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Photographer Dustin Abbott takes a deep dive look at the Viltrox PRO AF 85mm F1.4 Z-Mount - now available for Nikon Z-mount for under $600 USD! Is this the S-Line worthy F1.4 lens we've all wanted? | Read the Text Review: | Purchase the Viltrox AF 85mm F1.4 Pro Z @ Viltrox https://tinyurl.com/BuyPRO85Z (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 5% off) | B&H | Amazon https://amzn.to/4i9stQG | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/44dRq7C | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4i9141h | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/4oMstZu
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Table of Contents:
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0:00
the viltrox pro af 85 millimeter f1.4 is a lens that won a lot of people over on sony e-mount
0:17
but of course people immediately begin to wonder when is the nikon z-mount version going to arrive
0:23
well the answer is today we now finally have the first of these full frame pro series lenses
0:29
that has come in a native Nikon Z-mount version. And I can certainly attest that having used the FE version via adapter
0:39
you're definitely going to get a better native experience here. But today I'm going to explore whether or not this lens works as well on Nikon Z-mount
0:48
if there's something you should look out for, and whether or not it is a lens that you should consider
0:53
Of course, here on Z-mount, it is a different situation as far as the amount of options available
0:59
And as far as native Nikkor lenses, we don't really have an 85mm f1.4 going from 85mm f1.8 S line to the very big and very expensive 85mm f1.2 S line lens
1:13
So certainly this fills a niche for those that are looking for a high quality lens with a faster maximum aperture than f1.8
1:22
And of course the price point here of under $600 and even less if you use the discount code in the description down below
1:29
it's going to be pretty appealing when you look at the price of the native Nikkor lenses
1:35
But of course, is this a lens that you should consider? Well, we're going to dive in and explore that today
1:40
Before we do that, however, I do want to give you a disclosure that this lens was sent to me by Viltrox for evaluation
1:47
However, they have had no input in my review process. They will not see this video before you
1:51
This is a completely independent review and my thoughts are my own
1:57
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2:22
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2:28
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2:37
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2:43
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and use code DUSTIN20 to build your wardrobe. That's FIOBOK.com and use code DUSTIN20 to get
2:55
20% off everything. Thanks FIOBOK. Now on to the episode. To this point, Viltrox has basically had
3:03
three different lineups over the last couple of years, though they now have tweaked that a little
3:08
bit, adding a fourth into the mix. And so we, on the top end, we have the lab lenses, which have
3:14
been, at least with this kind of focal length, will be f1.2 aperture, though with 135 millimeter
3:19
it's an f1.8 aperture. And these Pro Series have mostly on full frame had f1.4 aperture. And of
3:25
course, we've got the brand new Evo lineup and then the budget Air Series there at the bottom
3:31
Now, these f1.4 lenses really kind of hit a sweet spot on Nikon Z mount because of Nikon's
3:38
let's say, odd approach to f1.4 lenses. I know there are a lot of you that are looking for
3:44
f1.4 level s-line lenses because well looking at the price on their 85 millimeter lenses the msrp
3:53
for the f1.8 s-line lens is about 850 but the price for the f1.2 is all the way up at three
4:01
thousand dollars in the u.s market that is a huge jump and of course you would assume that something
4:08
with an f1.4 aperture would probably fall somewhere, you know, right under $2,000, somewhere in that
4:14
range. Still very expensive, but much more affordable than a $3,000 85 millimeter prime
4:20
And so this Viltrox Pro Series is going to really be pretty disruptive because it's coming in at a
4:27
price point of $600, right under that. And you can get it for even cheaper with the discount code
4:32
in the description down below. So that means that you are getting a pro level lens with very high
4:38
performance for a whole lot cheaper, even than the F1.8 lineup. And of course, at this point
4:43
we still don't have an 85 millimeter F1.4 from Nikkor themselves. However, those F1.4 lenses
4:50
while there are things that I like about them, they are not what you would call ultra high
4:55
performing in terms of sharpness and contrast. They tend to be a little bit more on the budget
4:59
side of things, and I'm assuming would be priced somewhere in the vicinity of this lens. So that's
5:05
going to make it tempting for those that are really looking for a high-grade lens and don't
5:09
want to spend big dollars. This is a beautifully built lens. It is actually made out of aviation
5:14
grade magnesium aluminum alloy and so it has a really tough shell and it also has a just a
5:20
beautiful finish and look to it that you know it looks premium because it does have a lot of
5:26
premium materials in the overall build and design. What it isn't however is small and light. The lens
5:32
is 84.5 millimeters or 3.3 inches in diameter and 110.5 millimeters or 4.35 inches longer. And so
5:41
it's just a little bit different than the Sony E-mount version. It has to be larger in this
5:46
section of the lens barrel to accommodate the larger Z-mount aperture. And because there's a
5:51
little bit different, two millimeters different of flange distance on Z-mount, it is two millimeters
5:56
longer. And so that adds up to it being a little bit heavier. Whereas the E-mount version was right
6:02
under 800 grams. This on my scale weighs in at 830 grams or 29.2 ounces. And so how does that
6:10
compare to the Nikkor lenses? Well, the F1.8 S is going to be lighter at 470 grams. The F1.2 S
6:18
is going to be much heavier at 1160 grams. If you actually split the difference between those two
6:25
it comes out to almost exactly what the weight for the F1.4 lens would be. So here on Nikon
6:30
it's kind of an appropriate size and weight even though it's a little bit bigger and heavier than
6:34
what any of us would necessarily like. Up front we have a 77 millimeter front filter thread and as
6:41
far as the feature set we do have a traditional design here for the aperture ring and so rather
6:46
than just a customizable control ring we actually have a real aperture ring and so it can be clicked
6:51
it can be de-clicked and so that you can use do smooth aperture racks and I have to say I know that
6:56
We become accustomed to the customizable control ring as a means of controlling aperture
7:02
but frankly, this is a better design. I mean, to have actual physical markers on there to know what aperture you're using
7:08
without just having endless ring rotations. I actually vastly prefer this kind of control setup myself
7:15
though, of course, your mileage may vary. In the de-click mode, you can do smooth aperture racks
7:20
which is obviously appreciated here on Nikon. The aperture iris itself is 11 aperture blades
7:26
and the geometry is quite good. It does have some cat eye effect towards the edge of the frame
7:31
but certainly not bad at all We additionally have an AF switch on the lens barrel which is appreciated And then we have a custom or function button there on the side that you can program from within the camera to whatever specific function that you
7:45
looking for. On the lens mount, you will find a USB-C port that allows for easy firmware updates
7:52
And what's more, you'll see a weather sealing gasket there that is the indicator of a thorough
7:57
weather sealing in this, you know, again, professionally grade lens. There are about
8:01
10 different seal points throughout the lens itself, along with an HD nano coating on the
8:05
front that is resistant to fingerprint oils and moisture there as well. No image stabilization or
8:12
VR in the lens itself, but none of the lenses in this class do offer that. And so you're going to
8:17
be relying on camera-based stabilization if your camera is so equipped. One thing I do want to
8:23
point out about the lens, because this does throw people that are unfamiliar with this design
8:27
although it is becoming more common, and that is that this employs what's called floating elements
8:32
And so when the lens is powered off and you tip it forward and backward, you'll feel and hear a
8:37
clunking sound. And frankly, it's a little bit more prominent in these lenses than what it is
8:43
even in some other brands that employ floating elements. As soon as you turn the camera on and
8:48
you do the same thing, all the clunking goes away. And that's because now those elements are
8:52
activated and energized. And so they're no longer floating or moving. What the reason for that is
8:59
that design is that it helped actually helps in a couple of areas. It's going to help to reduce
9:03
focus breathing a little bit, but also it helps with up close performance to be just a little bit
9:08
better than lenses that are not so equipped. And so in this case, we can focus down a little bit
9:13
closer than is common down to 79 millimeters. And we have a resulting 0.13 times magnification
9:20
which in an absolute sense is not high, but for an 85 millimeter lens is on the higher side
9:26
of average there. Up close performance is good, not exceptional, but very, very good
9:32
And the lens is nice. It does come with a hood and a lens pouch. The hood itself
9:38
is nicely made. I mean, frankly, it's nicer than what comes with the S line lenses
9:44
which have never impressed me. It has no locking mechanism. However, it just kind of bayonets on
9:49
and clicks into place tightly. However, it's a nice tight fit to where it's not slipping or moving
9:54
and so I don't have any really issues with that. This is a nicely built lens. It's a nice package
9:59
It is a little bit big and heavy, but frankly, here on Nikon Z-Mount, we're kind of accustomed
10:03
to that. So let's talk autofocus. Viltrox has used their new Hyper VCM voice coil style focus
10:10
motor in these Pro Series lenses, at least in 2025. However, in this case, we are getting a
10:18
single hyper-VCM focus motor as opposed to the multiple motors that are used in the Lab series
10:24
lenses. Most notably on the Lab 35 F1.2, they use four of these motors to drive autofocus
10:31
And so what we have here is good, but not exceptionally good, autofocus. I say good
10:37
because it is smooth, quiet, and confident, but focus speed, as you can see, is not lightning fast
10:44
It's not slow, but you can definitely see some focus movement back and forth here in my test
10:51
It's not instantaneous in the way that the best lenses are. At the same time, however, a lot of the Nikkor lenses are using STM focus motors
11:00
and so they aren't necessarily getting the highest thrust that's out there either
11:04
I didn't do actual portrait session because I had a limited time with the lens before the release date
11:09
However, I did do portrait sessions with the FE version, and I got great results there
11:14
I did have an opportunity to shoot just in an evening with a birthday party going on
11:18
and I had no problem, as you would expect. I had no problem with getting focus on the eyes of subjects, whether they were adult or baby
11:26
and certainly my ever-available cats. I had no problem in getting focus on them, even in more difficult lighting situations like being very strongly backlit
11:35
so I have no issues in terms of focus accuracy out in my shooting in nature I got well focused
11:42
results and no major issues there the only thing I run into is something I run into almost constantly
11:47
with all types of lenses on Z mount and that is if I'm trying to focus on a close subject a lot of
11:53
times focus wants to stay stuck on the background and I usually have to do them use manual override
11:57
to get me up in the appropriate zone and then focus will lock on at that point but as I said
12:03
That's not a lens specific problem. That's more of a across the board Nikkor type problem
12:09
And so for autofocus, I would say that focus, quality of focus is good, but speed of focus
12:15
is not exceptional. And so, so long as you're not trying to do something too demanding with the lens, I certainly
12:20
wouldn't try to shoot sports with this lens, but for other moderate things, even if you're
12:25
shooting weddings, it should have no problem with that. Definitely for shooting portraits or anything more pedestrian like that
12:31
No problem. autofocus does a great job so how about video autofocus here the hyper vcm focus motor it
12:38
definitely is an improvement over at least some stepping motors in that you don't have any kind
12:43
of visible steps as a part of the process and so it is at least a linear movement from one subject
12:48
to another now when i do touch to focus on nikon cameras it it doesn't work quite as well as what
12:55
it does on either Sony or Canon. So this test is a little less kind of illustrative on Nikon
13:02
but you can see it moves with reasonable smoothness back and forth. And you can also see that focus
13:06
breathing is fairly minimal for an 85 millimeter lens. So that part is great. Now, when I did my
13:11
hand test, I got mostly good results transitioning back from my hand to my eye. There was a couple
13:17
of occasions here where focus didn't move from my face once I put the hand there to block it
13:24
but I guess at the end of the day you would prefer that than to the alternative, not going back to my face
13:30
When I approached the camera, no problem there. And obviously with all of these outdoor type segments here
13:35
you've been able to see the focus has been stable, locks on to be fine
13:39
Even as I'm moving around, it's staying with me. And I've been shooting at f1.4 for all of these outdoor segments on the Viltrox lens itself
13:48
So I suspect for most people under most circumstances, video AF is going to be just fine
13:52
All right, let's talk image quality here. This is an optical design of 15 elements in 11 groups
13:59
That includes three extra low dispersion elements, nine high refractive index element, and one
14:04
aspherical lens. There's actually only two normal lenses in the optical design. So this is definitely
14:10
very much made up of exotics and expensive glass in there. You can see from the MTF chart that we
14:16
have a very strong MTF with just a bit of a fade into the corners, but it's sharp in the center and
14:21
the mid frame and then just a little bit softer in the corners, but only down to about a 60% range
14:27
which is definitely better than what a lot of lenses are there. When you stop it down to f8
14:32
that MTF shows that while you're not quite as sharp in the center and mid frame, it's basically
14:36
a straight line across. And so you're getting very consistent performance across the frame
14:40
On the plus side, we have a minimal amount of distortion here, a tiny amount of pin cushion
14:45
distortion, which is linear and easy to correct. I used a minus two to correct it. Vignette came in
14:50
at about a plus 56 to correct. When testing for fringing, I found that on my test chart
14:56
I only saw a minimal amount of longitudinal style fringing. However, when I went to my real world
15:04
subject, my dad's old SLR, you can see a more prominent amount of some green fringing on
15:09
reflective surfaces after the plane to focus. There's also a tiny bit of fringing around
15:15
specular highlights but it not strongly pronounced And so it not actually much of a real world issue As far as the lateral chromatic aberrations that show up near the corner of the frame they basically non so no real issue there as well If we take a look at
15:31
resolution here, obviously our resolution point with my Nikon Z8 at 45 megapixels is a little bit
15:36
lower than the a7R5 that I tested on Sony, which is at 61 megapixels, and so this lens is going to
15:42
have a little bit easier time here on Nikon due to lower pixel density. So what I found is that
15:48
wide open sharpness, even at 200% magnification off my test chart, looks really, really good. And
15:53
even into the corners, it's looking pretty good. However, when you go out into the real world
15:59
I found that the corners are definitely a little bit softer, as you can see here. They're still
16:03
usable, but they could use a little bit more resolution and contrast. Stopping down even to
16:08
F2.8, however, and those edges and corners look really, really crisp, both out in the real world
16:14
as you can see here, but then also on the test chart, they are looking very, very crisp. So
16:18
basically, you're going to get pretty much perfect sharpness and contrast anywhere between F2.8
16:23
and F8. At F11, you'll start to see a bit of diffraction, starting to soften things
16:30
and it's a little more pronounced by F16, but again, at a lower resolution point here on Nikon
16:34
it's not as pronounced as what I saw on Sony. And so if you want to shoot at f16 at 100% magnification
16:41
results are still going to look just fine. So knock yourself out. Where this lens really stands out to me is in the quality of the bokeh
16:50
And so it's not just with specular highlights where it does look good
16:53
Circles are nice and clean there. But more importantly, just in the general rendering
16:57
And I think maybe you've noticed already in some of the outdoor shots, just how nice and soft defocused the backgrounds are
17:04
while still allowing the subject myself to have a lot of contrast and detail
17:08
even at F1.4 and standing out from the background. Likewise, I found that in optimal situations, you get just pure cream in the background
17:17
It looks really, really gorgeous. But even in the most complicated of scenes, while, for example, in this shot, which is basically a shot with just all hard edges
17:25
it's a little bit busier. But for this kind of shot, this actually looks really quite good under the circumstances
17:31
So I have found in general with both the Sony version and now with the Nikon version, I'm very partial to the rendering from the lens, which is why I've actually used the Sony version a fair bit on my channel for shooting outdoor segments where I'm not just showing the testing of a particular lens because it does render so very nicely
17:50
And so obviously it's very useful for things like that. I think that this lens has a great combination of sharpness and softness
17:56
Sharp where it matters, soft where you want it to be. Colors are also very, very nice
18:01
And I find the optical glass to be a nice pairing for Nikon
18:05
I actually really do like certain of the Nikon picture profiles. So even with raw images, when I apply that to that
18:12
you know, Sunday is kind of one of my favorites. It's just kind of, you know, bright and has nice pop to it
18:17
It's kind of a one-click editing solution for me in a lot of situations. And so I find that this glass really works well with that
18:24
Now, things are not flawless in one final area, and that is in flare resistance
18:29
I found that at certain angles in particular, you're going to get this fairly intense veiling
18:35
or kind of fog effect that comes into the frame. And so I found that when shooting some backlit scenes
18:41
with window light, as you can see in a few of these shots, and then also in this shot, for example
18:46
I was shooting outdoors, strongly backlit beyond this bridge. And if I compose in this certain area
18:52
you can see that kind of like washout coming to the frame. And then if I just made a very slight adjustment
18:57
to my composition, you can see this image where, you know, it's strong contrast and no
19:02
flare related issues. So my point is, is just be careful with your composition and use it
19:08
how you want. You know, in this shot, for example, I wanted the scene flooded with the light and it produces this really soft looking effect that I'm partial to, but I don't always
19:17
want that. So you're going to have to be careful with the composition to get the results that you want. So not a flawless performance there. So just be careful in the way that you compose
19:24
overall however for this you know price tag this is an amazing optical instrument so my conclusion
19:31
is that the Viltrox Pro AF 85 millimeter f1.4 is a another welcome addition here on z-mount
19:38
these lenses these pro series lenses have been on the big and heavy side and that is the probably
19:44
biggest deterrent for a lot of people but I feel like that's less of a factor here on Nikon for a
19:49
few reasons first of all the Nikkor lenses particularly when you get into the S line lenses
19:54
they tend to be big and heavy themselves and on top of that I feel like that Nikon's beefier bodies
20:00
particularly like my Z8 that I use for these tests it's just kind of more of a natural fit than it is
20:05
necessarily on Sony where the bodies tend to be a little bit smaller and lighter so I think that
20:10
that's maybe less of an issue but I think more importantly there's a lot of people out there
20:15
that wish that there was an S-Line F1.4 series and Nikon's choice to go straight from F1.8 to
20:22
f1.2 with the s line lenses and then make f1.4 kind of like a lower grade type quality of lens
20:29
doesn't necessarily hit the cord for everyone and so i think that these viltrox pro series lenses
20:35
are going to slip into that gap and maybe fill it and obviously at a very competitive price
20:41
now the pro 85 millimeter it is not a perfectly corrected lens and we saw that with both having a
20:49
little bit more fringing than what I might expect and also a little bit of issues with flare in
20:54
certain situations but where it is hugely successful is that it is a great combination
21:00
of sharpness and contrast but then also really soft and really nice rendering and you may have
21:06
noticed as I've been filming in some of these outdoor settings just how nice the backgrounds
21:10
look and it's something that stands out to me. I've actually reached for the Sony E-mount version
21:15
of this lens quite a lot since I have had it for filming outdoors because I just really like the
21:20
look of the footage in those situations. And so if you were someone who is considering for video
21:25
work like that, it could be advantageous. And then of course, just as a portrait type lens
21:30
this really does give you a beautiful combination of sufficient sharpness and contrast on your
21:36
subject, you know, nice detail and color, but then to have really nicely defocused backgrounds
21:41
And I think that that is a great strength for this lens. So in some situations, not having a perfect correction actually ends up as producing a better end result
21:51
And we'll see how the lab series, when it arrives, if it kind of toes the same line or if they try to get it all
21:58
which seems to be the lab formula where they try to get everything, both a great correctedness
22:04
but then also really nice out-of-focus rendering as well. It's a tall order, but that's why that is their top-of-the-line series
22:11
So we'll see what happens with that when it arrives. But in the meantime, this Pro 85mm f1.4, it's a pretty sweet lens
22:18
And certainly, if you are looking for an 85mm lens and your budget is tighter
22:23
it's hard to recommend a better bang-for-your-buck 85mm lens available on the Nikon platform
22:30
Unless, of course, you're talking about Viltrox's own Evo 85mm f2. Of course, an f2 lens is not an f1.4 lens
22:38
So you really have some nice choices now as to which suits your own needs better
22:44
Now, if you want more information, you've got a couple of options. You can check out my full text review that is linked in the description down below on the newly redesigned DustinAbbott.net
22:52
Or you can stay tuned with me right now and we do a deeper dive into that optical performance to help you make a decision Okay here on Nikon Z mount our biggest factor here is going to be vignette not really distortion You can see there is as I toggle back
23:07
and forth, there is a very minor amount of pincushion distortions being corrected there, but the big
23:13
thing here is the vignette. Now on the left, you can see an image that has had zero corrections
23:18
and on the right, you can see one that has had corrections. You can see it definitely changes the
23:22
nature of the shot. Look at the white here versus here. And so we are working with roughly around
23:29
right under three stops in the corners. But you can see in a lot of situations like this image on
23:35
the left, it's not necessarily going to negatively impact, but there certainly will be shots where
23:41
you want that, say I'm shooting winter now, where you want the snow to be bright, it will show up
23:45
there. And when it comes to longitudinal style chromatic aberrations, you can see that there is
23:50
a tiny bit of magenta before, but more prominently a little bit of green afterward. That shows up
23:55
much more on my dad's SLRs here. This is at a high level of magnification, obviously
24:01
but you can see on those shiny bits, there's definitely some kind of aqua teal fringing
24:07
that's showing up there. Now in this shot here, you can see where it's, if I zoom in right close
24:14
you can see that there is a little bit of it here. But again, if we come back out
24:18
You're not necessarily seeing that on a global level, but when you're looking at a pixel level, you will see it
24:23
You can also see that despite that, that contrast in detail is holding up really nicely
24:29
And so it's not necessarily robbing contrast from the image, but there is a bit of that fringing to watch out for
24:35
Now, lateral style chromatic aberrations are a complete non-issue. You can see very, very clean transitions from black to white near the edge of the frame
24:42
This is at f8 here. Now when it comes to resolution and contrast, this is a 45 megapixel Nikon Z8
24:50
This is 200% level of magnification, so very high. You can see the center of the frame looks good, crisp detail
24:57
Contrast is good. There's still room for some improvement, but it looks really, really good
25:01
Mid-frame looks exceptionally good. It's a very, very strong performance. And if we go over here to the left side, we can see also looking very good
25:09
Up here into the upper left corner, it's looking really, really fantastic
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and we'll pan down along here you can see that the corner results are still holding up quite well
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as far as how that looks in real world shots here you can see shot of nala and you can see that at
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100 magnification lots of detail there in the fur around the eyes this is also at f1.4 in this shot
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here also at f1.4 you can see that we've got good contrast and detail here you can see the tiniest
25:39
amount of fringing showing up there, but as you can see here in a real world issue or real world
25:43
image, it's really not much of an issue there. Now in this shot at landscape distances, we can
25:49
see in the center of the frame at f1.4, that looks great. Lots of detail, good contrast there
25:54
As I pan towards the left side of the image, you can see that while detail is still acceptably good
26:00
it's no longer exceptionally good. If we compare with f2.8, however, in the center of the frame
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Yes, there is a little bit more contrast in detail. It's looking really fantastic
26:09
But where it's more noticeable is if I pan back over here, you can see now that that detail and contrast, it's sticking right off towards the edge of the frame
26:18
And so now we have good detail everywhere, which is fantastic. Going back to the test chart, we can see a few things
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First of all, we can see if we'd stop down even just to F1.8, there's already a bit of improvement when it comes to contrast
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It was good before, but now it's looking really, really good. you can see that the black levels are looking inkier. There's a bit more at F2. And then by
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F2.8, you can see that things are just really, really popping. That's true even now. If I look
26:46
up into the corners here, the corners look really, really crisp. That's a very strong corner
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performance at F2.8. And you're going to see that resolution and contrast persist through F8. At F11
26:57
it starts to soften a little bit due to diffraction, and you can see a little bit more
27:01
by f16 see this writing isn't quite as crisp as it is at f11 but again if you looked at that 100
27:08
level it's not terrible you could still use it now quick look at our specular highlights here
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in terms of the geometry you can see a little bit of cat eye shape but the center of the frame
27:17
circles are nice and round you can also see that the kind of the outlining on the inner edge is
27:24
fairly minimal there there is a little bit of stuff inside there but not bad and as we stop on down
27:30
We see that that inner line, it gets a little bit more pronounced, but it stays relatively soft
27:36
And that's really important for the quality of the bokeh. Now, here is what we get at our minimum focus distance, 0.13 times magnification
27:44
And you can see here looking up close, detail and contrast are good. Not exceptionally good, but good
27:50
And out in the real world, as we already saw with the guitar, you know, and that's basically minimum focus
27:55
We could see that the detail was holding up. here's just a little bit further out and it shows you kind of the kind of real world contrast you
28:02
can get even in this type of situation where obviously there's a light that's flooding through
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this you can see good detail there and just minimal fringing in this situation this shot here
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it shows you know good detail and contrast but look at the out of focus rendering very very nice
28:17
very soft and creamy and i mentioned this shot it's you know basically ice in encrusted sticks
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and so all hard edges and it's not beautiful or anything but i would say that for this level of
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scene it's actually handled it quite well i also found this image to be encouraging number one at
28:36
f1.4 at this medium focus distance contrast and detail look really fantastic this is going to be
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really important for like full body type portraiture in this transition zone where things could get
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really ugly and jittery you know this is at the range where it really kind of shows it off
28:51
It's really quite well controlled. And then as we look towards the out of focus area, it is really, really nice
28:57
And so I apologize because of a short review cycle. I didn't have a chance to have a person standing there, but take this little ice encrusted
29:05
tree and imagine a person there. Gives you an idea of how nice portraits could be
29:10
And finally, I mentioned the issue with flair. And so here we can see that at this particular angle, there's definitely that veiling that's
29:18
coming into the scene that's kind of robbing the contrast away. But as I mentioned, just a very slightly different composition
29:24
You can see that the result really changes. And that's kind of somewhat of the oddity here
29:30
is that it's really specific to a certain point where you get almost a little bit of like a flashing type effect
29:35
So watch out for that. It was definitely happening in this particular image, but I kind of just processed for it and enhanced the dreamy there
29:42
to raise shadows even further. And I actually quite like the end result, kind of very soft
29:47
Here's another shot, however, where you can see, again, detail and contrast is holding up
29:53
Focus is good even in this extreme backlighting. But you can also see there's essentially a lot of area where shadows have been lifted due to that flare effect
30:03
Again, here's another shot where there was the potential for that. The sun was shining really brightly all through the scene, backlighting it
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But again, with just this composition, there's no problem with it here. And it goes to show that this is very much situational
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just be very careful with your compositions. So thanks for sticking around until the very end
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and hopefully the deep dive into the optics has helped you to determine whether or not this is the lens for you
30:27
As always, thanks for watching. Have a great day. Let the light in