Scenes Seen: Viltrox AF 26mm f/1.8 EVO Lens.
Um… Have said this before…
What the heck Viltrox?
Where did you come from?
How did you do this?
I am still getting my head around what they have managed to accomlish.
But it goes a little something like this.
As much as I appreciate Sony my primary motivation for choosing it as my primary mount has been practical in nature. Not emotional.
The short version:
Being first out of the gate with a full frame mirrorless camera.
+
Allowing third party lens companies to play.
=
The best performance/value/variety lens mix of any brand.
To this point I currently do not own a single Sony lens. Each I own is unique with no directly competing option from Sony, and most are only for Sony. Some for Nikon. Fewer are available for the L mount alliance. None have Canon variants.
Add in competitive feature set that makes it good at most things and great at a few and that is a no brainer for me. But…
Passion? Emotion?
Nope.
I have said in this space that as much as I appreciate and depend on Sony they are camera shaped computers to me.
Now I must admit Sony has gotten better over the years. The current models I have may not be the best offerings on the market for clarity’s sake, but they are models of clarity and straightforwardness compared to the nearly inscrutable “where the heck was that?” maze of menus I used to have to decipher. Early on I learned to put what I needed in the shortcuts. Now it is not nearly as bad, but I still have to resort to Google occasionally. But I have long made my peace with that. The ergonomics have improved as well. But…
Still no passion.
Thought it was the cameras.
But I do not think so. I think it has to do with the lenses. How do I know this?
I am glad I imagined that you asked. Most recently I give you exhibit A.
It arrived last week and I have since set everything else aside. Everything. All I want to use now is this lens. Oh yeah. And the camera too. A necessity to capture an image.
But mainly I love this lens.
This from a brand I had not heard of not that long ago… Now wait. That is not true. I did use a lens of theirs with Fujifilm years ago.
A good lens… but I left Fujifilm and scurried back to Sony not long after. And with that the lens went also. Per Flickr I had it less than a month. But other than being a heck of a value compared to the available Fujifilm lenses it did not stand out.
Then came the Air lenses. Specifically this one at first.
…more Viltrox please.
What else do you have?
While I appreciate Viltrox swinging for the fences with their Pro…
…and Lab…
…lenses, even though they were good values relatively speaking, they were larger and of a higher spec that I needed for my purposes.
Then they did it.
Viltrox released the Viltrox 85mm f/2 EVO.
EVO you say?
After a bit of study I realized that this was a direct hit on my preferences. A sweet spot. Smaller and less expensive like the Air lenses with elevated build, features, and performance like the Pro and Lab lenses… Nice.
The spec reminded me of one my favorite lenses from my brief dance with Canon.
In retrospect it was the Viltrox reentry gateway lens. Because other Air lenses would follow in quick succession.
That lens showed me that f/2 at 85mm produced plenty of subject isolation for portraits…
…was plenty bright enough for low light with modern sensors…
…all while being relatively compact compact to faster glass.
Paired pretty well with the other RF entry level primes…
…but… similar to Fujifilm… soon after I sold it all off… and went back to Sony.
There was also another issue. I found that the 35mm and 50mm lenses above stepped on each other use case wise for me. A wider lens would have been great. But the lack of a compelling RF camera to pair with the RP and their refusal to allow third party lenses caused me to trade my Canon gear away. A 20-something-ish lens would be nice.
Well.. would you look at what Viltrox made. A 26mm EVO pancake.
Another winner.
Nice. They released a 35mm f/1.8 EVO and a 55mm f/1.8 EVO…
But I have the 50mm f/2 Air to fit in the middle. So I am good right?… … Right?… Right?!?!
Then G.A.S. struck. No, I could not bring myself to purchase a new 55mm f/1.8… But used?… When one showed up on KEH? Yep.
So good that not long after it arrived I traded the 50mm f/2 Air for film at my local camera shop. And then there were three…
…EVO lenses anyway. The 14mm and 20mm Air lenses went nowhere.
A better grouping of lenses than the RF lenses above.
And it was good.
After one of the first images I captured with it…
…really good.
Cool.
Onward.
The occasion.
A local music event.
Had a great time. And they also allowed me to sing a song.
The pics.
Arrival. I showed up before any of the other parties.
Let the event begin.
Thoughts.
Welp… As I stated in a recent post…
…this lens is G.A.S. antidote for me.
That is why I will not be bothering with trying another Songraw 50mm f/1.2…
…after the immediate failure of the first copy I received.
But because I do not need it.
I used to think I needed f/1.2… or it would be a great advantage over f/1.8. But this evening taught me that is not the case.I am as pleased with these images above as I was with the images I captured with the last, and best of breed, 50mm f/1.2 lens I had…
…in a similar setting.
All while the 55mm f/1.8 having a look and feel that puts me in the mind of that G Master lens…
…all in a more compact package and for waaaaay less spend.
Well done Viltrox.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
