I’ve owned the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM for about four years, and I think it is one of the best 35mm lenses ever made. It’s small and compact, focuses quickly, has great optics, and even has great magnification. The Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 is the new heavyweight, however, with even more features, quad focus motors, incredible optics…and a price tag that comes at a full $400 less (even cheaper with code DA3512LAB5). Both lenses have unique advantages relative to the other…so which is today’s champion? Let’s dive in and find out.
I purchased the Sony GM lens from retail about three years ago and the LAB lens was provided to me for this review by Viltrox. 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 my Sony a7RV or Sony Alpha 1 cameras.
Professional grade build quality with thorough weather sealing
Mostly similar feature set (Aperture ring, AF | MF, Function)
About equal coma performance
Flare resistance
Neutral Differences
Different approach to aperture (I prefer traditional)
Reasons to Choose LAB:
Price (currently $999 ($949 with discount), so -$450
Faster maximum aperture
Better light transmission
Bigger, softer specular highlights
More customizable – LCD screen allows you to set A – B focus, App, extra function button)
LCD screen shows distance scale
Quad vs Dual focus motors
Bigger, softer bokeh
Sharper center, mid-frame, (corners by F1.4)
Consistently better contrast
Reasons to Choose GM
Much lighter at 525g (395g less than LAB [920g])
Much smaller (13mm diameter and -25mm in length)
Much higher magnification level
Can do smooth aperture racks
Manually focuses smoother
Faster burst rate and focus breathing compensation*
Less fringing (wide open)
Less complex distortion | slightly lower vignette
Sharper wide open corners
Conclusion
My findings were pretty remarkable. The Sony gets high mark for being such a high performing lens in such a compact package, while the Viltrox gets high marks for basically being better optically at F1.2 than the GM is at F1.4. What’s more, the Viltrox gets even higher marks for being probably the fastest focusing 35mm F1.2 lens the world has seen, giving us even faster AF than the GM at F1.4. Go with the GM if you want to keep things light or if you don’t trust third party lenses. Go with the LAB if you want to save $400+ or if you want that extra bit of “special sauce” that an F1.2 lens brings..
Keywords: Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE, Sony FE 35mm F1.4 GM, 35mm GM, Viltrox AF, LAB, Viltrox LAB, #LAB, #LAB35, #explorebeyond, Viltrox 35mm, Normal, Full Frame, F1.2, f/1.2, Hyper VCM, Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 FE, Viltrox LAB 35mm Review, Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 FE Review, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, 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.
We’ve known that Viltrox’s LAB series was coming for about two years, and I, for one, was very excited for the series. Viltrox has proved to be capable of doing very serious optical engineering, and, put simply, the LAB series was proposed as being Viltrox’s “G Master”, “L Series”, or “S-Line” equivalent lineup of premium lenses. Of those, the LAB lenses are probably most like Nikon’s S-Line lenses where the engineers have clearly been told not to worry about size, weight, or cost, and just deliver the best optics at that particular focal length possible. The LAB lenses may not be expensive (they are actually tremendous value!), but they are among the largest and heaviest lenses in their class, and are definitely optically superior. I was very impressed by the optics of the first LAB lens – the AF 135mm F1.8 LAB FE – that I reviewed here. It was optically amazing (besting great lenses like the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM and the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8), had great autofocus, and struck an amazing balance between sharpness and rendering. But I also knew that Viltrox had a trio of F1.2 LAB lenses on their roadmap, including 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm F1.2 options, and I was very excited about those as Sony has relatively few high end F1.2 options available. The Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is here, and it is another landmark lens. And, at a price tag of $999 USD, it is a pretty huge value (and if you use code DA3512LAB5 at checkout at Viltrox, you can get an additional 5% off!). Find out more in either the video review, the text review, or just check out the photos in the gallery.
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 and the Sony Alpha 1.You can find the listing for the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE here.
I love 35mm lenses. I love the focal length for general purpose shooting, and, more importantly for this particular application, for environmental portraiture. The advantage of a wider focal length is the ability to add context to a shot. To include the room, or the setting, or the environment along with the subject. But the downside is that the depth of field increases, and you often lose the ability of really isolating your subject from the background. A 35mm F1.2 lens restores that ability, however. At a distance of the 3 meters (close to ten feet), a 35mm F1.2 lens has a depth of field of about 50cm (20 inches). With an F2 aperture, that depth of field nearly doubles, at F2.8, it nearly triples. In other words, a fast maximum aperture is very necessary to create a shallow depth of field with a wider focal length. By contrast, an 85mm F2.8 lens has a depth of 21cm. You could stop down to F6.7 and still have the same depth of field at that distance as a 35mm lens at F1.2. For portraiture I might argue that a fast maximum aperture is more important on a wide angle lens than it is on a telephoto. Bottom line is that you couldn’t get shots like this on a slower 35mm lens:
And, despite being at F1.2, you can see from the deep crop that the image is sharp and crisp on the subject (despite the intense backlighting), and there is a nice separation of the subject from the background.
Nice, indeed. There are going to be a lot of people interested in this 35mm LAB on both Sony and eventually Nikon when it arrives there. Check out the photos from this lovely lens below.
Keywords: Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE, Viltrox AF, LAB, Viltrox LAB, #LAB, #LAB35, #explorebeyond, Viltrox 35mm, Normal, Full Frame, F1.2, f/1.2, Hyper VCM, Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 FE, Viltrox LAB 35mm Review, Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 FE Review, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, 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.
We’ve known that Viltrox’s LAB series was coming for about two years, and I, for one, was very excited for the series. Viltrox has proved to be capable of doing very serious optical engineering, and, put simply, the LAB series was proposed as being Viltrox’s “G Master”, “L Series”, or “S-Line” equivalent lineup of premium lenses. Of those, the LAB lenses are probably most like Nikon’s S-Line lenses where the engineers have clearly been told not to worry about size, weight, or cost, and just deliver the best optics at that particular focal length possible. The LAB lenses may not be expensive (they are actually tremendous value!), but they are among the largest and heaviest lenses in their class, and are definitely optically superior. I was very impressed by the optics of the first LAB lens – the AF 135mm F1.8 LAB FE – that I reviewed here. It was optically amazing (besting great lenses like the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM and the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8), had great autofocus, and struck an amazing balance between sharpness and rendering. But I also knew that Viltrox had a trio of F1.2 LAB lenses on their roadmap, including 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm F1.2 options, and I was very excited about those as Sony has relatively few high end F1.2 options available. The Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is here, and it is another landmark lens. And, at a price tag of $999 USD, it is a pretty huge value (and if you use code DA3512LAB5 at checkout at Viltrox, you can get an additional 5% off!). Find out more in either the video review below or by reading on in the text review.
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 and the Sony Alpha 1.You can find the listing for the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE here.
Sigma was actually the first to bring an F1.2 autofocusing lens to the Sony FE platform back in 2019. I reviewed that lens here. It was optically impressive (extremely sharp!), but was also very large and quite expensive. It weighed a whopping 1090g (2.4lbs) and cost about $1500 USD. A lot of its thunder was stolen when Sony released their FE 35mm F1.4 GM lens (my review here) in 2021. It was (and is) an amazing lens, and while it isn’t quite as bright (F1.4 vs F1.2), it is amazingly compact, weighing only 525g. It was the 35mm lens that I added to my own kit, and I’ve not regretted that decision. The 35mm LAB is more like the Sigma than the GM in size, however, though fortunately they have managed to trim the size a bit. The 35mm LAB weighs 920g (-170g vs the Sigma) and is about 15mm shorter. Still a big lens, but it will have a couple of sales advantages vs the Sigma. One is the fact that it is smaller and lighter, but also the Sigma actually ended up being MORE expensive than the premium Sony lens (since Sony doesn’t have a 35mm F1.2 GM lens), whereas the LAB lens will be significantly cheaper. And, unlike Nikon’s new 35mm F1.2 S Line lens, the LAB 35 is actually significantly smaller than the LAB 135mm!
I love 35mm lenses. I love the focal length for general purpose shooting, and, more importantly for this particular application, for environmental portraiture. The advantage of a wider focal length is the ability to add context to a shot. To include the room, or the setting, or the environment along with the subject. But the downside is that the depth of field increases, and you often lose the ability of really isolating your subject from the background. A 35mm F1.2 lens restores that ability, however. At a distance of the 3 meters (close to ten feet), a 35mm F1.2 lens has a depth of field of about 50cm (20 inches). With an F2 aperture, that depth of field nearly doubles, at F2.8, it nearly triples. In other words, a fast maximum aperture is very necessary to create a shallow depth of field with a wider focal length. By contrast, an 85mm F2.8 lens has a depth of 21cm. You could stop down to F6.7 and still have the same depth of field at that distance as a 35mm lens at F1.2. For portraiture I might argue that a fast maximum aperture is more important on a wide angle lens than it is on a telephoto. Bottom line is that you couldn’t get shots like this on a slower 35mm lens:
And, despite being at F1.2, you can see from the deep crop that the image is sharp and crisp on the subject (despite the intense backlighting), and there is a nice separation of the subject from the background.
Nice, indeed. There are going to be a lot of people interested in this 35mm LAB on both Sony and eventually Nikon when it arrives there. Let’s dive a little deeper into the build…
Viltrox LAB 35mm Build and Handling
As noted, this time Viltrox has the advantage that the 35mm LAB isn’t the largest and heaviest lens in the class…but that doesn’t mean it is small or light. It is 89.2mm (3.5″) in diameter and 121.8mm (4.79″) in length. It has a common 77mm front filter thread up front and weighs in at 920g (32.45 oz). It has a great aspect when viewed from the front.
The compact size of the 35mm F1.4 GM while still being high performing is going to continue to be one of the most compelling arguments for the Sony lens (particularly for those who feel that F1.4 is bright enough for them). It is only 96mm in length (-25mm) and weighs just 524g (-396g!) However, a more apples to apples comparison might be the new NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.2 S, which is 150mm in length (+29mm – wow!) and weighs 1060g (+140g). It also costs $2800! So there is at least one lens that will make the 35mm LAB feel at least a bit svelte…though it isn’t the compact little Sony below.
Viltrox has demonstrated that they are capable of producing small, lightweight lenses with good optics, but that’s not the point of the LAB series. I feel like they are probably most similar to those Nikon S-Line F1.2 lenses, which eschew trying to keep the lenses small and light (and optically compromising to achieve that) and instead focus on just making as good of optical instruments as they can. The downside of this philosophy is that it results in some beefy lenses.
Viltrox has persisted in a few of their LAB design cues from the LAB 135mm, and I don’t love all of them. The most notable of those is the approach to aperture control.
Some of Viltrox’s other lenses have (and will have) a more traditional approach to aperture similar to either Sony’s GM series or Sigma’s better DN prime lenses. This is a marked aperture ring that can either be clicked or declicked. For some reason Viltrox left that tried and true approach for a new approach more dependent on the LCD screen. The first ring on the lens is for aperture, but it is an unmarked ring that relies on the LCD screen to show you the selected aperture.
That being said, I’ve recently spent time with the Nikon Z-mount version of the LAB 135mm, and then also Nikon’s own 135mm 1.8 S Plena. I realized that my perceptions of Viltrox’s design strategies with the LAB series were being influenced by first reviewing these lenses on FE. Some of the design philosophy around the “aperture ring” makes more sense on Z-mount, as the standard there is that the customizable control ring can be used for aperture but can also be used to control other things, like exposure compensation, ISO, etc… On Sony we don’t have the options to change the function of the control ring, so it has to function like an aperture ring, so on Sony (at least), I would prefer a more traditional aperture ring.
You still have the option to have the ring either clicked or declicked, but in the clicked mode it has clicks at every 1/9th aperture stop rather than the typical one third aperture stops. I assume the logic is to provide more precision, but frankly it is wasted when A) Sony cameras only register one third stops and B) the LCD screen shows only one third stops between the full stops like F2 and F2.8. In real life it just feels like too many clicks, and I don’t enjoy it. It also makes the amount of rotation needed to go from F1.2 to F16 just too long. A more traditional aperture control setup would have been preferable all around. You can still rotate all the way to the left and move into automatic mode, and I suspect some people will probably prefer to just control aperture from within the camera. You do have the option to turn the clicks off as well via a switch on the left side of the barrel.
In theory, when you turn the clicks off you can smoothly move through the whole aperture range without defined stops. This (in theory) allows for smooth video aperture racking and has become an expected pro-grade feature on modern lenses. I find two problems with this on the 35mm LAB. The first is that the weight is still a little heavy on the aperture ring even when it is declicked (clicks are very definite in clicked mode). This makes moving smoothly (and slowly) when racking through the aperture (to allow the exposure to change in a non-obvious way) challenging. The second issue is that even when declicked, the aperture does not move in a completely linear fashion. I can still see a bit of visible steps when racking. The best lenses do a pretty good job of simulating a true manual aperture ring, but the 35mm LAB falls a bit short of that lofty goal. It’s far from the worse that I’ve seen, but also far from the best.
The iris itself has 11 aperture blades, and these make for a reasonably well rounded aperture iris when stopped down. It’s not until fairly small (F4-5.6) that I start to see the shape of the blades.
Now to that LCD screen. The LCD functions in many ways like those found on the Zeiss Batis lenses, though with some improvements. The screen itself is nice and bright, allowing for good visibility even in bright conditions. It solves the problem of a distance scale (something missing on most mirrorless lenses), as it gives you a large font telling you the precise focus distance along with a distance scale above that. The bottom part of the screen gives you a readout of the current aperture. It also gives you some information related to the function buttons however, with the Fn icon lighting up when the first Function Button is depressed, and then the A or B function lights up when you are presetting focus distances.
I’ve even noticed that this time they are showing you a depth of field scale if you are in manual focus mode that increases as you change the aperture by extending a yellow bar along the distance scale.
There’s actually a lot of useful information on the LCD screen once you get familiar with how it is all being displayed, though I’m sure a lot of people will still find it somewhat of a gimmick.
On the left side of the screen you will find an AF | MF switch along with two FN (function) buttons. The top one functions like the typical function button, performing whatever function you have that button programmed to in camera. The second button works by default as the main control for A-B focus. When in manual focus mode you can preset the focus position(s) by long pressing the FN 2 button, and then access the focus changes by short pressing it. You also have the ability to change the function of both function buttons through the Viltrox app.
Viltrox continues with a trend that other lens makers are now imitating by including a USB-C port in the lens mount that allows you to do firmware updates right to the lens. I’m a fan of this approach, as it eliminates the need for a separate dock or lens station for firmware updates, and I find the process a little more intuitive than doing firmware updates through the camera. This allows Viltrox to future proof their lenses and continue to improve them through firmware. You also have the option to connect to the Viltrox app for IOS or Android via Bluetooth where you can also update firmware wirelessly…or even make a direct correction via USB-C from your phone to the lens. In the app you can go beyond firmware updates to tweaking the behavior of the custom buttons.
You can even customize the splash screen on the LCD at power-up to show your name or logo.
The one thing I wish was there but isn’t (at least yet) is some control over the function of the manual focus ring. I’d like to be able to choose between linear/non-linear focus and the amount of focus throw rotation similar to what Tamron allows on some of their lenses. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Viltrox get there; they are pretty ambitious.
The manual focus ring is slightly raised and has a rubberized, ribbed texture. It moves smoothly and with nice damping. It isn’t linear, so the amount of focus covered will depend on the speed in which you rotate the ring. I found the focus throw to be a little long when trying to do smooth pull for video…at least at close distances. It needed more rotation than I could do with a single wrist rotation. Using the A/B focus is a much more precise way to set up repeatable focus pulls.
We also have weather sealing on this lens that starts with a unique maroon-colored gasket at the lens mount along with other seal points through the lens (a total of 12 of them, by my count).
This is an internally focusing lens, so there is nothing that moves where dust might intrude. There’s also an HD-Nano multilayer coating on the front element to help with water and fingerprint resistance, making the front element easier to clean. This is a professional grade lens with professional sealing. As always, however, “moisture-proof” does not mean “water-proof”, so don’t go crazy!
There is no lens based stabilization, so you will need to rely upon the in-camera stabilization if your camera is so equipped. Handholding a 35mm F1.2 lens is rarely difficult.
Like the 135mm LAB (and the upcoming 85mm F1.4 Pro), the 35mm LAB employs floating elements. You might notice that when the lens is powered off, there will be some movement/clunking if you rotate the lens up and down. This can be very disturbing if you are not familiar with modern lens design. Many high end modern lenses employ floating elements that allow for better up close performance. The lens groups are not fixed, but float in a certain area, so when they are not energized they will move around a bit. This is by design, however, and when the camera is powered on, those elements will be energized and become fixed. You can rotate the lens up and down without anything moving around. This allows for superior up close performance. You can focus as closely as 34cm, giving a maximum magnification figure of 0.17x.
That’s a useful but not exceptional figure. The Sony GM can focus closer (25cm) and gives a 0.26x magnification level. The Nikkor 35mm F1.2 S can focus as closely as 30cm and gives a 0.20x magnification. But what the LAB does extremely well is give you amazing up close performance even at F1.2. Look at how exceptional that detail is in the crop.
The lens also comes with a nicer-than-usual leather pouch (similar to Canon L-series lenses). There is some cushion on the bottom, but I don’t find these pouches nearly as useful as a good padded nylon case like what Sigma provides.
The LAB 35mm includes a lens hood that isn’t quite as premium feeling as the one on the 135mm, but it still feels like good quality. The plastics are thick and it has internal ribs. It doesn’t have a lock, but it does bayonet into place firmly and with a definite “click”.
The lens is constructed with a aviation-grade magnesium-aluminum alloy, making it extremely tough. The finish of the lens feels every bit of premium as the more expensive Sony GM lens, and the LAB badges manages to fall in the same spot and be the same color as the “G” badge on the Sony lens…though I’m sure that’s a coincidence (wink, wink).
As with the 135mm LAB, the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB E is a premium lens with a robust set of features. I don’t necessarily agree with all the design decisions, but it is a very, very nice lens. It’s also pretty big and heavy, so that will be a serious factor for some.
Autofocus and Video
Like the LAB 135mm, the LAB 35mm utilizes four(!!!) of Viltrox’s new “Hyper VCM” (Voice Coil Motor) motors working in tandem to drive autofocus. Viltrox states, “Its double floating magnetic suspension system ensures precision focusing, whether you’re tracking a fast-moving subject or shooting videos.” Focus is extremely quiet and fast. I had no problem keeping up with fast squash action on the court…even at F1.2.
Grabbing quick, reactive shots at F1.2 was very easy to execute.
Focus on thin objects with shallow depth of field was effortless, and the lens yielded excellent precision.
Focus sound is near silent, with a very light whirring sound as focus moves back and forth that I can only hear if I put my ear right next to the lens barrel.
I was very impressed when testing for focus speed. It is essentially instant when moving from a foreground to a background subject. I tested with the Sony GM back to back, and actually felt like the Viltrox had a split second advantage. Both are extremely fast, so it feels a bit like splitting hairs, but that helps put the Viltrox’s performance in context.
As mentioned in the intro, I was able to get accurate focus on the eye even when shooting portraits with strong backlighting.
I had no problems nailing focus at F1.2 during a teaching session at a church.
You can also see great precision in this shot of a horse. The lashes were covering the iris, but the precision and detail (at F1.2) is great.
I had no problem snapping focus to a bird on the wing.
If we look at a crop where I’ve raised exposure, you can see that the shot is perfectly focused.
And, of course, here is the obligatory shot of Nala.
This is definitely in the upper tier of autofocus performance for third party lenses. It’s amazing how far Viltrox has come in just a few short years.
I will add one caveat, however. While the Viltrox is fast enough to keep up with a quick moving action, burst speed is limited by Sony to 15FPS. If you are using one of their sports bodies, like my Alpha 1, that means that you can only achieve half the maximum burst rate that you can with a native Sony lens. That difference will be even more pronounced on a camera like the a9III. One of the nice things about the LAB lenses on Nikon is that no such limitation exists.
Video AF
The focus excellence carries over the video side of things. Video focus pulls are smooth, quick, and confident. The advantage of not having a STM (stepping motor) is that there are no visible steps, allowing focus to move consistently and smoothly from one subject to another without any visible pauses. There is some focus breathing, but it is fairly well controlled, with only a slight change of subject size depending on focus (I’ve put some lines here so that you can see the amount of size change).
The Sony 35mm F1.4 GM has a bit of a reputation for breathing quite badly, and you can definitely see that the GM has more obvious breathing…however…Sony has a focus breathing compensation correction on their cameras that utilizes a crop to mathematically eliminate focus breathing. It only works for first party Sony lenses, however, and it’s a pretty significant crop for the 35GM because there is so much breathing.
So, the Viltrox has less breathing, but that breathing will not be corrected in Sony cameras, either.
My “hand test” where I alternately block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then remove it went exceptionally well. Focus confidently moved from my hand to my eye and back without any pulsing or lack of confidence. The focus breathing means that you will see the pull from my hand to my face, however.
Focus stayed stable in static shots at various apertures and didn’t pulse or move around.
I would say that autofocus for both stills and video is generally excellent. Viltrox’s new Hyper VCM focus motors are pretty great.
Image Quality Breakdown
The 35mm LAB continues in the tradition of being, well, exceptional. The optical design is 15 elements in 10 groups, with five of those being ED (low dispersion) elements, three of them being HD (high refractive index) lenses, and two being extreme aspherical lens (so two-thirds of the elements here are exotics). The MTF at F1.2 looks very good, with an absolutely stunning center and midframe performance and then a fade into the corners. At F8 the MTF is pretty much a straight line across the top, i.e. perfect.
Not everyone understands MTF charts, so I won’t do a deep dive into them here, but what I do find helps people visually is if I line up the MTF charts from alternatives, put a line through 80% (anything above that is looking great), and allow people to see what falls above and below that threshold for each lens. In this case, I’ve grabbed the premium Sony FE 35mm F1.4 and the new and exceptionally expensive Nikkor Z 35mm F1.2 S. The results are illuminating.
By this metric, the LAB lens will have the sharpest center and midframe with only the GM having sharper corners. I haven’t yet tested the Nikkor, but, on paper, the LAB will be the sharper lens essentially across the frame.
And yes, in the real world, this is a lens perfectly capable of producing stunning results even at F1.2:
Look the precision in the fine details after an ice storm. The contrast is pretty much perfect…even at F1.2.
More on this in a moment. Let’s look at the technical side of things.
I was expecting a lens well corrected for LoCA (longitudinal chromatic aberrations), and that is the case here. I see mostly neutral results on either side of the plane of focus without any fringing.
I don’t really see any fringing in this shot of water droplets…one that I’ve often found plays havoc on lenses with lesser control.
I did find a bit of fringing at F1.2 when shooting a camera/lens combo, which is my favorite subject for finding fringing (and I like taking pictures of cameras!) The amount of LoCA here is mild, but visible.
We’ve also got near-perfect corrections for LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations) that typically show up along the edges of the frame with high contrast transition points. I see only the tiniest amount of fringing here.
I see no evidence of fringing in the transition areas near the edges of real world images, either.
I have seen some VERY unfortunate results in the past year when it comes to fast 35mm lenses and their quantity of vignette and distortion (hello Canon 35mm F1.4L VCM!). There’s much less of that here, though not the perfect levels we saw with the 135mm LAB.
There is a very minor amount of distortion, though unfortunately what’s there is complex. It is neither a true barrel or pincushion distortion, but a non-linear mix of the two. You can see that the corners have a pincushion look while the center is pretty neutral. Trying to correct the pincushion distortion creates barrel distortion elsewhere. I found that dialing in a minimal -2 was the best compromise I could achieve. When the actual correction profile arrives it will certainly do a better job. At the moment there is no correction for JPEGs, either, which will almost certainly change down the road. Fortunately the quantity of distortion is low enough that I couldn’t see it in real world shots.
This horizon looks pretty straight even without any corrections.
However, in this shot, with the horizon right up near the top of the frame, you can see a bit of that “mustache” pattern.
You would probably want to correct that…which will be much easier once this lens has gone to retail and we get RAW correction profiles for Adobe and other editing software. I did find that doing a miniscule -1 in Lightroom’s distortion slider did help enough that I wouldn’t probably notice after correction.
Vignette is moderately heavy at F1.2, requiring a +70 (between 2 and 3 stops). A lot of that clears naturally by F2.8, as you can see here.
At wide apertures, this is often a visible amount of vignette but not necessarily a negative amount. In this portrait shot (uncorrected) you can see that there really isn’t any destructive about the vignette even at F1.2.
There are going to be situations where a bit of vignette is flattering or productive. Bottom line is that while the 35mm LAB has a bit of distortion and a moderate amount of vignette, neither is extreme.
We’ll move on to inspecting our test chart. This test has been done on a 61MP Sony a7RV sensor. I use a high end tripod and two second camera delay to ensure vibration doesn’t affect images. *I ran into an issue that I sometimes encounter with third party lenses in that metering for my test chart didn’t work properly at smaller aperture if the aperture was declicked. I would get overexposed results at F11 and F16. This isn’t the case when testing with the aperture clicked. Firmware should be able to fix this issue.
Here’s a look at the test chart that we will examine at high magnification:
If we take a look at crops (at 200%) at F1.2 from the center, mid-frame, and lower right corner, we find that center and mid-frame performance is exceptionally good, and the corners are good but a bit softer.
So let’s put that in perspective. The premium lens in the class is the Sony 35mm F1.4 GM, which I have owned for years and consider to be exceptionally good. The LAB 35mm is sharper everywhere save in the corners, where the GM has a bit of the edge (as the MTF chart suggested).
But that was with both lenses wide open. If I stop the LAB down to F1.4 and sample the upper left corner, I would give the win to the LAB with both lenses at F1.4.
So this is definitely a very sharp lens at F1.2. I didn’t hesitate to shoot with it wide open at all.
Even landscape images at F1.2 look great:
By F2 the sharpness has increased to the level where my a7RV is struggling with moiré (false color). That only tends to happen when lenses are very, very sharp.
Even the corners are now extremely sharp.
Landscape images shot anywhere between F2 and F8 will look fantastic. Here’s one shot from a car window at F2.8:
This shot of a pier at F2.8 looks great everywhere that is in focus.
If I check back in with a comparison at F2.8 with the GM, I find that while both lenses are ridiculously sharp, the LAB is just a bit sharper everywhere. Take a look at the smaller text in this comparison.
Also interesting is the fact that the LAB consistently required less exposure (faster shutter speed) even when I shot both lenses with the same settings in a controlled environment. Clearly the LAB lens has a bit better light transmission (perhaps not surprising considering its more robust size).
Landscape images in the middle apertures show plenty of punch and detail. Colors are rich, contrast is strong, and detail is great even on a 61MP camera.
As is typical on a high resolution body, diffraction will start to soften the image by F11 and more obviously by F16, which is minimum aperture (though this lens is still sharper than many lenses at its weakest!)
Clearly this is a very sharp lens. But we aren’t just looking for sharpness; can this lens also deliver soft bokeh? It is a rare lens at any focal length that is good at both. 35mm lenses aren’t necessarily the biggest “bokeh makers”, but I’ve seen a few that could deliver lovely bokeh.
Here’s a look comparing the LAB and GM. We would expect the specular highlights to be larger on the LAB due to the faster maximum aperture, and that is the case. Both lenses experience some “cat-eye” geometric deformation near the corner of the frame, though the LAB experiences less of it.
What’s interesting here is that I actually think that the rendering from the LAB is nicer. By that I mean the mix of color, defocus, and general look to the image.
What many people don’t know is that due to some quirk of physics the specular highlights of a brighter lens remain a bit larger and softer than a lens with a dimmer maximum aperture even when you equalize the settings. If I stop the 35mm LAB to F1.4, for example, it still has bigger, softer “bokeh balls” than the GM at F1.4:
We see a little busyness in those specular highlights, but nothing too bad.
This next shot has a lot going on in the frame. It’s a gift shop that is full of various items and knick-knacks. There are also a number of bright lights and small objects that make for a complex bokeh rendering in both the foreground and background.
What we see is excellent subject isolation and fairly smooth rendering on all of those various textures…even the ones likely to induce “nervousness” in the rendering.
A gentler scene produces a more creamy background.
Obviously at closer distances and F1.2 the background will be strongly defocused and will look nicely creamy.
I think that most people are going to be very happy with the rendering from the 35mm LAB, and will love that extra bit of subject isolation that you can get from an F1.2 lens. I’m not sure it’s bokeh is as nice as my favorite 35mm bokeh maker (the Zeiss Milvus 35mm F1.4), but it is pretty close.
I also felt like colors are very nice and rich from the 35mm LAB. It’s a little ugly at home right now as we (very slowly) transition from winter to spring (mostly still winter!). That wasn’t a problem in Myrtle Beach in March, however, particularly when I was up early to catch the predawn light.
I felt like my real world images had very rich color to them.
Flare resistance was also very strong, which is hard to do in a lens with such a huge maximum aperture. I’ve tested a lot of cheap F1.2 and F1.4 lenses that have massive flare issues, but I saw (at most) the tiniest amount of ghosting in all of my testing period.
Contrast remained strong even in strongly backlit situations. This adds a lot of additional versatility for portrait photographers, as they can shoot backlit subjects without fear of their images falling apart.
I did manage to test coma. A 35mm lens with an extremely bright F1.2 aperture is going to be a potential favorite for those wanting to shoot the night sky. How did it do?
As you might expect by this point, this is a lens that is pretty much good at everything. Astro is no problem, even at F1.2, with no issues with fringing around bright points of light, crisp star points in the center frame crop, and very little coma near the edges of the frame in the second crop.
I’ll be honest; I actually didn’t expect this lens to rival the 35mm F1.4 GM, which is perhaps my favorite 35mm lens to date. Now, to be fair, the GM is working within much tighter size constraints, but the fact that the Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE is so good and so comparatively inexpensive ($500 less!) makes for a pretty compelling option. If you’d like to see more images in my extensive image gallery, just click here.
Conclusion
I was excited by the idea of the Viltrox LAB series lenses from the moment that they were announced, but the reality of them has been, if anything, even better. These LAB lenses have been so good that I’ve scaled up my expectations (and critiques) of them to the level that I would hold lenses that cost 2-3x as much to. That’s mostly because Viltrox has proven that they are pretty much capable of anything.
While Kazuto Yamaki (CEO of Sigma) did announce a MK II version of Sigma’s own 35mm F1.2 for Sony FE, at the moment of this review the Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 is the only autofocusing 35mm F1.2 lens on FE since Sigma had previously discontinued the existing 35mm F1.2 DN. I’m not sure what level of sales success that the first generation Sigma had on Sony FE, but that fact that the Viltrox is the superior lens in both optics and autofocus, is smaller and lighter, and costs nearly half as much will probably give it a sales advantage. Add to that that this lens will also eventually come to Nikon Z, and I suspect that the 35mm LAB will do just fine.
The Sony 35mm F1.4 GM is a still a lovely choice if you want both high performing and compact, but the LAB 35mm is the new champ if you want that next level F1.2 goodness. It can produce brilliant images at all apertures, nail autofocus in those critical moments, and won’t break the bank. It may break your back, however, though no more so than a lot of the Sigma ART series primes from back in the day. And if you want a lot of this magic in a slightly smaller, lighter, and cheaper package…their 35mm F1.4 Pro lens is coming somewhere in the near future. I’ve already been testing the 85mm F1.4 Pro, and it is pretty sweet. It’s a good day for Viltrox…which means that a lot of other lens makers may be having a bit of a bad day.
Pros:
Not as massive and heavy as the 135mm (or the 35mm F1.2 S-Line)
Beautiful built lens
Feature rich
Very good weather sealing
USB port for firmware updates along with Bluetooth for wireless access
Quad HyperVCM motors means focus is near instant
Focus pulls are nicely damped
Exceptionally sharp lens that matches or bests the very best in the center and mid-frame
Keywords: Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE, Viltrox AF, LAB, Viltrox LAB, #LAB, #LAB35, #explorebeyond, Viltrox 35mm, Normal, Full Frame, F1.2, f/1.2, Hyper VCM, Viltrox LAB 35mm F1.2 FE, Viltrox LAB 35mm Review, Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 FE Review, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, 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.
Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses is called the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.5 full frame lenses along with a truly excellent series of APS-C lenses, including the 25mm F1.7, 35mm F1.7, and 56mm F1.7. The AIR lenses have all been pretty uniformly excellent, combining great optics with small, lightweight (howbeit very simple) designs and equally low price tags (all under $200). Viltrox is back with yet another AIR series lens, and this is another full frame option. While the 20mm may still stand as the most useful lens for travel, the new Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR is easily the best performer yet in the series, and is very possibly the sharpest “nifty-fifty” style lens that has even been made. It seems to best even the impressive Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN from their iSeries, a lens I thought was very impressive. There’s no question the Sigma lens has a much higher degree of build quality and functionality, but at a price tag more than 3x higher than the sub-$200 AIR 50mm, I suspect that Viltrox will have another best seller on their hands. It is the new lightweight 50mm to grab (just 205g)? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review, reading the text review, or just enjoying the photos in the galleries.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review loaner 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 and the Sony Alpha 1.You can find the product listing page for the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR here.
I probably don’t need to say much about the 50mm focal length at this point. I have probably reviewed more 50mm lenses than any other. It would be easy to ask the question, “Do we even need another 50mm lens?” The short answer might be “no”, but I suspect there will always be room for a lens like the AIR 50mm, as, shockingly, it is one of the sharpest 50mm lenses that I’ve tested.
The AIR lenses are great! Much like Samyang’s “Tiny series”, these lenses are for those who don’t care about bells and whistles and just want a lightweight, high performing lens. This won’t be the series for those looking for aperture rings, buttons, or rings, but if you want a light, tough, high performing lens at a great price, then grab a Viltrox AIR series lens!
Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox AIR 50mm F2, Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR, AIR, Viltrox AF, Viltrox 50mm, Viltrox 40mm F2.5, 20mm STM, AF, Alpha 1, a7RV, Review, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, #viltrox, #letthelightin, #viltroxAF250, #DA, #viltrox50air, #carrylesscapturemore, #viltrox50air, #viltroxAIR250
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.
Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses is called the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.5 full frame lenses along with a truly excellent series of APS-C lenses, including the 25mm F1.7, 35mm F1.7, and 56mm F1.7. The AIR lenses have all been pretty uniformly excellent, combining great optics with small, lightweight (howbeit very simple) designs and equally low price tags (all under $200). Viltrox is back with yet another AIR series lens, and this is another full frame option. While the 20mm may still stand as the most useful lens for travel, the new Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR is easily the best performer yet in the series, and is very possibly the sharpest “nifty-fifty” style lens that has even been made. It seems to best even the impressive Sigma 50mm F2 DG DN from their iSeries, a lens I thought was very impressive. There’s no question the Sigma lens has a much higher degree of build quality and functionality, but at a price tag more than 3x higher than the sub-$200 AIR 50mm, I suspect that Viltrox will have another best seller on their hands. It is the new lightweight 50mm to grab (just 205g)? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review below or reading on in the text review.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review loaner 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 and the Sony Alpha 1.You can find the product listing page for the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR here.
I probably don’t need to say much about the 50mm focal length at this point. I have probably reviewed more 50mm lenses than any other. It would be easy to ask the question, “Do we even need another 50mm lens?” The short answer might be “no”, but I suspect there will always be room for a lens like the AIR 50mm, as, shockingly, it is one of the sharpest 50mm lenses that I’ve tested.
For example, here is the Sony 50mm F1.4 GM (my favorite 50mm lens) at F2 compared to the AIR 50mm in the center of the frame:
But here is something absurd: check out the corner comparison!
Oof! The Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR is SHARPER than the $1300 GM lens in the corners. In fact, all told, the tiny little 50mm Viltrox is the sharper of the two lenses. It’s absurdly sharp for a sub $200 lens…and it’s a full frame, autofocusing, full functional lens.
Now, to be clear, this is not a BETTER lens than my 50mm GM. It might be sharper at wide apertures, but it doesn’t have anywhere near the quality of rendering, feature set, or build quality, but the very fact that I’m even having this conversation is absurd. I’ll hit some of the weak points of the AIR 50mm in this review, but if we are just talking about sharpness, this lens is just silly sharp. Here’s a deep crop from a photo taken in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district:
Before jumping into the review proper, there is one matter that needs to be cleared up. Viltrox has an existing 50mm F1.8 lens, which I reviewed here. That lens has exactly three things going for it: it has a metal build, very slightly brighter maximum aperture, and does have an aperture ring. Beyond that, you need to forget about that lens. It costs about twice as much, isn’t nearly as sharp, doesn’t have as good of autofocus, and the optical glass and color aren’t nearly as good as this cheaper lens. What’s more, the older 50mm F1.8 weighs 340g (+135g), is physically larger (+22mm in length), and I would argue that the AIR lens is better made despite being pastics rather than metal. I won’t be surprised to see the older APS-C F1.4 and FF F1.8 series phased out in the near future.
The AIR lenses are great! Much like Samyang’s “Tiny series”, these lenses are for those who don’t care about bells and whistles and just want a lightweight, high performing lens. This won’t be the series for those looking for aperture rings, buttons, or rings, but if you want a light, tough, high performing lens at a great price, then grab a Viltrox AIR series lens. Sound interesting? I suspect so, so let’s dive in a little deeper into the details.
Viltrox AIR 50mm F2 Build and Handling
The theme for the AIR series is “Carry Less, Capture More”. Sometimes Chinese expressions get lost in translation to English, but I think this one works. The key attribute of the AIR series that makes me personally want them in my kit is how easy they are to throw into the bag and bring along while knowing that I’m still going to get great optical results. Initially I was far more excited by the notion of their PRO and LAB series of higher end lenses, but Viltrox has won me over with just how good these AIR lenses are. Many of my images in this review were taken on a recent trip to Japan, and while I had both a new LAB lens along with a new PRO lens to test, it was the AIR 50mm that went on the trip with me. Why? Because it is small and light.
As noted, the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 eschews the heavier metal casing typically used for the earlier 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!)
As noted in the intro, The new AIR 50mm is much more compact than the earlier 50mm F1.8 lens, only 65mm in diameter (2.6″) and 56.5mm in length (2.2″). It weighs only 205g (7.23oz), which is a bit heavier than the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 (186g), but this makes sense as the Viltrox is actually the better made lens (and hugely optically superior as well). The three full frame AIR series lenses look extremely similar.
That makes for a very compact profile on your camera. The lens is very small and lightweight on my Sony full frame bodies (Alpha 1 and a7RV), but would also be a great fit on the smaller cameras like the a7C series.
Up front we have a 58mm 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.
It seems like Viltrox has switched from the more confusion sensor dimensions they previously had on their lenses (43.3mm) to just including the term “full frame” there instead.
There is an included lens hood made in high quality, thick plastics. It bayonets into place precisely and stays locked there.
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 smoothly. All manual focus aids (including automatic magnification of the focus area) will work with the Viltrox, and I appreciate the fact that manual focus speed is improved to where you can make larger focus changes with one twist of the wrist, particularly if you move faster (this is a non-linear focus ring). The manual focus experience on Sony is good.
The Viltrox AIR 50mm 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. Here’s an image taken at F8:
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.
With a few exceptions, Viltrox lenses have generally not been very good when it comes to minimum focus distance and maximum magnification, and I would love to say this lens is an exception to that rule, but that’s unfortunately not the case. If I can give any credit, it is that the 51cm MFD is slightly better than the 55cm on the older 50mm F1.8. That very slightly improves maximum magnification from 0.10x to 0.11x, but that is unfortunately still considerably below the 50mm average of 0.15x. Here’s what that looks like:
You can get a blurred out background if you get closer to subjects, but not a high level of magnification.
Viltrox’ more expensive lens series have weathersealing, but the budget AIR series does not. The AIR 50mm does have a HD Nano multilayer coating with water-resistant and antifouling coating on the front element.
Though the AIR series is short on bells and whistles, the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR, like other lenses in the series, feels sturdy and well made. It is lightweight, will balance easily on a wide variety of camera bodies and sizes, and doesn’t really feel “cheap” in any way.
Viltrox AF 50mm F2 STM Autofocus for Stills
The Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR, like other AIR lenses, utilizes a lead-screw type stepping focus motor (STM) that makes for fast and quiet focus changes. Focus felt silent unless I put my ear up next to the barrel, and even then I could hear very little focus noise other than a slight click from the aperture blades at first. Focus speed is well above average for a budget lens. In my focus tests I found that focus changes were fast and accurate, and even while doing the tests I felt a sense of surprise at how snappy focus felt.
That made it a great street lens, easily able to quickly nab focus even at night. Daytime focus was effortless.
The Canon booth at CP+ in Tokyo had basketball players on a court, and I found it easy to shoot action sequences there.
The Sony booth had breakdancers doing their moves, and again I found it extremely easy on Alpha 1 to track the action with the AIR 50mm and get perfectly focused results.
Easier work like portraits was obviously effortless.
Frankly I never really thought about focus at all, which is just what I want in a lens like this.
I could get the shots I wanted without any issue, and that’s what matters to me.
Focus for Video
Video AF was actually surprisingly strong. Not only are focus pulls smooth and well damped, but focus breathing is quite low as well, making for a more cinematic feel to focus changes.
My hand test went very well, with successful transitions from my hand to my eye and back. The low focus breathing helped to keep the shot looking relatively cinematic. It’s worth noting that the footage also looked very sharp and with good subject delineation.
Here’s a grab from a video clip, shot at F2:
Real world shots that should be fairly static were just that. They locked on a subject and didn’t bounce around and pulse. In another clip where a woman walked up an alley towards the camera, focus moved smoothly with her and was consistently well focused.
Overall I would say that focus is excellent.
Viltrox AF 50mm F2 Image Quality
The Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR has an optical design of 13 elements in 9 groups. Seven of these are exotic elements, including three ED (extra-low dispersion) element and 4 HR (high refractive index) elements. The MTF looks excellent, with basically a flat line until the very edge of the frame, but even there it is only a mild drop on the sagittal plane.
It would be hard to overemphasize how sharp this lens is, even at F2. I was repeatedly impressed when I zoomed into images at just how much detail was there.
This is a lens that can easily handle even the highest resolution sensors on Sony, which is really pretty mindblowing from a sub-$200 lens.
We’ll work through the chart results by first looking at distortion and vignette. The AIR 50mm shows a tiny amount of pincushion distortion and moderate amount of vignette.
I used a -2 to correct a bit of pincushion distortion, and vignette required around +50 correct (right under two stops). That’s really quite good for such a compact lens, and shows why Viltrox was probably smart to make an F2 lens rather than an F1.8 lens. This shot, for example, was shot at F2 and you can see that the corners don’t look bad (no corrections).
Likewise distortion is low enough that I doubt you will ever see it in real world images…even without correction.
Viltrox seems to have discovered the formula for largely eliminating fringing in their lenses. The 50mm F2 shows almost no longitudinal chromatic aberrations. Fringing is pretty much perfectly corrected.
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). Again, there is no evidence of any fringing.
I also didn’t spot any issues in real world results, with branches in images looking clean of fringing.
So how about resolution and contrast? All chart tests done with the a7RV (61MP) using a tripod and a two second timer. Here’s a look at my test chart:
And here are the crops (at roughly 200% magnification) from the center, mid-frame, and extreme corner at F2:
We see here what the MTF chart suggested. There’s a very consistent performance across the frame, with the corners really not all that far behind the center performance. Centering is excellent in the copy that I tested, with even results in all four corners. Here’s a handheld, real world shot at F2, showing oustanding sharpness all across the frame.
The balance across the frame that the AIR 50mm shows even at F2 is so incredibly rare. You can see from the comparison below that the result from the mid-frame (left) is only a tiny bit sharper and more contrasty than the upper left corner result (right).
So with such an impressive wide open result, is there even any room for improvement when you stop the lens down? Turns out the answer is yes, though not in an extreme way. Stopping down F2.8 does give a bit of contrast boost. It’s not huge, but I could see it all across the frame.
Corners are also very mildly improved, with better contrast and slightly more detail.
Stopping down to F5.6 gives a tiny bit more sharpness and contrast in some spots, while other places look pretty much identical to F2.8.
Bottom line is that very few lenses at any price point are sharper than this. It’s pretty incredible just how sharp the AIR 50mm is.
Landscape apertures look great, with great contrast and delineation of fine details, as you might expect. Here’s a look at Yohohama Harbor at F5.6.
Diffraction will show up as usual at smaller apertures, with some softening by F11 and more obvious softening at F16.
This is a lens that repeatedly made me smile when I looked at images at 100% magnification. It’s actually pretty hard to believe that these sub-$200 lenses are so good.
I’ve been noting the improvement to Viltrox colors over the past two years since they switched suppliers for their optical glass. Once again I’m very happy with the color rendition from the lens, which feels neutral in color balance, nicely saturated, and with good contrast levels in the colors.
Images accurately captured what I saw and I thought they looked great.
The challenge for lenses with good natural contrast (particularly those that aren’t huge to give the engineers space to try to do everything well) is that the bokeh quality suffers. That’s partly the case here, as there were moments where I thought bokeh looked a little busy.
In most shots I thought rendering (if not exceptional) looked pretty good.
I don’t think the bokeh is great, but neither is it terrible, either.
This shot, for example, has the foreground mostly blurred out, and I think it works well here.
And, where the AIR 50mm shines is obviously in the ability to have great contrast and subject delineation.
Flare resistance is actually pretty great. You can see in this shot there is bright evening sun, but without any ghosting or veiling.
The image above was shot at F5.6, but I found that flare resistance was actually pretty consistent across the board. The flare response at F2 and then at F11 looked pretty much identical.
There was no veiling in this shot. Contrast was perfect.
The bottom line is that there has never been a better lens optically at this kind of price point. I love the idea of having a lens that is priced like a nifty fifty but pretty much performs like a GM lens. It’s crazy! This lens feels like it belongs on a camera like this:
The Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR was just a fantastic lens to take on a trip. It is obviously incredibly sharp, but also it focuses great, is small and lightweight, and clearly the “risk factor” feels lower when you are travling with a sub-$200 lens vs a lens that costs $1000+.
And the lens just takes great pictures. No, the rendering is nothing like the magical 50mm F1.2 GM, but who expected that anyway? The sharpness is like that lens, however, and the overal rendering good enough that you really could use it professionally if you were on a tighter budget.
The APS-C lenses in this series (25mm, 35mm, and 56mm F1.7 lenses) have all been impressively good, but I’ve never been as impressed by an AIR series lens as much as the Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR for the simple reason that it is a full frame lens. Engineering a full frame lens is much more difficult, and the fact that Viltrox has done it so impeccably here really is mindblowing. This lens is absurdly good for the money, and makes me wonder just what Viltrox is going to do with the Pro 50mm F1.4 and LAB 50mm F1.2. Can’t wait!
Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox AIR 50mm F2, Viltrox AF 50mm F2 AIR, AIR, Viltrox AF, Viltrox 50mm, Viltrox 40mm F2.5, 20mm STM, AF, Alpha 1, a7RV, Review, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Portrait, #viltrox, #letthelightin, #viltroxAF250, #DA, #viltrox50air, #carrylesscapturemore, #viltrox50air, #viltroxAIR250
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.
In the fall of the 2024 I had the opportunity to review the long awaited first entry in Viltrox’s Premium LAB series – the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB FE. I loved the lens on Sony despite it being large and heavy and gave it a pretty glowing review. One regret I had was that my Megadap ETZ221 Pro adapter didn’t play well with the LAB 135mm, so I didn’t have a chance to use the Sony FE version on my Nikon Z8. As an aside, I’m interested in seeing if Viltrox’s own new E to Z adapter solves that problem. But fortunately we have a better solution, because a new Nikon Z mount version of this amazing lenses has officially arrived, and frankly the big LAB is going to be a better match for my large Nikon Z8 body anyway! One thing hasn’t changed; this is still a big, heavy lens, but it also a very serious challenger to the premium Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena…particularly considering that lens’ hefty $2500 USD price tag. The Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z is an optical juggernaut, and the bargain price tag of $899 USD makes it a huge value (and if you use code DUSTINABBOTT at checkout at Viltrox, you can get an additional 5% off!). Find out if this should be the 135mm in your own kit by watching the video review, reading the text review, or by just enjoying the photos from the lens in the galleries below.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.You can visit the product listing page of the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z.
Keywords: Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z, Viltrox, Viltrox AF, LAB, Viltrox LAB, #LAB, #LAB135, Viltrox 135mm, Normal, Full Frame, F1.8, f/1.8, VCM, Viltrox LAB 135mm F1.8 FE, Viltrox 135mm Review, Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 FE Review, VCM, Pancake, Chip, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, 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.
In the fall of the 2024 I had the opportunity to review the long awaited first entry in Viltrox’s Premium LAB series – the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB FE. I loved the lens on Sony despite it being large and heavy and gave it a pretty glowing review. One regret I had was that my Megadap ETZ221 Pro adapter didn’t play well with the LAB 135mm, so I didn’t have a chance to use the Sony FE version on my Nikon Z8. As an aside, I’m interested in seeing if Viltrox’s own new E to Z adapter solves that problem. But fortunately we have a better solution, because a new Nikon Z mount version of this amazing lenses has officially arrived, and frankly the big LAB is going to be a better match for my large Nikon Z8 body anyway! One thing hasn’t changed; this is still a big, heavy lens, but it also a very serious challenger to the premium Nikkor Z 135mm F1.8 S Plena…particularly considering that lens’ hefty $2500 USD price tag. The Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z is an optical juggernaut, and the bargain price tag of $899 USD makes it a huge value (and if you use code DUSTINABBOTT at checkout at Viltrox, you can get an additional 5% off!). Find out if this should be the 135mm in your own kit by watching the video review below or by reading on in the text review.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review copy of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. All opinions and conclusions are my own. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the 45MP Nikon Z8, which I reviewed here.You can visit the product listing page of the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z.
I’ve had a long-term love affair with 135mm lenses. I still own some classic 135mm options from the film era (SMC Takumars and the like) and have been privileged to own some of the modern premium 135mm options, from the Canon 135mm F2L to the Zeiss Milvus 135mm F2 to the Sony FE 135mm F1.8 G Master. In short, I have owned a premium quality 135mm for just about as long as I have been a professional photographer. I value the focal length above all for the utterly unique portrait shots you can get; shots the feature extreme isolation and wonderfully creamy bokeh. There are many lenses where you can get a blurred out background if you get very close to your subject, but a lens like the LAB 135Z allows you to completely isolate your subject even when you are a much further distance away, like this:
And look at what happens if you take a tighter crop of that shot:
You can perhaps get a sense of just how exquisite the combination of bokeh and sharpness is…even at F1.8.
I love the look of images shot with a fast 135mm lens…but I don’t end up shooting with the focal length as often as I might like. My least favorite part of owning premium 135mm lenses is how comparatively rarely that I reach for the lens (just too long for a lot of situations). For me that has made me question the amount of money I have sitting on the shelf far too often, and has caused me to (at times) sell such a lens to help fund a more practical purpose. The size and weight of the LAB 135Z might still be such a deterrent, but the price won’t be. I would feel far less qualms over a $900 (or less!) lens sitting on the shelf a bit too much than having a $2500 lens like the Plena sitting on the shelf.
The Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB Z is a fiercely good lens, and I suspect is going to be somewhat disruptive here on Nikon because of just how good it is at such an inexpensive price.
*There will be some redundancy with my Sony FE review of the lens as this is in essence the same lens mechanically, cosmetically, and optically. I have updated the imagery and also any area of unique performance to the Nikon platform.
Viltrox LAB 135mm Build and Handling
There is basically one variance from the E-mount version of the lens to the Z-mount version of the lens, and that is that the barrel of the lens near the mount is much wider on the Z-mount version to accommodate the significantly wider diameter of Z-mount (on the right).
You might also notice that the rear weather sealing gasket is a little more obvious on the E-mount version, but that is only because the gasket is seated a little differently to accommodate the different mounting position on Nikon. Other than that the E-mount and Z-mount versions are essentially identical, with similar size, length, and features.
In many ways the new LAB 135mm feels like a blend between a Canon L series and a Zeiss Batis lens. The overall feel of the lens and its textures reminds me of a Canon L series, while the top mounted LCD screen reminds me of a Batis lens.
Nikkor 135mm Plena is a big lens, as have been all of Nikkor’s premium fast primes. It is 98mm (3.9″) in diameter and 139.5mm (5.5″) in length. It weighs 995g (35oz). But the LAB 135Z manages to top that. It is 93mm in diameter (3.66″), a little narrower, but is a bit longer at 147.6mm (5.74″) in length. That’s not bigger (the Plena has an internal volume about 1% higher), but the LAB 135Z is a hefty lens, weighing in at a whopping 1268g (44.72oz), or about 270g more than the Plena (I weigh the FE version of the LAB at 1236g, a little lighter due to that smaller diameter near the lens mount). Do not buy this lens if you are adverse to some weight. Why is it so heavy? Above all, it has a LOT of glass inside.
Up front we get a large 82mm front filter thread, though that is pretty common for any 135mm lens with an F1.8 aperture. You can’t beat physics!
Viltrox has demonstrated that they are capable of producing small, lightweight lenses with good optics (the AIR series is a perfect example of that), but that’s not the point of the LAB series. The LAB series seems to following a similar design philosophy to Nikon’s F1.2 S line lenses: build the best optical instrument at the focal length that you can, and don’t worry about the size and weight. These types of lenses are not for everyone, but some photographers simply want the best. Those types of photographers are going to be delighted with the LAB lenses.
It looks like Viltrox’s Pro Series will take a more traditional approach to aperture similar to either Sony’s GM series or Sigma’s better DN prime lenses, namely a marked aperture ring that could either be clicked or declicked. Their approach with the LAB series is a little more similar to Nikon’s approach with the S-line lenses. The aperture ring is a bit more like a command dial that interacts with the LCD screen than a traditional aperture ring with hard stops at either end. You still have the option to have the ring either clicked or declicked, but the aperture rings seems to move in a speed dependent, non-linear way. A quick rotation will speed you through the aperture options, while a very slow rotation doesn’t even move a one-third stop with each click. The LCD screen shows only one third stops between the full stops like F2 and F2.8, so I’m not sure what the point of this is. A more traditional aperture control setup would have been preferable all around, though, like Nikon Z mount lenses in general, you can use this ring for other things than aperture (exposure compensation, ISO, etc…).
Unlike native Nikon lenses, however, you do have the option to have the aperture clicked or declicked via a switch on the left side of the barrel.
When you turn the clicks off you can smoothly move through the whole aperture range without defined slots. This allows for smooth video aperture racking and has become an expected pro-grade feature on modern lenses. There does seem to be less lag in the aperture iris than many lenses, however, making smooth aperture racks more possible. This is the rarely lens that I prefer the aperture clickless rather than clicked even for stills.
Unlike Sony (at least at the present), some of Nikon’s cameras have a top mounted LCD screen, and while you can see the selected aperture on both screens, you can see that it is larger and more easily seen on the camera rather than the lens LED.
The iris itself has 11 aperture blades, and these make for a nicely rounded aperture even when stopped down a fair bit.
Beneath the declick button there is a three position focus limiter that allows you to select the full range, up close (0.7-2m), and to eliminate the close focus range (1.5m to infinity). The LCD screen also functions as a distance scale, showing you the focus distance in large letters while showing a scale above in smaller letters.
Further up the barrel is an AF | MF switch along with two FN (function) buttons. The top one functions like the typical function button, performing whatever function you have that button programmed to in camera. The second button is going to be used more commonly for video functions, however, as when in manual focus mode it allows you to preset two focus positions and automatically switch between the two at the press of the button (A-B focus). This works in conjunction with the LCD screen on the top of the lens (more on that in a moment). You can preset the focus position(s) by long pressing the FN 2 button, and then access the focus changes by short pressing it.
Now to that LCD screen. The LCD functions in many ways like those found on the Zeiss Batis lenses, though with some improvements. The screen itself is nice and bright, allowing for good visibility even in bright conditions. It solves the problem of a distance scale (something missing on most mirrorless lenses), as it gives you a large font telling you the precise focus distance along with a distance scale above that. The bottom part of the screen gives you a readout of the current aperture. It also gives you some information related to the function buttons however, with the Fn icon lighting up when the first Function Button is depressed, and then the A or B function lights up when you are presetting focus distances. There’s actually a lot of useful information on the LCD screen once you get familiar with how it is all being displayed, though I’m sure a lot of people will still find it somewhat of a gimmick.
The manual focus ring is slightly raised and has a rubberized, ribbed texture. It moves fairly smoothly, I feel like there is a little more feeling of steps or pulses from the focus motor while manually focusing than on Sony. There’s obviously a bit of a difference with the way that input on the focus ring is routed through the Nikon body, as on Sony the focus process feels smooth and linear. Like the aperture ring, input on the focus ring seems to be speed specific and not quite linear. Using the A/B focus is a much more precise way to set up repeatable focus pulls.
We also have weather sealing on this lens that starts with a unique maroon-colored gasket at the lens mount along with other seal points through the lens (a total of 12 of them, by my count).
This is an internally focusing lens, so there is nothing that moves where dust might intrude. There’s also an HD-Nano multilayer coating on the front element to help with water and fingerprint resistance, making the front element easier to clean. As always, however, “moisture-proof” does not mean “water-proof”, so don’t go crazy! This is, however, a professional grade lens with professional sealing.
Viltrox continues with a trend that other lens makers are now imitating by including a USB-C port in the lens mount that allows you to do firmware updates right to the lens. I’m a fan of this approach, as it eliminates the need for a separate dock or lens station for firmware updates, and I find the process a little more intuitive than even doing firmware updates through the camera. This allows Viltrox to future proof their lenses and continue to improve them through firmware.
As with other recent Viltrox lenses, the lens is Bluetooth equipped, which means that you can use the Viltrox app for IOS or Android and update firmware wirelessly. You can also program a custom splash animation to the powerup cycle on the lens (I’ve got mine showing my business logo during startup).
There is no lens based stabilization, so you will need to rely upon the in-camera stabilization if your camera is so equipped.
One thing worth noting is that when the lens is powered off, there will be some movement/clunking if you rotate the lens up and down. This can be very disturbing if you are not familiar with modern lens design. Many high end modern lenses employ floating elements that allow for better up close performance. The lens groups are not fixed, but float in a certain area, so when they are not energized they will move around a bit. This is by design, however, and when the camera is powered on, those elements will be energized and become fixed. You can rotate the lens up and down without anything moving around. It feels like the Viltrox has finetuned this process with the LAB 135Z, however, and it seems a bit less obvious than on the Sony version.
The benefit of this design is that you get a much better up close performance that you typically see on Viltrox lenses. You can focus as closely as 72cm, giving a maximum magnification figure of 1:4, or 0.25x, which bests the 0.20x (1:5) available on the Plena. Up close performance is fantastic even at F1.8, with excellent sharpness and contrast and a nicely flat plane of focus.
I used the LAB 135Z for some product shots for another review, and it delivered excellent results.
That’s macro lens levels of performance there!
Viltrox has redesigned the front lens cap with a bevel along the front that makes it feel slimmer (good, as this is their biggest front lens cap so far). The lens also comes with the hood and a nicer than usual leather pouch (similar to Canon L-series lenses). There is some cushion on the bottom, but I don’t find these pouches nearly as useful as a good padded nylon case like what Sigma provides.
The LAB 135Z comes with the nicest lens hood that I’ve seen on a Viltrox lens. The plastics are extra thick and sturdy. There is a felt lining inside to keep light from bouncing around, and there is a rubberized transition section that helps to protect the lens from bumps and also makes a nice option for placing the lens facing down. The lens doesn’t have a lock, but does have a firm bayonet into place that sits securely. I had no issues with it coming loose. I will note that it can reversed for storage but fits very tightly, so it can be a little work to get off sometimes as the rubber of the hood grips the rubber of the focus ring.
As noted, the lens barrel construction reminds me a lot of Canon’s better L- series lenses, with an magnesium alloy body, which is the same material used in expensive camera bodies. The new LAB badge on the side of the barrel reminds you that this is from this new premium series of lenses.
While I don’t agree with all of the ergonomic choices Viltrox made with the LAB 135mm, I do think that this is a very nicely executed package. The lens feels high quality in the hands, and it handles like a premium lens. In many ways this feels like a much more expensive lens than the $899 USD price tag. The finish feels durable and I would expect the lens to hold up well for the long haul. This is a big, heavy lens, so that will obviously be a deterrent for some buyers, though frankly the Plena is actually a bit bigger (though the LAB is heavier). Sony does have the slightly smaller, lighter option in the form of the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8, but at the moment, Nikon has no such option. I will say this as a final word on the matter: the LAB 135mm feels like a much more natural fit on a beefy body like my Z8 than it does on any of my smaller, lighter Sony bodies. I’m not sure that “two wrongs make a right” applies here, but perhaps we could say that a heavy lens makes more sense on a big, robust camera.
Autofocus (Stills)
I was excited to see that Viltrox was pioneering a new autofocus system with the launch of the LAB series, as I felt like A) they had gotten about as much out of their STM motors as they were going to get and B) a premium lens like this with big, heavy glass elements needs as much thrust in the focus motor as possible. Like the Sony FE version, the LAB 135Z is equipped with not one VCM (voice-coil motor), but dual “Hyper VCM” motors that work in harmony to drive autofocus. This is a similar approach to what Nikon has done with the 135mm Plena, and the dual high performance focus motors allow you to broaden the scope of what can be done with a fast prime lens like this, up to and including sports.
As with the FE version, I have been reviewing a prerelease copy of the LAB 135Z, so the lens arrived without the final “retail firmware” update. But you could also tell that they’ve had that extra six months to refine focus, as the Z-mount version just felt more confident out of the box (the Sony version got there after a firmware update). Fortunately firmware updates are pretty simple, and can be done via a drag and drop on a computer, or via Bluetooth through the Viltrox app.
Autofocus speed is very good. Not quite instant, but near to it. In my formal tests I saw quick and mostly confident focus changes from close to distant. If I go back and compare my results to the Sony FE version, I find that focus is a little slower and perhaps a little less confident. On Sony the progressions from close to distant and back were nearly instant and with complete confidence, but I find a few more little pulses and an occasional quick rack in the wrong direction. In real world shots, however, focus changes tend to be smaller and I didn’t really notice the same things.
That included shooting in lower light conditions. You can shoot with precision even in situations with a tiny depth of field, like this:
I’ve been playing a lot of squash recently, and I was curious to see if the AF speed was sufficient to keep up with the rapid fire action on the squash court. I tested the Sony FE version with basketball, and it did fine, so this was something different. The good news is that focus had no problem keeping up with the action and acquiring subjects.
This is too long a focal length for this application, really, and you have to contend with shooting through glass (I would NOT want to be in there with a camera!), so I wouldn’t choose this combination for serious tracking of the sport. But that wasn’t really the point; I wanted to know if the lens could keep up on my Z8, and the easy answer was yes.
I actually feel like Viltrox has done a really solid job of porting over to Nikon’s focus algorithms here, as the lens feels very natural and at home on the platform. I’ve consistently been impressed with how well third party lenses that I’ve reviewed on other platforms first behave on Nikon. Often the VR (In Body Image Stabilization) works better, focus is very similar to what I find on Sony, and when testing on Sony, I ran into the typical limitation for all third party lenses: burst rates are capped at 15FPS for non-Sony lenses. Fortunately no such limitation exists on Nikon, so I was able to shoot as quickly as 30FPS and got consistent focus in those very quick bursts.
Someone next to me while I was shooting asked, “How many photos did you just take?” after one such burst. I told them I had no idea; all I knew is that I was getting 30 of them every second!
Focus precision was also exceptionally good. I had no problem nailing quick shots of Nala as she rolled around in a shaft of sunlight. Look at just how gorgeous the focus (and the detail!) is in this shot:
Focus sound is near silent, with a very light whirring sound as focus moves back and forth. There’s no drama associated with focus, just quick, accurate results.
Things were mostly fantastic when shooting portraits. I was literally shooting in the middle of a blizzard, and the sheer number of keepers despite the persistent distractions was actually pretty impressive.
A few times, however, the focus system got distracted by the snowflakes and it was like it couldn’t see past them to the subject, like here:
I ended up saving this shot anyway because I kind of liked the effect. The potential for these focus issues seemed to go away when I got closer, and the contrast of the subject become more obvious. My keeper rate for the portrait session was very high despite the conditions.
This is definitely in the upper tier of autofocus performance for third party lenses. It’s amazing how far Viltrox has come in just a few short years.
Autofocus (Video)
Video autofocus was largely an extension of what I saw from my stills tests, though the flaws were a little more obvious. The hint of little focus racks in the wrong direction were more obvious with video autofocus pulls, and everything didn’t seem quite as confident as I saw on Sony…though there is some hopes that the retail firmware could improve that.
Movement towards the camera was fairly good if the movement was consistent and linear, but if I stepped in and out of frame, the reactiveness of picking me back up had some lag.
Video focus on real subjects seemed to be fine. Here’s a screenshot from some 4K60 footage during the portrait shoot.
Video footage looks noticeably very detailed and crisp, and the beautiful color, contrast, and rendering of the lens makes for some gorgeous footage.
Viltrox clearly wanted the LAB series to be a statement in every area, and fortunately that includes autofocus. While autofocus isn’t quite as exceptional on Nikon as it was on Sony, it’s also true that Sony’s focus is a little more sophisticated in general. I was very happy overall with focus performance here.
Image Quality Breakdown
Ahhh, and now to my favorite part, because the LAB 135Z is just a special, special lens. I fell in love with the Zeiss Otus lenses because, despite their being ridiculously big and expensive, they were just so good optically. It might be heresy to say, but the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB is just that kind of lens. The optical design is 14 elements in 9 groups, with four of those being ED (low dispersion) elements and two of them being HD (high refractive index) lenses. The MTF is fantastic, with an absolutely stunning center and midframe performance that isn’t quite the same in the corners. At F8 the MTF is pretty much a straight line across the top, i.e. perfect.
Just for fun, let’s take a look at the Nikkor 135mm F1.8 Plena MTF:
Gulp. If the MTF is to be believed, the $900 LAB 135Z is sharper all across the frame than the $2500 Plena.
And yes, if we look at real world images, the results are just ridiculously sharp.
Take a look at the crop:
In fact, the Viltrox LAB 135mm F1.8 delivered once of the best all-round optical performances that I’ve ever seen and is essentially strong to extremely strong in all areas that I test. It is the rare lens that is both technically and artistically excellent. Look at the lovely overall rendering from this image:
And now let’s look at the crop that shows the technical excellence:
Yup. That’s great.
More on this in a moment. Let’s look at the technical side of things.
I was expecting a lens well corrected for LoCA (longitudinal chromatic aberrations), and that is the case here. I see mostly neutral results on either side of the plane of focus without any visible fringing.
I tried a wide variety of situations to see if I could find some fringing while testing both the Sony and Nikon versions of the LAB 135mm, but the LAB beat me. Look at how utterly neutral it is when dealing with the shiny and engraved bits of my classic lenses, which are typically amongst the absolute worst case scenario for fringing.
Brilliant.
LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations) typically show up along the edges of the frame with high contrast transition points. I saw a small amount of LaCA in my tests, which actually surprised me, as I didn’t see any on the Sony version.
Viltrox lenses have not always had great profile support, and if there is any advantage to this it is that they have gotten accustomed to doing a lot of the corrections optically rather than relying on software corrections. On the Sony FE version I found essentially no distortion or vignette. Essentially all the lenses I’ve tested first on Sony and then on Nikon have exhibited more vignette on the Z-mount version.
That’s the case here as well. There’s still no measurable distortion (there’s maybe a fraction of a percent of pincushion), but I do see some vignette (I used a +50 in the correction above).
It’s not a big deal and easily correctable.
We’ll move on to inspecting our test chart. This test has been done on a 45MP Nikon Z8 sensor. I use a high end tripod and two second camera delay to ensure vibration doesn’t affect images. Here’s a look at the test chart that we will examine at high magnification:
If we take a look at crops (at 200%) at F1.8 from the center, mid-frame, and lower right corner, we find that center and mid-frame performance is exceptionally good, and that sharpness extends right to the corners.
The lower resolution point on Nikon (45 vs 61MP) only makes the results look even more consistent. If I compare mid-frame result above with the upper left corner from the (both at F1.8).
Yes, you can see that the mid-frame result is slightly sharper, but that is remarkably consistent performance.
To put that in context, let’s take a look at the same result using the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 that released in 2024. Not a top tier lens, obviously, but a pretty decent one that I gave a positive review to and even purchased for myself.
Wow! You can see just how radically sharper the LAB 135mm is. This is definitely the sharpest lens I’ve tested on my Z8 thus far. Stopping down to F2 does make a mild difference, particularly in the outer parts of the frame, though you might be hard pressed to spot the differences without the two images side by side and at very high levels of magnification.
By F2.8 the sharpness levels are essentially at the ridiculous level. There are more fine details visible in this old two dollar bill than I knew were even there.
The eagle-eyed among you may notice a minor reporting bug that hadn’t been squashed in my pre-release firmware yet, namely that while the lens properly registers in Lightroom as the Viltrox AF 135/1.8 LAB Z, the focal length registers as 16mm. That bug will be dealt with in the retail firmware.
Stopping on down produces improvements so minor as to be hard to see most places in the frame, though I could tell the improvements in the far corners.
Physics will affect even the mightiest of lenses, however, so expect diffraction to start to soften the image by F11 and more obviously by F16, which is minimum aperture (though this lens is still sharper than many lenses at its weakest!)
You’ll have all the portrait sharpness you’ll ever need, with perfect amounts of sharpness and contrast and beautiful skin tones.
In fact, one of the best applications for a lens like this is to shoot environmental portraiture at F1.8, where you can shoot at longer distance, compress the scene, but still get a nice separation of your subject from the background.
This is a lens that is pretty obviously overengineered for the full frame image circle. I’d actually be curious if Viltrox would ever consider bringing the LAB series to the Fujifilm GFX platform and to see how well they would cover that larger image circle. I noted, for example, when reviewing the Sony version that the LAB 135mm consistently metered a little faster than the Samyang in my comparisons while delivering similar brightness levels, so I also believe that the T-stop is about one third stop faster than the Samyang. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to find that the LAB’s T-stop is very similar to its F-stop.
The Viltrox LAB 135Z clearly delivers near APO levels of sharpness and contrast. What is rarer still is the lens that can deliver incredible sharpness and contrast while also delivering soft bokeh…and you probably won’t be surprised to hear that this is one of them.
First of all, it does very well with specular highlights. Here’s an F1.8 image that shows that there is some geometric deformation near the edges of the frame, but overall the bokeh looks great. You can see just how big and soft the bokeh can be when you’re close to your subject.
If you really want all round specular highlights, stop down even to F2.5, and it is nearly perfect there.
But perhaps my favorite application is for portraits. First of all, the general rendering looks great.
But what’s harder to see when viewed full is how all of those different layers of snowflakes are being turned to varying sizes of specular highlights. It’s really pretty stunning.
The general rendering is just fantastic.
In the early stages of Viltrox’s lens development their optical glass was, well, more budget oriented, but that has radically changed in the past couple of years. I find Viltrox’s current optical glass to be excellent, and it also tends to be very neutral. Colors are rich, but not oversaturated. The images are neither warm nor cool, allowing you to choose your preference either in camera with the white balance or in post.
That intense contrast just makes the colors look very rich and, well, expensive.
Flare resistance was also very good on the LAB 135Z. The lens hood isn’t necessarily small, but it is smaller than many other 135mm lenses that I’ve tested because frankly it isn’t overly needed. Here’s a variety of positions and apertures shooting into very bright sun and you can see that contrast holds up fine, without ghosting or veiling.
I did test for coma on the Sony version, which I’ll share here (snowstorms don’t make for good astro tests!). This makes yet another interesting application for this lens, as the longer focal length lends itself to a different perspective on astrophotography. Coma was very well controlled even into the corners, and the extremely low fringing assures that bright heavenly bodies aren’t ruined by some nasty color smears around them.
The bottom line is that this is one the most complete lenses that I’ve tested optically, and I would be hard pressed to point to a better optical performance from any lens priced under $1000, and could probably count the number of better optical performances, period, on one hand. If you’d like to see more images in my extensive image gallery, just click here.
Conclusion
I found reviewing the FE version the Viltrox AF 135mm F1.8 LAB a real treat, and I felt no differently about covering the Z mount version. To do my job correctly I need to invest a lot of time and care into using and evaluating a lens whether I personally enjoy it or not. It can be very frustrating to have a camera in hand in a beautiful photographic opportunity and be stuck with a lousy lens attached to the camera because that’s what I happen to be testing. Not so with the LAB 135Z; this is a lens that I would choose to shoot with. It’s also a fabulous match for my Z8 in the larger size of the camera, the great autofocus system, the stellar VR, and of course the gorgeous images that the LAB/Z8 combo can produce.
I’m so glad that Nikon has opened up to third party brands, and while this lens will certainly steal some potential Plena purchases, the availability of high end, affordable lenses like the Viltrox LAB series has the potential to sway customers debating between Canon and Nikon in Nikon’s direction.
I’ve come out this review impressed all over again. I recognize that LAB 135Z will be too big and heavy for some potential buyers, but if this happens to be something that you can look past, you will find an absolutely stunning lens that will produces images that are richer, sharper, and more compelling that what you can get with just about anything else in your bag. Yes, please!
Pros:
The LAB series is supposed to be Viltrox’s BEST…and it shows
Beautiful built lens
Feature rich
Very good weather sealing
USB port for firmware updates along with Bluetooth for wireless access
New Hyper VCM motors are fast and accurate
Focus pulls are nicely damped
Exceptionally sharp lens that matches or bests the very best in the center and mid-frame
No distortion or vignette
Exceptional control of fringing
Colors look great
Amazing contrast
Gorgeous bokeh
Great flare resistance
Low coma
Amazing price to performance ratio
Cons:
Big and heavy
Don’t love the aperture ring design
Some might be put off from the “clunk” of the floating elements
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Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses is called the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.5 full frame lenses, the excellent 35mm F1.7 and 56mm F1.7 APS-C lens, and now we have a wider compliment to the two other APS-C lenses in the form of the Viltrox AIR 25mm F1.7 that I’m reviewing today. Viltrox has done enough in this series already that I’m really excited for each new release, and while I have liked the two full frame lenses, it is the now three APS-C lenses that have really shined. Their optical performance is much, much stronger than what their price tags suggest. It’s not very typical that a brand’s cheaper lineup of lenses (these F1.7 AIR lenses) exceeds the performance of their more expensive F1.4 lenses (23mm, 33mm, and 56mm F1.4 lenses), but that is absolutely the case here. The F1.4 lenses I’ve mentioned were reasonably good lenses, but they came during the era before Viltrox really gained confidence as a lensmaker (and, I believe, switched suppliers for their optical glass). I expected the new AIR 25mm to be a decent lens, and it hasn’t disappointed. It’s another very strong lens that can be had for a budget price of just $179 USD (or less, if you use the coupon code!). Is it worth checking out? Find out my thoughts by watching the video review, reading the text review, or just enjoying the photos below.
Thanks to Viltrox for sending me a review loaner 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.
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. This won’t be the series for those looking for aperture rings, buttons, or rings, but if you want a light, tough, high performing lens at a great price, prepare to be delighted with the new AIR 25mm.
It’s a sweet little lens, and you can get more details by visiting my reviews linked above.
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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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