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Photographer Dustin Abbott takes a deep dive look at the Viltrox AIR 14mm F4 - now available in Nikon Z-mount. Can you get an great wide angle prime for under $200? | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/AIR14da | Purchase the Viltrox AF 14mm F4 AIR @ Viltrox https://tinyurl.com/Buy14Zda (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 5% off) | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4onqLwv | Amazon https://amzn.to/4imhWS8 | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4onggJK | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4gv1wpz | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3IwFEO9 | Vitopal https://bit.ly/3IdQNmZ?ref=Dustin
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro
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0:10
Well, I'm at the beach today, but
0:12
considering that it is nearly December
0:15
and I am filming in Ontario, Canada, the
0:19
beach isn't nearly as great a place to
0:20
think be as you might think. But I am
0:23
here today to give you my intro for
0:25
taking a look at the Nikon Zmount
0:28
version of Viltrox's excellent 14
0:31
millimeter F4 from their Air series. I
0:34
love this little compact lens on Sony
0:37
because it is so strong optically but
0:39
also so compact. And I've never really
0:41
seen a lens quite like this that is this
0:44
compact but with this wide a focal
0:46
length. And so it's a really really
0:47
useful lens for a lot of reasons. most
0:50
notably because it's really easy to drop
0:52
into a pocket or into your bag to bring
0:54
along to give you a wide angle
0:56
perspective. The big question always is
0:59
how well is it going to transfer over to
1:01
Zmount? And so today I'm going to give
1:03
you a brief review of how it performs on
1:05
Zmount. This is the same lens as what
1:07
I've already thoroughly reviewed on
1:09
Sony, but I'll look at a few areas
1:11
considering how it performs in terms of
1:13
the autofocus and then of course uh some
1:16
of the optical perspective to see if it
1:18
is holding up and show you some pictures
1:20
coming off of Zmount. So, we're going to
1:22
dive in today and take a look. All
1:24
right, let's take a quick look at the
1:26
build and the design here. As with all
1:28
of the Viltrox lenses, the Zmount
1:30
version is very slightly wider and
1:33
longer than what the E-mount is. and
1:35
that they're definitely wider when it
1:37
comes to the smaller air series because
1:39
the widest point of the lens ends up
1:41
being near the lens mount to accommodate
1:42
that wider diameter of the actual
1:45
Zmount. So, we have a 68 mm diameter
1:48
here which is 3 mm greater than the
1:50
E-mount. So, it's 2.7 in. The length
1:53
here is 58.4 mm. So, that again is plus
1:57
2 millimeters compared to the Sony
1:58
E-mount. And that is to accommodate for
2:00
the different flange distance for
2:01
Zmount. It's the the optical path needs
2:03
to be just two uh millimeters further.
2:06
And so you'll find with all of these,
2:07
they are pretty much exactly 2
2:08
millimeters longer. There's 58 mm front
2:11
filter thread up front. As far as the
2:13
feature set, it is very, very simple
2:15
here. There's just a ring on here, but
2:18
it can be used as a customizable control
2:20
ring here on Zmount. And so that is one
2:22
advantage. The weight is 185 gram. And
2:26
so that's 15 grams heavier than what we
2:29
found on the E-mount version. There is a
2:31
USBC port for firmware updates. There is
2:34
no weather sealing gasket here at the
2:37
back. However, there is an HD nano
2:39
coating on the front. Now, of course,
2:41
it's a big deal here that we can use
2:43
traditional filters, 58 millimeter
2:45
filters, and but as we're going to see
2:46
in the image quality section, this is a
2:48
lens that has a pretty significant
2:49
amount of vignette already. And you're
2:51
going to want to be very very careful
2:53
with the kind of filters you use to use
2:55
as slim as possible because otherwise
2:56
you will introduce additional vignette
2:58
into the uh the equation here. It does
3:02
come with a little pouch and it comes
3:04
with you know both the caps and a hood.
3:06
All of that is good. Uh but nothing
3:09
special there obviously seven aperture
3:11
blades inside. You can get a decent
3:12
sunstar out of it though as we're going
3:14
to see. going to be careful when trying
3:16
to achieve that because flare flare
3:18
issues do exist on this lens. It can
3:21
focus down as closely as 13 centimeters
3:23
and provides a very useful 0.23 times
3:26
magnification. So, that is great. And
3:29
the price is the greatest part of all.
3:31
It's $199
3:33
at MSRP. However, you can always get it
3:36
cheaper than that. You can use a
3:37
discount code which is in the
3:38
description down below. And then, of
3:39
course, I'm filming and releasing on
3:41
Black Friday for this. And the price is
3:44
way down today, getting this into an
3:46
epic level of cheapness. And so if you
3:49
look for sales, you can get this for,
3:51
you know, probably $170 range, which is
3:55
an incredible value for what you are
3:56
getting optically and in terms of
3:58
general performance from this lens. So
4:00
let's talk autofocus. Autofocus comes
4:02
via an STM or stepping focus motor. And
4:06
because this is a wide focal length with
4:08
a fairly narrow maximum aperture,
4:10
autofocus doesn't have to work too hard
4:12
in most situations. The reality is is
4:15
that a lot of the times, even shooting
4:16
at f4, most things are going to be in
4:19
focus. The only exception to that is if
4:20
you get really close to something and
4:22
you're able to defocus it a little bit.
4:24
That being said, autofocus is quiet.
4:27
Moves back and forth with good speed and
4:30
there's no real issues with that.
4:32
Likewise here for video. As you can see,
4:34
has no problem picking up my face. And
4:36
if I, you know, block kind of infinity
4:40
where I'm doing close focus and I move
4:42
my hand back and forth, it jumps back
4:44
and forth fairly quick. I can do the
4:46
approach the camera kind of thing, but
4:48
the truth of the matter is is that it
4:50
doesn't really reveal a whole lot
4:52
because again, focus is only having to
4:55
make incremental changes, not enough
4:56
that you're actually going to actually
4:58
notice unless I get really, really close
5:00
to the camera. And so at the end of the
5:02
day, autofocus, it's not anything
5:04
particularly sophisticated, but it gets
5:06
the job done. It's fast, it's quiet,
5:08
it's smooth, and here on Nikon, I didn't
5:11
really see any kind of any significant
5:13
loss compared to what I saw on Sony. It
5:15
remains excellent and gets the job done.
5:17
All right, let's check out our image
5:19
quality here. So, first of all, we have
5:22
some barrel distortion here, and we
5:25
definitely have some stronger vignette
5:27
on Zmount than what we saw on Sony
5:29
E-mount. Now, as far as the distortion
5:31
goes, you can see that there's not a
5:33
massive amount for such a wide angle
5:35
lens. So, they've actually done a really
5:36
good job of mitigating the quantity of
5:39
distortion here. However, you can't see
5:41
it is a little bit of a complex pattern.
5:43
And so, if I work, if you could see
5:45
here, there's some bulge in the center,
5:46
but if I work to try to pull that in too
5:48
much, it creates some pin cushion type
5:50
effect in the corners. And so, it's a
5:52
little bit of a mustache pattern. So,
5:54
just a little bit complex. Also, as far
5:56
as vignette goes, it's definitely
5:58
heavier here. I'm needing to move into a
6:01
plus 70 type zone and I could probably
6:02
go a little bit more whereas on Sony I
6:05
was at about a plus 48. Now as far as
6:08
the distortion goes here in real world
6:10
you can see that there is the lines here
6:13
in the center look you know quite
6:14
straight. You can see here however there
6:17
is a little bit going on. If we go in
6:20
between the profile you can see it's not
6:22
really messing with the distortion and
6:24
that's because correcting one thing adds
6:26
the other. But really what we're
6:27
correcting for is that heavier vignette
6:29
and that does make a noticeable
6:31
difference. Now what's interesting is if
6:33
I use video here and I go through this
6:35
same sequence. You can see that really
6:37
the lines look quite good. So there is
6:39
some correction in camera going on
6:41
there. But I I would say that for most
6:44
applications video is going to be just
6:46
fine. As far as how much this vignette
6:48
is going to affect out in the real
6:49
world, here's an f4 landscape image. You
6:52
can see there's a little bit of
6:53
darkening in the corners here, but for
6:54
this, this is uncorrected. No big deal.
6:57
Uh, if I switch to a scene where there's
6:59
snow down here in the corners, you can
7:01
definitely see that darkening a bit
7:03
more, but you know, it's it's not a deal
7:05
breaker amount either. I've seen far far
7:07
worse. Now, as far as the fringing side
7:10
of things, first of all, for
7:11
longitudinal style, there's really no
7:13
issue there. I mean, this you're going
7:15
to not really have much of a narrow
7:16
depth of field most of the time. And
7:18
then if we go to the lateral style, you
7:20
can see a little bit, but it's again
7:22
it's pretty well controlled. It's not
7:23
going to be much of an issue in real
7:25
world shooting. So, as far as
7:27
resolution, this is 45 megapixel Z8, and
7:30
I'm showing you at 200% magnification.
7:32
You can see that this lens is
7:34
fantastically sharp in the center of the
7:36
frame. Really sharp, very high contrast.
7:38
Mid-frame likewise looks really, really
7:40
good. As we pan down here towards the
7:42
corners, we can see that there is a drop
7:44
off right at the very edge. And so you
7:47
can see it looks really good on this
7:48
end, but you can see it's just dropping
7:50
right that last few percentage points of
7:53
the corners. It's really fading pretty
7:54
quick. So staying here in the corners,
7:56
we can see stopping down to f5.6. It's a
7:59
minor difference, but not much. If we
8:02
move on to f8, however, we can see that
8:05
now we're getting closer to the corner.
8:07
So in this case on Nikon, I would say if
8:09
you're shooting landscape, shoot at f8.
8:11
We're getting sharp corners uh basically
8:14
right off to the edge of the frame. You
8:16
can see still got lots of resolution and
8:17
even even just that much far end it's
8:19
looking really really great. And looking
8:21
down here into this corner looking you
8:22
know nice and strong there. So here is
8:25
what an f8 shot looks at at 100% you
8:28
know a more typical magnification level.
8:30
And so you can see lots of different
8:32
details textures in this looks really
8:34
really good in the center of the frame.
8:35
As I move off here towards the corner
8:37
you know there's that last little bit is
8:39
softer right in this zone but most of it
8:42
you can see is looking crisp down into
8:44
this corner. can see, you know, it
8:46
really looks very, very acceptably good.
8:48
And so, this continues to be a
8:50
surprisingly sharp option. Even like
8:52
this zone here at this cliff face, just
8:54
look at how much detail and texture and
8:56
contrast is there. That's really
8:58
impressive for such a bud budget optic
9:00
that goes so wide. So, as always,
9:02
defraction is going to be an issue. So,
9:04
here at f11, look at the detail and
9:07
contrast here and here. And then if we
9:08
look at f-16, you can see just how much
9:10
softer both of those look. So, the
9:13
contrast is just not holding up the same
9:15
way. It's not the end of the world. It's
9:17
still usable at f-16 and certainly at
9:19
f11 still looking pretty great. Now,
9:21
here's a look at the maximum
9:23
magnification. This is actually from the
9:24
E-mount version. You can see it's really
9:26
sharp in the center of the frame, but
9:28
you know, it's not a completely flat
9:29
plane of focus, but obviously a very
9:31
very useful amount of magnification
9:34
about 0.23
9:36
times. So, that does give you
9:37
versatility when you're out and about.
9:40
You can uh you know you can get close to
9:42
things and you know get different kinds
9:44
of looks and actually get some defocus
9:46
background. Not strongly. F4 is not
9:49
particularly fast. 14 mm is very wide
9:52
but you can definitely get some
9:53
different looks. Colors are nice. You
9:56
can see very rich nice levels of
9:57
saturation. A nice blend here with the
10:00
Nikon sensor here. Again uh this is more
10:03
evening light here and the colors are
10:04
really warm and rich. I you know I have
10:07
no problem with that into things.
10:09
Now, flare resistance is an issue here
10:12
and and for whatever reason, it seemed
10:14
to show up more on my review of the
10:17
Zmount version than it did on the
10:19
E-mount. And frankly, I think that has a
10:20
lot to do with the time of year. Uh the
10:23
sun is lower in the the sky and so it is
10:26
it's just it's a different direction and
10:28
so it has a different intensity. So, um
10:31
you know, here where I have I've used
10:33
this effectively through trees to get
10:34
the sun star, but kind of eliminate some
10:37
of the basic flare pattern. And you can
10:39
see I'm able to get a better looking
10:40
result, but that is going to be a
10:42
factor. If we pan back and forth here
10:44
wide open, you can see there's
10:46
definitely flare artifacts. And then if
10:48
we stop it down, those flare artifacts
10:50
just become more and more pronounced.
10:52
And so just something to watch out for.
10:54
That could be a factor for you. So
10:56
what's my conclusion? Well, this was
10:58
already a lens that I really, really
11:00
liked before. And I will say that I like
11:02
it a little bit better on Sony than what
11:04
I do on Nikon. But at the same time,
11:06
this remains an incredibly useful lens
11:09
for all of the reasons I mentioned in my
11:11
intro. This is such an optically strong
11:13
lens for such a small, compact package.
11:16
And the fact that it goes so wide really
11:18
gives you an opportunity to bring a very
11:20
unique perspective along very easily.
11:23
And so it's light both on your wallet
11:24
and also light on your camera bag and on
11:27
your back as you carry it around. At the
11:30
same time, I do find that optically it's
11:32
not quite at the same level as what I
11:34
saw on Sony. mostly due to having
11:36
significantly more vignette here on
11:38
Zmount. At the same time, however, you
11:40
can correct for that, but it is going to
11:43
be a bit of a liability. That being
11:45
said, I'm not sure that there really are
11:47
too many options to look for here on
11:49
Zmount. And so, if you're looking for a
11:52
light, compact, wide angle focal length,
11:54
this is a real winner to bring along.
11:57
You can get a lot of greatl looking
11:59
images with it. And while it is a little
12:00
bit more flarprone than what I would
12:02
like in certain situations, if you
12:04
compose in a smart kind of way, you can
12:07
use that to your benefit, get some great
12:09
looking sun stars, some flare effects as
12:11
a part of your image, and also get some
12:13
really nicely detailed, nicely colored
12:16
images out of it. And at the end of the
12:17
day, the biggest thing here is the fact
12:19
that this is such a wide focal length
12:21
and a full-frame lens at this price
12:24
point and in this size. And that
12:26
combined with the fact that you can use
12:28
uh screw on filters on the front makes
12:29
this a real winner in a lot of ways.
12:31
Now, if you want more information, you
12:33
can check out my reviews that are linked
12:34
in the description down below. There are
12:36
some buying links there as well. As
12:38
always, thanks for watching. Have a
12:40
great day and let the light in.