Viltrox EVO 35mm F1.8 II APO Review | A Compact Dream Lens?

0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
0:12
to give you a review of a lens that when
0:15
I reviewed the Evo 85mm F2 lens from
0:19
Viltrox last fall in the comments, the
0:21
number one lens that you all wished
0:23
would come in the Evo series was a 35mm
0:26
F2. Well, Viltrox has done one better
0:29
for you all and we have the new Evo 35mm
0:32
f1.8.
0:34
What's more, it is an apo or
0:36
apochromatic design. And so, we are
0:39
moving up into a whole other level of
0:41
optical performance, but in that beloved
0:43
package that really straddles between
0:45
the air series and the pro series.
0:48
Taking a lot of the feature set of the
0:49
pro series and bringing it down into a
0:51
more compact, lightweight package, just
0:54
a little bit larger than the air series.
0:56
I think this is a true winning formula
0:58
for Viltrox. And today we're going to
1:00
explore whether the new 35mm f1.8. By
1:03
the way, I'm also reviewing a 55mm f1.8
1:06
or I'm going to do that one on Nikon
1:07
Zmount. They're being released at the
1:10
same time. These are really exciting
1:12
additions to this new um lineup of
1:15
lenses and I suspect this is going to be
1:17
a lens that a lot of you are really
1:19
going to want to add to your kit. Before
1:21
I dive into that, however, I do want to
1:23
say that this lens was sent to me by
1:25
Viltrox for evaluation. They have had
1:27
zero input in my review and will not see
1:30
this video before you do. This is a
1:32
completely independent review. Now,
1:34
before we jump into the review today, I
1:36
wanted to give you a quick update, a
1:38
caveat on some of the information
1:39
contained in the review itself. That is
1:41
incorrect because it's based on
1:43
information that Viltrox sent out
1:44
initially where they showed that the
1:46
along with the minimum focus distance
1:48
that the maximum magnification on both
1:50
the 35mm and the 55mm was just 0.10
1:54
times. Not a very competitive figure at
1:56
all. I discovered subsequently when I
1:58
was doing a comparison review with the
2:00
55mm and the Nicor's own 50mm f1.8s 8s
2:05
that the Nicor rated at 0.15 times had
2:08
the same level of magnification as what
2:10
the Viltrox 55mm did. And so I took that
2:13
data back to Viltrox. They went to their
2:16
engineers and they came back with
2:17
revised figures on both of these lenses.
2:20
Now the 35mm has same minimum focus
2:23
distance but is rated at 0.15 times
2:26
level of magnification. Whereas the uh
2:29
the 55 millimeter, same minimum focus
2:31
distance, but now it is rated at 0.16
2:35
times level of magnification. Now on
2:37
that ladder figure, I think it's
2:38
actually a little bit high. I think that
2:40
it's probably 0.15 times is the accurate
2:43
figure. And either way, however, it
2:45
makes these lenses more competitive. And
2:47
I wanted to share that updated
2:49
information with you and let you know
2:51
that what you're going to see
2:52
subsequently in the video, both the
2:54
numbers that I give and the way that it
2:56
kind of influences my opinion on the
2:58
lens, we need to revise that a little
3:00
bit based on that updated information.
3:02
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aside, let's dive in. Let's take a look
3:59
at the build and handling. All right,
4:01
let's take a closer look here. A few
4:02
things I want to point out from the
4:04
branding on the lens. This is a 35
4:06
millimeter. They have two on here
4:08
because there was a previous 35
4:09
millimeter f1.8 8 from Viltrox. And so
4:12
they don't want you to confuse the two
4:13
that lens has already been discontinued
4:15
and will be replaced by this EVO lens
4:18
from their EVO series. One other
4:20
interesting thing here looking at the
4:22
front is we see on this lens, we didn't
4:24
see this on the 85mimeter, but we do see
4:27
it on the new 55mimeter and that is that
4:30
it is apo or apochromatic. That is huge
4:34
as we're going to see when it comes to
4:35
the optical design. Apochromatic lenses
4:38
tend to be rather exceptional optically.
4:40
Spoiler alert, this lens is.
4:43
So, this comes in Sony E-mount, which
4:45
I'm testing here. It will also be
4:47
available in Nikon Zmount. I actually
4:49
have the 55mm and the Zmount. I got one
4:52
of each and so I can test for both
4:54
platforms. The price point is $370.
4:58
That compares to on Sony, the first
5:01
party Sony 35mm F1.8 is about $850.
5:05
The first party Nickore 35mimeter f1.8s
5:08
is going to run you more like $900. So
5:10
very strong value and particularly if
5:12
we're getting APO type performance.
5:14
Build quality here is actually really
5:16
beautiful. I like the look of these
5:18
lenses. I liked it starting with the
5:20
formula of the 85mm f2. I think it's a
5:24
great balance between having featurerich
5:27
nice build quality but also being
5:29
compact and lightweight which this lens
5:31
is. What's more, it has a thorough
5:34
weather sealing. We got a nice thick
5:36
gasket here at the lens mount. And I
5:38
asked Viltrox if there was internal
5:40
seals because I assumed that there
5:41
wasn't. And I was very surprised to get
5:43
a diagram like this that showed that
5:45
there's about seven seal points in the
5:47
lens. So that is fantastic. It does come
5:50
with a hood and a pouch. And what we've
5:53
got is a lens that is actually more
5:54
featurerich than opposing lenses. And
5:57
that includes the first party. We have a
5:59
traditional aperture ring. You can have
6:01
clicked and 1/3 stop uh detents with a
6:04
nice firm detent in between f-16 and
6:07
automatic, but you have the option of
6:09
declicking that aperture and moving
6:11
smoothly throughout all of the aperture
6:13
values. That'll allow you to do things
6:15
like an aperture rack, for example. I
6:17
will note that neither the Sony nor
6:19
Samyang 35mm f1.8 have an aperture ring.
6:24
There is a control ring, customizable
6:25
control ring on the Nicor lens, but
6:28
obviously it doesn't have quite as much
6:29
features as this. You don't have the
6:31
option of having it clicked, for
6:32
example, on the Nicor. So, this is the
6:35
winner in that regard. We have a
6:37
customer function button. We have an
6:38
AFMF switch. We also have a USB C port
6:42
that will allow us to do easy firmware
6:44
updates and uh to keep the lens current
6:47
and ready to go. The lens is very
6:49
compact. It is 69 mm in diameter or 2.71
6:54
in and just 76 mm or 2.99 in in length.
6:59
It is identical in size to all of the
7:01
other um lenses from the EVO series so
7:05
far. And so once again, they are kind of
7:07
standardizing their design. And so I'm
7:09
sure that helps to keep cost down as
7:11
they manufacture these lenses, which is
7:13
great for us. I also love the fact that
7:15
we've got a 58 millimeter filter thread
7:17
up front that is shared across all three
7:20
of these lenses and so you can buy one
7:22
set of filters and use them on all of
7:24
them. That's great. It's a little bit
7:26
lighter than the 85mm 330 g or 11.64 oz.
7:32
And so again, nice and lightweight. Has
7:35
a nice uh manual focus ring that's
7:38
nicely damped. It moves smoothly. No
7:40
problems there. The only fly in the
7:42
ointment for this optical design is the
7:45
fact that it can only uh has a minimum
7:47
focus distance of 34 cmters which is not
7:50
particularly close and the resulting
7:51
magnification is just 0.10 times. It
7:55
does do a good job up close but I am a
7:58
little bit disappointed by that low
7:59
magnification figure because personally
8:01
I love using 35mm lenses for getting
8:04
some of those uplose shots and just you
8:06
know an interesting different way to do
8:08
some storytelling with it. But outside
8:10
of that one misstep, this is a really
8:12
amazing little package that has a
8:15
fantastic price tag. So, let's talk
8:17
autofocus. As you can see from my
8:19
shooting environment, we have had a bit
8:20
of a setback when it comes to spring
8:22
around here with wintering winter
8:25
continuing on. However, I did have the
8:27
opportunity to travel with this lens and
8:28
shot with it exclusively in Arizona and
8:31
so I got much nicer weather and a whole
8:33
lot of unique environments to allow me
8:35
to show off the unique optical
8:37
capabilities of this lens. autofocus
8:39
comes via an STM focus motor here. Now
8:42
in their pro and lab series higherend
8:45
lenses, we have seen them move to uh
8:47
hyper VCM focus motors there and but
8:50
here because the glass elements are
8:52
smaller and lighter, they are clearly
8:54
feeling that an STM focus motor has
8:56
enough thrust to get the job done. And I
8:58
think I would agree with them in this
9:00
case there. I wouldn't say that the
9:02
autofocus is at kind of that instant
9:05
level I see with some of the best VCM
9:07
equipped focus motors, but it is very,
9:09
very quick, as you can see, going back
9:10
and forth with little lag at all. In
9:13
fact, out in real world shooting, I
9:14
never noticed any kind of focus lag at
9:16
all. Focus was, you know, for all intent
9:18
and purposes, pretty close to
9:19
instantaneous. What's more, I found that
9:23
I was able to get good focus accuracy in
9:26
a wide variety of of situations. Now,
9:28
when it comes to actually trying to
9:30
track things like action, I found I, you
9:32
know, I got kind of mixed results when,
9:34
you know, shooting Nala moving around
9:36
that persistent movement towards the
9:38
camera can be a bit of a challenging
9:39
subject to keep up with. And I did find
9:41
that there was some, in some cases a
9:43
little bit of back focus, though, in
9:44
most cases, I was able to get accurately
9:46
focused results. As always, I would say
9:49
that if you're wanting to shoot action
9:51
that you probably should stick with a
9:52
first-party Sony or Nicor lens, but I
9:56
would say that everyone else in almost
9:58
every other kind of situation, you're
9:59
going to be just perfectly delighted
10:01
with autofocus here. It is not
10:03
completely silent, but focus is quiet
10:06
enough that I didn't really notice in
10:07
real world shooting. I did notice in a
10:09
quiet environment when I was
10:10
intentionally uh doing my focus test
10:12
back and forth, I could hear just a
10:14
little bit of worrying as it went back
10:15
and forth. you know, kind of doing that
10:17
all with great rapidity. But in normal
10:20
shooting situations, you're going to
10:21
find folks to be nice and quiet. And as
10:22
we'll talk about just a moment, for
10:24
video, there wasn't any kind of noise
10:26
for video to be concerned about as at
10:28
all. And so, in general, I would say
10:30
that autofocus was excellent. Whether I
10:32
was you shooting uh human subjects or
10:36
animal subjects, I got good detail.
10:38
Everything worked as it should. And so,
10:40
when on the still side of things, I
10:42
think autofocus is really pretty
10:44
fantastic. Now, on the video side of
10:47
things, you can see that Viltrox has
10:49
made some intentional choices about how
10:51
that autofocus is handled. They've
10:53
slowed that down, damped it down a
10:55
little bit, and so to allow us to have
10:57
these smooth transitions back and forth.
10:59
And so, there is, I think, a decent
11:01
cinematic quality. The focus pulls feel
11:04
nicely enough damp to where they're not
11:06
abrupt or jarring. And I don't see any
11:08
kind of visible steps or any kind of
11:10
pulsing here. And so, all of that is
11:13
fine. There is a bit of focus breathing
11:15
there, however. And of course, as a
11:16
third-party lens, you are not going to
11:18
benefit from focus breathing
11:20
compensation on either Sony or Nikon
11:23
platforms. When I did my hand test, I
11:25
had no problems with the transitions
11:27
back and forth. And in that more mild
11:29
kind of focus pull situation, I found
11:32
that I didn't really notice any kind of
11:34
obvious focus breathing there. And so,
11:35
in many situations, the focus breathing
11:37
is light enough that it probably won't
11:39
be a factor for you. When I approached
11:41
the camera, it had no problem tracking
11:43
me. I've been filming all of these
11:45
outdoor segments on the lens, and you
11:47
can see that it has no problem tracking
11:49
me in these situations. If I ducked out
11:51
of the frame, it was picked me up uh
11:53
without any kind of of problems there
11:55
and, you know, focus back accurately on
11:57
my eye. So, all of that is good.
11:59
Likewise, when I did just kind of more
12:01
ordinary, you know, focus pulls, whether
12:04
I was here on this organ where I was
12:05
intentionally causing the focus pulls,
12:08
it moves back and forth nicely. I think
12:10
I I like the damping there. And then
12:12
then this final shot when I started with
12:14
a close subject and I stood up and
12:16
allowed focus to move towards a distant
12:18
subject, it did so again with a nice
12:20
smooth pull. It's not abrupt and so all
12:23
of that I think is fine. Autofocus in
12:25
general I think is really pretty
12:28
excellent here on Sony and I think
12:30
you're going to be satisfied with what
12:31
you get out of it outside of again maybe
12:34
if you're shooting action and you need
12:35
just a little bit more thrust in the
12:37
focus motor. So we'll start by taking a
12:39
look at the optical design. Here we have
12:41
13 elements in 10 groups. And you can
12:43
see that this includes three re high
12:46
refractive index lenses. We also have
12:49
two extra low dispersion lenses here and
12:53
here. And then we have an aspherical
12:54
lens at the front of the optical design
12:58
that leads to an MTF chart that as you
13:00
can see is really quite excellent. And
13:02
so here, if we're looking at the 30
13:04
lines pair, which is this part of the
13:06
diagram, you can see that it starts off
13:09
at f1.8 in just absolutely super sharp
13:13
territory all the way through most of
13:15
the midframe out towards the corners. We
13:18
are still up above the 80% threshold and
13:20
we're only dropping down to this level,
13:23
averaging out at about 65%
13:26
by the time that we get to our all the
13:28
way out at the very edges. You can see
13:30
if we look instead at the f8, we can see
13:33
that it's not quite as sharp in the
13:35
center, but it's a very flat all across
13:37
the frame. If we look in by comparison
13:39
towards the earlier 35mm f1.8, we can
13:42
see that it started like 23 points
13:45
lower. In the mid-frame, that gap has
13:48
grown to more like 30 plus points. And
13:50
then in the corners, obviously much much
13:52
weaker there, averaging out to about 45%
13:55
rather than the 65% up here. And so all
13:58
across the frame, it's basically at
14:00
least 20 points higher, if not greater.
14:02
That's fantastic. Now, as far as other
14:04
metrics, we see on the plus side when it
14:06
comes to vignette and distortion, there
14:08
is a so small amount of uh barrel
14:11
distortion there that it's basically not
14:12
even worth correcting. Very, very mild.
14:15
But what we can see is there is a
14:17
significant amount of vignette. And so I
14:19
had to max out the slider for my chart
14:21
to get the result here. Now, what's
14:23
curious is that I didn't actually really
14:25
notice that vignette out in real world
14:27
shots very much. And so, here, for
14:29
example, this is at f1.8 indoor scene.
14:32
You know, corners that should be bright
14:33
and zero correction. And what you can
14:35
see is that the corners actually look
14:37
fine. And so, it's it seems like maybe
14:39
that effect is exaggerated up close or
14:42
on my test chart, but I don't know that
14:43
it's much of a real world factor. Now,
14:46
this is an app chromatic design, which
14:47
means that in many cases, a lot of the
14:49
fringing is going to be just optically
14:51
corrected as a part of the design. And
14:53
we can see here on my actual test chart,
14:55
there's basically almost no fringing to
14:57
see. However, I did see in a few very
15:00
high contrast situations like here that
15:03
while the contrast is still exceptional,
15:05
there is a bit of fringing on some of
15:07
these very bright surfaces. Likewise, if
15:10
I look at my dad's old SLR up here, very
15:13
high contrast. All the lettering is
15:15
really clean, but there is a little bit
15:17
of fringing on some of those shiny bits.
15:20
F1.8, F2, F2.8.
15:23
You can see it keeping a nice circular
15:25
shape. And obviously that fringing is
15:27
going to reduce as you stop the lens
15:29
down. What I found, again, just going
15:32
out into real world shooting away from
15:34
testing, I actually felt like it did
15:36
quite a good job here. You can see that
15:38
we have really high contrast and detail
15:40
at f1.8. There's lots of shiny bits
15:42
here. And you can see tiny bits of
15:44
fringing, but they're so minimal that
15:46
you're probably not going to see that
15:47
out in the real world. This shot here, I
15:49
was expecting to see a fair bit of
15:51
fringing. Everything here is really kind
15:53
of shiny and there's lots of layers of
15:56
defocus here. Lots of opportunity for,
15:59
you know, the boke bokeh to have
16:00
fringing around it. But what we see is
16:02
actually quite a neutral shot here. And
16:06
you know, there's a tiny bit of
16:07
fringing, a few points here and there,
16:09
but in general, I would say that the
16:11
apocromatic design is really doing a
16:13
fantastic job helping that contrast to
16:16
hold up and also reducing fringing. The
16:19
lateral style chromatic aberrations near
16:20
the edge of the frame are just not a
16:22
problem at all. I just don't see them
16:24
period. Now, a chromatic designs tend to
16:26
be very sharp, but of course, this is
16:28
more of a budget lens. But here on a 61
16:31
megapixel sensor um and shooting showing
16:34
you results at 200% magnification. We
16:36
can see in the center of the frame it
16:38
looks fantastic. I mean it is pin sharp
16:40
even at 200% magnification. Great
16:43
contrast. Moving to the mid-frame it
16:45
looks exceptional. Really really strong.
16:48
And as we pan down this direction we can
16:51
see that here and here it's keeping a
16:54
very good level of consistency. And even
16:56
right off into the corners, there's
16:57
still lots of detail following us all
16:59
the way out there. It's really quite a
17:02
strong performance. So, I thought I
17:04
would set a high bar to compare it to. I
17:06
recently reviewed the Sigma 35mm F1.4
17:11
uh Art M2 lens. And so, I stopped that
17:13
down to f1.8. The Sigma is one of the
17:16
sharpest 35mm lenses I've seen, period.
17:19
So, let's see how the EVO holds up. in
17:22
the center of the frame. I would say
17:23
that there is a little bit more contrast
17:26
from the Sigma with it stopped down, but
17:28
I mean they are very very close in the
17:31
mid-frame. You can see that I would say
17:34
that the EVO is holding up really really
17:36
well there in the midframe. A really
17:38
strong result and it down into the
17:40
corners. I think the Sigma is a little
17:42
bit more precise, a little bit better
17:44
detail, but you can see that it's it's
17:46
quite close. And so this inexpensive
17:49
lens is really impressive optically. If
17:51
we go to a more ordinary 100%
17:53
magnification, you can see that the
17:55
detail and contrast is just brilliantly
17:58
good. Uh this shot it obviously shot in
18:01
lower light, but I just saw the light
18:03
hitting my wife's face in a otherwise
18:05
dark room and I wanted to take the shot
18:08
again. F1.8 that is super super sharp.
18:11
Really great contrast and again that
18:13
vignette issue doesn't hardly show up
18:15
even in this quite dim scene. This
18:18
showed me that micro contrast from that
18:20
app apricatic design at f1.8 and you can
18:22
see it's really really gorgeous. I mean
18:25
all of these little details very very
18:28
finely resolved. I love it. This image
18:30
is actually my kind of home screen um
18:33
you know wallpaper at the moment because
18:35
I really like the way that it turned
18:36
out. But again you can see that as we
18:39
look here on that very narrow plane of
18:41
focus that all of that detail is holding
18:43
up really nicely. And as we can see,
18:46
there's a pretty nice transition from
18:47
focus to defocus across the image. So,
18:50
does the lens get sharper as we stop it
18:52
down? Well, from f1.8 to f2, you can see
18:54
there's a bit more contrast, but I
18:57
wouldn't say there's any kind of major
18:59
improvement. However, you can see
19:01
stopping down from f2 to f2.8 that there
19:03
is a noticeable improvement in the
19:05
center of the frame, which is now
19:07
fantastically sharp. And if we look here
19:09
in the mid-frame result, it looks just
19:12
super sharp. I mean, look at how crisp
19:14
all that detail is. And now we can also
19:16
see we're starting to really improve
19:18
there into the corners. They are really
19:20
starting to get sharper. And if we stop
19:22
on down to f4, now you can see that
19:25
those corners are basically pin sharp.
19:27
They're really exceptionally good.
19:29
Again, if we drop down to uh, you know,
19:31
more normal 100% level of magnification,
19:34
you can see that the amount of detail
19:35
here right off into the corners is just
19:38
super crisp. Uh really fantastic detail
19:41
all throughout the image here at f5.6.
19:44
I'm just really really impressed. I mean
19:46
all the detail here in the foreground as
19:49
we look towards the housing development.
19:51
You can look through this image and you
19:53
can you know you can count cacti over
19:55
here. Really impressive. And then as we
19:56
look at the draw distance toward the,
19:58
you know, the the far horizon, you can
20:01
see that as you magnify the image,
20:03
there's just more and more of these
20:05
really fantastic detail. Really unique
20:08
and beautiful contrast holding up. This
20:10
is looking out over Fountain Hills,
20:12
Arizona. And this is the Adero Canyon
20:14
development here. So with every lens,
20:16
you'll start to see the effects of
20:17
defraction. Um, and that's due to
20:19
particularly on these high resolution
20:20
bodies. So on 61 megapixels by f11,
20:23
you'll see the image start to start sh
20:25
soften up. And then at f-16, we hit the
20:27
minimum aperture and you can see it's
20:29
quite soft. Then as noted, the
20:31
magnification level doesn't blow my
20:33
mind, but this lens is super sharp up
20:35
close. You can see it even at f1.8.
20:38
There's tons of detail being resolved
20:40
there. And so I mean, if you actually
20:42
want higher magnification and you want
20:44
to mess with extension tubes, you could
20:46
actually get really nice detail out of
20:48
this lens. Here's another shot just to
20:50
show you that minimum focus distance. So
20:52
again, no no problem with contrast and
20:53
detail up close. It's just not a super
20:56
high level of magnification.
20:58
That contrast and detail does hold up
21:00
really nicely though. And as we look
21:02
towards defocus, a lot of times with app
21:05
chromatic lenses, they aren't as soft
21:07
because in the defocus because they're
21:09
so crisp, you know, I feel like this is
21:11
worst case scenario and it's a, you
21:14
know, it's a it's a very busy type
21:16
scene. And so I shoot this particular
21:18
shot intentionally because it's got so
21:20
much stuff in the transition zone. I
21:22
mean, the image is still busy, but it it
21:24
isn't showing me a lot of hard edges,
21:26
which I like. And so that means if I
21:28
move out into more optimal situation
21:30
where there's more, you know,
21:31
separation, obviously the detail and
21:34
contrast on the subject is awesome. And
21:36
then moving towards the defocus, it
21:38
looks quite nice. Here again, we can see
21:41
in the transition towards defocus that
21:44
frankly, I think it looks pretty good.
21:45
Another similar on a Hammond Oregon
21:47
here. And you can see that, you know,
21:50
before and after the plane of focus. I
21:52
think all the defocus looks pretty nice
21:55
here. This image where I'm at the
21:57
basically the minimum focus distance and
21:59
the background is further back. You can
22:01
see it, you know, it bleeds away really
22:02
nicely.
22:04
This shot I liked a lot. I mean, there's
22:06
good again shooting at f1.8, very, very
22:09
good subject isolation. And so for this
22:11
kind of environmental portrait shot,
22:13
this is the Kieran Commons in
22:14
Scottsdale, Arizona. Um you can see that
22:17
everything looks just really beautiful.
22:19
The colors are fantastic. All of that
22:21
looks good. And as we look towards the
22:23
background, the background is not going
22:24
to be strongly defocused, but what is
22:27
there is is pretty nice. We can see a
22:29
little bit of a soap bubble effect at
22:31
this distance, but some of you like
22:33
that. I don't necessarily love it, but
22:35
in general, because it's small here, I'm
22:37
not bothered by it either. Uh this image
22:39
again, some layers of defocus, but I
22:42
like it. Uh and I love this part of the
22:45
image right here, how crisp it is even
22:48
with super bright Arizona sunlight
22:50
coming through that. This image here has
22:52
the ability to kind of have a softer
22:54
transition towards defocus. The lighting
22:56
is a little less harsh. And so you can
22:58
see I think it looks fairly soft there
23:00
overall. Now flare resistance is
23:02
actually quite good here. Um you can see
23:04
in this shot at f1.8 looks good.
23:07
stopping down to f11. Again, we're not
23:09
getting any kind of weird flare
23:11
artifacts. Again, at a different angle.
23:13
It's looking good. If I pan back and
23:16
forth here, you can see there's a little
23:17
bit of a flashing at a certain point at
23:19
f1 f1.8. Stopping down to f11. We've got
23:23
no problems here. Um, no issues with
23:25
flare. We go back and forth. I shot lots
23:28
of images into the Arizona sun, like
23:29
landscape images, no problem. And this
23:32
where I was, you know, shooting for
23:33
these layers of defocus here. I got that
23:36
one shaft of sunlight coming into it.
23:39
That is about the worst that I saw uh
23:42
with my time during the lens review. So
23:44
again, that's pretty great. So what's my
23:47
conclusion? This, I think, is the lens
23:49
that we all were looking for, a 35mm uh
23:53
lens that is compact, easy to bring
23:54
along, but delivers very high-end image
23:57
quality. I have only one real regret
23:59
here and that is that rather poor
24:01
maximum magnification figure. That does,
24:04
you know, unfortunately take away one of
24:06
the things that I love to do with a 35mm
24:08
lens. At the same time, however, I will
24:10
note that the uplose performance is
24:12
good. And so, at least when I'm shooting
24:14
at those close focus distances, I am
24:16
going to get decent results. Outside of
24:18
that, you know, minor error there, I
24:21
think that this is a lens that Viltrox
24:23
deserves to sell a lot of. I know that
24:25
there's a lot of 35 millimeter lenses on
24:27
the market, but this really gives you a
24:30
a lot of the best of both worlds. And if
24:31
you compare it to what's being offered
24:33
up by the first party lenses from either
24:36
Sony or Nikon, I think that this really
24:38
really stands up not only just, you
24:41
know, on its own, standing on its own
24:43
two feet, all other qualifications taken
24:45
aside, but when you add in the fact that
24:47
it retails for $370 and you can get it
24:50
for less if you use the discount code in
24:52
the description down below. just use my
24:54
name, Dustin Abbott, and it'll get you
24:55
5% more off. But I mean, the fact that
24:59
you can get this lens for 370 versus
25:01
$850 or $900, it really makes this kind
25:05
of the lens to buy if you're looking for
25:07
a 35mm f1.8.
25:09
And here on Sony, there is another
25:11
alternative in the Samyang 35mm f1.8,
25:14
but this lens is superior in basically
25:17
every way. It's better optically, it has
25:19
better build, better features, uh has
25:21
weather sealing more thoroughly. It has
25:23
just all of those things going on for
25:24
it. And so I think that it is the lens
25:27
to buy. And the fact is is that it it's
25:30
no more than what the Samyang lens is in
25:33
terms of price. I've been excited about
25:35
the Evo series from the moment I saw
25:37
Viltrox begin to develop it. And this
25:39
35mm and by the way, the 55mm f1.8, they
25:43
they show me the reasons why. I think
25:45
this is a truly winning formula for
25:47
Viltrox. And I look forward to what else
25:49
they're going to bring in this series in
25:51
the future. If you want more
25:52
information, you can check out my full
25:54
text review which is linked in the
25:55
description down below. There are some
25:57
buying links there in the description as
25:58
well. As always, thanks for watching.
26:00
Have a great day and let the light in.

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Viltrox EVO 35mm F1.8 II APO Review | A Compact Dream Lens?

Dustin Abbott