Episode 320: Is Viltrox Seriously Upping Their Game?

Show Transcript

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Greetings, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 320. So if you remember, in Episode 317 I talked about Chinese third-party lens makers and one of the companies I talked about briefly was Viltrox.

Well in the few years Viltrox has really started upping their game, especially when it comes to making great lenses for the Fujifilm X-Mount. Currently they are offering a 13mm F/1.4, a 23mm F/1.4, a 33mm F/1.4, a 56mm F/1.4 their version II of their popular 85mm F/1.8. Now Fujifilm is NOT the only lens mount that Viltrox covers, they offer lenses for Sony E-Mount, Nikon Z-Mount and until asked to cease and desist, Canon RF mount, but since I am shooting Fujifilm X/GFX systems, I am talking specifically about their Fujifilm lenses. They are also offering LIMITED GLOBAL editions of their 23/33/56mm lenses in both Red and White in addition to their normal black editions.

I have been shooting for almost 40 years as I have talked about on this show before and I love to buy first-party lenses, but I tend to only buy the ones that will make money, such as my 10-24mm for real estate and architectural work, my mid-telephoto such as the 16-80mm F/4 and my 50-140mm F/2.8. All three of these lenses make money for me so I have the Fujifilm lenses for these focal lengths.

In addition, like many other photographers, I like to shoot other genres of photography for myself, such as landscapes, portraits, especially of my grandkids as well as wildlife. Now, since I do not make my living with this work most of the time, except for sales on Getty, etc. I do not concern myself with buying more expensive first-party lenses. This is where third-party lenses come into my photography, and Viltrox is one of several that I have lenses from currently.

From Viltrox’s product line, I currently have the 33mm F/1.4 ($279), which is of course 50mm full frame field of view, I have the 56mm F/1.4 ($329), which is 84mm in full frame and I also have their 85mm F/1.8 II ($399) as well, which is 127.5mm in full frame. Now all of these lenses are not nearly as good as something similar in Fujifilm first-party lenses, but I love the quality of them and the images I make with them as well. They suit my needs perfectly fine, without costing me tons of money, which is a good way to go forward. Sure I could spend the extra money for the Fujifilm XF33mm ($699), the Fujifilm 56mm F/1.2 ($999), or the Fujifilm 90mm F/2 ($949). As you can see from the numbers, I paid a total of $1007 for the three Viltrox lenses I bought versus paying $2,647 for the three Fujifilm lenses.

Now what I mean by stepping up their game, Viltrox has recently released a new lens that is the 75mm F/1.2 PRO lens. This lens is the same as 112.5mm in full frame field of view and at F/1.2 is wider and brighter than any of their previous lenses. This new lens is fantastic with beautiful, creamy bokeh or blurry background, a nice depth of field and is all metal construction with a plastic lens good and a nice clicked aperture ring as well and the best part is a price tag of $549, which is unheard of for a lens of this quality.

I have not personally had the opportunity to shoot with this lens as of yet but from the reputable video reviews I have seen thus far, the image quality is AMAZING, with only a slight vignette when shot wide open at F/1.2 and the AF has a small amount of focus breathing, but for the money it is one incredible lens! The sharpness is very good even when wide open and contrast is great as well, with only a small amount of softness in the corners. This is also Viltrox’s first PRO designated lens, so this begs the question are they planning to make more? I have reached out to Viltrox to find out if they are planning more in this new PRO line, but I have not heard back from them as of yet.

With the introduction of this new 75mm PRO lens, Viltrox is now the first Chinese lens maker to offer two different lines of lenses like other companies such as Sigma has done with having Sport, Contemporary and ART lines of their lenses. Many of the first-party companies such as Canon and Nikon as well as Fujifilm have more than a single lens line and now Viltrox is following suite. I think this is fantastic from a business standpoint and that it will quickly move Viltrox to the top spot of Chinese third-party lens makers. Don’t get me wrong, I have a tTartisan lens, their 27mm F/2.8, which is also a very nice lens and I already had the Fujifilm XF 27mm F/2.8 pancake lens, but had to try the one from tTartisan just to see how it compared and review it for my Youtube channel. Again, with this lens you are saving considerable money since the Fujifilm model is $449 versus the tTartisan model selling for only $159 and that is a $290 savings if this lens is something you are buying to use for your personal passion work, although I can see someone making money selling their street photography captured with this lens, which like the Fujifilm model is 40mm in full frame.

I have the 27mm lenses because even though I prefer 35mm full frame for street photography, there are times when being discrete is more important, than I use the Fujifilm pancake lens on my X-E4. I have always preferred to be as unnoticeable as possible when shooting street and many people on the street don’t feel comfortable being photographed with a large camera body and lens combination and the goal when shooting street in my book is not to make the subjects nervous.

So, with this new move by Viltrox, I will be keeping a close eye on what they release over the course of the next couple of years and since they make lenses for Sony E and Nikon Z as well, many photographers will be able to take advantage of this new, lower cost option to get spectacular F/1.2 lenses for a fraction of what Fujifilm, Sony or Nikon charges. As someone who used to shoot Canon, I can tell you that Canon lenses at F/1.2 are $2,000+ and the Nikon and Sony ones are not any cheaper.

So for anyone shooting with these three platforms is going to have way more options to choose from and hopefully Canon will get their act together and allow third-party makers to resume making lenses for the RF mount, but until then Canon users are stuck unless they want to use adapters.

What are your thoughts, will you be looking at Viltrox lenses going forward or will you continue to scrimp and save until you have the money to buy first-party F/1.2 lenses? Let me know if the Facebook group under the post this with episode that was shared into the group.

One more thing I wanted to mention is I would like to do an episode on listener questions so if you have any questions related to photography, please feel free to post them in the Facebook group as well under the listener questions post.

Remember I now have my own discount code for all Platypod branded products at http://www.platypod.com using my code LD20 you can save 20% off on ALL individual Platypod branded products EXCLUDING Bundles, which are already discounted and Square Jellyfish or Lume Cube branded items.

Also be sure to join the Liam Photography Podcast Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/liamphotographypodcast/ You can reach the show by call or text @ 470-294-8191 to leave a comment or request a topic or guest for the show. Additionally you can email the show @ liam@liamphotographypodcast.com and find the show notes at http://www.liamphotographypodcast.com.

You can find my work @ https://www.liamphotography.net and follow me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @liamphotoatl. If you like abandoned buildings and history, you can find my project @ http://www.forgottenpiecesofgeorgia.com. and http://www.forgottenpiecesofpennsylvania.com.

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