Viltrox EVO 85mm F2 Z Mount Review | the New S-Line Challenger?

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[Music]
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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
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to give you my review of the Nikon
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Zmount version of Viltrox's exciting new
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85mm F2 Evo lens. The Evo lineup of
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course is their newest lineup joining
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the Air series on the bottom end and
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then the Pro and Lab series on the
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higher end. And the Evo slits between
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the Air and the Pro series, giving you
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some of the feature set of the Pro
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series, but the smaller, lighter, and
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cheaper variation of the Air series.
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It's a really, really sweet balance, and
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I love the 85mm F2 Evo on Sony E-mount.
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So, today's review is a follow-up for
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those of you that are Nikon Zmount users
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to see if it is as good and as useful
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here on Nikon. And I would say that the
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most obvious competitor is going to be
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Nikon's own 85mm f1.8s.
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And then of course there is the older
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and in fact the oldest of Viltrox's
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autofocusing lenses which is the 85mm
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f1.8 which is still sold here on Zmount.
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Now the 85mm f1.8 is considerably larger
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and heavier nearly double the weight of
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this lens. A little bit more expensive
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and frankly not quite as good. Though it
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does have very very nice rendering. It's
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a nice lens optically, but the Evo
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series is next level when it comes to
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features and general performance. And
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then, of course, compared to that S-line
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lens, the S-line lens is considerably
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more expensive. So, for those of you
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that are interested in having a compact
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85mm telephoto lens and don't want to
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spend the money of the S-line lens, I
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think that this could be really, really
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interesting. That is if it holds up in
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performance. Now, do you in full
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disclosure, this lens was sent to me by
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Viltrox for evaluation as always.
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However, they have had no input in my
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review process and they will not see
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this video before you do. My thoughts
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are my own and this is a completely
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independent review. Let's dive in and
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check it out. Okay, let's dive in. Let's
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take a closer look at the build and the
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feature set here. I really like the
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formula that Viltrox has struck with
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this brand new Evo series in that I feel
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like it kind of combines some of the
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best of both worlds. We've got the more
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compact size of the Air series, a little
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bit bigger than that, and we've got most
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of the feature set of the Pro series,
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just a little bit less, but in a lens
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size that is going to be really, really
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attractive. particularly here on Zmount
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where there's not a lot of high
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performing compact lenses quite like
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this. I think it's going to be a really
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excellent fit. The build quality here is
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actually really quite beautiful. I would
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be hardressed to tell you that the
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S-line F1.8 lenses are better made than
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what this lens is. It does feel very
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well made. It doesn't have maybe as
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thorough of weather sealing. It does
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have a gasket at the lens mount and a
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coating on the front element. What it
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doesn't have is the internal seals that
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the S-line lenses will have, but uh you
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know, at least it does have some measure
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of weather sealing and so you're not
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going to feel like you're making your
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camera vulnerable by mounting it on
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there because of that gasket there. Most
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of the competitors here really, and
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there's not a ton on Nikon. It's mostly
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is it's going to be a couple of f1.8
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competitors in the S-line lens, which is
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considerably more expensive. And then
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also Viltrox is older 85 F1.8, 8, which
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you can get for about $329. The Sline
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lens is um it's it's up in the $800
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range and so considerably more
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expensive. There's also, of course, the
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Suré Aurora 85mm F1.4. It's right under
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$500, but obviously it's an F1.4 lens
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with both the good and the bad that
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comes with that in terms of the overall
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size, weight, but then also of course
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light gathering potential. What we do
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have relative to the earlier Vtrox and
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then of course the S-line lens is a bit
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more feature set here. For one thing, we
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do have a dedicated aperture ring which
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is great. And so you have both an
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aperture and a manual focus ring which
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means you get away from on the S-line
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lens having just a single customizable
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control which means you can either have
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aperture control or you can have you
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know full-time manual focus override but
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you can't have both. And so I really
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like this configuration because you can
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have both. And what's more, you can have
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the option of having clicks. You can
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declick it with a switch on the side.
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And so you can do smooth aperture racks.
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While there isn't an iris lock, there at
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least is a firm detent there at f-16.
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That should keep you from going into uh
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the automatic mode if you have, you
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know, any kind of sensitivity in your
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hands. It will also have a customizable
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button here on the side which you can
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program a function in from the camera
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body. Again, that's something that's
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missing on the S-line lens or the older
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Viltrox lens. And you're getting all of
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that in a much more compact package,
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which I love. We've got nine rounded
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aperture blades here, and you can see
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you can do smooth aperture racks, which
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is useful, and it retains a fairly
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circular shape as you stop it down
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there. Geometry is pretty good as well.
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The lens does come with a uh nice lens
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hood here, which frankly feels just as
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good, if not better, than what I find on
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the S-line lenses, which their hoods are
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nothing special. This is nice. It's just
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plastic, but it's nice thick. It feels
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tough and durable. It clicks into place
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with a nice amount of precision, and
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it's not going to break away from that.
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The lens itself, it's a big winner in
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terms of the size here. So, 69 mm in
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diameter or 2.71 in. That's about six or
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seven millimeters slimmer than the
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competing lenses. It is 78 millime long
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or around 3 in. And again, the
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competitors are going to run anywhere
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between 96 and about 103 mm in length.
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So the 78 mm makes it much shorter. So
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it's both slimmer and shorter and it is
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lighter. 360 g or 12.6 oz. The S-line
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lens is 470 g, so 110 g more. The older
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Viltrox 85 F1.2 2 is a whopping 540
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gram. So that's an extra 180 g. So that
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is a huge advantage for this lens if
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you're wanting to travel light. Up front
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we've got 58 mm filter threads which are
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small and common. And on the rear we do
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have a USBC port and so that you can do
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easy firmware updates. It I did a
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firmware update on this today. Um there
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is an update to I believe version 1.05
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05 and the update process took all of
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about oh four or five seconds and so uh
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very very quick gets the job done. No
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problems there. Minimum focus distance
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is 74 cm. That's a little bit better
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than some competing lenses and the magn
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magnification of 0.13 times is not great
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in absolute sense but for an 85mm lens
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that's actually a good performance. And
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and so uh the highest I've seen on an 85
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non-m macro style lens is just 0.14
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times. And so this is right in the hunt
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there. So a usable amount of uplose
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performance and the uplose uh sharpness
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and contrast is fairly good. And so at
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the end of the day, this is a beautiful
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package. Nice build quality, nice
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feature set, and great size. So let's
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talk autofocus. Focus motor here is an
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STM focus motor. And while they have
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moved to the hyper VCM voice coil style
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motors on the pro and the lab series,
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they have retained the STM focus motor
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here. And frankly, it's probably all
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that all that is needed. The air series
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and the Evo series are using smaller
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maximum apertures, so smaller glass
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elements unless the STM provides plenty
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of thrust. As you can see here, focus
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moves back and forth with good speed.
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Not really hardly any hesitation there
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at all. And I would say that focus speed
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is certainly up to uh the competing
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lenses from Nikon that also are driven
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with STM focus motors. Frankly,
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everything in this class of lens, all
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the 85mm lenses that uh are basically
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available on Zmout are utilizing STM
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focus motor at this point. And and so no
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problems there. That all seems to work
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out without any kind of issue. I also
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found that I had good accuracy whether I
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was uh shooting photos of people,
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shooting photos of animals and in
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general I felt like focus uh worked fine
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and and so I don't really have any kind
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of hesitations. Focus motor is quiet in
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operation. Not really any kind of focus
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noise. Definitely nothing ever you would
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ever get picked up on the microphone of
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a camera. And so in general I think uh
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the focus gets the job done and it seems
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to translate well to Nikon here. I feel
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like it has good confidence for a
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third-p partyy lens. It did feel pretty
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natural and pretty nicorish in terms of
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the focus quality. So, that's all I can
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ask for, particularly in a lens that is
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so inexpensive like this. All right,
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let's talk video autofocus. I find on
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Nikon it you have to put a little bit
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more effort into making sure that you
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tweak the settings to get the kind of
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behavior you want out of video. Uh, with
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Sony, you can pretty much go with the
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defaults most of the time, Canon, and
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it'll get the job done. But Nikon, you
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be need to be a little bit more
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specific. And I find that for myself, I
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really need to max out the sensitivity
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if I want focus to move with any kind of
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elacrity. Now, when it comes to touch to
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focus, unfortunately, none of those
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settings apply to that process. And so,
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while the Viltrox does fairly well here,
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bouncing back and forth with a pretty
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good amount of confidence, it's nothing
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that I would call cinematic. And that's
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true for all the lenses that I test
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here. However, if I shift to other
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things, like for example, let's look at
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the test of approaching the camera. All
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right, let's see how it does when I
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approach the camera. This kind of test
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is getting less and less fun as winter
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has now arrived. So, we'll see if I can
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keep this up in the future all winter
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long, but at the moment, we're still
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getting it done. All right, let's see
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what happens if I duck out of out of
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frame to see if it actually goes to the
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background.
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And more importantly, does it come back
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to me? How about if I go to the side
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and back in frame? We'll see how quickly
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it snapped back there. You can see in
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this case that because I've turned that
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sensitivity up, it did actually start to
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transition towards the background.
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Whereas on some of my reviews, if I
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don't change that setting, it kind of
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just waits around for me to come back.
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And so I was happy to see that it was
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fairly responsive. But more importantly,
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it was accurate in both tracking me as I
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approached and then also picking me back
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up when I stepped out of frame.
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Likewise, it did fairly good when I did
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my hand test and making good transitions
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from my hand to my eye and back. What I
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also notice in that is that there is
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some focus breathing, but it is not
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particularly jarring or rough. Likewise,
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if I do a just a standard trans uh
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transition where I'm not doing like any
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kind of touch to focus, just is allowing
10:55
focus to naturally shift from a
10:57
foreground subject to the background. I
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found that it did that with a pretty
11:01
nice degree of damping. And and so the
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most important thing to me there is that
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it is a smooth process and thus you
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could use this fairly cinematically. Now
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obviously for all these outdoor settings
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where I have been filming with the lens
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itself, the key thing there is that it
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is trustworthy when it comes to track
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me, I would have no hesitation using
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this for some of my video segments and
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that is really at the end of the day
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what matters most to me. So overall I
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would give it a thumbs up for its
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performance. So let's talk about the
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optical performance. This is an optical
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design of 10 elements in eight groups.
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That's two extra low dispersion elements
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and two high refractive index elements
11:39
as a part of that design. You can see
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that the MTF looks great in the center
11:43
in the mid-frame. And then there is some
11:45
drop right off towards the edge where it
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drops somewhat at the f8 test which it
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shows it's a little bit less sharp in
11:52
the center of the frame but more even
11:54
across the whole frame giving you
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consistent results for things like
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landscapes. I've already tested this on
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a higher resolution level and so I
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already know it's a high performing
12:04
lens. So I've tested at 61 megapixels
12:06
here on Nikon at 45 megapixels. It's a
12:10
little less demanding and I did find
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that things like corner sharpness seem
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to sharpen up more quickly in my opinion
12:16
on the low resolution point. This is a
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lens that has a lot of good things going
12:20
on. It's got a minimal amount of
12:22
distortion. I used a minus two to
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correct a bit of pin cushion distortion.
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vignette. It was has surprised me in
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that it wasn't still has a fair bit of
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vignette, but it wasn't noticeably
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heavier on Nikon than what it was on
12:36
Sony. I did a in my Sony test, I needed
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a plus 71 to correct. Here on Nikon, I
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needed a plus 76. So, you know, a tiny
12:44
amount of additional correction, but
12:46
remarkably similar. Usually, I'm seeing
12:48
at least a full stop. I also just found
12:50
in the overall design, it seems like
12:52
this this kind of form factor seems like
12:55
it had to be less modifi modified for
12:57
Zmount as well. So, I I really like this
12:59
is a really effective port relative to
13:01
the the Sony version, which I'm I'm
13:03
really glad to see. It continues to have
13:06
very low level of levels of fringing.
13:08
So, very strong in terms of longitudinal
13:10
style chromatic aberration, a very
13:12
minimal amount there. I saw that both in
13:15
on my test chart but then also in the
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real world shot of my dad's old SLR. Uh
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I also found minimal amounts of lateral
13:22
style chromatic aberration. So great
13:25
wide open performance uh with crops at
13:27
f2 and here shown at 200% magnification
13:31
show an extremely sharp center very
13:33
strong mid-frame and then still
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surprisingly good corners. I found that
13:38
stopping down to f2.8 eight. You can see
13:40
a bit of a improvement in the corners by
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f5.6. They are pin sharp. They're sharp
13:46
in a way actually that not a lot of
13:48
lenses get to. So, I was impressed by
13:50
that. Defraction is going to show up a
13:52
bit at f11 and then more noticeably by
13:54
f-16, but again, not quite as extreme on
13:57
Nikon as it was on Sony due to that
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lower resolution level there. Now, we
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This lens has a lot of wide open pop.
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So, it does actually remind me of the
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f1.8 8 S-line lenses in that regard. And
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like those lenses, I feel like the
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rendering is still quite good when you
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consider the the fact that they are so
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sharp and contrasty wide open. And so
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when you're close to your subject and
14:22
the background's a little bit further
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away, obviously you can get a beautiful
14:25
amount of background blur. But where
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this lens stands out for an F2 lens is
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that I feel like the rendering is really
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quite good in the less advantageous
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situations. Basically, there was no
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place where I saw the bokeh get ugly in
14:38
my mind. And uh you know, it's got some
14:40
of that clipping in the corners in terms
14:42
of the geometry for specular highlights,
14:44
but that's true of almost all lenses. Um
14:47
and particularly telephoto lenses. It's
14:49
very, very true. You know, anything
14:51
short of the Plenna, which is
14:52
exceptional in having circular bokeh
14:55
circles all the way out to the edge. But
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of course, you know, that's a $2,800
14:58
lens. So, we're talking about a $275
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lens and obviously a really strong
15:03
performance. So, I think there's a very
15:05
nice blend here optically of sharpness
15:08
and softness in the areas that you want.
15:10
Colors are very, very good. I felt like
15:12
colors were nice. You've probably seen
15:14
in the outdoor segments that the the
15:16
rendering in the background is nice from
15:18
the lens. I also found when testing for
15:20
flare resistance, and I did that more on
15:22
the Sony version because of the weather
15:24
conditions here during the time that I
15:26
was shooting uh with the Nikon version,
15:28
but I found that flare resistance was
15:29
good except if you're like shooting
15:31
right directly into the sun, which
15:34
probably not a lot of situations where
15:35
you're going to do that. In most
15:36
scenarios, I was very pleased with flare
15:38
resistance and flare performance, but I
15:41
found that it could be a little bit,
15:42
particularly if you're shooting at small
15:44
apertures right into the sun. Probably a
15:47
real world scenario that you're not
15:48
going to do very often. But if you do
15:50
that, your flare resistance isn't going
15:52
to be quite as good. At the end of the
15:53
day, however, my conclusion is this is a
15:56
really beautiful lens optically for
15:58
being so inexpensive. And you know, 85mm
16:02
f2 on paper doesn't excite anyone, but
16:04
when you get it in this kind of package
16:06
and with this kind of performance, it's
16:08
kind of exciting. My conclusion on the
16:11
85mm f2 EVO lens from Viltox remains
16:14
extremely positive here on Nikon. I feel
16:17
like this is a lens that really suits a
16:20
need. And certainly, while the F1.8 8
16:24
Sline lenses from Nikon are attractive
16:26
lenses in many ways. They're not
16:28
necessarily inexpensive. And so you're
16:30
looking at nearly $800 for the 85 F1.8
16:34
S-line lens. And so this EVO lens, I
16:38
think, provides a really, really
16:39
intriguing budget option at only $275 US
16:43
or slightly less if you use the discount
16:45
code in the description down below. So
16:47
that means that you can get a lens that
16:49
does pretty much everything that the
16:51
S-line lens can do with a little bit
16:54
more physical controls for considerably
16:56
less. And obviously as we have seen,
16:58
it's really really optically sound. Uh
17:00
it does a lot of things well and even
17:03
when it comes to autofocus and just the
17:05
general stability, it's it's
17:06
lightweight. And yes, the maximum
17:08
aperture is a third stop less bright
17:11
than the uh nicor lens, but I think that
17:13
most people would be be willing to
17:15
accept that compromise for, you know,
17:18
500 bucks. So, at the end of the day, I
17:20
think that this is a really welcome
17:22
addition to the Zmount platform. I'm
17:24
also really happy to see it come so
17:26
quickly to Zmount, whereas we've seen
17:29
more of a delay when it comes to some of
17:30
the more recent Viltrox releases. So,
17:33
I'm really glad to see this here and I
17:34
think this is going to be a lens that
17:35
will be a really excellent seller uh
17:38
here for Zmount as well. Um it it really
17:41
feels like a very confident third party
17:43
adaptation and it shows to me that
17:45
Viltrox is growing in their ability to
17:48
do Zmount well, which is fantastic. I'm
17:50
excited about that. And so at the end of
17:52
the day, I am really enthusiastic about
17:54
this arriving here and it's a lens that
17:56
I anticipate really enjoying using on my
17:58
own Z8 and certainly an easy one to
18:01
bring along on trips or when traveling
18:04
because it is so compact and it is so
18:07
competent at the same time. Now, if you
18:09
want more information, uh you can either
18:11
check out my full text review that is
18:13
linked in the description down below.
18:14
There are buying links there in the
18:15
description. Check out the new
18:16
dustinbott.net net and you're going to
18:18
enjoy uh the text reviews that are there
18:20
and lots of additional information.
18:23
Beyond that, if you want a deep dive
18:25
into the optical performance, as always,
18:26
this is the place to get that. So, stay
18:28
tuned with me right now. Let's jump into
18:30
it and see what we find. All right,
18:31
we'll start by taking a look at vignette
18:33
and distortion. If you see here, you can
18:35
see a tiny bit of a pin cushion style
18:37
distortion. Very easy to correct. Just a
18:40
minus two here helps to straighten all
18:43
of that out. No issues with that.
18:45
vignette is pronounced but not terribly
18:48
pronounced and as noted not really all
18:50
that much worse than what it was on
18:51
Sony. I used a plus 76 to achieve this
18:55
result. There is a correction profile
18:56
available however already and so that
18:59
does help. Now if I turn off that
19:02
profile in a real world shot you can see
19:04
that there definitely is some darkening
19:06
in the corners. I do want to point out
19:08
however look at how great that contrast
19:11
and detail is in the plane of focus.
19:14
That's gorgeous. I find that chromatic
19:16
aberrations are well controlled. There's
19:18
minimal fringing before and after the
19:20
plane of focus whether here on the
19:21
chart. And then if we punch in here and
19:24
we look in the imprints here, really
19:26
nice and clean. And look at all the
19:27
shiny bits. Very, very well controlled
19:29
terms of chromatic aberrations. Not
19:31
really any kind of uh outlining of
19:33
fringing here. And likewise, you can see
19:36
that inside the bokeh circles, they're
19:38
nice and clean looking. There is a bit
19:41
of an inner line there, but it's not
19:43
like terribly pronounced. As the lens
19:45
stops down, you could see that there's
19:47
some just wide open there's some of that
19:50
kind of lemon or cat eye shape. Stopping
19:51
down to f2.8 and you've got fairly round
19:55
specular highlights with just a little
19:56
bit of deformation near the edge of the
19:58
frame. Uh here now at f4, you can see a
20:01
little bit of a nonagonal shape from the
20:04
aperture blades, but basically it's
20:05
circles all across the frame. So a
20:07
really good result there also. Now, when
20:10
it comes to lateral style chromatic
20:11
aberrations, you can see a tiny bit of
20:13
fringing, but this is at a really high
20:14
level of magnification, nearly 200%.
20:17
You're not going to really see any of
20:19
this in real world shots. Now, when it
20:21
comes to resolution and contrast, again,
20:23
45 megapixel Z8 sensor, and this is at
20:27
200% magnification. Center of the frame
20:29
looks awesome. Great detail, great
20:32
contrast. You see some more there
20:33
because contrast is so intense. I don't
20:36
love more but I did it is an indicator
20:38
on my test chart that you're achieving
20:40
very high levels of contrast and
20:42
resolution. Likewise here you can see
20:45
same thing that's a great mid-frame
20:47
performance. As we move down you can see
20:50
a fairly consistency from this upper
20:52
left to the lower right corner. And as
20:54
we carry on down you can see it's still
20:56
holding out pretty good here. And it's
20:58
really not until you get to the very
21:00
edge that resolution begins to fall off.
21:02
Now, to give that some real world
21:04
perspective, here is a crop of a shot
21:07
from Nala. She jumped right up while I
21:08
was trying to work and so she got in the
21:10
way for some reason is looking at the
21:12
lights I was using to eliminate the SLR.
21:14
So, I took a few p pictures, took
21:16
advantage of it, and you can see great
21:18
detail and contrast that's there.
21:20
Likewise, this shot is actually through
21:22
a sliding like French door. And despite
21:25
having some glass in between, you can
21:27
see just how much resolution and
21:29
contrast there is. Really great looking
21:31
shot. Likewise here. And this is just
21:34
nice lighting. You can see the colors
21:36
are really nice and clean. But again, if
21:38
we look here at the fur, really nice
21:41
delineation of that. Very good detail.
21:44
No frringing showing up in the whiskers.
21:46
All good stuff. In fact, if I compare
21:48
out in the real world at 100%
21:50
magnification, f2 to f5.6,
21:53
we can see that yeah, there's a little
21:56
bit more contrast and resolution here on
21:58
the right at f5.6. But even as we pan
22:01
off here towards the edge, yes, it is
22:04
improved at f5.6, but it's not a night
22:06
and day difference. It is already very,
22:08
very good even at f2 here on the 45
22:11
megapixel sensor. So, that's really
22:14
really encouraging to see. It also means
22:15
for those of you that are shooting APS-C
22:18
and you're considering this lens that
22:19
yeah, it's going to work fine on APS-C.
22:22
There's plenty of resolution there to
22:23
handle a higher pixel density. We've
22:26
already seen that by testing it on Sony.
22:28
So, frankly, the only real area that's
22:31
there's room for improvement is more at
22:34
the corners because most of the frame is
22:35
already super sharp at f2. As we see, if
22:38
we look into the corners at f2.8 here on
22:40
the right, number one, they do brighten
22:42
up immensely. So, you can reduce a lot
22:44
of that vignette by shooting at f2.8.
22:46
Now, we can see that contrast and, you
22:49
know, resolution is looking good here.
22:51
It hasn't radically improved here in the
22:53
corner yet. Let's look at up at the
22:54
other side. And we can see that even
22:56
this far in, it's really looking quite
22:58
good by f2.8. But if we look in this
23:01
zone here, closer to the edge, it's
23:03
still a little bit softer. Moving on to
23:05
f4, it's looking better. But really at
23:09
f5.6, you can see that it sharpens and
23:12
brightens even further. And now even you
23:14
come in just a little bit and that like
23:16
the blacks are just inky on that
23:18
writing. All of the fine detailing here
23:21
is looking really good. And this is way
23:23
off in this upper corner. So that's a
23:25
really great resolution performance stop
23:27
down. You'll see the same through f8.
23:30
And then at f11 you'll see a bit of
23:33
softening due to defraction. You see
23:34
that like for example that moir pattern
23:36
is gone. If we look here it's very faint
23:38
compared to wide open. But at f16 you're
23:41
seeing even more softening due to
23:43
defraction. But you can also see even at
23:44
200% magnification that's still a very
23:47
usable result. So frankly at normal 100%
23:50
magnification you would still be happy
23:52
with that result. Now, as noted, you get
23:54
a little bit better amount of maximum
23:57
magnification relative to the S-line
23:59
lens, and the up close performance is
24:02
good. I mean, the plane of focus looks
24:04
nice and flat. You can see we've got
24:06
resolution right off to the edge of the
24:07
frame. Contrast isn't off the charts
24:10
good, but certainly it's we're at a very
24:12
usable level here looking at it at 100%
24:14
magnification. Now, if we go out to the
24:16
real world here, like that's a beautiful
24:19
combination of sharpness and contrast
24:22
and then overall softness of rendering.
24:24
You can see as we transition to defocus,
24:27
no real hard edges, looking really
24:28
clean. This image, I think, is it shows
24:31
off all the good stuff. Great resolution
24:33
and contrast in the plane of focus. And
24:35
then the background is nice and creamy.
24:38
No issues there. I'm very happy with
24:40
that end result. And even if I jump to
24:42
this final image where it's it's
24:45
obviously a a very complex background
24:47
that's right beyond this. While yes,
24:50
there's a little bit more uh edging than
24:52
what I would like and it's it's more
24:54
than anything it's not as defocused as
24:55
what I would like. You can see that even
24:57
that transition zone doesn't look
24:59
terrible. And then up in this zone,
25:01
we're getting into some really nice
25:02
creaminess. So the end of the day, I
25:04
think that the rendering for an F2 lens
25:07
is really quite nice. All right, so
25:09
thanks for sticking around until the
25:10
very end and hopefully the deep dive
25:12
into the optical performance has given
25:13
you the answers you're looking for. As
25:15
always, thanks for watching. Have a
25:17
great day and let the light in.
25:20
[Music]

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