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Photographer Dustin Abbott takes a deep dive look at the Viltrox AIR 9mm F2.8 on Fuji X-mount Can you get an great wide angle prime for under $200? | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/AIR9mmDA | Purchase the Viltrox AF 9mm F2.8 AIR @ Viltrox https://geni.us/Du9AirE (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 5% off) | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4mV0SUa | Adorama https://howl.link/52hjfyv0yj1nl | Amazon https://amzn.to/4pXSyFE | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/42n5ye8 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4gXmmhP | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4pXT5rm | Pergear https://tinyurl.com/BuyAIR9mm
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro
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0:00
[Music]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you my review of the Viltrox Air
0:14
9mm F2.8 for Fuji Xmount. This is a lens
0:19
that I was actually really anticipating
0:22
coming to Xmount for the simple reason
0:24
is that frankly we haven't had a
0:26
fantastically sharp compact wide-angle
0:29
prime available for Xmount. I reviewed
0:32
back in summer of 2023. I reviewed
0:34
Fuji's 8mm f3.5WR
0:37
lens when it came out. And while I
0:39
really liked the form factor of the lens
0:41
and I liked generally the images in
0:43
terms of, you know, there's nice color
0:44
and all of that, I was really
0:46
underwhelmed by the amount of sharpness
0:48
available when it came to the 40
0:50
megapixel sensor of my XH2. And so I was
0:53
really intrigued to see how the 9 mm
0:56
from Viltrox would match that lens. Now
0:58
to be fair, 9 millime is not 8 mm. 9
1:02
millime is a 13.5 millimeter equivalent.
1:04
In this case, it's about 114° angle of
1:07
view. Whereas Fuji's 8 mm is a much
1:10
wider 120° angle of view. But if you can
1:14
put up with a little bit less width,
1:16
what you're getting is instead of a $949
1:20
lens in the Fuji 8 mm, you are getting a
1:23
$199
1:25
lens in the form of the Viltrox. That is
1:27
going to appeal to a lot of people,
1:29
particularly if this lens holds up in
1:32
terms of sharpness, resolution, and then
1:34
of course the autofocus. So today will
1:36
be a slightly abbreviated review
1:37
relative to the full Sony E-mount
1:39
version that I've already done for the
1:41
simple reason that I've already
1:42
thoroughly covered this lens, but I'm
1:44
just going to give you some updates to
1:46
see how it performs on Fuji. Now, this
1:48
lens was sent to me by Viltrox for
1:50
evaluation, but as always, they have had
1:52
zero input in this review. This is fully
1:55
independent and they will not see it
1:57
before you do. Let's dive in and take a
1:59
look. Okay, let's take a closer look at
2:01
the build and the design here. Again,
2:03
this is a 13.5 millimeter equivalent
2:05
with the 1.5 times crop factor, about
2:08
114 degree angle of view. This lens is
2:11
extremely lightweight, just 175 g,
2:14
making it 40 or 50 g lighter than what
2:17
the actual Fuji lens is. But to be fair,
2:19
the Fuji does have a nicer construction.
2:21
It does have weather sealing, which the
2:23
Viltrox does not, and it's made of
2:25
better grade materials. This Viltrox
2:28
lens is 65 mm in diameter or 2.55 in. It
2:32
is a total of 56.4 millimeters in length
2:35
and as you can see it definitely is a
2:36
palmsiz lens. It has 58 mm filter
2:40
threads up front. While there is no
2:42
weather sealing gasket here, we do have
2:44
a USBC port to do firmware updates
2:46
there. There is a HD nano coating on the
2:49
front element and that is the closest
2:50
thing that we have got to any kind of
2:53
actual weather sealing there. Inside we
2:56
have seven aperture blades that produces
2:58
a decent looking sunst star. I think
3:00
that adds something to the images. And
3:02
the other big deal here is you can focus
3:04
as closely as 13 cm and you can get a
3:07
0.15 times magnification. That compares
3:10
to I believe 0.07
3:12
times for the Fuji. And so that is a
3:15
significant improvement for the Viltrox.
3:17
It does come with a little pouch and as
3:19
you can see with the actual lens hood,
3:21
the lens hood has no lock, but it does
3:23
bayonet into place nice and tight. and
3:26
mounted on the camera itself. It is a
3:29
nicely compact, very lightweight
3:31
addition to the camera. Very easy to
3:33
carry around all day. No issues with
3:35
that at all. So, overall, while there's
3:37
nothing, no fancy bells and whistles,
3:39
it's a nicely made little lens, the
3:41
focus ring moves good and it works, and
3:44
that's what matters. Let's talk
3:45
autofocus. Autofocus comes via Viltrox's
3:48
STM or stepping focus motor here. And
3:52
while I never quite like focus quite as
3:55
much on Fuji as what I do on Sony, for
3:58
example, I can say that I really have
4:00
had zero issues with autofocus here.
4:02
Wide-angle lenses put less stress on
4:04
autofocus systems generally because a
4:06
lot tends to be in focus at the same
4:08
time. I'm filming at f2.8 for example at
4:10
the moment and you can see that the
4:12
background, even though I'm quite close
4:13
to the camera, the background is not all
4:15
that defocused. So a lot is in focus at
4:18
the same time. However, autofocus moves
4:20
back and forth with nice speed and
4:22
elacrity. I did hear a little bit of
4:24
noise in the focus motor that I didn't
4:26
necessarily hear on Sony. So, something
4:28
about the way that it works on Fuji does
4:30
create maybe a little bit extra noise.
4:32
It's still very quiet in operation, but
4:35
I did notice in some of my touch tests
4:37
where I'm going back and forth, back and
4:38
forth that I could hear just a little
4:39
bit of a a clicking sound there, but at
4:41
the same time, autofocus is nice and
4:43
quick. It was accurate. uh the shot
4:45
where I was closer to Nala for example I
4:48
was able to nail focus without any
4:50
problem and other shots like that and so
4:52
in general I have no complaints about
4:54
autofocus on the same front when it
4:56
comes to video performance while touch
4:59
to focus does not work very well on Fuji
5:02
at all it just the the whole touchscreen
5:04
process doesn't seem to work very well
5:06
and so you can see that it doesn't move
5:08
back and forth consistently and like I'd
5:10
mentioned there was a little bit of
5:12
sound there's a little bit of focus
5:13
breathing however when When I approached
5:15
the camera, it did a great job. Uh, it
5:17
tracked me all the way as I got close as
5:18
I moved out of frame. It snapped to the
5:20
background, picked me up quickly when I
5:22
stepped back in frame. So, that's good.
5:24
Likewise, with my hand test, uh, it
5:26
moved back and forth uh, fairly
5:28
consistently there without any kind of
5:30
major issue. And again, while there is
5:32
some focus breathing, it's not extreme
5:33
and probably won't be a significant
5:35
issue for your video capture. I would
5:38
say that this is going to be a very
5:39
decent lens to throw on a gimbal. uh
5:42
decent lens to use for vlogging and
5:44
things like that. In general, autofocus
5:46
seems to be getting the job done, and I
5:49
was happy with the results that I got.
5:50
All right, let's start by taking a look
5:52
at vignette and distortion. Obviously,
5:53
the optics here are the same, but one
5:55
thing that does behave a little bit
5:56
different from platform to platform is
5:58
vignette. There is a very mild amount of
6:01
distortion here. This is only a
6:03
correction with a plus three. But
6:07
basically, if you try to correct a
6:08
little bit of barrel distortion, you end
6:10
up emphasizing the pin cushion
6:11
distortion in the corners, as you can
6:13
see. So, I mean, there's no great
6:15
solution. However, to put it in context,
6:18
here is the amount of distortion that is
6:20
present on the Fuji 8mm f3.5WR.
6:24
And you can see it's got a massive
6:26
amount of distortion. And what's more,
6:28
it has the same kind of mustache type
6:30
pattern when you correct. You can see
6:32
here the correction of the Fuji and you
6:34
got a very similar thing where in the
6:35
corners if you try to correct for the
6:36
barrel bar barrel distortion you're
6:38
actually creating some pin cushion
6:39
distortion in the corner. So this is a
6:41
clear win for the Viltrox and that it
6:43
just has a whole lot less distortion to
6:45
begin with. Now unfortunately you can
6:47
see the vignette is very heavy here on
6:49
the Xmount version. I had to max out the
6:51
slider to achieve the you know desired
6:54
result. And you can see it could
6:55
probably use even a bit more to by
6:58
comparison here. Taking a look at the
7:00
Fuji, I've got it at plus 75, but you
7:03
can see it's cleaner in the corners as
7:04
well. So, that's one area where the uh
7:06
Fuji lens is going to win. So, when it
7:08
comes to chromatic aberrations, you can
7:10
see here that the longitudinal style
7:12
basically just don't exist. No problem
7:14
with that. Likewise, lateral is really
7:16
minimal. There's not much to see here
7:18
near the edge of the frame. So, a nice
7:19
clean result. Perhaps the most important
7:21
thing is that we finally have a small
7:24
compact wide-angle prime that is
7:26
actually sharp on Fuji. You can see here
7:28
looking in the center of the frame that
7:30
even at f/2.8 it is fantastically sharp
7:33
even on the very high demanding 40
7:34
megapixel sensor of my XH2. It actually
7:37
looks really impressively good in a way
7:39
that I don't see hardly any lenses
7:41
looking on Fuji. Likewise here in the
7:44
mid-frame it's looking awesome. If we
7:46
continue up this way we can see there is
7:48
some drop off to the corner but it's
7:49
still quite good. If I pan down this way
7:52
we can see edge performance. You know
7:54
pretty much everywhere is actually
7:55
looking quite strong. It's looking good
7:57
on all four corners and uh so really
8:01
quite an impressive result particularly
8:03
when I put it side by side with the
8:05
results from the Fuji that I did a uh
8:08
you know a couple of years ago now. You
8:11
can see in the center of the frame it's
8:12
kind of like night and day. The Fuji is
8:14
just so soft by comparison whereas the
8:17
Viltrox looks very sharp. Looking at
8:19
this I mean there's just a radical
8:22
difference. Looking down into the
8:24
corner, you can see that the corners
8:26
look extremely different. Up here in
8:29
this mid-frame result, you can see it's
8:31
just everywhere you look, it is
8:32
completely different. The the Viltrox is
8:36
just so much better than the Fuji. So,
8:37
does that leave any room for
8:38
improvement? Probably not in the center
8:40
of the frame. Center of the frame is
8:42
pretty much perfect already. If we look
8:43
at the corners, however, you can see
8:45
that they look brighter and crisper.
8:47
We've getting some vignette lift and I
8:49
would say that the resolution is just
8:51
kind of moving a little bit further into
8:54
the corner. You can particularly see
8:55
down here how much brighter it looks at
8:56
f4. Maybe a tiny bit more at f5.6, but I
9:01
would say that by f4 we are very close
9:03
peak performance here. And it is a very
9:06
high peak performance. I would say that
9:07
f5.6 is just a little bit sharper in
9:10
this corner, but not by any significant
9:12
measure. And again, if we pop back to
9:14
the Fuji results, we can see it just
9:17
just doesn't look anywhere near the same
9:19
kind of level of resolution and quality
9:22
here. I mean, here doesn't look the
9:24
same. Looking down into the corners, the
9:26
corners look like they got that Vaseline
9:28
haze over the top of them. Just really,
9:30
really not great. Over here, again, it's
9:33
just lacks the clarity and the details
9:35
that we see from the Viltrox lens. And
9:37
so, I mean, the Viltrox is a clear
9:39
winner in sharpness. Now, defraction
9:41
hits hardest on this 40 megapixel Fuji
9:44
sensor because of the incredible pixel
9:46
density that's unmatched anywhere else
9:48
really. So, you can see by f11 we're
9:50
considerably softer and by f16 quite
9:53
soft due to the effects of defraction.
9:55
Another area that's quite an advantage
9:57
for the Viltrox is you can see the
9:59
maximum magnification is just much much
10:01
higher than what the Fuji lens is. And
10:04
so you've got not only more resolution,
10:06
but you've got a lot more sharpness
10:08
there on your close focus subjects. So
10:10
that translates into real world
10:12
performance where you just in all kinds
10:15
of subject situations, you've just got a
10:17
lot of detail. You can see here in Nala
10:19
that there's great detail in her fur in
10:22
an outdoor type scene. You can see that,
10:24
you know, there's just there's great
10:26
detail as we just kind of look around in
10:28
the frame. It just look really sharp and
10:30
contrast. Looks fantastic. colors I
10:34
think look very nice here and you know
10:36
because distortion is relatively low
10:38
even uncorrected. You can see you've got
10:40
you know nice straight lines in real
10:42
world situations. I found like the
10:44
clarity just looked nice and bright out
10:46
shooting in these these winter scenes
10:48
and so I liked the the punch that I got
10:51
off of the the lens. And then one of the
10:54
final things we'll evaluate here is that
10:56
when it comes to flare resistance here
10:57
at f5.6 you can see just a tiny little
11:00
ghosting pattern. Not bad there. And
11:02
then here at f11, we can see that the,
11:05
you know, the sunburst effect has really
11:07
nice definition and just a tiny bit of
11:09
ghosting down here. Nothing significant,
11:11
nothing marring the image here. Here at
11:13
a wide angle, we got a little bit of a
11:15
pattern here, but again, it's quite
11:17
clean. And then of course, if you're
11:19
shooting through trees or something,
11:20
we've got this is really kind of the
11:22
only thing that I don't like, and that's
11:24
at smaller apertures. We didn't see that
11:26
at the kind of larger apertures. And so,
11:28
in general, uh, some really, really
11:30
great looking results. So, particularly
11:32
after looking at those autofocus
11:33
results, I have to say that this lens is
11:35
actually quite impressive here on the
11:38
very demanding 40 megapixel Fuji sensor,
11:41
I'm just I'm really impressed by how
11:43
sharp it is because frankly, it's I
11:45
haven't hardly seen that kind of result
11:47
from a wide-angle lens period on Fuji.
11:50
And so, I'm very impressed by how sharp
11:52
it actually translate to that. It looks
11:54
really, really great. And likewise, real
11:57
world images have great detail. And I
11:59
feel like this is a the probably the
12:02
first wide-angle lens that I can
12:03
remember uh reviewing where I walk away
12:06
saying, you know what, it really holds
12:07
up well to this sensor, even shooting at
12:09
f2.8. And so that's really impressive to
12:12
me. And the fact that it is so
12:13
inexpensive, particularly compared to
12:15
the uh firstparty Fuji lenses, is going
12:18
to make this a really, really intriguing
12:20
option for those of you who are X-mount
12:22
shooters. So, I have zero qualms in
12:25
recommending this as the wide-angle lens
12:28
to go for if you want a nicely wide
12:30
angle of view. As always, if you want
12:32
more information, you can check out the
12:34
description below. Can link to my
12:35
website and check out my text review of
12:38
the uh the email version at least. And
12:40
then also there are some buying links if
12:41
you would like to grab one for yourself.
12:43
As always, thanks for watching. Have a
12:45
great day and let the light in.