Viltrox AIR 50mm F2 Z-Mount Review | As Good on Nikon?

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[Music]
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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott. There are some
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lenses that I consider to be important.
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Maybe because they're just good or
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because of how they sit relative to
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other options in the market. Some of
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those lenses I'm even willing to test
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twice. And that's true in this case of
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Viltrox's Aireries 50mm F2, which I
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consider to be the best of the
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full-frame options in the Air series to
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this point. I previously reviewed the
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lens on Sony E-mount, and I gave it a
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pretty raving review there. But I'm back
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today to take a look at how it performs
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on Nikon Zmount. I've spent a few months
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starting back in June of this year with
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this particular lens. And at this stage,
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having spent some time with it, I feel
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like I have uh an idea of how it varies
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from the Sony E-mount version,
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particularly when it comes to areas like
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autofocus and more slightly on the
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optical level. It's also a different
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very different landscape of lenses that
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are available on Zmount versus Sony
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E-mount. E-mount, of course, is flooded
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with options in and around this focal
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length and aperture combination. There
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are fewer options available on Zmount
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and I've primarily looked at it from the
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perspective of the 50mm f1.8 S-line
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lens. Yes, there is a 50mm f1.4 that's a
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little bit cheaper and thus a little bit
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closer in price, but those two lenses
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have very very different personalities.
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And when you compare the f1.4 lens to
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this air series lens on a purely
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contrast resolution level, the air
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series pretty much destroys it. The f1.8
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S-line lens, however, is a much closer
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alignment. And so, for those that are
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looking for a budget alternative to that
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lens, I think that that is the niche
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that the Air series falls into. I will
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draw some comparisons back and forth
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between these two lenses as we progress.
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But today, we're going to dive in and
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we're going to take a look at how this
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performs on my Nikon Z8 body. Let's dive
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in. Let's take a look.
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So, all of my outdoor segments will be
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filmed with the combination of the Z8
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and the Air 50mm F2. Now, in full
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disclosure, this lens was sent to me by
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Viltrox for testing. As per usual, they
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have not seen this content before it was
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released to you, the public, and they
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have had no input on my findings. This
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is a completely independent review. So,
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let's talk build and handling. Now,
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because I'm demonstrating the Zmount
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version here, I'm going to film these
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segments on the E-mount version of the
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lens. So, the whole episode will be shot
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with the Viltrox AF50mm F2 Air series,
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either on Sony or on Nikon. Now, when it
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comes to the the changes here, there's
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obviously minimal changes, though there
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is one that's a little bit significant.
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Now, the more minimal change is that as
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is always the case here with lenses that
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I test on both E-mount and then on
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Zmount, there's always a little bit of a
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different lens profile for Zmount.
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Zmount is the lens mount is
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significantly larger than Sony E-mount.
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So, whereas the Sony lens, as you can
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see here, it actually uh flares in a
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little bit near the lens mount. On the
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Zmount version, it flares out
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significantly. So, that becomes the
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widest portion of the lens. So the lens
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diameter grows by 3 mm to 68 mm or 2.67
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in. Interestingly the overall length
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grows a little bit as well which
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reflects that you know different in
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flange distance there. And so it is 58.6
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mm or 2.2 in. And because of those two
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physical changes the weight also
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increases by 15 g to 220 g or 7.76 o.
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Now, while that is a little bit larger
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than the Sony E-mount version, it's
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worth bearing in mind that if you look
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at the Nicor 50mm F1.8Z
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or S-line lens, it weighs 195 grams more
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than this. So, not quite double, but
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close to it. And it is uh 28 mm longer
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in length. So, you're talking about a
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very different lens in terms of the
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physical size. So, if your goal is to
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travel small and light, obviously that
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is one of the biggest selling factors
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for the Viltrox lens. It is made out of
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plastics, but as with the case with all
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of these Air lenses, they are tough
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plastics. Even the lens hood itself,
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it's nice, thick, premium filling
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plastics. Frankly, I think that this
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lens hood is nicer than the one that
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comes with the S-line lens in terms of
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the quality of the plastics. So, it
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doesn't feel cheap even though it is a
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simple lens. It has a 58mm front filter
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thread. It includes a hood and the
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pouch. It does have a metal lens mount.
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Also on that lens mount, there is a USB
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C port to allow quick and easy firmware
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updates. There has been one or two
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firmware updates on this lens at this
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point as of the day of this review. I
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believe we're at version 1.02
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that is available currently. Now, one
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significant change as that I alluded to
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in between the Zmount version and the
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Sony E-mount version is that on the
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E-mount version, the focus ring is just
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a focus ring. However, here on Zmount,
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it can function as a customizable
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customizable control ring, which means
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that yes, you can assign different
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values, different purposes to this ring.
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And so, I could make it an aperture
5:30
ring, for example. And that allowed me
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to do something that I couldn't do on
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E-mount, and that is to actually use
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this to do aperture racking. So, as you
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can see here, it actually works pretty
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well. And that's a fairly smooth
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aperture rack as I go throughout the
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overall aperture range. So, that's
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great. Now, you might have noticed from
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that there is nine aperture blades
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inside the aperture Iris itself. And so,
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here, just a quick recap. Looking at
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this video again, you can see it does
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retain a pretty circular shape as you
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stop on down. So kudos to them on that
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front. So that is I think to me maybe
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one of the biggest advantages of the
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Nikon version versus the Sony version.
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Now one thing unfortunately that is the
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same not improved is that minimum focus
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distance is just 51 cm here. And so that
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gives you a below average 0.11 times
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level of magnification. So not as useful
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as the 50mm f1.8. 8s and even less so
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than the 50mm f1.4
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uh Zmount lenses when it comes to
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maximum magnification. Up close
6:34
performance is decent. However, it's got
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good detail and contrast and a nice flat
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plane of focus which is helped by the
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fact that you're not all that close to
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the subject when you're shooting there.
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So overall here there is, you know,
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there's no bells and whistles. There's
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no weather sealing here. Again, that's
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an advantage you're going to get on the
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Nicor lenses. However, this does have
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their HD uh nano multi-layer coating on
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the front element, but no gasket at the
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lens mount itself. The price prices are
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a little bit higher now than what they
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were at the time that I tested the
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E-mount version. That is due to, you
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know, shifts in tariff policies here in
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North America. But the price is
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currently $199.
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However, you can drop that a bit if you
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use the discount code that's linked in
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the description down below. get about 5%
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off of that. However, again, if we
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contrast the price of the Nicor lens, uh
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the Nicor lens MSRP is over $600.
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Currently, there's a discount. And so,
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actually, both the 50mm f1.8s and the
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50mm f1.4, they're both selling for
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about $550 at the moment. So, I mean, MS
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MSRP to MSRP, it's it's, you know, it's
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a third of the price of the 50mm f1.8.
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That obviously is going to be a pretty
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big factor for at least some buyers. So,
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let's talk autofocus. Like other Air
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series lens, this is a lead screw style
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STM focus motor. And what I did
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certainly notice is that it's not quite
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as snappy here on Zmount as it would
8:07
what it was on Sony. You can see when we
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do my formal focus test that while
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indoor transitions are fairly quick
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because it's a shorter focus distance
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and they come with good confidence. When
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we go outdoors and it's a more
8:21
significant focus change, you can see
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that there definitely is some penalty
8:25
when it comes to focus speed. Focus
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itself happens very quietly and it is
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extremely accurate. I had zero issues in
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real world shots and real world
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acquisition when it came to stills. I
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was even even able to shoot some birds
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in flight. I was out just doing some of
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my nature shooting and there were birds
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that were zipping around over my head.
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Must have had a nest in the area and
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they were a little concerned. So, I was
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able to quickly pan up, take shots and
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able to nail them accurately as you can
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see from these shots. Likewise, shots of
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the pets and then just general purpose
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uh shooting of u of other people but
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then also of myself at my birthday this
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year. All of those results were focused
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perfectly and so I have no issues when
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it comes to focus accuracy, even if
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focus speed isn't top tier. Now, if you
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want to shoot action, probably as is
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often the case, shooting with the first
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party lens might be the better option
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there. But I think for most everybody in
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normal situations, you're not going to
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have any problem with autofocus when it
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comes to the stills side of things. It's
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a little bit more of a mixed bag on the
9:30
video side of things. The way that
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Nikon's controls are set up in camera is
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that when you're doing the touch to
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focus, which is what I use when I do my
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standard focus pull test, you don't have
9:40
any control over that behavior. It just
9:42
tries to essentially it seems to be
9:43
maximizing maximizing speed. And so what
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you can see here is that it does zip
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back and forth with some speed. But the
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problem is is that it's not always
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confident. So there's some pulsing. It's
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not always settling perfectly on the
9:56
subject. And so I'm less than thrilled
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on that side of things. Focus breathing
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isn't bad from this lens. That's not to
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say that it's non-existent, but
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certainly for a 50 millimeter lens, it's
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definitely in the better side of things.
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When I did my hand test, there is an
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unfortunate tendency with this
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combination that showed up there. And
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that is that there's a very low reaction
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time, even if I turn sensitivity all the
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way up in camera. So, what I found is
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that often when I did my hand to my eye
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transition, that it just hadn't started
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making the change, even if I didn't move
10:31
quickly before it went on to other
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things. I also found that if I
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approached the camera, if I was moving
10:37
at a steady pace, not too bad. There
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would be little moments where focus was
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lost, but by and large, it was
10:43
acceptably good. If I duck out of frame,
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however, what you'll really notice is
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that focus hasn't really changed much
10:51
before I come back into frame. Did
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pretty good about picking me back up and
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reacquiring me there. But what I
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certainly noticed is that focus didn't
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go all the way to the background in that
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transition, which is kind of typical of
11:03
this low reaction time. And this shot,
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for example, which I'll conclude with,
11:08
you can see that I start with a subject
11:10
in focus. I transition to clearly a very
11:13
different subject here with the woods in
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the background. And you'll note that
11:16
there is quite a long pause before the
11:18
actual focus takes place. And it's that
11:20
hesitation, I think, that really kind of
11:22
spoils things. If I'm doing just more
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normal small transitions, it's not as
11:28
bad. But you can see it's not really
11:30
keeping up all the time. And so,
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unfortunately, as it exists, I'm using
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fir firmware 1.02, which is the most
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current available for the lens.
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Unfortunately, at this point, the
11:41
reaction time is really not all that
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great, and I wasn't able to solve it by
11:45
just tweaking settings from within the
11:47
camera. So, how about the optics? We
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have an optical design of 13 elements in
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nine groups that includes seven exotic
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elements, three extra low dispersion,
11:56
and four high refractive index elements.
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This is the same optical design as what
12:01
you're going to see in the Sony E-mount
12:03
version, for example. But there is at
12:05
least one thing that varies always when
12:08
I test on Zmount versus Sony E-mount.
12:11
MDF chart looks the same as it did on
12:13
E-mount, which is fantastic. It's pretty
12:16
close to being a straight line across.
12:18
It's it's an amazing performance for a
12:20
budget lens like this. This is an
12:23
extremely sharp lens, and obviously it
12:24
remains extremely sharp uh here on
12:27
Nikon. In fact, I mean, it it it pretty
12:30
much matches the 50mm f1.8s, 8s, which I
12:34
think is an amazing lens. And so, as you
12:36
can see here in the center of the frame,
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uh, you know, both look very, very
12:40
similar and often the corners both look
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very, very similar. And so, that tells
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me that this is really an exceptional
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lens optically here on Nikon as well.
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Now, the one thing that has changed,
12:52
distortion is the same. It has almost no
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distortion. There's a tiny tiny amount
12:56
of pin cushion distortion that you would
12:57
never notice and you don't need to
12:59
correct. However, vignette as always is
13:01
significantly heavier on Nikon than what
13:04
it is on Sony. And I've I've in the the
13:07
threads on these videos, you've had lots
13:09
of different theories as to the reason
13:11
why that is. I don't know that there's a
13:12
definitive answer that any of us know.
13:14
Certainly not one that I know, but I do
13:16
know that in every lens that I've tested
13:19
to this point where I test them on both
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platforms, there's at least a stop more
13:23
of additional vignette on a Nikon Zmount
13:26
version. And that's true here. Whereas I
13:28
could correct around the plus 50 range
13:31
in Lightroom if I was doing a manual
13:33
correction. Vignette is all the way up
13:35
to where I need to dial in a plus 89 to
13:37
correct for it here. So way heavier. And
13:40
so you can see also in this illustration
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of a shot of Ferrari that with
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correction profile on and correction
13:45
profile off, it's pretty significant
13:47
difference in how much brightness there
13:50
is in the corner. So just be aware of
13:52
that. As with the Sony version, fringing
13:55
is low. Whether we're talking about the
13:57
longitudinal style or lateral style
13:59
chromatic aberrations in real world
14:02
shooting, it just really isn't a factor.
14:04
These are this is a very well-corrected
14:07
lens. Uh when it comes to that wide
14:10
open, the lens is incredibly sharp. It's
14:13
very sharp in the center of the frame.
14:14
Mid-frame looks fantastic and corners
14:16
are just a little bit behind. Still at a
14:18
very, very high level. And uh if you
14:21
stop down a bit, you do get a contrast
14:23
boost at f2.8. it gets even better. Then
14:27
if you're shooting at landscape
14:28
apertures, you get very very consistent
14:31
sharpness. Great detail all across the
14:33
frame. Uh lots of, you know, fine
14:35
delineation of of details everywhere
14:37
that you shoot. It's great in terms of
14:39
sharpness. Defraction is on the lower
14:42
resolution 45 megapixel sensor here
14:45
relative to 61 megapixels on Sony. I
14:47
found that defraction was a little less
14:50
obvious. It's minimal at f11 and only
14:52
slightly more noticeable at f-16. I
14:55
would say that on Nikon at least, this
14:57
is a lens that is use usable all
14:58
throughout the zoom range from f2 to
15:01
f16. And then so it is a it's a very
15:05
very strong performer. Colors look
15:07
great. They look good on on Sony. They
15:10
look great on Nikon here as well. And so
15:12
it's it's just everything holds up well.
15:15
And and so it's there's nothing to
15:18
complain about when it comes to the
15:19
color. bokeh quality is the one area
15:22
where I I felt like the lens was
15:24
unexceptional on Sony. And again, that
15:26
remains true here that the the
15:29
backgrounds are in many situations, they
15:32
look fine. They're soft. I do think
15:33
there's a little bit more outlining and
15:35
so maybe a little bit of a bubble effect
15:36
sometimes on specular highlights, but
15:39
beyond that, not bad. The one thing I
15:42
will point out is that because minimum
15:44
focus distance isn't that great and the
15:46
maximum aperture of f2 isn't massive
15:48
means that in some shots if you're close
15:50
to your subject and the background's not
15:51
far away, the background's not going to
15:53
be strongly defocused. So that's just
15:55
something to bear in mind. I would say
15:57
that I think the Sline lens does have
15:59
nicer bokeh. For that matter, the 50mm
16:01
f1.4 also has nicer bokeh than what this
16:04
lens does, but it's not because this is
16:06
bad. One final area that I do think is
16:09
is very good is when it comes to flare
16:11
resistance. Flare resistance holds up
16:13
well in a variety of situations and
16:15
across Sony and now on Nikon. I've shot
16:17
in enough variety of conditions that I
16:20
feel very confident saying that that
16:22
this lens does nice things in an image
16:24
like this. The little bit of glow that
16:25
you get there I think is really
16:27
aesthetically pleasing. And so overall
16:29
optically this lens remains amazing on
16:31
Nikon with the one variation that you
16:34
are getting uh some significant
16:36
additional vignette that comes up on
16:39
this. There's no question that the
16:41
Viltrox Air 50mm F2 remains an
16:44
impressive lens here on Nikon. It isn't
16:47
quite as flawless a package on Zmount as
16:50
what it is on E-mount because of some of
16:52
the quirks that we have detailed when it
16:54
comes to autofocus in particular and of
16:56
course the fact that it does carry more
16:58
vignette here on the Nikon Zmount
17:00
platform. That being said, I think it
17:03
still is a pretty compelling option for
17:05
those that are interested in having, you
17:08
know, most of the performance of the
17:09
50mm f1.8s, 8s, but in a package that is
17:13
less than half the weight, 30 mm
17:16
essentially shorter and of course a
17:18
price tag that runs about 1/3 of what it
17:21
costs to buy the S-line lens. That makes
17:24
the Viltrox Air series lens a really
17:26
compelling alternative, particularly if
17:28
you want to travel light. Now, I wish
17:31
that Nikon had a really light portable
17:34
camera for travel because I think that
17:36
would be a perfect home for the Zmount
17:37
Air series lenses. that doesn't exist
17:39
yet. But even on a bigger camera like my
17:41
Z8, I still like the fact of having a
17:44
smaller, lighter lens because of how
17:46
little space it takes in the camera bag,
17:48
making it easier to bring it along. It's
17:50
not a flawless lens here, and I am
17:52
hoping that firmware will help to maybe
17:55
iron out a few of those quirks that we
17:57
observe when it comes to aspects of the
17:58
autofocus performance. That being said,
18:01
however, in most situations, I think
18:03
that it's fine. Obviously, for filming
18:05
outdoors, as we've done today, the lens
18:07
works great in this kind of
18:09
circumstance. And if that's essentially
18:11
the extent of what your demands might be
18:13
from a lens, even for the video side of
18:15
things, it'll probably do just fine for
18:17
you. Now, if you want more information
18:19
about the lens itself, you can either
18:21
check out my full text review that is
18:23
linked in the description down below, or
18:25
you can stay tuned with me right now,
18:27
and we're going to take a deeper dive
18:29
into the optical performance. Okay,
18:31
let's start by taking a look at vignette
18:33
and distortion here. And so, as you can
18:35
see, distortion is really negligible.
18:37
There's a tiny amount of pin cushion
18:39
distortion, but frankly, I don't think
18:41
that it's would ever be anything that
18:43
you would even want to mess with trying
18:44
to correct. Obviously, the correction
18:46
profiles in camera or software, it's
18:48
going to take care of it anyway. So,
18:49
don't worry about that. When it comes to
18:51
correcting for the vignette, however,
18:53
that's a whole different story. His
18:54
vignette, as you can see, is really,
18:56
really heavy. And as unfortunately
18:58
always the case with Zmount, it is a
19:01
full stop plus heavier than what it is
19:03
on Sony E-mount. You can see it is
19:05
correctable and it corrects cleanly, but
19:07
I did have to dial in a plus 89. So just
19:10
give you a look at the difference that
19:11
the profile makes. I'll toggle back and
19:13
forth here and you can see that there's
19:16
definitely an extreme brightening that
19:18
comes after the correction profile is
19:21
applied. Longitudinal style chromatic
19:23
aberrations are really well controlled.
19:25
very very little fringing before after
19:26
the plane of focus. Likewise here with a
19:29
three-dimensional object. You can see
19:31
there's just the tiniest amount of
19:32
fringing even at 200% magnification. So
19:35
uh definitely not an issue at all there.
19:38
Likewise in the bokeh uh specular
19:41
highlights, you can see that there's no
19:43
real fringing on the outside of those
19:44
either. Lateral style chromatic
19:47
aberrations near the edge of the frame.
19:48
There is actually a tiny amount. I
19:50
didn't see that on Sony and I see a
19:51
little bit here on the Nikon sensor, but
19:54
and I looked for it in real world shots
19:56
and I just really couldn't find it. So,
19:58
no big deal there either. Now, when it
20:00
comes to resolution and contrast, this
20:03
is 45 megapixels and at 200%
20:05
magnification, center of the frame looks
20:07
awesome. I mean, just fantastic.
20:10
Likewise, the mid-frame looks basically
20:13
as good. Just really, really
20:15
exceptional. Great consistency from here
20:18
to here. And as we move towards the
20:20
corners, even the corners until maybe
20:21
that last little degree, it looks
20:24
really, really good. Likewise, you're
20:26
going to see good centering as we move
20:28
around the frame. Um, overall, just
20:31
really good performance. Putting that in
20:33
context, here is the S-line lens. Uh,
20:36
both of them at f2. So, apples to
20:38
apples. We can see that both are good. I
20:41
think the S-line is a little bit better.
20:43
Contrast is a little bit higher in the
20:45
center of the frame. In the mid-frame,
20:47
they are very, very close. Um, maybe a
20:51
bit more contrast on the S-line lens.
20:54
Down into the corners, again, very, very
20:56
similar. I mean, without looking at them
20:58
at 200% side by side, I don't know that
21:01
you would see the difference. And the
21:03
strength of the Zmount 50mm f1.4 isn't
21:06
pure resolution and contrast. It does
21:08
have other admirable qualities that I
21:10
like, but just on a pure basic level,
21:13
again, f2 apples to apples, the uh air
21:17
lens is going to pretty much destroy it.
21:19
It's just much sharper, much higher
21:21
contrast, and so it it wins basically
21:24
everywhere we look in the frame. To put
21:26
that in real world context here, here is
21:29
comparing f2 on the left to f5.6 on the
21:32
right. And we can see that here in the
21:34
center of the frame. Frankly, I don't
21:36
think that one necessarily looks better
21:38
than the other, which means you're
21:39
getting pretty much maximum performance
21:41
right from f2 on. And what's really
21:44
unique here is that there is a
21:47
difference right towards the edge as you
21:49
can see here, but it is not an
21:51
exceptional difference. And so certainly
21:53
you're getting a better edge performance
21:55
at f5.6, but not by a big margin. And
21:58
that is really impressively unique. Now,
22:01
there is some improvement to contrast at
22:03
f2.8. And so, if we check back in with
22:05
the S-line lens, the S-line still has an
22:08
edge, but they are so so close. Like,
22:11
it's really impressive how good the
22:13
Viltrox is because I think that this
22:16
S-line lens is really an exceptional
22:18
lens. It's a little bit I think the
22:20
Sline's a little bit stronger in
22:21
contrast in the mid-frame. And moving
22:23
off into the corners, I would definitely
22:25
give the Sline a win there. When it
22:28
comes to again that raw performance, the
22:30
f1.4 4 lens. As you can see, it just
22:32
can't hang with the Viltrox. Viltrox the
22:35
if anything, the margin has grown at
22:38
f2.8. So, you're going to see amazing
22:40
performance all the way through f8. Even
22:43
f11, frankly, it really doesn't look
22:45
much worse at uh at f11. You can see
22:48
it's a little bit softer when it comes
22:51
to f-16, which is the minimum aperture,
22:53
but frankly, this is a lens that I would
22:55
suggest is usable basically all
22:57
throughout its zoom range. It's just
23:00
really, really good. Um, strong
23:02
performance everywhere. Now, here's a
23:04
look at the minimum focus distance and
23:06
our maximum magnification, which is just
23:08
0.11 times. So, not a high level of
23:11
magnification, but a very strong level
23:13
of uplose performance. Nice flat plane
23:15
of focus, good sharpness, detail, and
23:18
contrast. So, that does help to offset a
23:20
bit. Now, we can see that the colors
23:24
look really, really nice from the lens.
23:26
Viltrox's optical glass has improved so
23:28
much and so colors to me they look
23:30
natural really good looking. Uh you can
23:33
see here as we kind of transition to
23:35
looking at bokeh as well there's a
23:37
little bit of that bubble bokeh look a
23:39
little bit more outlined than what I
23:40
would like but you know in a situation
23:42
like this with a favorable ratio of
23:44
subject to the background everything
23:47
looks soft and creamy. It's really in
23:49
this kind of scenario where because
23:51
there isn't a a close minimum focus
23:54
distance and not a huge maximum
23:55
aperture, you know, where the background
23:57
is not so far away, you're going to see
23:59
that it stays more in focus and maybe a
24:01
little bit more outlining than what I
24:03
would prefer. Still, all things
24:05
considered, not bad. Now, here you can
24:08
see various situations where I've got
24:10
sun coming right into the frame. And you
24:12
can see that contrast is holding up
24:14
really, really nicely. Um, I think it
24:16
looks great. There's a little bit of
24:17
glow to this image, but I I think it
24:19
looks awesome. In many ways, the uh the
24:21
performance in this metric does kind of
24:23
remind me of the S-line lens, which I
24:25
think to be a great compliment. Overall,
24:28
this really is a awesome lens optically,
24:31
even if we do see more vignette here
24:34
than we did on Sony. So, hopefully the
24:36
deep dive into the optical performance
24:38
of the lens has helped you to determine
24:40
whether or not it is the lens for you.
24:42
As always, thanks for watching. Have a
24:44
great day and let the light in.
24:48
[Music]

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