DA: Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 Review – Viltrox’s Best Lens Yet

• 2 years ago

Viltrox 13mm f/1.4: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama

Viltrox has released some great lenses for X-Mount, and the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 continues that trend. Below is a summary of Dustin Abbott’s review.

• About 20mm f/1.4 full frame equivalent lens
• One of the best lenses from Viltrox
• They are doing better in areas that he criticized before
• Very similar to other Viltrox lenses, but a little on the larger size
• 74mm diameter and 90mm long
• 420g, so not the lightest lens
• Similar to the 85mm f/1.8 in that it feels full frame sized
• 87mm front filter thread
• Very nice metal lens hood
• Feels like a premium lens, but it is missing weather sealing
• Very nice focus and aperture ring
• No AF/MF switch
• USB-C connection in the mount to do firmware updates
• 9 rounded aperture blades that give nice circular bokeh, but you won’t get bokeh often
• 22cm close focus distance and 0.10x magnification
• Feels more premium than many Fuji lenses
• Sophisticated stepping focus motor
• Very good confident focus pulls
• Focus breathing is low
• Tracks faces well
• Low amount of distortion, so there isn’t much to correct beyond a little vignetting, which is removed with a +54
• Great for interior since lines stay nice and straight
• Not bad chromatic aberrations and a step up over previous Viltrox lenses
• Very well-controlled lens for LoCA
• Crisp results in the center of the lens and the mid-frame, which declines towards the edges wide open
• The edges get a bit better at f/1.8 and even better at f/2, and contrast improves, but by f/2.8 the corners are pretty reasonable, with the center being crisp
• The Fujifilm XF16mm and Viltrox 12mm compare well, with Fujifilm being better in some respects and Viltrox in others, but the Fujifilm gets better stopping down
• If you look at an image globally at f/1.4 and f/5.6, the image looks pretty similar.
• Very low amount of magnification due to unimpressive close focus distance
• Viltrox colors aren’t as good as Fujifilm colors, in Dustin’s opinion
• Not very flare resistant, but you can get a nice sunburst effect
• Off the edge of the lens, there is some chroma
• Very strong performer at its price point
• The images look very good from this lens, but there are some issues for pixel peepers, but you really can’t complain for the price

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