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GM VS LAB: 35mm Showdown | Do We Have a New Champion?
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Apr 6, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a comparison between the two HEAVYWEIGHTS in the 35mm Sony E-mount space - the Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM and the Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 FE. Has the amazing GM lens been dethroned? GM Reviews: Text: https://bit.ly/35GMreview or Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8-4XGP1jqQ LAB Reviews: Text: or Video Purchase the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/2RA0Isf | Amazon https://amzn.to/3vRRBSF | Camera Canada https://shrsl.com/2y3qu | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/3o48p67 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3ewthjk | Amazon Germany Check out the DA Merch here: https://bit.ly/TWIMerch | Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/dustinabbott | On the Web: http://dustinabbott.net/ | Sign up for my Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1RHvUNp | Instagram: http://bit.ly/DLAinsta | Facebook: http://on.fb.me/1nuUUeH | Flickr: http://bit.ly/1UcnC0B | 500px: http://bit.ly/1Sy2Ngu Follow Craig @ https://www.instagram.com/craigstoffersen/ Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo: http://bhpho.to/1TA0Xge Adorama: https://howl.link/nt4zdz1goa7ql Camera Canada: http://bit.ly/DLACameraCan Sony Canada: https://www.thesonyshop.ca/?ref=abbott Amazon: https://amzn.to/3HrY64d Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/3qG1p18 Ebay: http://bit.ly/DustineBay Into the AM Clothing: https://bit.ly/intotheAMda and use code DUSTIN10 for 10% off
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I am here for
0:12
another showdown i love being able to
0:15
take these new third party lenses like
0:17
the Viltrox Lab series and putting them
0:19
up against the best in this case that is
0:23
the Sony 35mm F1.4 G Master which I've
0:26
now owned for about four years it's a
0:28
lens I'm very familiar with and if you
0:30
have kept up on my reviews you know that
0:32
I love this lens i've done both my
0:35
initial reviews and then long-term
0:36
reviews and I think it's in many ways
0:39
one of the best 35mm lenses ever made
0:42
it's small and compact it focuses
0:45
quickly has great optics even has great
0:47
magnification the Viltrox 35mm f1.2 is
0:51
the new heavyweight and I mean that in
0:53
every way it comes with even more
0:55
features quad focus motors incredible
0:58
optics and the price tag is $400 plus
1:02
dollars less now both of these lenses do
1:05
have some very unique advantages and
1:07
I've been really kind of going hard
1:09
shooting a lot of different kind of
1:10
scenarios putting them side by side and
1:12
just trying to figure out where they
1:14
excel relative to one another so which
1:16
one of these is today's champion well
1:18
let's jump in and we're going to find
1:20
that out today by the way if you want a
1:23
really kind of deep comparison into the
1:25
optics the about last third of the video
1:28
after my conclusion I'll jump into all
1:30
of that and so those of you that want
1:32
just the facts you can just stay for the
1:35
first part of the video those of you
1:36
that want the deep dive stay until the
1:38
end and you'll get all of that i like to
1:41
start these uh comparisons by looking at
1:44
what's similar between the two in both
1:46
cases I would say things that I would
1:48
say are equal on par with each other is
1:51
that both of them have
1:52
professional-grade build quality they
1:54
both have thorough weather sealing
1:56
including flooring or similar coatings
1:58
on the front seal seal gaskets all
2:01
throughout and then a gasket at the lens
2:03
mount they've both got all of that they
2:06
have a mostly similar feature set which
2:09
includes the ability to manually control
2:11
aperture an AFMF switch custom function
2:14
switches the ability to click de-click
2:17
the aperture all of those options are on
2:19
both lenses i found as far as an a few
2:23
optical similarities that I would say
2:25
that they both deliver a roughly equal
2:28
coma performance and so if you're
2:30
shooting the night sky one advantage you
2:32
know very slight advantage that's going
2:33
to be there for the Viltrox is that you
2:35
can obviously open up the aperture a
2:37
little bit wider to f1.2 but as far as
2:39
the actual coma performance and how the
2:41
images look they're roughly a wash and
2:43
then I also found they had about similar
2:45
flare resistance they're both
2:47
exceptionally good for 35mm lenses but
2:50
about equally good now there is a
2:53
difference that I'll point to that I'll
2:55
call a neutral difference and so Sony
2:58
obviously has Sony's typical approach to
3:01
aperture the lab lens however takes
3:03
something more akin to Nikon and their
3:06
S-line series of lenses approach to
3:08
aperture and I do hope to be able to do
3:11
a comparison to the f1.2 S-line 35mm
3:14
lens when a I have access to that and
3:17
when a Zmount version of the lab comes
3:20
out but if you're coming from the Nikon
3:22
side of things then this approach is
3:24
going to seem more familiar if you're
3:25
coming from the Sony side of things the
3:27
uh GM version is going to seem um you
3:30
know more familiar to you i actually am
3:33
because I am more familiar with this
3:35
approach this is my preference
3:36
personally uh the Sony side of things
3:39
however I do recognize that this is more
3:41
of a taste thing i'm going to start by
3:42
taking a look at reasons to choose the G
3:44
Master the biggest reason I think that
3:47
is going to equal out above all others
3:49
is the fact that it is much smaller and
3:52
lighter at 525 grams which makes it 395
3:57
less than the Viltrox is 920 grams and
4:00
so if you're wanting to travel light
4:01
there is a very obvious difference
4:03
between these two lenses i would say
4:05
that relative to their overall size they
4:07
have a similar feeling of heft of
4:10
density to them but there's a lot more
4:12
lens when it comes to the lab lens thus
4:14
it feels a lot heavier and so that's a
4:17
huge difference in weight it's also as
4:19
you can see it is much smaller it is 13
4:22
millimeters uh smaller in diameter it is
4:25
a whole 25 mm shorter in overall length
4:29
and so again if you're wanting to travel
4:31
compact and light the GM is an easy
4:33
winner there the GM also has a much
4:36
higher magnification level it can
4:39
produce a 0.26 two six time magn
4:41
magnification while the Vtrox is 0.17
4:44
times and as you can see in this
4:46
comparison that is a notable difference
4:49
i also noted that a couple of functional
4:52
improvements with the GM versus the lab
4:55
lens with the GM lens both apertures can
4:57
be declicked but with the GM I can do
5:00
smoother aperture racks that show no
5:02
visible steps and so you can see here as
5:05
I rack through the GM I can make it
5:08
perform pretty much like a true manual
5:10
aperture ring and that I can go smoothly
5:13
through that and you can see the
5:14
specular highlight shrink and then
5:16
expand but no visible steps whereas if I
5:18
do the same thing with the lab lens even
5:20
if I do my best to be smooth you can see
5:22
some visible steps even with the
5:24
aperture decllicked it's not the worst
5:27
that I've seen but it's definitely not
5:29
as good as the GM i would say the same
5:32
is true in my opinion when it comes to
5:33
manual focus as far as the feel of the
5:36
ring both of them have quite similar
5:38
feel in terms of the overall damping and
5:41
smoothness but I did find for doing
5:43
actual manual focus pulls that the focus
5:46
throw is a little on the long side at
5:48
least at the closer focus distances for
5:51
the lab lens and so I could do it with a
5:53
little less effort and a little bit more
5:55
precision because I wasn't having to
5:57
rotate my wrist quite so far uh as I did
6:00
with the lab lens and so I do prefer the
6:02
manual focus it's very slight there but
6:04
I give a slight win to the GM lens sony
6:08
bakes in a few advantages that you do
6:10
need to be aware of for their first
6:11
party lenses and so as it plays out here
6:14
while both of them can focus extremely
6:16
fast as we'll get to in just a second
6:19
the on if you're using a sport related
6:22
body one of the Alpha 1 or the A9 bodies
6:25
you're going to be able to achieve
6:27
whatever the maximum burst rate of the
6:28
camera is with the GM lens whereas with
6:31
the Lab it's going to be a limit of 15
6:33
frames per second on the upper end a
6:35
secondary issue there or advantage that
6:38
Sony bakes in is that some of their
6:39
newer cameras have a feature called
6:41
focus breathing compensation so if
6:43
you're shooting in video work you can
6:45
eliminate focus breathing in which both
6:47
of these lenses have some and the Sony
6:49
has even more but you can eliminate that
6:51
though at the cost of a crop factor as
6:53
you can see here by turning on that
6:56
focus breathing compensation that's an
6:59
advantage that the lab doesn't have
7:00
because Sony only enables that for
7:02
first-party
7:03
lenses wide open f1.4 versus f1.2 i felt
7:08
like in a few situations I saw a very
7:12
slightly less fringing with the GM lens
7:15
and that will be broken down in a little
7:17
bit more detail a little bit more nuance
7:19
in the deep dive at the end of the video
7:21
if you stop both lenses down to f1.4 I
7:23
think that advantage probably goes away
7:24
but wide open there's maybe a little bit
7:26
of an advantage for the GM lens when it
7:28
comes to fringing and while the GM has a
7:31
little bit a tiny bit more quantity of
7:34
distortion that distortion is more
7:35
linear and thus easier to correct than
7:38
what the Labs which is slightly more
7:40
complex and also similarly the GM lens
7:43
has very slightly less vignette than
7:45
what the Lab series lens does and again
7:49
with wide open F1.4 versus F1.2 too the
7:53
GM has very slightly sharper corners
7:56
relative to the Lab series lens and so
7:58
there are some of the reasons to
8:00
consider the GM lens over the Lab series
8:02
lens so how about reasons to choose the
8:05
Lab series and there certainly are those
8:07
as well so the 35mm f1.2 Lab uh the
8:11
first and obvious reason to choose it is
8:13
going to be price it currently uh has an
8:16
MSRP of
8:17
$999 but if you use the discounted link
8:20
in the description below you're going to
8:22
get that at about
8:24
$949 and so that is $450 less that's
8:28
significant another very obvious
8:30
difference an advantage for the Lab lens
8:32
is that it has a faster maximum aperture
8:34
about a half stop difference between
8:36
f1.2 and f1.4 and so that means you're
8:39
going to be able to it's going to be a
8:41
little more useful in low light
8:43
situations you're going to get more
8:44
shallow depth of field and you'll see
8:45
during our optical breakdown at the end
8:48
how some of those advantages play out
8:50
when it comes to that larger maximum
8:52
aperture you're also going to find that
8:54
even when the settings are equalized
8:56
that the lab lens has better light
8:58
transmission and what I found is that
9:00
even when shooting my chart that
9:03
typically I was seeing at least a
9:05
between a third and a half stop better
9:07
light transmission with the lab lens
9:09
than what I did with the GM lens even
9:11
when all other settings were equalized i
9:14
also found that due to that larger
9:16
maximum aperture and the effect that it
9:18
has it has bigger softer specular
9:21
highlights and so um even with equaliz
9:24
settings you're going to get bigger
9:26
softer specular highlights bokeh balls
9:28
if you want to call them that um with
9:30
the with the lab lens and what you are
9:32
with the GM lens the lab lens on a
9:35
feature set side it is a little bit more
9:38
customizable it's got this LCD screen
9:40
and that does allow for a few additional
9:42
features one of those is that there is
9:44
an extra function button and that extra
9:47
function button is largely designed
9:50
around at least natively around being
9:51
able to set AB focus which is a really
9:54
can be a very useful feature to where
9:56
you can preset two focus positions and
9:58
at a touch of a button you can toggle
10:00
between those two and that has
10:02
definitely some very interesting
10:03
applications for both stills and video
10:06
work um you also have the ability there
10:09
is a an app that Viltrox has that allows
10:12
you to customize that uh the function of
10:15
those f those function buttons and so
10:17
even beyond what you can do within the
10:18
camera because there are two of them you
10:20
have the ability to have both of them
10:22
achieve different functions and so
10:24
that's another area that is useful there
10:27
i also found it useful when to consider
10:29
the fact that the LCD screen shows a
10:33
distance scale and that's something that
10:34
is just missing on mirrorless lenses
10:36
relative to manual focus lenses or even
10:38
SLR lenses to where a lot of times it
10:41
would show a distance scale and and
10:43
through this you do and so if you're
10:45
trying to do like hyper focal work for
10:47
example um and you can actually see how
10:50
the depth of field expands as you rotate
10:52
the aperture ring and so that you you
10:54
open up the quantity of of uh depth of
10:57
field that's available to you through
10:59
that and so I think that that's
11:00
interesting here's something that was
11:02
wholly unexpected in going into this
11:04
review because I consider the GM lenses
11:06
to basically be the best focusing lenses
11:09
of their type across any platform that
11:12
may no longer be true because of the lab
11:14
series lens uh while they had dual of
11:17
their new HyperVCM focus motors on the
11:20
135mimeter lab in this 35mimeter f1.2 2
11:23
lab they have gone with quad focus
11:26
motors and I suspect that's probably
11:27
going to be the formula we'll see for
11:29
the 50 and 85mm f1.2 lenses as well so
11:33
having all of that thrust available
11:35
means that focus is basically instant on
11:38
the 35mm lens and while both of them are
11:40
lightning quick in my test I found that
11:43
both in the experience of shooting and
11:45
then reviewing the footage afterward
11:47
that focus is just a hair faster with
11:50
the Viltrox than what it was with the
11:52
Sony and that is a shocker to me as
11:56
noted it's not just the specular
11:58
highlights but also when I do a very
12:00
careful examination of overall rendering
12:02
and bokeh quality not just in specular
12:05
highlights i find that the backgrounds
12:07
are just softer and a little bit more
12:10
pleasing i would say that I slightly
12:11
prefer the rendering from the Lab lens
12:13
in general as compared to the Sony GM
12:16
lens the Lab lens is also the sharper
12:19
lens it's sharper in the center it's
12:21
sharper in the mid-frame and as noted
12:23
it's a little behind in the corner and
12:25
that kind of depends on which corner you
12:26
look but if you stop the Lab down to
12:29
f1.4 it's now sharper everywhere um
12:33
everywhere across the frame and I find
12:35
that it has a competitive advantage even
12:37
when stopped down further with both
12:38
lenses stopped down further that it is
12:40
just the sharper lens which again is
12:43
pretty amazing i also find that the lab
12:45
lens has consistently better contrast
12:47
and so whether it's fur on an animal or
12:49
it's skin textures on a human or in a
12:51
landscape scene the lab lens has the
12:54
ability to resolve fine details just a
12:56
little bit better than what the GM lens
12:59
does so that brings me to my conclusion
13:02
and and to me this is a pretty
13:04
remarkable thing one of the exercises I
13:06
like to do if I'm doing this kind of
13:08
comparison is to say well if price was
13:11
no consideration which one of these
13:12
lenses would I I buy because obviously
13:15
you know price is a a real consideration
13:17
for most of us and in this lens I have
13:21
to say that even if the prices were
13:23
equal I might still choose the lab lens
13:26
which really really surprises me but I
13:29
just thinking objectively there are some
13:30
real advantages for me personally
13:33
because I can live with the weight not
13:35
everyone can but because I can live with
13:37
the weight I would say that the
13:39
advantages that the lab lens offers
13:41
means that I feel like I might just
13:43
prefer it the Sony to me gets really
13:46
high marks it always has it always will
13:49
for being such a high-erforming lens in
13:51
such a compact package this is the
13:54
premium lens that actually feels more
13:55
like a midsize lens and I really really
13:58
appreciate the fact that Sony is with
14:00
their G Master lenses has so often been
14:02
able to produce lenses that stay really
14:05
high performing but also are smaller
14:08
than basically all the other plat what's
14:10
available on any other platform in terms
14:12
of this type lens and so I still give
14:14
them huge credit for that but I also
14:17
have to give Viltrox credit for being
14:19
able to pull off something that's pretty
14:21
remarkable and that is that they have
14:22
produced an F1.2 2 lens that is
14:25
basically better at f1.2 than what the
14:28
premium lens in the department is at
14:32
f1.4 a lens that is sharper at f1.2 than
14:35
than another premium lens that is f1.4
14:38
has been a very very rare thing and
14:40
what's even more surprising and I give
14:42
it even higher marks for is that it is
14:45
actually faster focusing at f1.2 than
14:48
what the GM is at f1.4 and as an f1.2 2
14:51
lens you just don't see that i would say
14:54
that this is probably the fastest
14:56
focusing 35mm f1.2 lens is that that I
15:00
have ever seen now I haven't yet
15:02
reviewed the Nicor Sline lens but I
15:04
wouldn't be surprised because of those
15:05
quad motors in the lab if it's still a
15:08
little bit faster in focus speed overall
15:11
so that is amazing to me so I would say
15:14
go with the GM if you want to keep
15:16
things light or if you don't really
15:18
trust third parties and I get that and I
15:20
would say go with the lab if you want to
15:22
save $400 plus or if you just want that
15:26
extra bit of special sauce that an F1.2
15:28
lens can give you now again if you want
15:31
more information you can check out the
15:33
either text or video reviews full
15:35
reviews of both of these lenses i'll
15:37
have those linked in the description
15:38
down below there's buying links there if
15:40
you want to explore that avenue now if
15:42
if you want to see how I kind of got to
15:45
these conclusions and look at some of
15:47
these head-to-head comparisons then stay
15:48
tuned with me right now and we'll jump
15:50
into that deep dive together so let's
15:52
start by taking a look at vignette and
15:54
distortion the Sony actually has more of
15:57
the overall distortion uh the Viltrox is
15:59
a milder amount but what happens here is
16:02
on Sony it's it's quite linear it's all
16:04
a consistent ping cushion distortion
16:06
whereas on the Viltrox it's mostly pin
16:09
cushion dis distortion in the corners
16:12
but if you start to correct for that it
16:13
actually causes a bulge here as we'll
16:15
see so as I start to try to correct for
16:18
those corners what happens is the center
16:19
starts to bulge out whereas you can see
16:22
with the Sony it actually corrects
16:24
pretty cleanly even manually obviously
16:26
correction profile would take care of
16:28
either one of these but the nature of
16:30
the distortion is easier to deal with on
16:33
the GM lens now as far as the vignette
16:36
the quantity is similar however there is
16:39
a bit more on the Viltrox and so it's
16:42
basically the difference between less
16:44
than a third stop of difference or
16:47
roughly a third stop and so probably not
16:49
significant either direction now I don't
16:51
want to draw too many conclusions from
16:53
one single shot here when it comes to
16:56
fringing um what I found is that there
16:58
was a little bit of give and take as I
17:00
looked at the two lenses but what I see
17:02
at least in this shot is just a little
17:05
bit more fringing to my eye on the
17:07
Viltrox you can see it particularly on
17:10
this side whereas the Sony is a little
17:12
bit more neutral and so it's again
17:15
neither one of them has any kind of
17:17
significant amount of fringing but I
17:19
think that the Sony takes a mild win
17:21
there so next we'll take a look at the
17:23
overall resolution so I'm showing this
17:25
at a 200% magnification and this is 61
17:28
megapixels on an A7R Mark 5 so you can
17:31
see in the center of the frame the
17:33
Filtrox even at f1.2 versus F1.4 is just
17:36
resolving more fine details and so you
17:39
can see it there in the sales you can
17:41
see it here in this text that it's just
17:43
crisper has better contrast if we move
17:45
off towards the midframe you can see
17:48
that while they're close the uh black
17:50
levels are lower in the Viltrox and so
17:53
it has just better contrast in general
17:55
bit more detail that's available
17:57
throughout the the face that is there
17:59
the only kind of difference is that if
18:01
you move down into the corners while
18:03
there's not a significant difference
18:05
here in the corner I do think that it's
18:07
a little bit muddier here on the Viltrox
18:09
and a hair better on the G Master if we
18:12
move up to this corner however it's I
18:15
would say that it probably slightly
18:17
favors the um the the Lab instead of the
18:21
GM lens now if we move to an apples to
18:24
apples comparison with F1.4 versus F1.4
18:28
four a couple of things that stand out
18:30
to me first of all the Viltrox looks
18:32
even better second thing I do want to
18:34
point out is the Viltrox has superior
18:36
light transmission you can see that it's
18:39
metering faster and producing just as
18:41
bright an image and so probably at least
18:44
a third stop better of light
18:45
transmission even with equal settings we
18:48
can now see that that advantage in the
18:50
mid-frame looks a little bit more
18:51
significant down here in the corner this
18:54
corner I don't think looks radically
18:56
different up in this corner however the
18:59
Viltrox definitely is looking better
19:01
than the G Master by a pretty obvious
19:03
margin likewise here obviously the
19:06
Viltrox looks much stronger if we look
19:08
up in this corner it's I would say it's
19:11
the opposite i think the GM looks a
19:13
little bit better so it seems like the
19:14
GM a little bit better on the right side
19:16
maybe the Viltrox a little bit better on
19:18
the left side however the Viltrox it's
19:22
not consistently true cuz the Viltrox I
19:24
think looks better here than what the GM
19:27
does if we move on to uh F2 both of them
19:31
are now just they're ridiculously sharp
19:33
however the Viltrox is obviously sharper
19:36
and just produces more detail more
19:38
contrast they both look great i mean
19:40
it's this is totally splitting hairs at
19:42
this point but they both have you know
19:45
unique strengths but I would say in
19:48
general they both look pretty fantastic
19:50
at f2 um just great all the way across
19:53
the frame we'll go as far as f2.8 at
19:56
f2.8 the Vtrox kind of takes another
19:58
leap ahead in the center of the frame
20:00
and so it's now kind of next level
20:02
relative to the GM but again I don't
20:04
know if you would notice that without
20:06
them 200% side by side you can see for
20:09
example even here in this text you can
20:10
just see it just kind of stands off the
20:12
page bolder whereas it looks a little
20:14
bit flatter on the GM lens this text
20:18
looks more three-dimensional kind of
20:19
pops off as you can see relative to what
20:22
the GM provides up here into this upper
20:25
corner you can see it looks amazingly
20:26
crisp now up here and the GM also looks
20:29
very very good it's just the Viltrox is
20:31
just a has just a little bit more pop to
20:33
it and you can see here that once again
20:36
it's exposing or metering with faster
20:40
but it's producing at least equal
20:42
brightness if not more so now when it
20:44
comes to the minimum focus distance this
20:46
is an easy win for the GM lens it
20:49
produces as you can see a much higher
20:50
level of magnification they both have a
20:53
usable and useful amount of
20:55
magnification but the GM is definitely
20:58
more so i can't really draw too many
21:00
conclusions about uplose performance
21:02
from this for the simple reason that the
21:05
there's going to be more depth of field
21:06
on the Viltrox just because it's further
21:08
away and the depth field is going to be
21:10
more shallow because it's up close here
21:12
on the GM i would say what we can tell
21:16
is that both of them look good uh very
21:18
good detail and contrast and we can also
21:20
tell that there's not issues with
21:22
fringing in these bright areas they're
21:24
both holding up nicely in that regard so
21:26
how about some portrait comparisons
21:28
again as in this all the series Viltrox
21:30
is going to be on the left and the GM on
21:32
the right now I'm going to move the
21:35
faces around a little bit and so they
21:37
match as much as possible we can see
21:39
that there is a little bit different
21:41
rendering in terms of the color science
21:43
and I would say that the Viltrox is
21:45
rendering just a little bit warmer when
21:47
it comes to skin tones also even at f1.2
21:50
versus f1.4 for the Viltrox has the
21:52
superior contrast if you look around the
21:55
eyelashes and even into the the beard
21:58
there that uh and you know skin textures
22:00
in general the Viltrox is showing more
22:03
in this case I don't know that there's
22:05
really much of a difference that I can
22:06
see as far as the defocus area we'll
22:09
look more at that a little bit later
22:10
this home sign back here is obviously
22:12
going to be a little bit more blurred
22:14
because again it's f1.2 versus f1.4 so
22:18
this shot is f1.4 4 versus f1.4 and I'll
22:21
let you kind of absorb it in general
22:23
i've turned corrections off on either
22:25
one of them so this is completely
22:26
uncorrected this is a raw image right
22:29
out of camera with no corrections at all
22:31
so as far as the detail I mean again
22:35
we've already kind of had this dance and
22:38
we know that the Viltrox is the sharper
22:41
higher contrast lens of the two and if
22:43
you put them both at f1.4 there's just
22:46
more pop for the Viltrox and so that's a
22:49
win there as far as the overall color
22:51
rendering you can see again the
22:53
difference is subtle it's again it's
22:56
it's I would say very slightly more
22:58
neutral or even a hair cooler on the GM
23:01
a little bit warmer on the lab lens uh
23:04
frankly in this particular setting I
23:06
probably would say I favor the warmer
23:08
look but that's entirely a taste thing
23:10
and you could very easily process these
23:12
two to match here now at f2 and so you
23:16
can see again the backgrounds they look
23:18
to me they just look really similar
23:19
there's I can't draw too many
23:20
conclusions from the background again
23:22
colors are close very slightly different
23:25
and now of course we know that they're
23:27
both really really sharp but the Vtrox
23:29
still looks a little bit sharper as far
23:31
as the overall skin textures and
23:33
contrast both of them I think produce
23:35
nice skin tones skin tone doesn't look
23:37
waxy or anything to me and so overall I
23:40
think they look pretty great this shot
23:42
here allows you to take another look at
23:45
overall kind of just the scene in
23:47
general terms of the defocus both of
23:49
them at f1.4 for this shot and amazingly
23:52
I managed to get Nala in pretty much the
23:55
same position which was somewhat of a
23:57
miracle i would say that again I think
24:00
that the contrast levels are superior on
24:02
the Viltrox and here there's window
24:04
light so it's it's fairly aggressive
24:06
light and so it's going to produce some
24:08
kind of hot spots there what I'm finding
24:11
is that if you look around the eyes the
24:14
uh contrast levels they're deeper on the
24:16
Viltrox and so it just makes the eyes
24:18
pop a little bit more a little bit more
24:20
detail in the the uh fur there um that
24:23
you can see looking at that looking at
24:25
the scene at large the bokeh quality
24:28
really I can't draw any conclusions from
24:31
this i don't think that they look it
24:33
looks any really any different to me we
24:36
see here there is a contrast point where
24:38
there could be some fringing and in this
24:39
particular shot fringing looks equal um
24:42
on the two of course this is both at
24:43
f1.4 whereas before the Vtrox is at f1.2
24:47
and so I think all things being equal it
24:50
looks like the if you're at
24:52
f1.4 in this shot at least the Viltrox
24:55
probably is showing a little bit less
24:56
fringing than what the GM is now this is
24:59
going to be an interesting series
25:00
because it allows us to look a little
25:01
bit more at the bokeh which is my
25:03
priority here it's less about the focus
25:06
you know I've tried to get focus in the
25:08
same zone here and so that's important
25:10
but just look at some first of all at
25:12
specular highlights we can see here that
25:15
they are softer with the Vtrox is at
25:17
f1.2 it obviously has an advantage and
25:19
you can see that it looks just softer in
25:21
that zone also in this zone here those
25:24
specular highlights look softer but some
25:27
somewhere in like this zone where
25:28
there's a little bit extra maybe
25:30
busyness more going on here the Viltrox
25:32
definitely looks softer in this area
25:34
here and so if I back back out for a
25:37
moment and we just kind of look at this
25:39
area it's going to look a little softer
25:40
and creamier on the Viltrox so how about
25:43
if I make the Viltrox f1.4 well taking a
25:46
look at those specular highlights again
25:47
one of the things that some people don't
25:49
know about larger aperture lenses is
25:51
that even when you equalize the aperture
25:53
settings they for whatever reason tend
25:56
to have softer larger specular
25:58
highlights anyway and so that's
26:00
certainly the case here uh we can see it
26:02
in this zone as well that everything's
26:04
just a little bit bigger and thus a
26:05
little bit softer a little bit less
26:07
outlining and into this zone here even
26:10
though it's same aperture now it's still
26:12
a little bit busier and a little bit
26:14
less soft on the uh GM versus the
26:17
Viltrox which does kind of a superior
26:19
job in this area of just keeping
26:21
everything soft and creamy looking here
26:24
if we look at them both at f2 uh we can
26:26
see looking up here once again you know
26:29
rounder softer specular highlights in
26:32
these zones and so the Vtrox is
26:35
basically always going to win that
26:36
particular comparison and I think that
26:38
it continues to win the comparison
26:40
through here as well where everything
26:42
just stays a little bit softer and a
26:44
little creamier on the Viltrox lens
26:46
likewise here and I think with these
26:47
greens I think you can see that
26:49
definitely the greens look a little bit
26:51
warmer on the Vtrox than what they do on
26:54
the GM just again it's a taste thing
26:56
you're going to like one or the other
26:57
probably instinctively and whichever one
27:00
you like better there's your answer as
27:02
far as this defocused area again at f1.2
27:05
the Viltrox is going to win and that's
27:08
the advantage of an F1.2 lens the depth
27:10
of field is shallower and thus
27:12
everything that is out of focus is just
27:15
softer looking creamier looking and I
27:17
think that that holds up here and again
27:19
that continues to be true even if I stop
27:20
the Viltrox down to uh f1.4 and so still
27:25
this area looks softer uh it's just more
27:27
defocused the background is it's just
27:30
creamier looking and so I think in terms
27:32
of general rendering I'm going to favor
27:34
the Viltrox just because of its ability
27:36
to make everything softer and here in
27:38
this zone which is kind of a transition
27:40
zone again I think that while it's not a
27:44
huge margin if we look at it globally
27:46
it's just a little bit more eye-catching
27:48
with the GM um and a little bit softer
27:51
on the Viltrox so finally looking a
27:53
little bit more carefully at those
27:54
specular highlights so our point of
27:56
focus in this shot is here and you can
27:58
see I mean they're both brilliantly
28:00
sharp lenses depth fields a little more
28:02
shallow on the Viltrox obviously at f1.2
28:05
too but it is every bit as sharp and as
28:08
good a contrast so here you can see that
28:10
there's a bit more fringing on the
28:13
Viltrox and we'll revisit that when
28:14
they're both at f1.4 if we look at the
28:17
specular highlights you can see that
28:19
they are very noticeably bigger and
28:21
softer um for the Viltrox than they are
28:24
for the GM lens both of them start to
28:26
exhibit some cat eye near the corner but
28:28
you can see that it's a little bit less
28:30
so on the Viltrox than what it is on the
28:33
GM lens so now with both of them at f1.4
28:37
we can see that the advantage that was
28:39
there as far as fringing has gone away i
28:41
mean they basically look equal here both
28:44
of them have just a tiny bit of green
28:45
fringing but I wouldn't say that one has
28:48
more than the other again we see that
28:50
same truth here and that while both of
28:52
them are f1.4 specular highlights are
28:55
still bigger and thus more out of focus
28:58
than what we see with the f1.4 lens and
29:02
so it's just an advantage that carries
29:04
on there even if you have all other
29:06
settings being equal so as we get to the
29:08
conclusion of that section you can see
29:10
that both of these lenses are impressive
29:12
but I would say that at least as far as
29:14
the optics go the Viltrox is a little
29:16
bit more impressive as always thanks for
29:19
watching have a great day and let the
29:22
light in
29:23
[Music]