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Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 STM 40MP X-mount Review | $140 for Portrait Excellence!
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Apr 9, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott examines one of the least expensive portrait lenses - the new Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 X - for Fuji X mount to see if it holds up to the 40MP sensor of the X-H2 and is worth buying. | This video is sponsored by Fantom Duffel. Visit https://store.fantomwallet.com and use code DUSTIN20 to get 20% off | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/Vil1756Review | Visit the Image Gallery: https://tinyurl.com/Vil1756pics | Purchase the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 @ Viltrox https://tinyurl.com/BuyVil56X (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 8% off starting April 23rd) | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/43PzCOM | Adorama https://howl.me/cl0BUhoveBZ | Nuzira https://tinyurl.com/bddra7yb | Amazon https://amzn.to/4aLlo3Y | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/49x7Bgh | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3xofWW6 | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3VQXrE8 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.me/cjU0LKdp3LN 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 Make a donation via Paypal: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dustinTWI ============================= Table of Contents: ============================= 0:00 - Intro and Concept 1:43 - Fantom Duffel
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to give you my review of Viltrox's newest lens
0:15
This is the autofocusing 56mm F1.7 for Fuji X-mount. Now they already had an existing 56mm F1.4 lens, but what's interesting is that Viltrox
0:28
is kind of building both up and down at the moment. Their earlier lens belonged to, kind of, they had certain series of lenses that were coming
0:37
out that were moderately priced, you know, moderately featured, moderately performing. They've obviously gone in the direction of much higher performing lenses with more feature
0:48
much better optics, better autofocus, all of those things. But then they've also gone in the other direction where for the first time they're using plastics
0:57
and some of their lens designs and creating a series of inexpensive lenses that, you know
1:02
have a little bit lower grade of build quality, though I will say these lenses are actually
1:07
feel quite tough. But more importantly, these lenses, though very inexpensive, are actually receiving some
1:13
of the trickle down effect of the optical improvements that the brand is making in general
1:21
making them really, really intriguing lenses. So this is a budget telephoto
1:26
It is a full frame equivalent of about 85mm. Right now it is just for Fuji X-Mount and it's coming at under $150 US dollars in terms
1:36
of pricing, making that really, really intriguing. So is this a lens worth buying
1:40
Well let's dive in together right after a word from our sponsor. Today's episode is brought to you by the Phantom Duffel, a new unique convertible duffel bag
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you're ready to check out. So as noted, this lens is at 56 millimeters when you use the 1.5 times crop factor of
2:40
Fuji's APS-C X-Mount sensor. That gives you a field of view of 84 millimeters, full frame equivalent or a right under 30
2:49
degree angle of view. This is the second 56 millimeter from Viltrox and while this is the less expensive of the
2:57
two options available now for Fuji's X-Mount, if you take a look at this MTF comparison
3:03
this is where I was really, really impressed. I put a line through at the 80% mark and you can see that almost all of the performance
3:10
of this lens is above that 80% mark, while almost none of the performance of the earlier
3:16
56 millimeter F1.4 lens even reaches that 80% mark. And so we can see that this is a really, really impressive lens optically
3:26
I brought out the 20 millimeter F2.8 as a point of comparison
3:31
I have in some ways raved about this lens that, you know, being a kind of a plastic fantastic
3:38
Although again, it's tough plastics and that's the same for the build quality here
3:42
Very similar in terms of the kind of basic design. This has an interesting maximum aperture of F1.7 versus the more typical F1.8
3:51
And in fact, the way that most cameras are set up, you don't actually go to F1.7 as a
3:57
stop or an option along the aperture range there. And so F1.7 is one half stop lower than F1.4
4:07
Now by comparison, F1.8 is two thirds stop slower than F1.4. And more typically, you have one third stops there along the way
4:18
And so for example, from F1.4 to F2, you would have F1.6, F1.8, and then F2
4:26
So F1.7 obviously falls in between F1.6 and F1.8. So it's a little bit brighter and so it'll give you a little bit more light gathering
4:37
than an equivalent F1.8 lens. Now this lens is obviously very, very compact, much like the 20 millimeter that I've alluded
4:46
to before. You can see that this is basically a palm size lens
4:50
It is 65 millimeters or 2.6 inches in diameter, has a common 52 millimeter front filter thread
4:57
up front, which by the way is shared with the 20 millimeter F2.8
5:01
And the lens is even shorter than that 20 millimeter lens. It is only 54.7 millimeters or 2.15 inches in length
5:10
And it weighs in at 171 grams, which is about six ounces
5:16
So it is very, very lightweight. And while we don't have anything like a weather sealing gasket here, we do have kind of a
5:23
coating on the front element to help with fingerprints and things like that
5:27
Now the plastic lens hood is also included, though I do have one minor complaint similar
5:32
to what I saw here. And that is that it doesn't bayonet firmly into place and that it doesn't really lock
5:39
there at all. So it's not hard at all to move that to the side. So you may need to watch out to make sure that the lens hood doesn't get kind of off kilter
5:47
Sometimes that can produce a little bit of a vignette effect, though it's less likely
5:51
to happen with a telephoto lens like this. The lens itself has no features on the side
5:58
There's no switches, no buttons. All we have is the manual focus ring
6:01
Fortunately, the manual focus ring itself is nicely damped. It has good feel to it
6:06
And so what it is here is well executed. The only other thing that we have here as far as a potential feature is that here on
6:13
the lens mount, we do have that USB-C port that allows for easy firmware updates
6:19
And once you learn how to do Viltrox firmware updates, they are very, very quick and they're
6:23
very, very simple. Maybe the most straightforward and easy process of any of the lenses that I do updates for
6:30
Now 85 millimeter-ish lenses are rarely very good when it comes to maximum magnification
6:35
This lens is no exception. It can focus down only as closely as 55 centimeters and it produces a 0.11 times
6:44
0.12 times is about average for the class and the highest that I've seen for typical
6:50
lenses kind of non-macro designs is just 0.14 times. So it's not great, but it's really not far off from what the norm is for this particular lens
7:01
And it is a hair better than what we saw from the earlier 56 millimeter F1.4
7:06
So overall, again, not a whole lot here in terms of features, but the lens itself does
7:10
feel well-made. Autofocus comes via a lead screw type STM or stepping focus motor
7:18
Now on Sony, I found that the focus motor on the 20 millimeter F2.8 was great
7:23
No problems at all. I'm a little bit less impressed with this lens on Fuji platform
7:28
Now to be fair, probably a good part of that is Fuji itself
7:32
Fuji's autofocus is just not as sophisticated and that's particularly true when you get
7:36
to the video side of things. So what I found, as you can see here in my focus test, is that focus is what we would
7:43
call deliberate. It is not quick. There are some visible steps. I particularly noticed it making major focus changes in dimmer light
7:50
You can see outside it's a little bit better, but it is still not lightening fast at all
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There is less of a kind of a real world issue when it came to normal autofocus changes
8:03
which tend to be less extreme. And so I didn't really notice autofocus being slow so much in everyday use, though obviously
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if you're making a major focus change, it's not as quick as what you would like
8:15
What it is, however, is quiet and it is also very accurate
8:19
And so if your priority is just getting results that are well focused, you're not going to
8:23
have any problem with this lens. It definitely gets the job done. It was actually fantastic as a portrait lens
8:29
Autofocus speed was fine for that, but more importantly, autofocus accuracy was very good
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And as we're going to see, the optics in this lens are actually lovely
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And so as a byproduct, I did multiple portrait sessions with it and I was really pleased
8:43
with the results, both in the focus accuracy, but more importantly, in the look of the images
8:48
as well. Now, on the video side of things, I found that autofocus pulls, they're rather slow
8:54
and there are some obvious steps as a part of the process
8:58
Again, unfortunately, that's pretty typical on Fuji with rare exceptions. I did find that when I did the hand test that it was a little bit better and you can
9:07
see that focus breathing is nicely low, but because the autofocus is not particularly
9:13
reactive, there's that one point at the end where it actually missed the transition from
9:17
the hand to the eye altogether because it just happened too quick for it to react
9:22
Now ironically, in real world shots where I just wanted to gradually pull focus from
9:27
one to another just by moving it along, it actually does fairly well for that because
9:32
that slower, more deliberate autofocus change actually is tuned nicely for a more cinematic
9:38
type look. And so it's not abrupt or snappy, but rather more smooth
9:44
And so I actually didn't mind it for video work in that particular setting, though obviously
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autofocus in general is what I would consider to be the weak point of this lens's design
9:55
I should be interested to revisit it should they release a, you know, for example, a Sony
10:00
E-mount version in the future. I suspect that autofocus will be more pleasing in that kind of application, but I can only
10:07
report on what I see here on my Fuji X-H2 camera body
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So I would say if you're looking for a recommendation from me as to whether or not this lens will
10:17
work for you, if you're planning to do portrait work, event work, general purpose work, I
10:23
think it will be fine. If you're looking for a lens to keep up with small children or pets or sports, you need
10:29
to look elsewhere. Focus speed is just not adequate for those kinds of applications
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Now we get to the really good part of things. This lens has an optical design of 11 elements in nine groups, but surprisingly of those
10:42
11 elements, seven of them are exotic elements, including four ED or extra low dispersion
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elements and three HR or high refractive index elements. The MTF looks amazingly consistent, which of course is incredibly important when you're
10:58
talking about making a lens that works on Fuji's incredibly demanding 40 megapixel sensor
11:05
as is found in my X-H2. The fact that Viltrox developed this lens specifically for, at least first for, Fuji's
11:13
X-Mount platform tells me that they knew the optics were good enough to handle this, and
11:17
in fact they certainly are. We'll break that down more in my detailed optical breakdown that follows my conclusion
11:25
here in a few moments, so if you want that you can either jump ahead to that or stay tuned for that in just a moment, but I'll give you the highlights here
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There is very low distortion, just a little bit of pincushion distortion
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I used a minus three to correct. Vignette is heavier, about three stops of vignette, a plus 75 to correct, though on
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Fuji it is receiving correction profiles, and so for JPEGs in camera I did find that
11:52
distortion and vignette were corrected for there, and there is already available to me
11:57
in Lightroom a correction profile there for raw images, so not really all that big of
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an issue. I saw next to no fringing from this lens, even in really demanding situations
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On my test chart there's nothing to see there, but I shot into the reflector dish of a light
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that I recently reviewed, the MOLUS X60, and in that very bright, shiny reflector dish
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I just couldn't see any kind of chromatic aberrations or fringing in there, so very
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very impressive. I also didn't see it in the corner of images, lateral type chromatic aberrations weren't
12:31
there either. There is excellent wide open sharpness all across the frame from the center right out
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to the corners, a very consistent sharpness profile, and if I compare that to some recent
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lenses that I've reviewed at this focal length, it obviously blows away what I saw from the
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Sirui Sniper 56mm f1.2. Even when I stop that lens down to f1.8, it isn't anywhere close to being as sharp at
12:55
this lens at any point. Here you can see the corners. I also found that it is sharper than the soon to be released, but already announced, TTRSEN
13:05
56mm f1.8 lens, a very good lens by the way, but this lens, while that lens is consistent
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in this, fairly consistent in the center of the frame to this one, the Viltrox is sharper
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in the mid-frame shown here and then also in the corners. In fact, I found that even with the very expensive new Fuji AF 56mm f1.2, the WR version, which
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I'll be releasing a review of very shortly, I actually found that while the Fuji is better
13:33
in the center of the frame, this Viltrox is arguably a little bit better in the mid-frame
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and the corners in terms of sharpness when I looked at them comparatively f1.7 with the
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Fuji stopped down to f1.8. So this is a very impressively sharp lens
13:48
Get a little bit more contrast as you stop it down a bit. I noted that more in real world results than I did in my test chart
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You know, in these couple of comparisons shown here, I also found that when stopped down
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it was very consistent in terms of sharpness for landscape type images as a secondary application
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and beautiful, beautiful results for portrait work, which included very nice bokeh quality
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and also very, very nice color. Surprisingly good in that application, which I think pretty obviously points to what is
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the best use of this particular lens. You will see diffraction start to pop up on high resolution bodies at f11 and quite obviously
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by f16. Finally, I found that even flare resistance was fairly good for a short telephoto lens
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wide open, not a whole lot going on there in real world images, not really any kind
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of major issue and to stop down a bit more of a ghosting pattern, but nothing significant
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So in conclusion, I've been surprised by these lenses in that my reaction to them as I actually
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use them. I don't, I didn't go into this one in particular expecting much a little bit more because of
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this one in the 56 millimeter, but actually find that they kind of tug on the same sweet
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spot in my heart as Samyang's tiny series and that these are lenses that just exceed
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your expectation. It looks so small and so inexpensive and so you don't expect much
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And then it's just so much more than what you anticipate. It is a very competent, lightweight lens
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And the fact that it's at such a low price point is going to make this an incredibly
15:24
appealing lens. I'd say in particular for those that are looking for a budget portrait lens, the actual results
15:30
here are gorgeous. And as long as you don't need really, really snappy autofocus, this is a lens that I think
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is really going to delight a lot of Fuji X mount shooters
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I'm Dustin Abbott. If you want more information, you can either read the full text review that is linked in
15:45
the description down below. There are buying links there as well, as well as a discount code, my name that will give
15:50
you a 8% discount if you buy it from Viltrox. And if you want more information now, you can jump in with me and we're going to do
15:58
our detailed image quality breakdown
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So we'll start by taking a look at vignette and distortion. You can see just a tiny bit of pin cushion distortion there, which by the way is often
16:16
flattering in a portrait lens. So you may not even want to try to correct that little bit there
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Vignette is a little bit heavier in the corners. You can see my manual correction on the right here
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I've dialed in a minus three to correct for what little distortion there was
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And in the corners, I've dialed in a plus 75. But to give you an idea on the left side, this is uncorrected
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On the right side, this is corrected. And this isn't necessarily a dramatic example, but of these two, if I were looking at them
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blinds, you know, just are side by side here, I actually favor the uncorrected result
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I like a little bit of that natural vignette drawing the eye towards the subject
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Your mileage may vary, obviously. Now you can see here on the left, I've got a JPEG correction compared to the raw image
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on the right. There's definitely some in-camera correction that is taking place for JPEGs
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And then also, there is a correction profile for raw images. And you can see that the JPEG and this corrected raw now look pretty similar
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I also noted that longitudinal chromatic aberrations were really well corrected. You don't see much before or after the plane of focus
17:19
I saw that here in some specular highlights, very little fringing around these
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And then also in this shot, I was really quite impressed. Even if we punch into a 200% magnification, you can see these really, really reflective surfaces
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Very little fringing there. And if you look at this rim where it's all just bokeh, you can see that there's just
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no fringing taking place there. A really, really impressive result. Likewise, if we look at the corners of images like this, you can see next to no lateral
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chromatic aberrations there as well. So overall, fringing is not an issue with this lens
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So we're going to check out our sharpness results. This is on the 40 megapixel Fujifilm X-H2
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We're going to look at 200% magnification. As noted previously, this lens is just really, really impressive for such an inexpensive
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lens in its sharpness across the frame. See the mid-frame looks fantastic
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If anything, it's actually a hair sharper than the center of the frame
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Consistently, as we track down, everything is nice and sharp. And those corners are actually really, really impressive
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Now I will note that this lens is just a little bit softer on the left side than it is on
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the right side. You can see if we look here and then if we come over to here, it's just a little centering
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is not flawless. Again, not surprising in such an inexpensive lens. Neither is it bad either
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I'll also note that this lens is sharp enough that it really actually does benefits well
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from the enhanced details effect in Lightroom. Obviously, that takes extra storage and all of those things, but you can see that the
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text is just crisper still. If we look up into this zone, it's just smoother, a little bit less of the jagged edges
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Just a really, really smooth allows that sharpness to sing and even more of those details to
19:04
emerge here in the lens, making it even more impressive. Now, as I alluded to, even if I stopped down the Sirui Sniper 56mm F1.2, which I was very
19:15
clear was not a particularly sharp lens, but you can see that it's destroyed by this Viltrox
19:21
at least in terms of sharpness and contrast. The Sniper does have really nice bokeh, so I don't want to trash it here, but you can
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see that as far as sharpness goes, it doesn't matter where you look in the frame
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It's not even a contest. The Viltrox is just so much sharper, just great, great flawless details compared to
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what looks like kind of a haze over all the details. Now, taking a look at the soon to be released TT Artisan 56mm F1.8, a lens that I actually
19:49
really quite like, by the way. We can see that in the center of the frame, the TT Artisan looks great
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I would say it looks every bit as good as what this lens does
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In the mid-frame, however, you can see that the TT Artisan is not quite as soft, contrast
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not quite as good, and as we get down to the corners, the difference is a little bit more pronounced
20:08
Though, if we pop over to this side where the Viltrox is not quite as good, you can
20:12
see that the margins are closer. Now, the major test is the heavyweight in this class, which is the new XF 56mm F1.2
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WR lens. If I stop that lens down to F1.8, in the center of the frame, you can see that the Fuji is
20:29
the easy winner. It's just really, really high contrast, really, really sharp
20:33
Moving just a little bit off-frame, however, or off-center, I should say, and you can see
20:37
that the Viltrox, if anything, is probably a hair sharper there. You can see that as we pan down throughout this zone as well, that it's just a little
20:47
bit crisper, and then into the corners, it's not by a big margin, but I would definitely
20:51
take the Viltrox in the corners. Obviously, this is a really impressively sharp lens, and while contrast doesn't always look
20:59
like mind-blowing on it, you can see that it looks really, really good, and that's impressive
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considering the demands of this sensor. I found even for shooting just in an event-type setting, you can see that focus is good
21:11
The detail is nice and crisp everywhere on the subject, no problem there, and while we'll
21:17
see in a moment that the lens doesn't sharpen up, particularly in the early stages as you
21:22
stop it down a bit, we can see if we look at this real-world comparison where I see
21:26
a little bit more result than I see on the charts, you can see that I would favor the
21:30
contrast here, mostly in that the brights look a little bit brighter, allows the shadows
21:35
to pop a little bit more, and so as we stop down a little bit to F2.2, we can see that
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it just does produce a little bit better of a real-world result
21:45
So from F2 to F2.8, there isn't any kind of real or significant improvement that I can
21:51
see looking at most spots along the frame. There is, however, a bit more of a bump from F2.8 to F4, and then a bit more from F4 to
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F5.6, and we can see now that we're getting a more even performance everywhere else in
22:06
the frame. It's looking very sharp, even on the side where this copy was a little bit softer
22:12
We can see looking at landscape results at F5.6 that it is super crisp in the center
22:17
of the frame, but even if we pan towards the left side where the lens was a little bit
22:21
softer, we can see that it is crisp all across the frame
22:25
Great details everywhere if this is a really sharp lens. F8 looks great as well, but by F11, you'll see some softening due to diffraction, and
22:34
that obviously is going to become more pronounced as you stop down to the minimum aperture of F16
22:40
Contrast dips a little bit up close. You can see that there is a pretty good amount of detail here, and the plane of focus is
22:47
pretty flat, but contrast is a little bit softer, and it will sharpen up more as you
22:52
stop it down. Now, I was also pleased with the bokeh quality
22:57
Up close, doing a shot of that new TT Artisan lens, you can see that the blur up close is
23:02
really nice and soft. In this image here, you can see that while there is a little bit of that swirl effect
23:09
there's some kind of lemon or cat eye shape towards the edge of the frame, the bokeh
23:14
even in these complex areas, remains nice and soft. And so for portrait type work, I'm surprised at how good this lens actually does
23:23
And here's what really surprised me. On the left side, we've got the Viltrox
23:27
On the right side, we've got the $1,000 56mm f1.2 WR lens, which is a gorgeous lens, by
23:33
the way. But you can see that there isn't a huge difference here if we compare them side by side
23:40
It is surprisingly close as far as what surprises me is the colors here are actually really
23:46
really close. If we look down through the dress, the color rendition is very similar
23:51
Looking at the background here, I would say that the Fuji background is a little bit softer
23:55
but you can tell it's not by a wide margin. Now where the Fuji advantage comes in is the fact that it opens up to f1.2
24:03
And so now if we take a look at this background area, look how much softer the Fuji side is
24:09
compared to the Viltrox side all throughout that. And then what is pretty amazing is that even at f1.2, the Fuji remains really sharp even
24:17
on this 40 megapixel body. But as a budget portrait lens, I really loved what I got
24:23
You can see that I'm doing the natural framing by shooting through branches
24:27
The bokeh is really nice and soft. And if you look here at the detail on the subject's face, it's just beautiful
24:33
Skin tones, really, really nice. Actually in this particular set, I shot with this lens and then also the new Sigma 50mm f1.2
24:42
And in this particular kind of pose and setting, I didn't like anything that I got from the Sigma
24:48
It just didn't work very well. And while this is not my favorite shot, I actually still like this shot reasonably well
24:54
whereas I didn't on the Sigma. And here's a few other portrait shots
24:58
You can just see even at f1.7, the detail is really, really nice here
25:03
The background is beautifully blurred. Colors are great. There's just a lot of positive going on here for such an inexpensive lens
25:12
Finally, looking at flare resistance one more time. This is the most wide open kind of flare I could induce, kind of a veiling effect
25:20
And if anything, it's artistic. I have nothing to complain about there
25:24
And so unless you're really, really stopped down, you're not going to see much in terms
25:28
of any kind of veiling or ghosting. And so frankly, that's another win for this lens
25:33
Just a really impressive optical performance. So congratulations, you have made it all the way through to the very end
25:40
Thanks for watching. Have a great day and let the light in
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