Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR Review | One of the Sharpest 50mm Lenses Ever!

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[Music]
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hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
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to give you my review of the vrox AF
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50mm F2 this is from their air series
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now I knew that this was going to be a
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special lens when I saw the MTF chart
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but what really made my jaw drop is when
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I compared it to my beloved 50mm f1.4 G
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Master lens which I'm filming on right
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now and I do almost every time and I
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compared it first in the center both
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lenses at f2 and saw this result and
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then when I looked in the corners and
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saw this result as I said my jaw dropped
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now that's not to say that this little
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VR is the better lens far from but it is
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shockingly the sharper lens of the two
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so that means that we are about to see
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the best sub $200 performance that we've
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ever seen on a fullframe system the vroo
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air 50mm F2 is a stunningly good lens
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more on that in just a moment right
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out so the first thing I want to clear
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up as we dive into the build and
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handling SE ction is there is yes an
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existing 50mm f1.8 lens it was released
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about three plus years ago now that lens
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uh it it is different in a few ways it
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has a metal construction it did have an
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aperture ring those are both both pluses
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and it did have a very slightly brighter
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maximum mture of f1.8 versus F2 however
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it also cost
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$359 almost double this it was 22 mm
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longer and weighed 135 G
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more and so outside of the aperture ring
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I would say that this is actually the
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superior lens in every way despite the
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much lower price so yes it is made out
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of plastics but it's been the case with
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all these air series lenses it doesn't
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feel cheap in any way the there's a
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great rigidity to the body you can try
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squeezing and everything feels very
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tough feels like the lens that could
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take some you know a little bit of a
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beating and keep on going and in fact
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I've been using the 20mm f2.8 the first
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of this series for years now traveled
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with it a number of times I've never had
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any issues with it at all it is actually
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held up really well so far and so I'm
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not put off by the Plastics in the
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construction because the trade-off for
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that is obviously you get a a lighter
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lens which I think we can all appreciate
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in a series that's called the air series
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so the lens is 65 mm in diameter or 2.55
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in it's
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56.5 Millers in length 2.15 in as you
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can see it makes it a easily palm-sized
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lens really quite small and compact
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particularly for being a full-frame 50
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millimeter lens it weighs just 205 grams
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or 7.23 o and as you can see the form
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factor is very very similar to the three
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now fullframe air series lenses
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including the 28mm f2.8 the 40mm f2.5
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and then this 50mm F2 this is easily I
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would say the sharpest and probably the
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best of the series thus far up front we
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have a 58 mm front filter thread that is
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a little bit bigger than the other two
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unfortunately it does come with both a
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little pouch and then also with the lens
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Hood lens Hood actually feels pretty
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decent it's thicker Plastics and then so
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it doesn't feel cheap in any way it
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bayonets into place with good Precision
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which wasn't true of The Early Air
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series lenses so it locks in there and
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it stays there they've obviously learned
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their lesson with that and so overall I
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mean build is actually quite nice Now
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features are basically non-existent you
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have the manual focus ring and that's it
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uh so there are no features there's no
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aperture ring there's no ammf switch you
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know any function button nothing like
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that this is a basic lens however it
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does have a metal mount it does have
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their USB C Port that will allow for
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very quick and easy firmware updates uh
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it has nine rounded apture blades inside
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you can see from this shot even stopped
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all the way down to f8 in a real world
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chart you can see specular highlights
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are nice and round the minimum Focus
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distance here is 51 CM so there's good
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and bad in that maximum magnification as
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you can see here is 0.11 times not
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particularly good however it is improved
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from the 55 CM minimum Focus distance of
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the previous 50mm f1.8 and the maximum
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magnification level is a little bit
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higher still not quite up to what I
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would call call the standard the average
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being about
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0.15 times magnification so at 0.11
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times not quite as good so I do wish
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they would start to improve that that
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remains kind of a fairly consistent vrox
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weakness with a few exceptions on that
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there is no weather sealing in this
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inexpensive series however they do have
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their HD Nano multi-layer coating on the
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front element that does help at least
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there to resist fingerprints and give
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you a little bit of moisture resistance
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there so I mean the manual focus ring it
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moves well here on Sony um which I'm
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reviewing here on e-mount it will come
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for z-mount I suspect in the future and
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we'll see if they bring it to Fuji even
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though it's a full-frame lens but at the
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least I think we'll see Z mount in the
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future uh here on e-mount it focuses
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nicely um the focus ring feels pretty
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decent and uh there's enough damping
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there that I feel some Precision when
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doing manual focus and so uh the price
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of course I haven't heard the final
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price but this Series has been priced at
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about
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$179 in that range and typically you can
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get it for a little bit less if you use
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the discount code that is provided um in
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the actual description down below so
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again no bells and whistles but I
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actually find these lenses to be nicely
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made and what I love about them is they
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are so easy to throw into your camera
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bag you know they take up a very small
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space uh they're lightweight and so I
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mean I feel like I could throw it along
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and bring it with me so means that this
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lens is going to end up on some trips
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that a higher end more expensive larger
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aperture 50mm Prime is not going to make
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it for those very reasons so overall I'm
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happy how about autofocus we'll start by
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talking about Stills as has been the
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case with this series we have a lead
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screw type STM Focus motor and really I
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have zero complaints about autofocus as
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you can see here it is uh quite quick to
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focus back and forth even with major
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Focus shifts like that the Focus motor
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is very very quiet the only sound I hear
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even if I put it up near my ear and
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focus is if I'm going on and off you
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know half to pressing the shutter button
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I'll hear the a little bit of a click as
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the aperture blades open and close but
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outside of that I hear almost nothing
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from the Focus motor itself very quiet
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and so I found it to be I actually took
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this lens with me on a trip to Tokyo
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recently I was at cp+ and some other
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events that I was there for and I got
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great Street results with it I found
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that it worked great just as that you
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know a very discreet small lightweight
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Street type lens just taking pictures
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out and around I got great results there
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I also found um actually at the Canon
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Booth they had a group of guys playing
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basketball and so I found there that I
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was able to get you know very perfect
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autofocus on them moving around and
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playing basketball and then also in the
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Sony section there was a some break
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dancers street dancers that were and
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once again I was able to lock on and
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track them as they spun and gated and
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jumped and so very very good for that
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also in the Sony section they had a a
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cool setup for portraiture and so I was
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able to you know test somewhat in there
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and I got good portrait type results I
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mean focus is you know very quick to
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lock on the eyes and as we're going to
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see it's incredibly sharp and so it
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delivered great results even at f2 and
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so autofocus for Stills zero concerns
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how about for video
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actually it was better than expected for
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video first of all autofocus pools have
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been pretty good with this series and so
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I wasn't too surprised that they were
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relatively quick but what actually did
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surprise me is two things about that
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first of all as you can see it feels
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fairly well damed it's not just like
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abrupt back and forth and helping that a
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lot is there's actually a really minimal
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amount of focus breathing here with this
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lens better than what I see with most
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50mm lenses and so it's it feels more
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set atic because it's not there's
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nothing jarring about the transition
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from A to B and back likewise for that
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reason with my hand test it's very
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smooth it's just kind of transitioning
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from the hand to the eye and back
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without any kind of that you know kind
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of swaying back and forth that movement
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that you see and so uh that was great as
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you can see here in just the shot of
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some people walking up an alley uh in
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Tokyo you can see that Focus moves along
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smoothly no concerns there um here's
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another shot on a a set and you can see
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in this brief click clip that uh you
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know just AF is smooth and stable in
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this situation where it should be stable
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and for you know outdoor landscape uh
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landscape type shots this is the
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Yokohama uh Harbor I again I saw really
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great results really stable results and
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so in other words autofocus was
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fantastic how about image quality well
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I'll give you an overview here and then
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we'll dive deep into the image quality
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and a breakdown at the end of the video
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Optical design in this is it's it's it's
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far more than what you would expect for
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a sub $200 50mm F2 Prime 13 elements in
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nine groups but seven of those are
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exotic elements three extra low
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dispersion elements four high refractive
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index elements and as you can see the
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MTF is just stunningly good it's it's
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very close to being a straight line all
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across at a very high percentage with
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just a little bit of drop off in the end
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I believe in the sagittal plane but I
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mean it is it's really impressively good
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and so what I found is that even
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shooting on either a 50 or 61 megapixel
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body it's just extremely sharp in the
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real world this has zero problems fully
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resolving the sensor even at f2 of my
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a7r mark 5 uh and so I mean just
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incredibly sharp as we'll see a little
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bit more in just a moment also uh
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Distortion is low there's a tiny bit of
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pinish distortion a minus two to correct
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vignette is not bad very moderate a plus
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50 to correct four and for being a
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compact lens that's actually a nice
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result I think it's probably a good
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thing that they stuck at f2 rather than
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trying to go to f1.8 with this lens
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because it's basically pretty close to
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perfect wide open this shot for example
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has zero correction um of any a vignette
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and you can see at f2 it looks fine
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likewise this shot with a lot of
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straight lines of of cityscape you can
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see again there's no bulge or Distortion
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there so all of that looks good
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furthermore the lens is again almost
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perfectly corrected for chromatic
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aberration you can see here that there's
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basically no longitudinal chromatic
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aberration to see likewise in the corner
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of the frame no lateral type chromatic
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aberration and that was true on real
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real world shots as well the wide open
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sharpness is just really really
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impressive and and so here you can see
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from my chart again this is 61
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megapixels and I'm showing these results
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at 200% magnification you can see that
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it's just excellent sharpness all across
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the frame dead sharp in the center in
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the mid-frame and even in the corners
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the corners look very sharp and crisp
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what's more I saw a very good
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consistency in terms of the centering
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around so for example here if I compare
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the midf frame um on the right with the
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upper left corner and I've got the same
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build there you can see that there's
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very little drop off a surprisingly
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little amount of drop off from that
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mid-frame result to the corner and so
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excellent result there stop down and
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you'll get a very slight contrast boost
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as you can see here when stop down I saw
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very consistent sharpness for landscape
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images when you're down to F4 f5.6 f8
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throughout all of those apertures I mean
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the detail you can get is just amazing
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there is some defraction you can start
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to see at f11 on a high resolution body
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and more obviously at
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F16 which is you know it's not really
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lens specific it's what I always see
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with high resolution bodies I've been
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noting for now for a few years that
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vtr's Optical glass has vastly improved
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they got a new supplier and their
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Optical glass is just so much better and
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so now I find colors to be very good be
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it skin tones or be it uh you know
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shooting out in landscape settings just
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colors are are rich but without being
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garish in any way the one area where I
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think the lens is okay but not
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exceptional is when it comes to the the
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overall bouqu rendering and so in some
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situations you can see here specular
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highlights they look pretty decent the
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geometry is not bad across the frame but
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what I do find is that there are some
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situations if it's a little bit busier
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in the transition zone there's a little
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bit more hard edges than what I like and
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so the Boke mostly doesn't look bad but
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I wouldn't call it super soft either and
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I'll show you a few images here and let
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you draw your own conclusions on
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that what I also found is that the flare
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resistance is actually really great from
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the lens as well and so uh that was true
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um you know just in regular shots like
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this if I pan back and forth across you
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can see whether and then whether I'm
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shooting at f2 or shooting at f11 again
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it's just really consistent no veiling
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no ghosting flare resistance is pretty
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close to perfect again that's that's
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amazing in the lens that is so
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inexpensive like this one so that brings
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me to my conclusion this is obviously
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going to be a maybe the niftiest of the
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Nifty 50s that I've seen so far I mean
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it really fits that kind of definition
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of being a lens that it's inexpensive
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small compact but what is different here
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is that typically with the nifty50
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you're getting a cheap lens but you're
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also getting a cheap lens in terms of
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build quality and most obviously when it
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comes to Optical performance this is
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that couldn't be further from the truth
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here this lens is lightweight it's
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inexpensive it's easy to pack but it is
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crazy sharp and it has great autofocus
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as well I think it's an awesome Street
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lens I liked traveling with it not only
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because it's small and compact but you
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feel a little bit less vulnerable with a
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sub $200 lens at the front of your
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camera as OPP to uh you know a 122 to
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$1,500 50mm Prime and so it's probably a
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lens that's going to end up in my pack
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fairly often if I'm wanting to throw a
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prime in to augment some other L lenses
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along with me I've been really impressed
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with all the apsc air series lenses as
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well but because this is fullframe I'm
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even more impressed by it because
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fullframe is that much harder to
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engineer 4 and to do a small compact
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lens like this and to do it so well for
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so little money
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it kind of boggles my mind and so as you
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can tell I'm giving this a very very
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favorable review now if you want more
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information you can check out either my
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text review that's Linked In the
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description down below or stay tuned
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right now and we are going to dive into
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the optical performance a little bit
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deeper together let's take a look okay
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we'll start by taking a look at vignette
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and Distortion you can see a tiny bit of
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pin cushion Distortion there and these
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outer lines here you can also see that
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it corrects in a very linear fashion
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just a minus two to correct for it no
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big deal likewise there is some vignette
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concentrated in the corners however
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again it corrected quite easily with a
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plus 50 and yes there will be correction
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profiles by the time that this goes to
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retail you can see a near perfect
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control of chromatic aberations in terms
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of longitudinal style tiniest amount of
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green fringing but I mean nothing hardly
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there at all real world shots I just
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really didn't see it likewise lateral
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style chromatic aberration pretty much
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perfect in the transitions from black to
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white no issues there at all excellent
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performance in terms of sharpness as
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I've already emphasized this lens is
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incredible so here this is 200%
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magnification from a 61 megapixel a7r
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Mark 5 and a sub $200 lens I mean and
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look at the contrast and detail there if
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we go to the mid-frame I mean it's just
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like it's it's Flawless and uh moving
17:21
down here in all of these zones like
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detail and contrast is staying up just
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fantastic and really from here to here
17:29
there is a little drop off right in that
17:31
like final degree but it's still
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actually resolving a lot of the fine
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details there really really impressive
17:37
and of course where it gets really
17:38
really impressive is when I compare it
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to the 50mm f1.4 GM both lenses at f2 in
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the center of the frame I don't know if
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you can have any other takeaway than
17:48
that the vrox is every bit as sharp and
17:51
if we move out a little ways you can see
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in this Zone that they're roughly
17:54
comparable as we get a little closer to
17:57
the edge however there's just no no
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question that the vrox is much much
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sharper and producing a better end
18:03
result and uh that's still true up here
18:07
I mean both lenses are great but the vro
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is just a little bit greater and that's
18:12
pretty mind-blowing a bit of real world
18:14
perspective here at f2 you can see the
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detail there is just perfect uh likewise
18:20
in this portrait shot also at f2 I mean
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just look at how much detail is there
18:25
all the texture information on her
18:27
jacket here on the motor cycle I mean
18:30
that's just Flawless and that's at f2
18:33
with such a sharp lens wide open there's
18:35
a little less room for you know
18:37
Improvement when you stop it down
18:39
however I would say that at f2.8 I see
18:42
just the dark levels are just a little
18:44
bit darker there if we take a look here
18:47
for example I think there's just a you
18:49
know the black levels are just a little
18:51
bit better and then if we go to this top
18:54
corner here and again this also allows
18:56
us to look at the centering you can see
18:58
that now that sharpness is just reaching
19:00
a little further up into the corner and
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those contrast levels look really
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fantastic all through here very very
19:07
impressive in result now I would say
19:09
from f2.8 to F4 again there's a tiny bit
19:12
of improvement it's a little harder to
19:14
spot at this point from F4 to f5.6 I
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think it would be hard to argue that
19:19
there's much there to see we pretty much
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reached the Peak Performance even by F4
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that'll Carry On Through f8 by f11
19:28
defraction is starting to soften things
19:30
a little bit but more noticeable by F16
19:34
though I will point out that even after
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defraction takes its its chunk out of
19:38
the performance it still is good or
19:40
better than you know most lenses that uh
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are under $2200 at their finest so as
19:47
noted magnification level is not very
19:49
high as you can see however you know the
19:51
lens compensates by being very very
19:53
sharp and high contrast up close and
19:56
it's also delivering a pretty flat PL of
19:59
focus to where we've got pretty good
20:01
detail all across the frame everywhere
20:03
that we look now when it comes to the
20:05
bouqu here looking at the specular
20:07
highlights number one I what I like
20:09
about this image where I've purposely
20:10
defocused everything is the color
20:12
rendition does look good and so it it is
20:15
cre creating a pleasing background the
20:17
shape of the specular highlights is
20:19
really quite good I mean it's deforming
20:22
a little bit towards the edge but not
20:23
too
20:24
badly images like this and frankly this
20:27
is a you know this is a busy subject and
20:30
this is in a camera store with a lot of
20:31
just kind of hard edges but I'll also
20:33
point out there is more outlining in
20:35
this I certainly think that the GM for
20:37
example would make this look a whole lot
20:39
more pleasing to the ey situations like
20:43
this where it's a little bit less
20:45
complex background again it's not
20:47
incredibly soft the bouquet doesn't
20:49
that's to me probably the my least
20:51
favorite aspect of the design but in
20:54
less challenging situations like this
20:56
it's not great but it's not bad either
20:58
and you'll have to decide for yourself
21:00
whether or not the Boke pleases your eye
21:03
what I think is really does stand out to
21:05
me though is just how good viltrox has
21:07
gotten with their Optical glass in terms
21:08
of the colors and so I mean this is a
21:10
just a great con uh combination of color
21:13
and contrast its ability to handle these
21:16
fine details and again the the Blurred
21:18
out portion isn't amazing but it's not
21:20
hideous either and so um the the image
21:23
itself I think works and looks good
21:25
colors here you know there's a lot of
21:27
different tonal Vari ations in this and
21:29
I think that the colors look really
21:31
fantastic this is the yokohoma skyline
21:34
here at night uh this shot on one of the
21:37
temple uh compounds there in Tokyo you
21:41
can just see the colors are just really
21:42
rich you know Reds look nicely saturated
21:45
Blues look nicely saturated just a
21:47
really really pleasing look overall and
21:49
finally I found that the flare
21:51
resistance was just excellent here the
21:52
sun is very bright you might not be able
21:54
to tell it because it's not ghosting or
21:56
anything but it's doing a great job and
21:58
then when I just did all of my
21:59
intentional things shooting right into
22:01
the Sun at small and then at large
22:05
apertures I just I didn't see anything
22:08
in terms of flare artifacts so overall
22:10
this lens is extremely impressive
22:12
optically and so as you can see from our
22:14
Optical breakdown this lens is just
22:16
stunningly good for the price and I hope
22:18
the Deep dive has helped you to decide
22:21
whether or not it's a lens for you as
22:23
always thanks for watching have a great
22:24
day and let the light in
22:27
[Music]

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