I’m back with another Yongnuo (YN) review. I was interested in covering their most recent lens on the strength of what I’ve seen from the 11mm F1.8 WL Pro I’ reviewed on Sony and the 50mm F1.8 DSM Pro that I reviewed on Fuji. 33mm is a very important focal length on APS-C, giving you roughly 50mm (49.5mm) full frame equivalent angle of view once you add in the 1.5x APS-C crop. Add a fast maximum aperture of F1.4, a host of features, and a good optical performance, and you’ve got an interesting lens. The Yonguo 33mm F1.4S DA SAM WL Pro can be had for well under $300, and it arguably adds a lot more features and versatility than any other lens that it competes with. Should this be your new “normal lens” for your Sony E (tested here), Nikon Z, or Fuji X-mount camera? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below, reading the text review, or enjoying the photos in the galleries below.
Thanks to Yongnuo for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the APS-C mode (26MP) of my Sony a7RVcamera.
As noted, this is a fast “normal” lens. Normal lenses are so called because they cover an angle of view similar to what your eye sees, thus the kinds of images you can get look “normal” or easily relatable, which is why the 50mm focal length is so popular.
The YN 33mm (as we’ll call it for brevity) is a very feature rich lens, as we’ll see, but one of those innovations requires purchasing an inexpensive (under $25) remote control unit that leverages a 2.4gz wireless module built into the lens. Far from just being a basic remote control unit, this remote control allows you to remotely control focus, do aperture racking, set up A-B focus pulls, and more basic functions like take photos, start video, and do whatever you have the function button programmed to do. It’s a very clever little device particularly for video functions as you can do some of these key movements without touching the lens and introducing vibration.
The 11mm F1.8 was the first of a new series of lenses from Yongnuo that they call the “Commander Series”, and this 33mm will be joined by a 23mm and 56mm F1.4 lens.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the 33mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
S = Sony, or Sony E-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
WL = Wireless control
Pro = upscale build, additional features
The YN 33mm has a lot going for it, including a great focal length, great functionality, and fairly strong image quality.
There are also a few weaknesses along with many strengths, which you can discover in the reviews…or just enjoy the photos.
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 33mm, F1.4, Yongnuo 33mm F1.4, DSM, WL, F1.4, Pro, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, Wireless, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I’m back with another Yongnuo (YN) review. I was interested in covering their most recent lens on the strength of what I’ve seen from the 11mm F1.8 WL Pro I’ reviewed on Sony and the 50mm F1.8 DSM Pro that I reviewed on Fuji. 33mm is a very important focal length on APS-C, giving you roughly 50mm (49.5mm) full frame equivalent angle of view once you add in the 1.5x APS-C crop. Add a fast maximum aperture of F1.4, a host of features, and a good optical performance, and you’ve got an interesting lens. The Yonguo 33mm F1.4S DA SAM WL Pro can be had for well under $300, and it arguably adds a lot more features and versatility than any other lens that it competes with. Should this be your new “normal lens” for your Sony E (tested here), Nikon Z, or Fuji X-mount camera? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below…or reading on.
Thanks to Yongnuo for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the APS-C mode (26MP) of my Sony a7RVcamera.
As noted, this is a fast “normal” lens. Normal lenses are so called because they cover an angle of view similar to what your eye sees, thus the kinds of images you can get look “normal” or easily relatable, which is why the 50mm focal length is so popular.
The YN 33mm (as we’ll call it for brevity) is a very feature rich lens, as we’ll see, but one of those innovations requires purchasing an inexpensive (under $25) remote control unit that leverages a 2.4gz wireless module built into the lens. Far from just being a basic remote control unit, this remote control allows you to remotely control focus, do aperture racking, set up A-B focus pulls, and more basic functions like take photos, start video, and do whatever you have the function button programmed to do. It’s a very clever little device particularly for video functions as you can do some of these key movements without touching the lens and introducing vibration.
The 11mm F1.8 was the first of a new series of lenses from Yongnuo that they call the “Commander Series”, and this 33mm will be joined by a 23mm and 56mm F1.4 lens.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the 33mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
S = Sony, or Sony E-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
WL = Wireless control
Pro = upscale build, additional features
The YN 33mm has a lot going for it, including a great focal length, great functionality, and fairly strong image quality.
There are also a few weaknesses along with many strengths, and we will break down it all in our review.
Build and Handling
The 33mm focal length has been a fairly popular one over the past few years, with a variety of releases from first party brands (Fuji) and third party brands like Viltrox, Tokina, and Meike. The YN 33mm shows well in this class, however, with the lowest price and more features. This does come at the cost of some weight, however, as the Yongnuo is the heaviest lens at 370g (13oz), though the Fuji lens is a close second at 360g. The Viltrox and Tokina lenses seem to essentially be twins, and have identical dimensions and weight (270g).
The extra weight is due to have a little extra girth and length. The YN 33 is 69mm in diameter (2.7″) x 87mm (3.4″) in length, which is over 13mm longer than the Fuji 33mm lens. The front filter threads are a common 58mm size.
You’ll note the “Wi-Fi” radio signal logo next to the lens designation. Yongnuo continues to be the only company I know of utilizing this, though I have seen Bluetooth in a few Viltrox lenses.
That extra length is at least well used. The other three lenses I’ve been mentioning have an aperture ring (as does this lens), but the Yongnuo adds several other features, including the ability declick the aperture, a custom/function button, and a two mode-custom switch that allows you tweak the behavior of the ring.
As noted, this is a very feature rich little lens. We have a function/focus hold button on the left side of the barrel. That function can be assigned from within the camera.
There’s also a custom switch that allows for a few different functions. In one mode, it serves a an AF | MF switch, with mode I being AF while mode II will switch to MF.
The manual focus ring has a nice feel to it overall, though the weight is on the lighter side. There is no obvious stepping, however, so focus moves fairly smoothly as I use the MF ring. You can program the custom switch to this function by turning the camera off, setting the position to II, and then holding the custom button down. Then power the camera back on, and you will feel a click in the lens.
To use the optional remote control, turn the camera off, set the switch position to I, and then hold down the function button while turning on the camera. Now position “I” will mean that wi-fi is turned on for remote communication while position “II” will mean that it is turned off. I would recommend keeping it in the off position when it is not in use. I haven’t noticed a battery drain issue, but you can essentially assure that this won’t be an issue by turning it off.
The YN 33mm also has a robust approach to aperture control. It has an aperture control ring with one third stop detents between F1.4 and F16 along with an automatic position that can be accessed past F16 (there is a firmer detent there to keep from accidental switches between the two). The feel of the clicks is good, with clear delineation of each position but without being rough.
There is also a declick option with a switch on the right side of the barrel. Click that switch and you can smoothly rack through the aperture, which is particularly useful for video work.
The aperture iris itself has 9 rounded blades to help ensure circular specular highlights when stopped down.
The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and modern.
A petal-shaped lens hood is included. While it isn’t anything particularly special, it is sturdier than some and bayonets into place with a reasonably precise feel.
There is a USB-C port for firmware updates covered by a small rubber gasket. Be careful when pulling it out, as it is small and wouldn’t be hard to lose. It’s also nearly impossible to pry out unless you have a small prying tool, like a very small flat screwdriver.
The USB-C port will allow for quick and easy firmware updates, which is a smart move by Yongnuo considering that they are a third party lens maker, so they may have to rely on firmware updates to maintain compatibility with cameras in the future. The lens does include a USB-C cable in the box in case you don’t have one.
There is a metal lens mount with a weather sealing gasket attached. Yongnuo also claims a fluorine coating on the front element to resist fingerprints and moisture.
A number of these lenses all share a rather poor minimum focus distance, with only the Fuji 33mm allowing for a closer 30mm distance. The Tokina and Viltrox are both 40cm, with the Yongnuo right under that. That will give maximum magnification figure of right over 0.10x, which is not very good.
The remote control has a small LCD screen and is primarily controlled through the main knob that can be clicked to switch through various functions and rotated to control those functions. There are two buttons for programming A and B focus pulls (just set the focus position, hold down the corresponding button for one second, and either “A” or B” where appropriate will light up. There’s a power switch on the side and also a custom button on the side that corresponds to the custom button on the lens. Clicking it will enable whatever function is programmed to that button on the lens.
Using the remote isn’t always intuitive, but if you’ll spend a few minutes with the included user manual it becomes easy enough to use. Range is up to 30 meters, which definitely gives you some flexibility for controlling off camera.
The fact that the Yongnuo is both the cheapest ($268 USD) and most feature rich lens in the bunch is pretty impressive, though it is also the biggest and heaviest. This is all relative, however, as the lens isn’t abnormally large or anything.
Autofocus and Video
Yongnuo has equipped the 33mm F1.4 with what they call a “digital stepping motor” (DSM). I’m not entirely sure how a digital stepping motor varies from a typical stepping motor, so I suspect this is mostly their own marketing language. My copy of the lens (prerelease) did need a firmware update to ensure full compatibility, but after the firmware update has functioned well. Focus speed is pretty good, and I’ve gotten good accuracy even in narrow depth of field situations.
There is almost no noise to be heard even if I put my ear next to the lens barrel. There is the slightest buzz from the motor, but so quiet as to be nearly undetectable. Focus speed is good, too, with near instant transitions from one focus point to another either indoors or out. This is one of the speedier STM motors that I’ve tested, which is great for a third party lens from a smaller brand.
I found that real world precision was good, whether I was shooting a human subject:
…or with a simple subject like these lingering red leaves late in November.
It’s worth noting with the shot above that I was testing the Megadap ETZ21 Pro adapter with my Nikon Z8 and using the Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM (one of my favorite lenses) on it. I was a little frustrated as the Megadap combo was being reluctant to focus on the foreground subject and kept sticking on the background even though, for the most part, autofocus was quite good. I also had the YN 33mm mounted on my a7RV, and so I took the same shot (the one above) right after that, and was amazed at how effortlessly the YN 33mm grabbed the right subject and focus properly on it.
I did a series of available light portraits, and was really pleased by how effectively the lens focused. I used a lot of foreground branches for natural frames, but autofocus was consistently good.
If we zoom into that last photo, for example, we can see that focus is accurate and that the lens produces very usable sharpness even at F1.4:
As with most third party lenses, if your goal is tracking fast action, you might want to go with a Sony lens (not that there are many in this focal range), but for most people in most situations, autofocus for stills was pretty great.
Video AF
On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth with minimal steps. Focus breathing is definitely present, but it isn’t egregious.
The YN 33mm did mostly fine with my “hand test” as well, where I alternately block the view to my face with my hand and then remove it. Focus transitioned nicely from my hand to my face, though there was a time or two when it didn’t move from my face to my hand.
Video footage generally looked good, though, and having fairly confident focus helps to keep details crisp when operating at large apertures. Here’s a freeze frame from one of my clips:
I also had fairly good results with video clips where I slowly moved the camera to force change from one subject to another at varying depths of field. Focus transitions were fairly well damped, and overall autofocus feels pretty capable.
Yongnuo 33mm F1.4 Image Quality Breakdown
The YN 33mm has an optical design of 11 elements in 9 groups. The majority of these are exotic elements, including high refractive elements and ultra low dispersion elements. A lot of fancy glass for an inexpensive lens!
The MTF chart shows a very consistent performance with a nearly flat performance across the frame. The F8 graph levels out some of the dips and rises, but only offers a few percentage points of improved performance. That speaks to a pretty great wide open performance.
The biggest practical negative I saw was some fringing in certain situations, but overall I was pretty impressed with the general optical performance.
Now, interestingly, in this particular image I felt like fringing was pretty well controlled, with minimal amounts of green fringing on a few of the textures. In other images, however, I saw much more pronounced LoCA, or Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations that come before and after the plane of focus. Here, for example, you can see fringing in the lettering on the lens, on edges of the SLR, and then green fringing around the specular highlights.
That fringing was evident on my chart as well, so just be aware that this is probably the most significant optical issue with the YN 33mm.
Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) were not at all an issue, with nice and clean transitions from black to white near the edges of the frame unmarred by fringing.
For those hoping to get some kind of stealth full frame lens, prepare to be disappointed. You can see that a lot of the full frame image circle is mechanically obscured by the lens.
This is an APS-C lens, period. It will still work fine in APS-C mode on Sony cameras for either stills or video, however. As is almost always the case, you would be better served by buying a full frame lens if you want full frame coverage.
There’s a bit more barrel distortion than I expected in a normal lens along with some vignette.
I used a +9 to correct the barrel distortion. It was fairly linear in correction, so even with a manual correction I could get a good result. The vignette is moderate, requiring a +57 to correct, or in the two stop range. Both of these are well within the range of easily correctable.
So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 26MP APS-C mode of my Sony a7RV. Here’s the test chart:
Here are F1.4 crops at roughly 200% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).
On a flat chart like this, the sharpness results are good but not exceptionally good at F1.4. I’m actually more impressed with real world results, which is good news for the real people who shoot real subjects.
In this real world shot, there is a tangle of dead branches that has coverage near the edge of the frame as well, and we can see that while contrast isn’t top notch, there is plenty of detail across the frame.
But field curvature shouldn’t be as much of an issue when shooting at infinity, and in real world results I noticed the corners being softer (as noted).
For portrait work I felt that there was plenty of sharpness. Even a fairly deep crop at F1.4 shows nice detail.
There’s a mild contrast boost at F1.8 that grows a bit further by F2:
There’s a more obvious bump from F2 to F2.8. where contrast and detail are obviously improved.
If we swap back to a real world subject, we can see at least part of the reason. The aberrations that produce fringing (and thus reduce contrast) are vastly reduced, allowing the native sharpness of the lens to shine a little more obviously.
There is a bit more to be gained at F4, and then another jump at F5.6. Now even the corners are looking pretty crisp.
Real world landscape shots from F4 to F8 will look nice, with good detail across the frame.
Sharpness peaks around F5.6, with F8 being very close to the same. Diffraction will start to soften the image after that, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16:
Often the tradeoff for a bit of uncorrected fringing is softer bokeh. I wouldn’t consider the bokeh quality to be absolutely top shelf, but it is pretty nice overall.
Here’s another shot with a nice, soft rendering.
Here’s a shot where the subject is further, so nothing is completely blurred out, but it shows how you can still create some subject isolation at this distance.
Flare resistance is mostly good. I had good results where the sun was very brightly right out of frame.
You can see some ghosting in this landscape shot, as the sun hit the elements at obviously a more difficult angle for them.
My review period landed in a season in November when the sun was rather shy. A lot of grey days, so I didn’t get a lot of bright sun to contend with. I did take a quick peek at Christopher Frost’s review, however, and it seems like he had a fairly decent flare outcome, so I feel like what I did see was representative of the overall performance.
Yongnuo’s optical glass is fairly good but not top notch. Colors were mostly good, however, though not quite as special as what you’ll get from higher end lenses.
But it’s important to remember that this is a lens that costs under $270. I would say that the overall rendering is pretty great for the money. When compared to other lenses in this price class I think the optics are competitive and the feature set is clearly much more robust than what competing lenses offer. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.
Conclusion
The Yongnuo 33mm F1.4S DA DSM WL Pro is a pretty attractive option if you’re looking for a 50mm equivalent lens on your APS-C camera. It is a feature rich, focuses well, has weather sealing, and delivers a pretty strong optical performance, too.
It certainly bests the competition that I’ve seen from Viltrox and Tokina, and prices in much lower than any competing first party lens that I can think of.
Although I was shooting in a difficult season of the year (in between autumn and winter), I felt like I didn’t have a hard time getting images that I liked. I’m pretty amazed by how good budget lenses are these days. In 2016 I reviewed a Samyang 21mm F1.4 fully manual lens that had zero features, and that lens cost $450 at the time. Flash forward eight years and all the inflation that we’ve seen, and you’re still getting a lens with autofocus, weather sealing, a declickable aperture, a custom button, the ability to wirelessly control the lens…and paying nearly $200 less. That’s really pretty astounding when you stop and think about it. That makes the Yongnuo YN 33mm F1.4 well worth consideration.
Pros:
Nice looking lens with nice build
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good manual focus ring and experience
Very feature rich
Weather sealed
Declickable aperture
Wireless remote control
Custom button
Autofocus motor is quiet and fast
Good sharpness wide open
Excellent sharpness stopped down
Fairly good bokeh
Great price to performance ratio
Cons:
Some fringing issues
Gasket for USB-C is hard to remove and easy to lose
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 33mm, F1.4, Yongnuo 33mm F1.4, DSM, WL, F1.4, Pro, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, a6000, a6400, Sony a7RV, Wireless, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I spent some time earlier this year reviewing the Yongnuo 11mm F1.8S DA DSM wide angle on Sony E-mount. I was impressed with some of the truly unique features and strong performance of the lens. It was enough to give me a positive feeling about the brand, so when Yongnuo reached out to me about a new lens for Fuji X-mount, I happily agreed to spend some time with it. I’ve had about six weeks with the Yongnuo YN 50mm F1.8X DA DSM Pro lens, and in many ways it is a very impressive little lens. It’s got a lot going on for a price tag of about $300 USD, and provides an interesting alternative to the 56mm options on the market with a few more upscale features. You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review or by reading the text review.
Thanks to Yongnuo for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.
This is an APS-C design that I’ve tested in Fuji X-mount. While there are other versions of this lens available on Sony E-mount or Nikon Z-mount, the Fuji version is the only one to get the unique “Pro” designation due to having some upscale features. It should be noted that there is also a non-Pro 50mm F1.8X DA DSM lens available for Fuji X-mount. That lens is smaller, cheaper, a different optical formula, and has far few features. I’m going to share Yongnuo’s own comparison chart to help you avoid some confusion between these two lenses.
Basically everything about YN 50mm Pro, from the size, feature set, housing material, optical design, and even the angle of view. Still, it’s a little confusing that they have two 50mm F1.8 lenses on X-mount. These lenses are also very different optically, however, with the YN 50mm Pro being superior optically.
That’s extremely important on Fuji, particularly when using it on one of Fuji’s monster 40MP APS-C sensors like the one found in the X-H2 I’m using for the review. Lenses have to be very sharp to look credible on that sensor, but fortunately the YN 50mm Pro does a pretty excellent job of that.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the 50mm F1.8X DA DSM Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
X = Fuji X-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
Pro = Higher end performance and features.
I had a few early quirks between the lens and my X-H2, but fortunately a firmware update completely cleared all of that up and allowed the lens to function fairly close to flawlessly on my camera. I had a lot of fun with the YN 50mm Pro due to a great mix of sharpness and nice bokeh.
There are also a few weaknesses along with many strengths, and we will break down it all in the reviews. Enjoy the photos!
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 50mm, F1.8, F1.8, DA, DSM, Pro, Yongnuo 50mm F1.8X DA DSM Pro, Yongnuo 11mm F1.8, DSM, WL, F1.8S, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, Fuji, Fujifilm, X-H2, X-T5, X-T50, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I spent some time earlier this year reviewing the Yongnuo 11mm F1.8S DA DSM wide angle on Sony E-mount. I was impressed with some of the truly unique features and strong performance of the lens. It was enough to give me a positive feeling about the brand, so when Yongnuo reached out to me about a new lens for Fuji X-mount, I happily agreed to spend some time with it. I’ve had about six weeks with the Yongnuo YN 50mm F1.8X DA DSM Pro lens, and in many ways it is a very impressive little lens. It’s got a lot going on for a price tag of about $300 USD, and provides an interesting alternative to the 56mm options on the market with a few more upscale features. You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below…or reading on.
Thanks to Yongnuo for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.
This is an APS-C design that I’ve tested in Fuji X-mount. While there are other versions of this lens available on Sony E-mount or Nikon Z-mount, the Fuji version is the only one to get the unique “Pro” designation due to having some upscale features. It should be noted that there is also a non-Pro 50mm F1.8X DA DSM lens available for Fuji X-mount. That lens is smaller, cheaper, a different optical formula, and has far few features. I’m going to share Yongnuo’s own comparison chart to help you avoid some confusion between these two lenses.
Basically everything about YN 50mm Pro, from the size, feature set, housing material, optical design, and even the angle of view. Still, it’s a little confusing that they have two 50mm F1.8 lenses on X-mount. These lenses are also very different optically, however, with the YN 50mm Pro being superior optically.
That’s extremely important on Fuji, particularly when using it on one of Fuji’s monster 40MP APS-C sensors like the one found in the X-H2 I’m using for the review. Lenses have to be very sharp to look credible on that sensor, but fortunately the YN 50mm Pro does a pretty excellent job of that.
If you don’t speak Yongnuo, let me break down what those letters mean in the 50mm F1.8X DA DSM Pro lens designation. In many ways this follows the Fuji naming convention which puts a list of features right in the name.
X = Fuji X-mount
DA = APS-C
DSM = Digital Stepping Motor
Pro = Higher end performance and features.
I had a few early quirks between the lens and my X-H2, but fortunately a firmware update completely cleared all of that up and allowed the lens to function fairly close to flawlessly on my camera. I had a lot of fun with the YN 50mm Pro due to a great mix of sharpness and nice bokeh.
There are also a few weaknesses along with many strengths, and we will break down it all in our review.
Build and Handling
50mm isn’t quite as popular on APS-C as it is on full frame, as when you apply the 1.5x crop factor on Fuji to the focal length, you end up with a full frame equivalent of 75mm. I have seen more 75mm lenses in recent years, but obviously the more popular focal length is 85mm, or a 56mm lens on APS-C. There are far more 56mm options on Fuji, though there are a couple of 50mm lenses as well, including the Fujinon XF 50mm F2 WR and the extremely expensive XF 50mm F1.0 WR lenses. Both Fuji options are more expensive than the Yongnuo lens, with the 50mm F2 costing $150 more and the F1.0 lens costing a whopping $1200 more!
You can see from the specifications above that the 50mm F2 lens is smaller and lighter than the YN 50mm Pro, but also lacks its more advanced features.
I keep notes files on my phone to record random field observations when using various gear, and one of the notes I had was that the build of the lens reminded me of a Zeiss Batis lens. This was in part due to the upscale metal construction (an aircraft aluminum alloy) and also the integration of a small LCD screen on the top of the lens.
While the YN 50mm Pro doesn’t have a traditional aperture ring, it does utilize the LCD screen in conjunction with one of the custom settings via a switch on the left side of the barrel to allow the manual focus ring to function as an aperture ring. The LCD readout will show aperture changes in real time to allow you to select your desired aperture.
This feature is perhaps less necessary on a more advanced camera like my X-H2, as that features an LCD readout on top of the camera where I can quickly see the current aperture value (you can see the redundant figures above), but it will be much more useful on the vast majority of Fuji’s cameras which lack a top mounted LCD.
It would have been nice to see this also function as a distance scale when manually focusing (like the Batis lenses).
The size is 68mm in diameter (2.67″) and 85mm (3.34″) in length. The lens weighs in at 387g or 13.65 oz. Up front we have a common 58mm front filter thread.
The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and modern.
A lens hood is included. While it isn’t anything particularly special, it is sturdier than some and bayonets into place with a reasonably precise feel.
There is a USB-C port for firmware updates covered by a small rubber gasket. Be careful when pulling it out, as it is small and wouldn’t be hard to lose.
The USB-C port will allow for quick and easy firmware updates, which is a smart move by Yongnuo considering that they are a third party lens maker, so they may have to rely on firmware updates to maintain compatibility with cameras in the future. The lens does include a USB-C cable in the box in case you don’t have one. I definitely needed that firmware update to help eliminate a few instabilities in my review copy (these included aperture resets to F16 and the inability to shoot more than one shot in a burst). After the firmware update the lens has operated in a very stable fashion.
There is a metal lens mount with a weather sealing gasket attached. Yongnuo also claims a fluorine coating on the front element to resist fingerprints and moisture.
There is a custom switch that allows for a few different functions, in theory, but in reality only really serves one. In mode 1, it sets the control of ring to aperture control. This works well enough, though the wide, lightly weighted focus ring is fairly easy to bump and cause you to inadvertently change the aperture. I will also note that for some reason the manual aperture change doesn’t seem to work in video mode on my X-H2. I have to control aperture from within the camera.
Putting the switch into Mode II in theory instructs the ring to function as a focus ring, though this does not automatically switch to manual focus. Fuji’s own lenses never have an AF | MF switch, so the whole system is designed for this function to be controlled from the camera, often via a lever. Putting the lens into Mode II means the ring will function as a manual focus ring, but only after you have selected MF from within the camera.
The manual focus ring has a nice feel to it overall, though the weight is on the lighter side. As per usual, I find manual focus a little frustrating on Fuji cameras, as it takes many, many rotations to make major focus changes.
Take a closer took inside and you can see 9 rounded aperture blades, which is a higher blade count than the 7 on the non-Pro model. The aperture shape stays reasonably circular as the lens is stopped down.
The sunstar looks reasonably clean with the aperture stopped down (here at F11), but you can also see from this shot that this is a very flare prone lens.
The minimum focus distance is 45cm and gives a maximum magnification figure of 0.15x, which is good enough to be useful and matches what the XF 50mm F2 offers. Here’s what MFD looks like:
Up close results still look pretty good.
Recent 56mm F1.7/F1.8 lenses from Viltrox and TTArtisan undercut the price tag of the YN 50mm Pro (which can typically be had for under $300), but neither of those lenses are close to matching the build and features of the Yongnuo lens. This is a very nice little lens that feels pretty upscale in the build and handling.
Autofocus and Video
Yongnuo has equipped the 50mm F1.8 with what they call a “digital stepping motor” (DSM). I’m not entirely sure how a digital stepping motor varies from a typical stepping motor, but the end result is a mostly quiet, fast, and accurate focus experience, though with some of the typical Fuji quirks and frustrations. The last time I did a Yongnuo review, it was on Sony, and autofocus is almost always much better there than on Fuji.
Focus noise is quiet, with very little to be heard at a typical shooting distance. If I put my ear right up against the barrel I hear a bit of high pitched whirring and a little clicking.
Focus speed is relatively quick, though particularly in lower light I saw some obvious steps and pulses. Outdoors and in good light autofocus was fairly snappy. For ordinary shots like casual portraits, nature, landscapes, fairly still subjects, I saw very nice accuracy. This shot of Ferrari is a good case in point. You can see note only that the photo is well focused; you can also see that this lens is pretty fantastically sharp.
I was able to shoot narrow depth of field shots with good precision.
I got some good shots at a dog competition, but I got them by prefocusing on the area where the jump would take place rather than trying to just acquire the dogs in movement towards it.
In situations where I tried to track persistent action, I found that focus would move around a bit and was often a little behind where it should be (mid-body rather than face).
The YN 50mm Pro isn’t quite ready for any kind of demanding action.
For most other applications, however, I didn’t have any issues with focus.
Things were (as usual for Fuji) much worse on the video front. As is often the case, I found it nearly impossible to do my focus pull test by touching the point I wanted focus to move to on the screen. Rather than going back and forth, I had to touch the place where I wanted to go and wait…and wait…and sometimes focus would change, though with obvious steps and adjustments. Very frustrating.
The YN 50mm Pro did a little better in my hand test, where I alternately block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it, but here too focus changes were slow…or just didn’t happen. It was better than the focus pull test, but far from satisfying. I noticed that focus was not consistently on the right place even when focused, however, with some microadjustments. There is also some obvious focus breathing.
Video AF of more typical subjects and movements was better. I tracked a sailboat moving through a harbor fairly well, coneflowers blowing in the wind, and my video footage of a ride on a gondola down a mountain was reasonably good. Video is better reserved for those types of shots rather than trying to track action or make dynamic focus changes.
You need to have reasonable expectations about what this lens can and cannot do on Fuji cameras.
Yongnuo 50mm F1.8X Image Quality Breakdown
The YN50mm Pro has an optical design of 11 elements in 8 groups. Six of these elements are exotic, including low dispersion, high refractive, and aspherical lenses. A lot of fancy glass for an inexpensive lens! The MTF chart shows a consistently sharp performance across the frame with strong contrast that only dips a bit in the corners. This MTF chart also shows an F8 report, and there we see even more sharpness across the frame and consistently high contrast.
I was repeatedly impressed with the great results both wide open and stopped down. I’ve come to expect this 40MP sensor to make lenses look a bit disappointing, so when a lens is able to look good on it, I know it is a pretty special optical instrument.
What’s more, the lens isn’t overcorrected, so I find the rendering of the bokeh pretty nice as well.
The lens performed well in my tests of vignette and distortion, showing minimal distortion and a moderate amount of vignette.
I only had to use a -2 to correct the tiny bit of pincushion distortion, and a +41 cleaned up the vignette. Both of these figures a very low for this type of lens. The slightly larger size of the lens shows its worth here, as they made a larger lens that is better corrected.
The lens is not completely corrected for fringing, showing a bit of LoCA before and after the plane of focus in the form of mild magenta before and slightly more prominent greenish fringing after the plane of focus.
There isn’t much of the lateral style of fringing, however, which you find near the edges of the frame in high transition areas.
So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on the 40MP Fujifilm X-H2. Here’s the test chart:
Here are F1.8 crops at roughly 200% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).
Results here look really quite good. Not quite in the upper echelon of a handful of lenses that just look amazing on this sensor, but near the top of the next tier. What’s more, this is a nicely consistent performance where the results are good right into the corners.
I thought that many of my real world results showed very nice detail and contrast.
This is great when shooting in dim lighting conditions, as you don’t need to stop the lens down to get sharp results.
Stopping down just 1/3rd stop to F2 does give a bit of a contrast boost, so it will be worth doing when you want just a bit more performance.
Stopping on down to F2.8 provides a bit more boost across the frame.
By F5.6 even the corners are razer sharp.
That means that landscape style shots will shot a lot of detail, and if you are shooting with a high resolution body, you will have a lot of flexibility for cropping.
Sharpness peaks around F5.6, with F8 being very close to the same. Diffraction will start to soften the image after that, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16:
A common tradeoff for leaving a bit of the aberrations uncorrected is a nicer bokeh rendering, which I think is the case here. This lens definitely has nicer bokeh than a number of competing lenses.
The blur is generally quite soft and creamy.
Here’s another that I like:
What isn’t good, however, is the flare resistance. This is not a lens that copes well with bright lights…particularly if they are in the corner of the frame.
Flare was generally worse with the lens stopped down, and a little better at larger apertures, though you can definitely see some flare artifacts in the upper right corner of the grass image above. You will need to be careful with your composition even when using the fairly deep hood. My experience with a couple of Yongnuo lenses this year tells me that they need some work with their lens coatings to help improve this area of lens design.
What was generally good, however, were the colors. I got a lot of great looking images and was mostly happy with the color consistency so long as the lighting wasn’t too harsh.
I got plenty of images that I was very happy with, however.
When compared to other lenses in this price class, I would say that Yongnuo has found a nice balance between sharpness and rendering. I don’t have a lot to complain about here outside of some vulnerabilities to flare. $300. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.
Conclusion
I agreed to test the Yongnuo 50mm F1.8X DA DSM Pro based on what looked like a good blend of build, features, and performance, and that has largely proven to be the case. The YN 50mm Pro is very nicely made, handles fairly well, and delivers really great looking images.
As per usual on Fuji, it was the autofocus that probably most left me wanting (particularly on the video side of things), but at the same time I was able to get the photos that I wanted in just about every situation save fast action.
Since Fuji has opened up X-mount, there are now plenty of alternative lenses, both more and less expensive, though I don’t think any of them offers up a better value when examine the build, features, and performance of the YN 50mm Pro. It’s a very nice lens, and I think is a solid choice if you are looking for a short telephoto capable of delivering excellent results for under $300.
Keywords: Yongnuo, YN, 50mm, F1.8, F1.8, DA, DSM, Pro, Yongnuo 50mm F1.8X DA DSM Pro, Yongnuo 11mm F1.8, DSM, WL, F1.8S, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, Fuji, Fujifilm, X-H2, X-T5, X-T50, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 is not an unknown commidity to me. I reviewed in on Fuji X-mount earlier this year, which is, frankly, the most challenging platform that I review lenses on for two reasons: 1) Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor is extremely demanding due to having the highest resolution currently available on APS-C and 2) Fuji’s autofocus is well behind other companies, meaning that AF performance (particularly for video) of lenses often doesn’t look fantastic. The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 (which we’ll call the 56mm F1.7E for both brevity and to distinguish it from the X-mount version of the lens) will have an easier time all around on Sony. The 26MP resolution level currently available on Sony is much easier to resolve, and Sony’s autofocus system on their cameras is much, much better. I had the good fortunate to get this lens at the same time as having the Sony ZV-E10 II compact camera, and it was a great match for that compact body.
This new lightweight series began with the very useful AF 20mm F2.8 full frame lens (which I reviewed here), an extremely light, extremely inexpensive, but surprisingly strong optical instrument. That was followed (for full frame) with the 40mm F2.5 STM full frame lens, a lens that I’ve reviewed on Nikon Z and that will soon be released on Sony as well. That first APS-C lens in this particular series, however, is this Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 STM. This Viltrox lens will retail for under $180 USD (buy from Viltrox and use the code DUSTINABBOTT to get 8% more off!). That makes it an attractive option for those who want this focal length but have a tight budget. Is it worth checking out? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review, reading the text review, or just by enjoying the photos in the galleries below.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV in its 26MP APS-C modealong with the the Sony ZV-E10 II which I reviewed here.
Viltrox already has an existing autofocusing 56mm F1.4 APS-C lens (my review here) that they released in 2020, but that lens is heavier (290g) and more expensive ($299 USD) relative to this new lens. The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7E has a slightly slower aperture (one half stop), lacks an aperture ring, but compensates in part by being extremely sharp. In fact, if you look at this chart I’ve made comparing the MTF from the two lenses, you can see that I’ve put a line through the 80% level. None of the performance of the older lens (at least at 30LPmm) reaches that threshold, while there is only the tiniest part of the image of the 56mm F1.7 E-mount that fall below that.
There is 15% more image sharpness in the center of the frame and and more than 20% more in the midframe. The corners are more like 40% sharper! This is going to be a very sweet bargain portrait lens. 56mm on Sony’s 1.5x crop APS-C sensor translates to 84mm, a prime portrait focal length.
This tells us all we need to know about who this new lens is for: much like Samyang’s “Tiny series”, this lens is for those who don’t care about bells and whistles and just want a lightweight, high performing lens. And this lens is incredibly compact – look how compact it is when compared to the Fuji XF 56mm F1.2 WR and the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 (another impressive little lens!)
I’ll foness that I end up reaching for these little Viltrox lenses more often than expected. Very often the idea of a throwing a small, light, tough, and high performing little prime into my bag is very, very attractive. Enjoy the photos below!
Image of the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 E-mount
Images taken with the Viltrox AF 57mm F1.7 E-mount
Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox AF 56mm, Viltrox 56mm, AF, 56mm, F1.7, f/1.7, STM, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, Sony ZV-E10 II, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 is not an unknown commidity to me. I reviewed in on Fuji X-mount earlier this year, which is, frankly, the most challenging platform that I review lenses on for two reasons: 1) Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor is extremely demanding due to having the highest resolution currently available on APS-C and 2) Fuji’s autofocus is well behind other companies, meaning that AF performance (particularly for video) of lenses often doesn’t look fantastic. The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 (which we’ll call the 56mm F1.7E for both brevity and to distinguish it from the X-mount version of the lens) will have an easier time all around on Sony. The 26MP resolution level currently available on Sony is much easier to resolve, and Sony’s autofocus system on their cameras is much, much better. I had the good fortunate to get this lens at the same time as having the Sony ZV-E10 II compact camera, and it was a great match for that compact body.
This new lightweight series began with the very useful AF 20mm F2.8 full frame lens (which I reviewed here), an extremely light, extremely inexpensive, but surprisingly strong optical instrument. That was followed (for full frame) with the 40mm F2.5 STM full frame lens, a lens that I’ve reviewed on Nikon Z and that will soon be released on Sony as well. That first APS-C lens in this particular series, however, is this Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 STM. This Viltrox lens will retail for under $180 USD (buy from Viltrox and use the code DUSTINABBOTT to get 5% more off!). That makes it an attractive option for those who want this focal length but have a tight budget. Is it worth checking out? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review below…or just keep reading.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV in its 26MP APS-C modealong with the the Sony ZV-E10 II which I reviewed here.
Viltrox already has an existing autofocusing 56mm F1.4 APS-C lens (my review here) that they released in 2020, but that lens is heavier (290g) and more expensive ($299 USD) relative to this new lens. The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7E has a slightly slower aperture (one half stop), lacks an aperture ring, but compensates in part by being extremely sharp. In fact, if you look at this chart I’ve made comparing the MTF from the two lenses, you can see that I’ve put a line through the 80% level. None of the performance of the older lens (at least at 30LPmm) reaches that threshold, while there is only the tiniest part of the image of the new lens that fall below that.
There is 15% more image sharpness in the center of the frame and and more than 20% more in the midframe. The corners are more like 40% sharper! This is going to be a very sweet bargain portrait lens. 56mm on Sony’s 1.5x crop APS-C sensor translates to 84mm, a prime portrait focal length.
This tells us all we need to know about who this new lens is for: much like Samyang’s “Tiny series”, this lens is for those who don’t care about bells and whistles and just want a lightweight, high performing lens. And this lens is incredibly compact – look how compact it is when compared to the Fuji XF 56mm F1.2 WR and the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 (another impressive little lens!)
I’ll foness that I end up reaching for these little Viltrox lenses more often than expected. Very often the idea of a throwing a small, light, tough, and high performing little prime into my bag is very, very attractive. So let’s dive into the details together.
This review is a mix of elements from my previous review (on Fuji) though updated with all of the specific Sony details and many new photos taken on Sony.
Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7E Build and Handling
The first thing to note is the slightly unusual maximum aperture value. Similar lenses are going to be F1.8, not F1.7, but I like this move as it sets the lens apart and gives it a small but real advantage over F1.8 lenses. F1.8 is 2/3rds of a stop slower than F1.4, while F1.7 is 1/2 half stop slower. When swapping between this F1.7 lens and another lens with a maximum aperture of F1.8, I found that the Viltrox produced a 1/35th second shutter speed vs 1/30th second for the F1.8 lens. That’s not a lot of extra light gathering but it is something.
As noted, the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 eschews the heavier metal casing typically used for Viltrox lenses and embraces a more conventional, lightweight design in polycarbonates (engineered plastics). I wouldn’t call the build high grade here, but what I can say is that nothing about the plastics feel flimsy. It doesn’t have the feel of the early Samyang Tiny series lenses but instead feels tough and durable; its the kind of lens that feels like it could survive some falls (not that I intentionally dropped it!)
The new AF 56mm F1.7 is extremely compact, only 65mm in diameter (2.6″) and 54.7mm in length (2.15″). It weighs only 171g (6oz). You can see that this is an easy match even for a very compact camera like the ZV-E10 II.
Up front we have a 52mm filter thread, which is a small but relatively common filter size. The front of the lens fascia has a variety of information imprinted on it and has a classic profile. I’m a fan of having some lens information on the front fascia, as I feel it adds character to the lens. This lens presents a very nice face for an inexpensive lens.
There is a very slim lens hood included that bayonets into place but without as much precision and confidence as I would like. It doesn’t feel like it really “clicks” into place and locks particularly well. A lens pouch is also included. The pouch doesn’t add a lot of protection value, but, like the hood, at least it is included. There are many more expensive lenses that include neither a pouch or a hood.
This inexpensive series is set apart from most of Viltrox’s lenses in that there is no aperture ring in the design. There are no switches, either. The only feature on the lens barrel is a wide manual focus ring. The manual focus ring has a nice amount of damping and moves fairly smoothly. All manual focus aids (including automatic magnification of the focus area) will work with the Viltrox, though major focus changes will take a lot of rotations, so manual focus is better reserved for fine tuning.
The Viltrox AF 56mm has 9 blades in its aperture iris. The blades do a very reasonable job of maintaining a circular shape as the aperture is stopped down. When stopped down far enough, an 18 bladed sunstar will emerge, though it isn’t particularly well defined.
We have an important Viltrox standard in the form of a USB-C port on the metal lens mount that allows you to connect the lens to a computer and update the firmware directly. The firmware update process is very simple; just unzip the upgrade folder, drag the firmware update file to the folder that shows up when the lens is attached to the computer, and the update is done in seconds.
The Viltrox AF 56mm has a minimum focus distance of 55cm, which unfortunately isn’t particularly close and only produces a 0.11x magnification, which is a little lower than average for the class…on paper. In practice, however, the Sony version seems to manually focus down to 50cm and produce a higher magnification level than I saw on Fuji.
In fact, when I compared it in the real world to another 85mm (full frame) lens that I was testing at the time (I can’t yet reveal which), the Viltrox clearly has a much higher magnification even though that lens claims to have a 0.12x magnification.
While some Viltrox lenses have started to come with weather sealing, this inexpensive 56mm lens does not have it. It does have a HD Nano multilayer coating with water-resistant and antifouling coating on the front element.
Though short on bells and whistles, the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7E does excel in one key area: it is very compact and lightweight. And while there aren’t any special features, the lens feels sturdy and well made. As I noted in the intro, this is a lens designed for a specific market, and I feel like Viltrox has made the right choices in order to give us a functional lens that at the same time is extremely inexpensive.
Viltrox AF 57mm F1.7 STM Autofocus
In a thoroughly unsurprising turn of events, autofocus is much improved on Sony as compared to the Fuji X-mount version of the lens. The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 STM utilizes a lead-screw type stepping focus motor (STM) that makes fast and definitely quiet focus changes. Focus felt silent unless I put my ear up next to the barrel, where I could hear some very light whirring during major focus changes. Focus speed is much faster than on Fuji, with both indoor and outdoor focus changes coming near instantly. I was much more confident shooting action on the E-mount version than I ever was on X-mount.
I was able to track Nala successfully though an extended burst sequence. This isn’t fast movement, but the persistent movement of coming towards the camera seems to be quite challenging for certain lenses. In this sequence of 40 images I had consistently good focus right through to the final frame.
I was able to successfully nail focus on bees even when in flight.
I also had easier success tracking birds in flight, particularly gulls soaring around Wasaga Beach, Canada.
Bottom line is that the E-mount version is much more flexible in terms of the types of subjects that you can take on with lens. Where I didn’t feel like the X-mount was well suited for action, the E-mount version (and Sony’s superior AF system) makes action much more of a possibility.
Clearly autofocus for less challenging subjects is pretty effortless. Point and shoot.
I tested low light focus on the ZV-E10 II at its maximum of ISO 32,000, and while I wasn’t overly impressed by the amount noise in the JPEG image, I can attest that the autofocus was no problem.
Video focus pulls were 100% better on Sony, with smooth and positive focus transitions from one subject to another even in a challenging situation. Focus breathing is fairly low as well.
My hand test went great, as transitions from my hand to my eye and back were smooth and confident, and the speed of focus pulls was much better on Sony.
Real world focus transitions in video were solid. Focus was fairly solid and stable, and transitions from one subject to another weren’t jumpy or abrupt, though they weren’t particularly cinematic, either. Here’s a still from one of those transitions.
Bottom line is that autofocus performance was pretty fantastic for a lens that costs well under $200.
Viltrox AF 57mm F1.7 Image Quality
The Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 has an optical design of 11 elements in nine groups. What’s surprising in such an inexpensive lens is how many of these are exotic elements. There are four ED (extra-low dispersion) elements along with an additional 3 HR (high refractive index) elements, leaving just four of those elements being ordinary ones. We’ve previously noted how good the MTF chart for this bargain lens looks:
All of this adds up to a lens that is punching above its weight class optically, and thus has no issues handling the 26MP resolution limit currently available on Sony E-mount APS-C cameras. The 56mm F1.7E has no problem filling the frame with detail.
This shot was taken on the 26MP APS-C mode of the full frame a7RV, and you can see that even if we sample the lower corner that the image is full of detail.
The fact that E-mount lenses can also be used on full frame cameras allows to take a look at how much of the full frame sensor this lens covers. This is not a “stealth” full frame lens; you will see a lot of hard, mechanical vignette where the full frame sensor is not covered.
That being said, when I cropped out the hard, mechanical vignette, I did have about 36MP of resolution left over, so you can get a little extra flexibility there if you don’t mind doing a few additional steps.
We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette. The lens clears this hurdle largely unscathed, as there is minimal distortion, and (as is typically the case), there is less distortion on Sony than on Fuji (for some reason!)
I used a-2 to correct a tiny bit of pincushion distortion, though for portrait work you probably don’t want to correct that (a bit of pincushion distortion is flattering). Vignette required a +41 to correct (2 stops, or about one less than on Fuji), though it is fairly linear and largely “works” for portraits, creating a natural vignette that draws the eye to the subject. You can see in this comparison that the left side is profile corrected and the right is uncorrected. I personally favor the uncorrected result.
The 56mm F1.7 shows very low amounts of longitudinal chromatic aberrations. Fringing is well corrected, leaving very little fringing on either my test results:
…but more importantly on real world results. On this bright white blossom there is minimal fringing on the edge transitions or in the defocused areas.
Lateral Chromatic Aberrations usually show up along the edges of the frame as fringing on either side of high contrast areas (like bare branches framed at the edge of images), but that doesn’t seem to be an issue here. You can see a nice, neutral transition from black to white on the corners of my test chart.
I also didn’t spot any issues in real world results.
So how about resolution and contrast? All chart tests done on the APS-C mode on my a7RV (26MP) using a tripod and a two second timer. Here’s a look at my test chart:
And here are the crops (at 200% magnification) from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at F1.7:
We see here what the MTF chart suggested. Peak sharpness is actually slightly off center (more in our mid-frame image – the blue bill), while corner results are unusually good for this type of lens. This is a remarkably even performance in a way that I rarely see in lenses and almost never in budget lenses. To put that edge performance in perspective, here’s a look at the Sirui Sniper 56mm F1.2 stopped down to F1.8 on Fuji:
And the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7E has no problems in the real world, either. Here’s an F1.7 shot with a 100% crop that shows great detail.
I suspected that this lens would look great on 26MP after I tested it at the 40MP level on Fuji, and that proves very true. Real world images have a lot of punch and detail and feel like they have come off a much more expensive lens.
Stopping down to F2 showed slightly more contrast, with a bit more coming at F2.8.
I also found that centering was excellent, with equal results in all four corners…and those results are excellent.
Stopping on down to landscape apertures doesn’t increase detail much further, but that’s only because it is already excellent by F2.8. Landscape images look great, however.
As per usual, diffraction will start to show up by F11 and will become more pronounced even on this lower resolution point by the minimum aperture of F16:
Skin tones are warm but natural, creating nice looking portrait results. While the difference isn’t obvious, I did prefer shooting at F2 to F1.7 for portrait work as I felt there was more variation in the highlights and shadows on my subject’s faces due to that slight improvement in contrast.
If you’re looking for a budget portrait lens for APS-C E-mount, this is clearly a nice contender.
I also found that colors in general looked good.
Landscape colors looked great, too. That’s huge, as my chief objection to early Viltrox lenses is that I didn’t love the colors from their optical glass. They have grown so much as a lensmaker, and it is apparent even in these budget lenses.
Obviously the amount of sharpness this inexpensive lens is capable of is nothing short of impressive.
I was also fairly pleased with the quality of bokeh. On the negative front, you can see that there is some of the typical deformation of the circular shape of specular highlights near the edges of the frame (lemon shape):
I did find that there was more outlining than on high end lenses, but overall the quality of the bokeh was pretty decent.
I found that bokeh at portrait distances was generally favorable – soft and without any hard edges to grab the attention.
The subject isolation isn’t going to match an F1.2 or F1.4 lens, obviously, but the quality of the blur is nice.
At close focus distances, the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 produces lovely, blurred backgrounds, like in this shot of its attractive competitor – the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8:
Flare resistance was also fairly good for a short telephoto lens. I saw so mild ghosting artifacts when point right at the sun, but nothing significant. I also tried moving around to get some veiling at large apertures, and the final result is the worst result I could get…and it’s not bad!
This inexpensive lens houses some very impressive optics. There aren’t too many flaws here.
If you’re on a tight budget and want a portrait lens, look no further. The bang for the buck here is fantastic. This lens feels as compelling as many lenses that I’ve reviewed costing 2-3 times as much. You can see more beautiful images by visiting the image gallery here.
Conclusion
I’ve been surprised by how engaging I have found these budget Viltrox lenses. I love their new higher end lenses with the amazing optics and premium feature set, but there’s also a lot to be said for lightweight, inexpensive lenses that exceed your expectations for their performance. These lenses have tapped into the same fondness I feel for lenses like Samyang’s Tiny series in that there is always a bit more than meets the eye there.
The Viltrox 56mm F1.7E was a very nice match for a compact camera like the ZV-E10II, adding very little weight or bulk, but I also liked it as a lightweight telephoto to throw in the bag with a full frame camera to get that 85mm angle of view with a very small lens.
Because the lens is sharp from corner to corner wide open, it was also a great little lens to carry when the sun went down. You can shoot with impunity at F1.7, and still get sharp, high detailed images. And because I had a clear idea of what to expect in the build, I have no disappointments there. While there’s nothing fancy here, the lens feels tough and well made. The optics exceeded my expectations in just about every way, and on Sony the autofocus is now excellent. But this is a LOT of lens for the price of under $180 USD, and I think this is a great budget portrait option for Sony shooters who don’t want to spend a lot. It’s also one of the sharpest budget lenses I’ve ever tested. That’s impressive, and is just one more reason why Viltrox as a brand may be the biggest disrupter that the lens market has seen in a long time.
Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox AF 56mm, Viltrox 56mm, AF, 56mm, F1.7, f/1.7, STM, APS-C, Review, Sony a6700, Sony ZV-E10 II, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sirui launched their “Sniper” series of autofocus lenses in late 2023. I’ve done an overview of the series here. The Sniper Series was initially made up of 3 APS-C specific lenses – a 23mm F1.2, 33mm F1.2, and 56mm F1.2 lens, but they have now expanded the series to include both a wider angle option (Sniper 16mm F1.2) and a longer telephoto option (Sniper 75mm F1.2). It is these latter two that I am currently reviewing, and today’s review focuses on the telephoto option – the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 AF lens. These can be purchased individually for $349 USD each (though various discounts will provide a little fluctuation in pricing). These lenses will be available in Fuji X-mount (reviewed here), Sony E-mount, and Nikon Z mount configurations, though in all mounts they are designed to cover the APS-C and not the full frame image circle. Find out by watching my video review below…or just reading on.
Thanks to Sirui for sending me a set of review samples of the lenses. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.
I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount since that is what Sirui had available to send me. In many ways this is jumping right into the fire, as there is no platform more optically demanding than the 40MP sensor on my Fujifilm X-H2. This is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, a resolution point that is currently 30+MP higher than what is even available on full frame. That creates an extremely demanding optical test that will push this new series to the limits. Is this 75mm F1.2 Sniper lens up to the challenge? As with the other lenses, that answer really depends on your priorities and expectations as a photographer, though I will say that I think that the Sniper 75mm is the best of the bunch optically. It does face very stiff competition from the excellent Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2 (my review here), though the Viltrox is bigger, heavier, and more expensive.
For that size, however, you get more features (aperture ring, AF/MF switch), weather sealing, and it is definitely sharper. But this new Sniper 75mm is no slouch optically, and while it isn’t as transcendently sharp as the Viltrox at F1.2, it helps compensate by both a very useful amount of sharpness along with gorgeous bokeh.
This is definitely the “bokeh monster” of the Sniper series, capable of crushing backgrounds and delivering beautiful subject isolation.
75mm is the least traditional of the focal lengths in the Sniper series. Once you apply the 1.5x crop factor of the APS-C cameras that these lenses are designed for (whether Fuji, Sony, or Nikon), the 16, 23, 35, and 56mm become the full frame equivalents of 24, 35, 50, and 85mm – the most common prime focal lengths you could ask for. 75mm is a much less conventional 112.5mm full frame equivalent, and while that isn’t as flexible a focal length as some of these others, it a really great portrait focal length because you can shoot full length and still have the background blurred out. Viltrox’s Pro AF 75mm F1.2 has proven very popular for that reason.
All of these Sniper lenses have sported an F1.2 maximum aperture. That’s an obvious advantage for the F1.2 in two ways: 1) when shooting in low light conditions that large aperture can suck in more light 2) the depth of field will shallower at F1.2 than F1.4, allowing for larger, softer bokeh highlights and a more blurred out background. The fact that the Sirui Nightwalker 75mm T1.2 exists (my video review here) tells me that the light transmission for the lens is excellent, as the T-stop actually matches the F-stop (fairly rare, in my experience). This is a very bright lens, and that’s going to be useful in a lot of situations. It has no problem when the light gets dim.
The Sniper series has come in three different finish option: a black/grey finish with carbon fiber accents (the lenses I’m testing come in this finish), a white finish, and a silver finish. Each is available for the three different mounts that lens is sold for. These photos cover the three older lenses as I’m reviewing the 16mm and 75mm lenses before public release.
It is great to see Sirui forging their own design path, and I’ve been impressed across the three different lineups that I’ve tested (Sniper, Night Walker, and Saturn). So let’s take a closer look at this 75mm F1.2 lens from Sirui.
Sirui Sniper 75mm Build and Handling
The original Sniper lenses all shared a common outer shell and exterior dimensions though with a slight weight variation due to the larger optical elements in some. There’s a little more variation in the new 16mm and 75mm F1.2 designs, however, as would be expected with these slightly more extreme focal lengths. This Sniper 16mm is the lightest of the series (smallest glass elements), weighing in at 375g (13.2 oz) on my scale. The 16mm and 75mm Sniper lenses share a common length (94mm or 3.7″), but you can see that the 75mm is considerably wider than the 16mm.
I measure the 75mm at nearly 75mm (2.95″), with the 16mm being a slimmer 70mm (2.75″). The 75mm is the heaviest of the group at 466g (16.1 oz), which is unsurprising as it has easily the most glass inside. The 16mm, 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm Sniper lenses all share a common 58mm front filter thread, but the filter threads on the 75mm grow to 67mm to accommodate the wider diameter of the lens.
The weight will very slightly vary according to lens and mount. The X-mount that I’m testing is actually the lightest (by a few grams), due to the X-mount being the smallest of the three in diameter. Nikon’s Z-mount is the largest in diameter, with Sony E-mount in between.
So how does the 75 x 94mm and 466g of the Sniper 75mm F1.2 compares to the Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2? The Viltrox is 87 x 101 mm (3.4 x 4″) and weighs 670g (23.6oz). That makes the Sirui a whopping 200+ grams lighter, which is definitely significant. The Sniper 75mm is just 20g heavier than the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 WR (my review here) despite the significantly longer focal length of the Sirui. While the early Sniper lenses were heavier than some of their counterparts, this 75mm is sitting in a nice position when it comes to the size and weight of the lens.
The look of the Sniper lenses is unique. There’s not much here in terms of features, but the lenses do have an upscale look with a variety of textures and finishes. I’m reviewing the lenses labeled as being “black”, but black (at least in the typical lens sense) is not the vibe I get off these lenses. There are two metal sections (one near the lens mount and another in the middle of the lens) that has a traditional anodized satin black finish, but in between there is a section of genuine carbon fiber that looks very cool. Carbon fiber is a more upscale material and it definitely sets these lenses apart.
There are two badges in this section. One is a plate with the Sirui banding in raised metal lettering. The second is on the left side, and there is a another smaller badge that says AF and APS-C. Interestingly the word “Sniper” appears nowhere on the lens.
There are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring. That’s more noticeable here on Fuji, where aperture rings are fairly standard. Both of the F1.2 lenses that I’ve mentioned have both an aperture ring and weather sealing, so the Sirui is at a serious disadvantage in those areas, though, to be fair, it is between $200 and $600 cheaper than its main competitors.
The Sniper 75mm has a great profile to it on camera, with a nice, squat look that is a nice match to my larger X-H2 body.
The manual focus ring has a diamond pattern akin to Canon’s control rings rather than a typical ribbed finish. It’s one more area where the lenses maintain their own unique look.
The manual focus rings move smoothly and the weight is fairly light. Not so light that you can’t accurately focus, but a bit lighter than what I personally prefer. Sirui states that the focus throw is 360°, so plenty of room for precision.
After the focus ring is a blue accent ring that is nearly turquoise in color. Once again it is little different than other lens that I’ve tested, and it works. The final section at the front of the lens has a titanium colored anodized metal finish, so less than half of the lens surface is actually purely black. Each lens color has some unique ingredient: black = carbon fiber, silver = aluminum alloy, white = ceramic baked paint.
The included lens hoods is nothing special. It is made of plastic and doesn’t feel as premium at the rest of the lens. It doesn’t bayonet on quite as precisely as I would prefer, though it does lock into place tightly. I do appreciate the ribbed section in the hood which gives a little more grip.
It’s worth noting that both the front pinch cap along with the rear cap are quite low profile. The front cap is just a few millimeters thick, and the rear cap too feels slimmer than usual. These little details stood out to me as nothing about the lenses felt generic or “by-the-numbers”. Sirui is doing their own thing here, and I like the attention to detail.
At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts; aperture will be controlled from the camera. There is a USB-C port there that will allow for future firmware updates. That’s a really important move by Sirui, as they are new to autofocus design. The ability to update the focus algorithms in their lenses will help them to focus better in the future and also allows the lenses to be futureproof.
The aperture iris is made up of a higher-than-average 11 rounded blades. That’s a great choice in a lens with an F1.2 aperture, as it helps assure that the aperture iris stays circular as the lens is stopped down. It also looks really gorgeous in a lens like this that has so much glass to look through in the front.
The minimum focus distances for the Sniper 75mm is fairly high at 70cm. Sirui has not listed the maximum magnification, but it is definitely the highest in the group. I would estimate it in the 0.12x range.
It’s not particularly close, but the magnification can still be useful, and the huge maximum aperture allows for a deep blur of the background.
There are some pros and cons for the design and handling. On the positive side, the lenses look and feel great. There are some premium materials being used in the design and the attention to detail is excellent, and, in this case, the Sniper 75mm is smaller and lighter than the directly competing lens. On the negative side, there are no real features on the lenses outside of the USB-C port for firmware updates.
Autofocus Performance
The Sirui Sniper lenses are all equipped with STM (stepping) focus motors. There is a certain amount of autofocus performance that is camera and camera system specific, so I’ll try to distinguish between the lens performance and the system performance as much as possible. My experience is that third party lenses focus better on Sony and Nikon than they do on Fuji, and that’s largely because Fuji’s autofocus systems in their cameras are not quite as sophisticated as equivalent Sony or Nikon cameras.
That being said, autofocus speed is about average for a modern STM motor on Fuji. The thrust in this AF motor seems a little more impressive than some of the lenses in the series, so I found that AF speed was perhaps better than average for the Sniper lenses despite the focus motor having to push the larger glass elements in this lens. When doing my focus speed tests with the Sniper 75mm from close to distance, I found that focus wasn’t quite instantaneous, but neither was it slow. And in real world shooting I found that focus speed was fast enough that I never really thought about it. This isn’t going to be a lens for shooting sports, but none of these F1.2 lenses on Fuji are.
The actual focus motor makes only a light whirring, but there is more noise caused by the the sound of the aperture blades opening and closing. This happens even when the aperture is set at F1.2, as the aperture blades close partway in between focus on Fuji (for some reason). This happens with all lenses, but the aperture blades on the Sniper lenses are noisier than average, and that does draw your attention to them. It unfortunately makes autofocus feel less sophisticated than it actually is.
Focus accuracy was good. I was able to shoot through layers of the foreground and accurately focus on the lock above.
I could shoot from roughly 2 meters (six feet) away and focus easily locked on these growing plants.
Focus was also good with the lens stopped down, and it produced very nice looking landscape shots.
When I moved around with Eye AF engaged, focus tracked accurately and the green box stayed locked on the “eye” of my little test statue.
I was less satisfied when I had a moving target like Nala moving towards me. Even though eye AF grabbed her eye, it seemed like images tended to be backfocused.
So other than being a little noisy in focus, I actually had no issue with the lens for stills. Like other lenses in the series, autofocus isn’t fast enough to track action, but it does seem to be accurate for more still subjects.
The state of autofocus on Fuji for video remains pretty abysmal relative to other platforms. Add a third party lens from company that has been making autofocus lenses for less than a year, and you’ve got a recipe for a bit of frustration. Focus pulls were quite slow with very obvious steps. The focus pull felt it came in 3-4 stages rather than one smooth arc. Focus also did a bit of settling before a final lock.
My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) was particularly frustrating. The lens didn’t really want to focus on either my face or my hand at first (it acted as if I hadn’t come into the frame), and by the time it eventually decided to focus on me, focus transitions were so slow and non-reactive that I rarely got a decent cycle of focus from my hand to my eye or vice versa.
On a positive note, focus breathing is fairly well controlled.
If you rarely shoot video (or don’t really need autofocus during video recording), then the Sniper 75mm will work fine. It’s not a great choice for video work, however. The frustrating thing is that there doesn’t seem to be many alternatives on Fuji that are much better. I suspect this lens will function much better for video work on either Sony or Nikon from my experience on those platforms.
Sirui Sniper 75mm Image Quality
The Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 has an optical design of 13 elements in 9 groups. All of the Sniper lenses have had more of what I call a “classic” sharpness profile, in that they behave like some older large aperture lenses. They are somewhat dreamy (low contrast) wide open and then sharpen up to higher contrast and detail at smaller apertures. The 33mm and 56mm Sniper lenses took this to an extreme, and I wasn’t really a fan of them, but the 16mm and, in particular, this 75mm find a much nicer balance. While it is true that the extreme resolution of the 40MP Fuji APS-C sensor tends to make a lot of lenses look softer than they are in any other application, I feel like the Sniper 75mm is able to handle those demands reasonably well. It isn’t as bitingly sharp and high contrast at F1.2 as the Viltrox, but it does produce enough contrast and detail at F1.2 to be useful. Pair that with gorgeous bokeh and you’ve got a lens that I think will make a lot of people happy.
I like the 16mm and 75mm better than the early lenses in the series because they have more sharpness potential when stopped down…even on the very demanding sensor of my X-H2. When stopped down it delivers high detail images that look great.
Our optical deep dive starts with a look at vignette and distortion, an area where the Sniper lenses have held up quite well. The 75mm is no exception with no distortion there to correct.
Vignette is also well controlled for an F1.2 lens, requiring only a +45 (about 1 1/2 stops) to correct. This is an area of advantage over competing lenses.
The first telephoto in the series (56mm F1.2) was terrible for fringing, but the Sniper 75mm is much better. There is very little longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA_ here.
You can see the advantage of this in this shot of white raspberry blossoms in a high contrast setting. There is very little fringing in this F1.4 shot despite this being prime conditions to seem them.
Lateral chromatic aberrations near the edge of the frame are fairly well controlled. I see some very minor fringing in the transitions from black to white here, but nothing significant.
The Sniper 75mm is holding up MUCH better in these tests than the 56mm did.
So how about resolution? The 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor tends to make all but the very sharpest of lenses look a little soft under the microscope of my tests. I examine results at a 200% magnification, and that’s a lot to ask of any lens. Here’s a look at the test chart:
And here is a look at F1.2 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:
The crops reveal that contrast is fairly good even at F1.2 in the center of the frame, and the corners stand out to me as being quite good as well. That’s born out in real world results (particularly outside of close focus range), as the detail even in the corners at F1.2 looks good even on such a high resolution body.
Even at landscape distances, however, I think the sharpness results are quite good.
There is a minor uptick in contrast even at F1.4 along with slightly better detail. Here’s a look at the midframe at 200% magnification.
You’ll see even more improvement from F1.4 to F2:
By F4 to F8, you’ll find sharpness that reaches all across the frame, even to the corners.
Landscape shots in this range will show great detail and contrast all across the frame.
By F11 you will see some softening due to the effect of diffraction, with more rapid deterioration by F16.
The standout quality from the Sniper 75mm, however, is its bokeh, which is pretty fantastic. If you combine the minimum focus distance with F1.2, you’ll end up with a near complete dissolving of the background and gorgeous creaminess.
Add more complex backgrounds and the lens still thrives.
Move back a little further and even close down the the lens a bit, and I still like what I see.
Even this shot of a very complex scene and with the lens stopped down to F2 looks great:
Flare resistance is fairly good for a large aperture telephoto lens. It’s not free of flare artifacts, but the ghosting is minimal. There’s a bit more when stopped down, but not bad.
I was able to test for coma, and found that while there is some minor distorting of star points near the edge of the frame, this is actually a decent lens to use for capturing the stars. No fringing on star points, low amounts of vignette, and obviously the ability to suck in massive amounts of light with that very bright aperture.
All told, this is really a very nice lens optically. The Viltrox 75mm F1.2 is sharper, but the bokeh from the Sniper 75mm may be even nicer.
This is the first of the Sniper lenses that I feel completely positive about in terms of its optics. It is sharp enough to not embarrass itself even on the very high resolution of the Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor and has some of the nicest bokeh I’ve seen from any lens on Fuji. This is a very nice lens optically for the price tag of just $350 USD, and should make for a gorgeous portrait lens. You can check out the image gallery to see more photos and see if the rendering from the lens suits you.
Conclusion
The Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 AF lens is a welcome addition to the Sniper series. While the focal length is less conventional, the Sniper 75mm more than makes up for it through its beautiful rendering.
Autofocus isn’t great for action or big video pulls, but it worked fine for the majority of my photography subjects.
The optical performance, however, makes this lens a great “bang-for-the buck” value, capable of producing gorgeous images with good color, contrast, detail, and lovely bokeh.
So if you’re sweet spot for a telephoto falls somewhere between Fuji’s 56mm F1.2 and 90mm F2, the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 might just be the lens for you.
Keywords: Sirui, Sniper, Sirui Sniper, Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2, 75mm, 23mm, 33mm 56mm, 16mm, F1.2, STM, Carbon Fiber, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Sirui launched their “Sniper” series of autofocus lenses in late 2023. I’ve done an overview of the series here. The Sniper Series was initially made up of 3 APS-C specific lenses – a 23mm F1.2, 33mm F1.2, and 56mm F1.2 lens, but they have now expanded the series to include both a wider angle option (Sniper 16mm F1.2) and a longer telephoto option (Sniper 75mm F1.2). It is these latter two that I am currently reviewing, and today’s review focuses on the telephoto option – the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 AF lens. These can be purchased individually for $349 USD each (though various discounts will provide a little fluctuation in pricing). These lenses will be available in Fuji X-mount (reviewed here), Sony E-mount, and Nikon Z mount configurations, though in all mounts they are designed to cover the APS-C and not the full frame image circle. Find out by watching my video review below, reading my text review here, or just by enjoying the photos below.
Thanks to Sirui for sending me a set of review samples of the lenses. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.
I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount since that is what Sirui had available to send me. In many ways this is jumping right into the fire, as there is no platform more optically demanding than the 40MP sensor on my Fujifilm X-H2. This is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, a resolution point that is currently 30+MP higher than what is even available on full frame. That creates an extremely demanding optical test that will push this new series to the limits. Is this 75mm F1.2 Sniper lens up to the challenge? As with the other lenses, that answer really depends on your priorities and expectations as a photographer, though I will say that I think that the Sniper 75mm is the best of the bunch optically. It does face very stiff competition from the excellent Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2 (my review here), though the Viltrox is bigger, heavier, and more expensive.
For that size, however, you get more features (aperture ring, AF/MF switch), weather sealing, and it is definitely sharper. But this new Sniper 75mm is no slouch optically, and while it isn’t as transcendently sharp as the Viltrox at F1.2, it helps compensate by both a very useful amount of sharpness along with gorgeous bokeh.
This is definitely the “bokeh monster” of the Sniper series, capable of crushing backgrounds and delivering beautiful subject isolation.
75mm is the least traditional of the focal lengths in the Sniper series. Once you apply the 1.5x crop factor of the APS-C cameras that these lenses are designed for (whether Fuji, Sony, or Nikon), the 16, 23, 35, and 56mm become the full frame equivalents of 24, 35, 50, and 85mm – the most common prime focal lengths you could ask for. 75mm is a much less conventional 112.5mm full frame equivalent, and while that isn’t as flexible a focal length as some of these others, it a really great portrait focal length because you can shoot full length and still have the background blurred out. Viltrox’s Pro AF 75mm F1.2 has proven very popular for that reason.
All of these Sniper lenses have sported an F1.2 maximum aperture. That’s an obvious advantage for the F1.2 in two ways: 1) when shooting in low light conditions that large aperture can suck in more light 2) the depth of field will shallower at F1.2 than F1.4, allowing for larger, softer bokeh highlights and a more blurred out background. The fact that the Sirui Nightwalker 75mm T1.2 exists (my video review here) tells me that the light transmission for the lens is excellent, as the T-stop actually matches the F-stop (fairly rare, in my experience). This is a very bright lens, and that’s going to be useful in a lot of situations. It has no problem when the light gets dim.
The Sniper series has come in three different finish option: a black/grey finish with carbon fiber accents (the lenses I’m testing come in this finish), a white finish, and a silver finish. Each is available for the three different mounts that lens is sold for. These photos cover the three older lenses as I’m reviewing the 16mm and 75mm lenses before public release.
It is great to see Sirui forging their own design path, and I’ve been impressed across the three different lineups that I’ve tested (Sniper, Night Walker, and Saturn). So let’s take a closer look at this 75mm F1.2 lens from Sirui.
Keywords: Sirui, Sniper, Sirui Sniper, Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2, 75mm, 23mm, 33mm 56mm, 16mm, F1.2, STM, Carbon Fiber, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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