Viltrox 55mm f/1.8 EVO: The Inevitable Upgrade To Another Excellent Viltrox Lens.
Subtitle: An I Want To Not An I Need To Upgrade.
To start I will cut and paste the opening of my post on the Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air.
My 50mm-ish lens problem is well documented in this space.
M mount edit.
Sony-verse edit.
In the M mount edit I got myself down to one Voigtlander lens. In the Sony-verse edit, I got myself down to one surprisingly competent lens.
That should have been it. But another lens tempted me. The 7Artisans 50mm f/1.8 AF struck me as a nice mashup of some of my favorite Sony lenses.
- Metal build and look similar to the ZEISS 55mm f/1.8.
- Aperture dial like the 40mm f/2.5 G and 50mm f/1.2 G Master.
- IQ up closer to the higher priced Sony lenses.
- Budget price like the 50mm f/1.8.
But the Viltrox Air 50mm f/2 addressed a different brief.
While it costs like a nifty fifty, which is appreciated, the 7Artisans is too large to fit the bill. More premium-ish on a budget rather than cheap and chipper like some of my favorite SLR lenses. And I will admit I have been a bit jealous of the Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM lenses, whether for EF…
…, which I adapted to great stills IQ results but overall it was more novelty than solution, or RF…
…, that I bought a whole Canon EOS RP for <checks notes> two times. But a one lens only/one camera additional lens mount to feed made no sense, so I let it go. This is what the Sony FE 50mm f/1.8 FE should have been.
I mean, just look at it paired with the A7C…
…but it was not the lens I was looking for. I tried to make this work two or three times. But no. Even after a firmware update that improved things slightly, issues persisted.
- AF that second guesses itself with stills.
- AF too noisy for video.
- Feels cheap.
- Ok IQ.
I also tried to make do with the Rokinon/Samyang 45mm f/1.8.
A lens with no glaring, obvious faults. Tried it a couple of times, but it sits in the corner of my mind marked mediocrity. Its IQ was a high point, but AF did not seem quite there for me, and the feel and materials did not compare well to even the lackluster build of the Sony 50mm f/1.8 FE and fell well behind the Canon STM twins and most SLR nifty fifty lenses. To their credit Rokinon/Samyang stepped it up with their later f/1.8 primes. The 35mm…
…and 24mm…
…were stars in this regard. While looking similar, the 24mm felt especially good in hand, had higher quality plastics, and a switch and button or two to jazz things up a bit.
What I had hoped for was upgraded versions of either of the Sony 50mm f/1.8 FE or Rokinon/Samyang 45mm f/1.8 lenses, but that was not in the plan for either, evidently. Even though both companies made similar looking, but better performing lenses later on. Just look at the other Rokinon/Samyang lenses mentioned above, and Sony later released the similar looking, but all around excellent, better performing and built Sony 85mm f/1.8.
A lens good enough to land a feature head shot credit.
But no. No version 2 for either. Well, it would appear that Viltrox decided to give the whole Sony mount FE nifty fifty thing a try…
…and from what I have read and from what I have seen in my first tests, they have hit the mark. A true, affordable, great IQ, compact lens that feels good in hand.
But let me back up a bit. I recently noticed something.
There are no longer bad lenses being produced as far as I can tell.
Even the little guys and upstarts are churning out great glass for relative peanuts. Most of these companies seem to have followed a similar development path now that I think about it.
- Make a lens and sell it cheap. Does not need to be great, just take photos successfully most of the time.
- Improve the optics.
- Improve the materials.
- Add AF.
- Make the AF good.
All while keeping the price low. That is where we are now. I do not make this next statement lightly.
This $199 Viltrox 50mm f/2 lens is as good optically as any lens I have owned, regardless of brand or price.
Here is the first image with it after taking it out of the box.
End cut and paste.
That could have been and maybe should have been the end of it.
But Viltrox has created three.. wait four lens tiers.
- Lab
- Their highest grade.
- Pro
- I believe this is their SIGMA Art or Sony G Master competitors.
- EVO
- The compromised between Pro levels of build and features with a touch of value thrown in like the next tier.
- Air
- High IQ, low on features, passable build, and excellent value.
- Perfect gateway lenses that got me into the Viltrox door.
The Air series easily won me over. Stellar performance for an astoundingly low price. I had gathered the 14mm,…
…20mm,…
…and the 50mm f/2 mentioned above.
Previously I had compared the Viltrox 50mm f/1.8 Air to the 7Artisans 50mm f/1.8 I had at the time.
And the 50mm Air came out in top.
And I was perfectly happy with the 50mm Air. Then Viltrox introduced the 55mm f/1.8 EVO.
It interested me because it seems like a combination of a number of past lenses I previously owned. This was when I had collected most Sony 50mm-ish options.
But this lens brings together the best of two of these lenses.
The focal length and aperture of the Sony ZEISS 55mm f/1.8.
Traded away mainly due to a lack of features (No aperture ring or other switchgear.) considering the price point.
The switchgear and build of the Sony 50mm f/1.2.
The why I traded this one away is outlined in painful detail in this post.
The short version? I wanted medium format.
Which all seems a bit crazy given the price difference between the Sony lenses and the Viltrox.
But the 55mm EVO is that good.
But I did not pick it up initially. Already owning the 50mm Air I could not bring myself to buy the newer lens. So I trolled the used websites KEH and MPB, and a Like New copy showed up om KEH for $100 off.
I bought it immediately.
Do I recommend this lens?
Yes.
Take all the positives I laid out for the 50mm Air and add:
- Aperture ring.
- Better build.
- Focus hold button.
- AF/MF switch.
- Click/declick switch.
And most importantly swift and accurate AF and great IQ.
Final thoughts.
Having used it I would happily pay full price for this lens.
Here are a few product pics as I close.
A perfect combination of every 50mm-ish lens I have ever owned all at a fantastic price.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
