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Viltrox vs 7Artisans | 35mm X-Mount Showdown (AF F1.7 vs AF F1.4)
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Apr 15, 2025
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a comparison between two bargain third party 35mm lenses for Fujifilm XF - the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7 AIR and the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4. Which deserves your money? 7Artisans Reviews: Text: https://bit.ly/35GMreview or Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8-4XGP1jqQ Viltrox Reviews: Text: https://tinyurl.com/Vil35AIRda or Video https://tinyurl.com/Vil35AIRvid Purchase the 7Artisans AF 35mm F1.4 @ Vitopal https://tinyurl.com/Buy7A1435 | Pergear https://bit.ly/Buy7A35pergear | 7Artisans https://tinyurl.com/7A1435purchase | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3RyltAf | Adorama https://howl.link/8eo4g8kyvunqr | Amazon https://amzn.to/4jidseI | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4ctbHcn | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/42w9MAq | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3G5VE86 Purchase the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7 @ Viltrox https://tinyurl.com/Buy35AIR (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 8% off) | B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/4hktQdC | Adorama https://howl.link/pg6zmhy3c9l5c | Amazon https://amzn.to/40ofvpJ | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/40RfJr3 | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/4ay5HhG | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3EdKoWi 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
View Video Transcript
0:00
[Music]
0:06
[Music]
0:10
hi I'm Dustin Abbott here for another
0:12
one of my head-to-head videos in this
0:15
case I've got two very similarly priced
0:17
lenses that we are going to be looking
0:19
at on Fuji's Xmount these are standard
0:22
lenses that are available for well under
0:24
$200 and 7 Artisans very recently they
0:28
upped the ante in this space by
0:30
releasing a sub $200 autofocusing f1.4
0:34
lens and I think that that may be the
0:36
first time that I've ever seen that
0:37
before there exists however a fairly
0:40
obvious competitor and that's the
0:43
Viltrox AF 35mm f1.7 and this is from
0:48
their air series which has proven to be
0:50
very popular and for good reason so
0:53
which one of these lenses is worth your
0:56
hard-earned dollars considering that
0:58
they come at a pretty similar price tag
1:00
well that's what we're going to explore
1:02
here today let's jump in and find out so
1:04
let's start by talking about what is
1:06
similar here and there and there are a
1:08
lot of similarities despite the
1:10
difference in the maximum aperture of
1:11
the two lenses both of them are
1:13
obviously 35mm lenses that translates on
1:16
Fuji's uh 1.5 times crop factor on their
1:19
X system that comes out to about 52
1:22
millimeters in focal length and so
1:24
obviously that is pretty close to what
1:27
we would call a normal or a standard uh
1:30
focal length there they both have very
1:33
similar u feature sets and that there
1:36
really isn't any feature set both of
1:38
them have just a manual focus ring on
1:40
the lens barrel no other features
1:42
outside of that no aperture ring no uh
1:45
switches or dials or anything like that
1:48
they both although they have different
1:49
maximum matcher and a different shape
1:51
they shake out to very similar uh
1:54
overall weight and there's about a 14 g
1:57
difference between the two with the
1:58
Viltrox being just a little bit lighter
2:01
i believe the two figures are 170 g for
2:03
the Viltrox 184 g for the Seven Artisans
2:08
as you can see both of them do come with
2:10
a lens hood included
2:12
on paper the MSRP for the Seven Artisans
2:15
is about $10 cheaper and so it's about
2:19
$169 compared to
2:21
$179 for the Viltrox however with
2:24
discount codes being widely available
2:27
one of those being in the description
2:28
down below you can get the price of the
2:30
Viltrox down to where the price is
2:32
essentially identical or within a few
2:34
dollars of each other with the Viltrox
2:35
being just ever so slightly cheaper they
2:38
also both lack any kind of weather
2:40
sealing other than some coating on the
2:42
front element now there are a couple of
2:44
differences that I would classify as
2:46
being neutral one of these lenses is
2:49
wider in diameter that's the seven
2:51
artisans the other is a little bit
2:52
longer in length that's the Viltrox and
2:55
so although there's obviously there's a
2:57
difference in the way that they're
2:58
shaped the internal volume ends up being
3:00
pretty similar in the two lenses both of
3:03
them have slightly different approaches
3:05
to the build but I would say they have
3:07
similar degrees of build they're both
3:09
based on a metal lens mount the 7
3:12
Artisans uses a mix of plastics and
3:14
metals in the barrel whereas the Viltrox
3:18
uses just plastics however in terms of
3:20
the overall build quality and the feel
3:22
in the hand the reality is is that while
3:25
they use different materials the build
3:26
quality feels about equal between the
3:28
two so moving beyond similarities or
3:31
non-essential differences let's talk
3:33
about some actual advantages for each
3:36
lenses each lens I should say and let's
3:38
start with the seven artisans and the
3:40
reason to consider the seven artisans AF
3:43
35mm
3:45
f1.4 the first of those is of course
3:47
that f1.4 aperture f1.4 is 1/3 stop
3:51
brighter than f1.7 just like f1.7 is 1/3
3:55
stop brighter than f1.8 and so you're
3:58
going to get a little bit of extra light
4:00
gathering potential it means that you're
4:02
also that's going to have some other
4:04
impacts as well allow you to get a
4:06
little bit faster shutter speed um allow
4:09
you to have a little more a tiny bit of
4:11
an advantage in low light situations it
4:13
means also as we're going to see in a
4:15
moment that specular highlights tend to
4:17
be a little bit bigger all things being
4:19
equal another advantage here is that the
4:22
seven arts has less vignette than what
4:25
the Viltrox it's not quite a full stops
4:27
difference but we'll call it between 1/2
4:29
and 2/3 of a stop of advantage when it
4:32
comes to vignette in the edges of the
4:34
frame as noted hinted at previously as
4:37
you can see here there are larger
4:39
specular highlights if both lenses are
4:40
wide open and at the same distance from
4:42
the subject you're going to get bigger
4:44
softer highlights coming from the f1.4
4:47
lens as you can see here and furthermore
4:50
you can see that if you stop the lens
4:52
down say both lenses at f2 those
4:54
specular highlights are still a little
4:56
bit uh bigger though as we're going to
4:58
see that bit of an odd shape starts to
5:00
creep into the seven artisans that kind
5:01
of robs that away the final reason to
5:06
choose the seven artisans over the
5:07
Viltrox is if you happen to be a person
5:09
who prefers what I would call a classic
5:12
type rendering not as highly corrected
5:15
um a little bit lower contrast wide open
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a little bit dreamier as it's sometimes
5:18
called and then as you stop the lens
5:20
down it steadily becomes sharper and
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higher contrast as you progress through
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the aperture range and not everyone
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loves that some people love modern lens
5:29
design but if you prefer the more
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classic look you're getting an
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autofocusing 35mm f1.4 lens for a great
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price how about some reasons to choose
5:39
the Viltrox instead
5:42
well the first of those is that the 7
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Artisans unfortunately has an old style
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buzzy micro motor whereas the Viltrox
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has a more modern STM focus motor so the
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Viltrox's motor is quieter it's smoother
5:55
in operation and it's also faster and as
5:58
you can see here comparing the two in
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their cycles you can see that it just
6:03
racks back and forth faster in fact
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there was one kind of missed shot and so
6:07
we ended up with six cycles to five
6:10
cycles over the identical amount of time
6:12
however it probably would have been more
6:13
like seven cycles to five cycles if it
6:16
were not for just kind of a glitch in
6:18
the you know as I'm going back and forth
6:20
in the focus process i suspect if I had
6:22
redone the test I would have ended up
6:23
with uh two extra cycles compared to the
6:27
7 Artisan so and in real world use
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there's really no comparison the Viltrox
6:32
feels like a modern lens and it performs
6:34
quite well on Fuji we'll also find that
6:37
the Viltrox is the much better corrected
6:39
and thus much sharper of the two lenses
6:42
and that's true whether you're looking
6:44
at it wide open whereas you can see here
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it's visibly sharper in the center of
6:48
the frame and even more so sharper in
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the uh mid-frame and then if you go to
6:52
the edges it is radically sharper in the
6:55
corners and even as you stop the lens
6:57
down it continues to uh to be sharper
7:00
basically throughout the aperture range
7:02
it is just the sharper of the two lenses
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and that's true anywhere you look in the
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frame it also has superior contrast and
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whether you were looking at something
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like the test chart as we've already
7:12
done but if you're looking at
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three-dimensional objects you can just
7:16
see in a couple of these comparisons if
7:18
you look at the letter A for example in
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this comparison you can see it's just
7:22
sharper and higher contrast all things
7:24
being equal even with the seven artisans
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stopped down to f1.8 which theoretically
7:28
could give it an advantage here on the
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guitar and if you look at the the big
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guitar string there you can see where
7:36
it's coiled that it's just better
7:38
resolved with better contrast and better
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detail on the
7:42
Vtrox you'll also find that while
7:44
neither of these lenses struggles much
7:46
when it comes to longitudinal style
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chromatic aberration the Viltrox has far
7:51
less of the lateral style chromatic
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aberrations that affect the edges of the
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frame and might show up in high contrast
7:57
areas and so in this case it's
7:59
definitely got an advantage versus the
8:01
seven artisans when it comes to
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that it also has lower distortion its
8:07
distortion is actually a tiny bit of pin
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cushion distortion rather than barrel
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distortion is what we see in the Seven
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Artisans but in terms of quantity the
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Viltrox is pretty close to being neutral
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and in that regard whereas the Seven
8:19
Artisans has some noticeable barrel
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distortion that does require correction
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now while we discussed the fact that the
8:24
7 Artisans has larger softer specular
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highlights when both lenses are wide
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open as you begin to stop the aperture
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down there's no question that the
8:32
Viltrox has a more pleasing shape i find
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that not only do you see the aperture
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blades on the 7 Artisans but it's just
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they're kind of an odd shape that to me
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I don't like your mileage may vary
8:42
whereas the Viltrox does a better job of
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maintaining a circular type shape even
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though both of them have nine aperture
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blades one are rounded and the other is
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not and also I would say maybe a little
8:53
bit uneven with the seven artisans both
8:56
of these lenses have a USB C port for
8:59
firmware updates but I vastly prefer
9:02
Viltrox's design where it's tucked away
9:04
on the actual metal mount and so it's
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never in the way whereas on the 7
9:09
Artisans they rely on a port down here
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that's got a little little rubber gasket
9:14
that you have to pull out it can get
9:16
snagged on something and get pulled out
9:18
that has happened to me on this lens but
9:21
more importantly once you take that
9:22
gasket out um you have to be careful not
9:25
to lose this and so if they would have
9:28
just located it on the lens mount as
9:30
Viltrox does then you wouldn't have to
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worry about this little gasket and try
9:34
to fidget with it trying to get it to go
9:36
in and to stay in place it's not really
9:39
all that relevant in the real world but
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I will note just as a difference that
9:44
the Viltrox has can focus a couple of
9:46
centimeters closer 33 versus 35 mm and
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it has about a percentage point more of
9:52
magnification and you can see here uh
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with the two things being magnified that
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the magnification level on the Viltrox
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is just a little bit higher you can also
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see from the secondary shot that it
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performs better up close better detail
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better contrast and so that's a
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secondary thing to consider when it
10:10
comes to close focus and maximum
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magnification you'll also find that the
10:15
Viltrox has lower focus breathing and as
10:18
I do a comparison here both lenses stop
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down to about f11 you can see that
10:22
there's just a a far more noticeable
10:24
amount of breathing that and by that we
10:26
mean changing the size and so you can
10:28
see in the top and bottom lines how they
10:30
go in and out more compared to what the
10:32
Viltrox does and so if you're shooting
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video that's going to be an advantage
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for focus pools and on that note even
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for video pools uh it's just smoother
10:41
and less fussing from the Viltrox lens
10:44
as opposed to the seven
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artisans you'll also find that in
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basically all real world conditions the
10:51
Viltrox has lower u amount of flaring if
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there's a bright light in the sun even
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this fairly simple shot here with the
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guitar you can see that there's some
10:59
flare artifacts in the side that the
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Viltrox shows none of and if you're out
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in brighter conditions with the Seven
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Artisans it's certainly going to show a
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variety of flare artifacts and is
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particularly susceptible if they're just
11:11
very slightly out of frame the Viltrox
11:13
does a better job with all of that and
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so in a lot of the kind of direct ways
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you can compare the optics I would say
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that the Viltrox wins most of those
11:22
comparisons so my conclusion is this
11:26
these are lenses that have some surface
11:28
similarities but they have very
11:30
different design philosophies as I noted
11:33
the seven artisans is kind of an old
11:35
school design it's simple it's just
11:37
eight elements in five groups it has
11:39
that more dreamy rendering wide open and
11:42
continually uh sharpens up as you stop
11:44
down i know that there are some of you
11:45
who prefer as simple an optical design
11:47
as possible and of these two lenses that
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would definitely be the seven artisans
11:51
and if you prefer kind of a classic
11:53
retro type rendering it's a lens that
11:56
you may really enjoy the Viltrox has 11
11:59
elements in nine groups so more elements
12:01
a more modern optical design and it is
12:03
thoroughly modern in all of its
12:05
sensibilities it has high levels of
12:07
correction it has excellent wide openen
12:09
sharpness and contrast it wins basically
12:12
all of the optical and autofocus
12:14
comparisons and yet of course there may
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be some who do prefer the seven artisans
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for the simple reason that it has that
12:21
classic rendering that some prefer i
12:23
would say for the mainstream however if
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you happen to fall into the mainstream
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very likely you're going to consider
12:30
that one-third less stop of brightness
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to be well worth it for similar money to
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get a lens that's sharper faster and
12:37
even a little bit smaller and lighter
12:39
overall and for that reason I would say
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that for most people the Viltrox is
12:43
going to be the winner however if you're
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old school the Seven Artisans might be
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the one that walks away with the dub for
12:49
you if you want more information you
12:51
have a couple of options now you can
12:53
either check out my uh my full reviews
12:56
either text or video that are linked on
12:57
both of these lenses in the description
12:59
down below and as a bonus if you want to
13:01
take a look at how I drew my conclusions
13:03
and take a deeper look at the optics and
13:06
head-to-head comparisons between these
13:07
two lenses well stay tuned right now
13:09
we're going to jump into that together
13:11
okay we'll start off our comparisons and
13:13
always I'm going to keep the seven
13:14
artisans on the left the Viltrox on the
13:17
right to avoid any confusion now as far
13:19
as the uh distortion goes you can see
13:22
there's barrel distortion here on the
13:24
seven artisans there's a tiny bit of pin
13:27
cushion distortion on the Viltrox though
13:29
not any kind of really appreciable
13:31
amount so both of those can be connect
13:33
corrected obviously without any kind of
13:36
difficulty and in this case I will also
13:38
note that the Viltrox has more
13:40
noticeably heavy vignette in the corners
13:43
post correction you can see that both
13:45
look fine so no major concerns there now
13:48
if we look for traditional longitudinal
13:50
style chromatic aberrations you can see
13:52
that on both of them I would say that
13:54
they are more similar than different now
13:57
the Viltrox here on the right has
13:59
obviously much higher contrast uh up
14:01
close like this but you can see that
14:04
they both have pretty not very
14:06
significant but similar amounts of
14:08
longitudinal style chromatic aberrations
14:10
there what really differs is the amount
14:12
of lateral chromatic aberrations near
14:14
the edge of the frame and you can see
14:15
that if we jump in you can see that
14:18
there's there's a lot of it there on the
14:20
seven artisans and almost none of it on
14:22
the Viltrox and so that's a pretty
14:25
significant disadvantage for the seven
14:27
artisans now the 40 megapixels of my
14:30
Fujifilm XH2 is incredibly demanding
14:33
particularly when we look at the results
14:34
at 200% which is the way that I test
14:37
however one of these lenses handles that
14:40
high resolution just fine the Viltrox
14:42
whereas you can see that the 7 Artisans
14:44
look pretty soft by comparison so much
14:47
more contrast for the Viltrox wide open
14:50
f1.4 versus f1.7 and as noted previously
14:54
that advantage in the mid-frame is e
14:56
it's much more obvious and significant
14:58
and looking down into the corners you
15:00
can see that Viltrox is strong down here
15:03
in the bottom right corner up here in
15:06
the upper left also strong looking over
15:08
here it's it's stronger everywhere that
15:10
we look if we stop down the seven
15:13
artisans down to f1.8 it really doesn't
15:17
make a difference um I don't think that
15:19
it really has taken any kind of leap
15:20
forward so the advantage kind of remains
15:23
the same for the Viltrox if we stop down
15:25
to f2.8 you can see that the seven
15:27
artisans has started to get more
15:29
contrast in the center of the frame
15:31
problem is is the Viltrox has too and
15:33
now the Viltrox is basically
15:35
ridiculously star sharp and high
15:37
contrast and so it just easily best what
15:40
we see from the seven artisans and again
15:42
that's even more obvious if you look
15:44
other places in the frame um here in the
15:47
mid-frame very obvious up in the corners
15:50
you know it's just a significant
15:52
advantage there for the Viltrox by
15:55
f5.6 the difference in the middle of the
15:58
frame I don't think is as significant
15:59
anymore as I noted the 7 Artisans has
16:02
that classic profile where it just kind
16:03
of keeps sharpening up however if you
16:06
look outside of the middle like here in
16:08
the mid-frame it's still very obviously
16:11
a win for the Viltrox and into the
16:13
corners they're getting better on the
16:15
Seven Artisans but they're not great not
16:18
certainly relative to the VROX and its
16:20
performance now if we switch over to our
16:23
minimum focus distance you can see that
16:25
here we took a look at that level of
16:27
magnification which is just a little bit
16:29
higher for the Viltrox and Viltrox
16:32
obviously has a little bit more contrast
16:34
in general and so it's just a little bit
16:36
crisper performance uh than what you're
16:38
going to get up close with the 7
16:40
Artisans now what follows is a bit of an
16:43
interesting sequence uh with some
16:45
strengths for both lenses and so here
16:47
wide open f1.4 versus f1.7 you can
16:50
notice the faster shutter speed because
16:52
of that faster maximum aperture and you
16:55
can also note that the specular
16:56
highlights are larger and softer here um
17:00
from the uh the seven artisans and what
17:02
they are on the Viltrox you can also see
17:04
the advantage for the Viltrox and higher
17:06
contrast in detail if you look in at the
17:09
area of focus now what's interesting is
17:12
if you stop the seven artisans down to
17:15
f1.8 8 so here in theory the advantage
17:18
should belongs to the Viltrox however
17:20
what you can see is that it's still
17:23
metering faster and also the specular
17:25
highlights are still larger now what
17:27
they aren't is rounder and here's where
17:29
I have a kind of a beef with the seven
17:32
artisans and that is that you just get
17:34
frankly kind of ugly and lopsided
17:36
specular highlights when you start to
17:37
draw stop them down whereas the Viltrox
17:40
is it's rounder and more consistent by
17:43
nature other thing worth noting here is
17:46
just the different way that the two
17:47
lenses render you can see that that
17:49
lower contrast look and to my eye has a
17:52
bit of a cinematic look and so in some
17:55
ways the kind of like out of focus area
17:58
I think is quite pleasing on the seven
18:00
artisans if you take the specular
18:01
highlights out of the equation by f2.8
18:05
um at least these are a little bit more
18:07
consistent i don't love that shape
18:09
honestly and here where it's you know
18:11
and towards the edges where it starts to
18:13
get pinched and inconsistent i really
18:14
don't like it i vastly prefer the uh
18:17
Viltrox where it has nice round circular
18:20
highlights all throughout again you can
18:22
see that difference in contrast in the
18:24
overall rendering and so you know
18:26
depending on your taste you're going to
18:27
prefer one over the other and but they
18:30
certainly are different now the same is
18:32
true here again at f 1.8 versus f1.7 and
18:37
so if we look at the area of focus
18:39
higher contrast and better detail for
18:41
the Viltrox looking at the overall
18:43
rendering in this image I don't find a
18:46
significant difference between the two
18:48
and you'll just have to look at it and
18:50
see which you prefer this image a couple
18:52
of things to note first of all you can
18:54
see there is some flare artifacts from
18:56
the light that I've introduced into the
18:58
scene that is just absent on the Viltrox
19:00
viltrox holds up better in that
19:02
situation in terms of its flare
19:04
resistance it also continues to have
19:06
better contrast in this situation
19:08
however you can see that as you
19:10
transition towards defocus it
19:12
transitions a little bit more and softer
19:15
on the seven artisans again even though
19:17
it's at f1.8 versus
19:19
f1.7 finally a just a general look
19:22
without specular highlights and so that
19:24
you can just kind of evaluate defocused
19:26
area in general so if you look at the
19:28
images as a whole you can see that
19:30
there's more of a kind of a pop cutout
19:33
look for the uh the Viltrox image and if
19:36
we look in at a pixel level you'll see
19:38
why i mean there's just a whole lot more
19:40
contrast on the subject and thus detail
19:43
that's standing out on the Viltrox
19:45
versus the Seven Artisans if you remove
19:47
that from the equation however I think
19:49
that there is something that is very
19:51
pleasing about the Seven Artisans the
19:53
way that everything kind of just flows
19:55
together and it's defocused but without
19:57
the subject kind of popping out in the
20:00
same way that it does on the Vtrox this
20:02
again it's very much a taste thing but
20:05
if you look at some of these various
20:06
transitions and the way that the bright
20:09
areas there's more contrast here which
20:11
is why on the Viltrox it looks brighter
20:13
on the seat for example maybe you like
20:16
that maybe you like the fact that on the
20:18
seven artisans it all kind of just
20:20
blends together a little bit more it
20:22
really comes down again to your specific
20:23
taste and what you prefer but again you
20:26
definitely can see some pretty key areas
20:29
where the rendering differs between
20:31
these two options well thanks for
20:33
sticking around to the end of the video
20:34
i hope that taking a look at these two
20:36
lenses has helped you to decide which is
20:39
the one that is preferred for you as
20:41
always thanks for watching have a great
20:43
day and let the light in
20:46
[Music]