so when it
7:35
comes to the vcm Focus motor this was
7:38
the first of their actual release lenses
7:40
with the vcm and so that's a voice coil
7:42
motor it's not a stepping motor and that
7:45
is what kind of drives me crazy here
7:47
because I saw on Sony it had stepless
7:49
performance as it should it's not a
7:51
stepping motor um whether it was uh
7:53
Stills or video it was just you know a
7:55
linear move back and forth between the
7:57
subjects for whatever reason on Fuji I
8:00
think it has to do with Fuji's autofocus
8:01
system there are some clear and obvious
8:04
steps here as I do even Still's
8:06
autofocus testing going back and forth
8:08
back and forth and so obviously because
8:11
it's not just one you know smooth linear
8:13
jump from point point A to point B and
8:16
there's those steps it does slow down
8:17
autofocus a little bit compared to what
8:19
I saw on Sony I did find that it was a
8:21
little bit better
8:22
outside and maybe when there was more
8:24
light to work with for the focus system
8:26
it could focus a little bit more
8:28
confidence but anyway it is it's clearly
8:30
a step back in those tests Focus motor
8:32
remains very quiet no problems there now
8:35
on the the the positive side of things I
8:37
did find that autofocus continues to be
8:39
very accurate um and and so it was
8:41
consistent whatever that I was focusing
8:44
on I got good consistency results which
8:46
obviously is incredibly important in a
8:48
lens that doesn't have manual focus you
8:50
have to get accurate autofocus because
8:52
you have no no you know Plan B to go to
8:54
there but fortunately I didn't feel like
8:56
I needed it and by the way that was true
8:57
even at close Focus distances where did
9:00
an effective job there good eye tracking
9:02
overall and good accuracy there actually
9:05
found that on my xh2 which is what I'm
9:08
testing on I found like my real world
9:10
results were better than in my formal
9:12
test I actually felt like autofocus
9:14
worked fairly well so it made the
9:16
transition fairly good when it comes to
9:18
the still side of things unfortunately
9:20
on the video side of things it's you
9:22
know as is typically the case on Fuji it
9:24
is a pretty clear step back from the
9:26
Sony platform so once again we see those
9:28
steps really obvious steps I counted
9:31
about six in a focus pull from point A
9:34
to point B whereas on Sony that was a
9:36
completely linear just back and forth
9:38
back and forth and so unfortunately some
9:40
very much visible steps even though it's
9:42
not a stepping motor uh and there is
9:45
some significant Focus breathing and so
9:46
unfortunately you can see breathing as a
9:48
part of each one of those steps just
9:50
kind of draws your attention to it even
9:51
more I did find pretty good results with
9:54
my hand test in that least Focus was
9:56
shifting with a reasonable amount of
9:58
responsiveness from my hand to my eye
10:01
and back and forth there out in real
10:04
world results again it's a you know
10:06
there's kind of that obvious Focus
10:07
breathing but at least in good light
10:09
there's less of those obvious steps and
10:11
so it does seem to be a light related
10:13
issue when it comes to how much of that
10:15
I'm seeing here on Fuji I did find as I
10:18
did on Sony because it is just so
10:20
lightweight I mean typically you might
10:22
have your kind of supporting hand your
10:23
left hand out on a lens you can't really
10:25
do that here because there's nothing
10:27
that's protruding basically and so you
10:28
end up holding the camera and it's a
10:30
little bit harder to stabilize uh as a
10:32
byproduct of that and so I did find just
10:34
a little bit more shakiness in some of
10:36
my handheld footage for the simple
10:38
reason that there's just not much to
10:40
hang on to there and so overall I mean
10:42
autofocus got the job done but it's
10:44
certainly not top tier performance and
10:47
it unfortunately is not as sophisticated
10:49
uh a focus experience as what I found on
10:52
Sony so how about the image quality
10:55
obviously the optical design itself is
10:56
the same there's six elements six groups
10:59
two or four of those elements are more
11:01
exotic elements two of them extra load
11:03
of dispersion two of them aspherical
11:05
elements now the MTF here however
11:07
actually looks better than the full
11:09
frame MTF did and you can see in this
11:11
comparison chart that I put together why
11:13
and that is because basically where
11:15
things begin to go downhill in the MTF
11:18
chart for the full frame is right at the
11:19
cut off of where the apsc uh line is and
11:23
so because that image circle is smaller
11:25
a lot of the weakest part of the
11:26
performance is outside of the uh the the
11:30
crop of the image or the apsc image
11:32
there and so in some ways uh as we're
11:35
going to see in some ways performance is
11:37
going to be better in some ways it's
11:39
going to be challenged by the extreme
11:41
high resolution that is here
11:43
particularly on the you know the the xh2
11:46
body if for shooting in one of the 24 or
11:48
26 megapixel cameras it's going to be
11:50
less extreme than what I'm going to show
11:52
in this particular video as I noted with
11:54
the Sony version of the lens this is
11:56
kind of an old school lens in that it it
11:59
doesn't seem to have as effective
12:01
Coatings as what modern lenses do and so
12:04
the contrast level and the look of
12:05
images is really going to depend on the
12:07
lighting conditions I find in particular
12:09
if there is side light or light right
12:11
out of frame it really causes an overall
12:14
veiling or lifting of contrast and so it
12:16
certainly gives it a look as you can see
12:18
in this shot here now if there is no
12:21
directional light like in this shot of a
12:24
pie you can see that contrast is much
12:26
higher and that gives kind of the Dual
12:28
nature of the lens it's really going to
12:29
depend on the lighting conditions if you
12:31
happen to like images with a warm glow
12:34
if you put light in the frame you're
12:35
definitely going to get that here in
12:37
this landscape shot you can definitely
12:39
see what I'm talking about now one of
12:42
the again advantages of the apsc crop is
12:45
that I actually found that Distortion
12:47
was a little easier to correct in a
12:50
clean fashion here because while I added
12:52
a little bit more Distortion correction
12:54
it is because the corners were cut off
12:56
the corners got a little complex on full
12:58
frame so if I if I corrected the center
13:00
to where it should be it started to
13:01
create uh some issues out on the corners
13:04
because those Corners are cut off I can
13:05
actually get a much more linear
13:07
correction here I only dialed in a minus
13:09
three it's it's very negligible amount
13:10
but I was able to get basically a
13:12
perfect correction even manually I also
13:14
found that there was less vignette I got
13:16
plus 77 on on Sony a plus 62 here not as
13:20
much of the vignette gets cropped off
13:22
because there probably is a little bit
13:23
extra vignette because it was originally
13:25
engineered for another platform and then
13:26
poured it over to Fuji I found often
13:29
with lenses like that I get more
13:31
vignette on a Fuji platform but because
13:33
it's you know it's over engineered for
13:35
this still there's less vignette because
13:37
some of that vignette is cut off and if
13:39
you compare the correction between the
13:40
two you can see that the Fuji correction
13:43
it even manually correcting it it just
13:45
looks cleaner overall there's less of
13:47
that kind of inconsistency in coloration
13:50
after the vignette correction so good
13:52
stuff there I found that there is there
13:55
was always low longitudinal chromatic
13:57
aberration however once again again
13:59
because the extreme Corners are cut off
14:01
I also found less lateral climatic
14:02
aberration cuz the area of the frame
14:04
most affected by that has been cropped
14:06
away on the apsc sensor and so what
14:09
we're going to find when we look at
14:10
sharpness here is there's going to be a
14:12
pro the pro is is that it's more
14:14
consistent across the frame again the
14:16
weakest part of the image circle is
14:17
cropped off so now what is now the
14:19
corner used to be mid-frame basically
14:22
and so I do find that there's more
14:24
consistency from Center mid-frame to
14:26
Corner however what I also found is that
14:28
contrast just doesn't look as good again
14:31
this is extremely demanding at 40
14:33
megapixels equivalent of over 90
14:35
megapixels on a fullframe sensor and so
14:38
there is no 90 plus megapixel fullframe
14:40
sensor it's just more demanding than
14:42
this lens has ever had to face on Sony
14:44
before and so as a byproduct it does
14:46
look a little bit softer in general at
14:49
the same time I found like images look
14:50
really pretty good overall and I don't
14:53
think that image quality as far as
14:55
resolution is really a problem I think
14:58
you're probably going to have have more
14:59
issues with contrast again depending on
15:01
your lighting situation the quality of
15:03
the bouquet is okay here but remember
15:06
you're not going to be able to get a lot
15:07
of it um you know best case scenario is
15:09
if you're really close to your subject
15:10
and the background is really far away
15:12
you know situations like that are
15:14
relatively rare and so you're going to
15:15
find that more often than not a fair bit
15:18
is going to be in focus and so as a
15:20
byproduct you won't get a lot of Boke
15:23
but again the quality of it doesn't look
15:24
too bad as you've seen in these images
15:26
colors uh are good in general would say
15:29
the optical glass here is good and I
15:31
will also say on the flare front that if
15:33
you're shooting kind of more
15:34
traditionally kind of directly into the
15:36
light source there is definitely some
15:38
veiling a bit of ghosting not a lot of
15:40
that but it's kind of a more typical
15:43
response I would say it's more when
15:44
you're getting at Angles where the lens
15:47
behaves um like it has very few Coatings
15:50
and and so that kind of creates the look
15:53
it has a unique rendering either you
15:55
like it or you don't it really depends
15:57
on your personal Aesthetics so I
15:59
conclusion is this this is a fun lens
16:01
that really makes a small Fuji body
16:03
behave a lot like say a X100 VI I mean
16:07
it has that same kind of paired down
16:09
minimalist approach to where you're not
16:11
really having to think of much of
16:13
anything about the camera you kind of or
16:14
the lens I should say it's kind of just
16:16
point and shoot which means you can
16:17
focus more on composition thinking about
16:21
the lighting thinking about the shot and
16:23
creation of the shot rather than
16:25
thinking much about aperture or some of
16:28
the other factors that might come into
16:29
play with a more complex optic so if
16:32
you're that appeals to you this lens is
16:34
a lot of fun and obviously it's
16:35
extraordinarily portable it's going to
16:37
be a lens that I'm just going to throw
16:38
into a bag often if I'm carrying Fuji
16:40
because you know who knows maybe I'll
16:42
pull it out and if I don't pull it out
16:43
it's 60 grams who cares and so as you
16:46
can see this is a lens that is a little
16:49
bit quirky in some of its Optical
16:51
performances but in general it provided
16:53
me with a lot of images that I thought
16:55
were rather cool and again it's not
16:57
about I would say any kind of clinical
16:59
Perfection here this is more about the
17:01
character of the lens and also the fact
17:03
that you have a fully functional tiny
17:05
tiny lens to attach on there and if that
17:06
appeals to you well this just might be
17:08
the lens for you as always thanks for
17:10
watching have a great day and let the
17:12
light in
17:14
[Music]