Episode 371: Viltrox’s New PRO Glass, Crushing the Competition

Show Transcript

Greetings, you’re listening to the Liam Photography Podcast, I’m your host Liam Douglas and this is Episode 371 for Thursday October 5th, 2023. In today’s episode we take a look at Viltrox’s second lens in their new PRO line, which is their XF 27mm F/1.2 for the Fujifilm X Mount. This lens is 40mm in full frame field of view and is one of the three most popular focal lengths for street photography for many shooters with the other two being the 28mm and my favorite, the 35mm.

I recently purchased my own copy of this lens as when I reached out to Viltrox for a loaner to review they never got back to me. It worked out as I had planned to buy the lens anyways since their AF 75mm F/1.2 PRO is so awesome and I already have that one and love it! After using the new AF 27mm F/1.2 PRO for a couple of weeks now I am loving this lens just as much as the 75mm. To me the 40mm field of view is perfect for both day time and night time long exposure photography, which is my favorite field of view for these two genres of photography. 40mm is also great for landscape photography, even though it’s not wide or super wide, it is still useful nonetheless.

This past weekend I took the 27mm F/1.2 PRO up to South Boston, VA for some Street Photography and to film a Youtube video about this lens and I had lots of fun and got some great images as well. I shot some of the images at F/4 and F/8 for the buildings, but shot some of the street signs and other smaller items up close using F/1.2 to get that killer depth of field. I’ll put the link to that unbox and review video in the show notes so you can check it out for yourselves.

Now something that I learned recently via an Instagram conversation with Viltrox that ties directly into the title of this episode, Crushing the Competition, is that this is just the beginning for Viltrox and their premium lens line. They are not only planning more lenses in the F/1.2 PRO line but they are also planning an even higher end line of lenses according to a chat with their official IG channel. What exactly this new line of lenses will entail for aperture and technology is of course a secret at this point and time, but considering their current F/1.2 PRO line are lenses that are already cheaper in cost and higher in quality than anything from Tamron or Sigma. Let’s be honest, I’m not saying that Tamron and Sigma do not make good lenses, they do, especially with Sigma’s ART line of lenses but their lenses, although cheaper than Canon, Sony or Nikon’s they are way more expensive than these PRO lenses from Viltrox. I am thinking there is a strong possibility that their next, higher end of lenses could include some sort of image stabilization, but I am wondering if they will continue with the F/1.2 aperture or go with F/2.8 as lenses with F/1.2 and IS would be very large and heavy. I also wonder if they have some sort of high end lens coatings they are planning to use on this next line of lenses that they are planning to release down the road.

Now for those of you wondering, I am certain that Viltrox will soon announce that they are going to offer this new lens for both the Sony E and Nikon Z mounts as they did for the 75mm F/1.2 PRO. Of course for those of you shooting with the Canon R mount bodies you are unfortunately stuck as Canon has been banning companies from making third party lenses with AF for the RF mount. Although there has been talk that they have been relaxing the restrictions, but they are requiring third party companies to submit their designs in advance and they must be lenses that Canon is not currently nor planning to make in the future, so maybe you will see an RF version of these lenses down the road or maybe not, we’ll just have to wait and see.

On Tuesday of this week I also had the arrival of my new iPhone 15 Pro Max in Titanium. I had been looking forward to getting this new iPhone for both myself and Tina as this is the first model to FINALLY sport a USB-C port and on the Pro Max model a 5 times optical zoom for the main camera. Mine arrived earlier than expected, but Tina’s will be a little while yet as she wanted the Blue Titanium model and those are still on pre-order. I love the new camera capabilities with this new 5 times zoom lens and you can get some truly amazing results with it. Additionally, this iPhone comes with  default full frame fields of view of 24mm, 28mm and 35mm and you can configure the default camera app to load one of these focal lengths as the default field of view each time you load the camera app to take a photo.

There has been a lot of talk on the internet about the iPhone 15’s getting hot, but let’s put this into context. First it is NOT just the iPhone 15 and it is not the fault of the iPhone as the overheating is being cause by certain games and the Instagram app. Apple has already released iOS 17.0.3 which has corrected the issue on Apple’s side as much as they can. When my iPhone arrived on Tuesday and I first set it up, mine got a little warm as it was downloading all of my 150 apps that I usually have on my iPhone, but no warmer than any of my previous ones got when they had to do the same thing on first set up. Once the initial set up was completed, the phone has stayed nice and cool even when charging.

One other thing I had not personally heard about but my friend Clint told me about was people complaining that the iPhone 15’s bend easily. I’m not sure how this is possible since it is made from pretty durable Titanium 5. I have heard these kinds of complaints over the years about most every model of iPhone but my response to those people as well as to my own son Daryn has always been, “Well, don’t put the iPhone in your back pocket and then sit on it Dingbat!” I mean honestly, how dumb does a person have to be to put their iPhone or any phone in their back pocket and then sit on it and then complain that it gets bent? If a back pocket wallet starts to get bent or curved over time from being sat on all the time as do your cards inside it, then why would you think your phone would be immune to it? Remember all your weight is sitting on that phone and your butt is not flat, it’s curved so it is going to bend or curve whatever you are sitting on in your back pocket. The other reason I would not recommend sitting on your phone is I don’t know about anyone else, but I personally have no desire to crack my phone screen and then have that broken glass cut into my butt and then have to go to the hospital and get sewn up because of it. I have actually heard of that happening from a couple of doctor friends of mine where they had to treat patients for that particular injury.

Ok, so now let’s take a look at a couple of news stories for this week from our friends over at PetaPixel.

https://petapixel.com/2023/10/04/photographer-buys-and-restores-treasure-trove-of-centuries-old-slides/

https://petapixel.com/kodak-dcs-history/

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.

I also now have my own affiliate link for Think Tank Photo, use the link to guy any of their gear, get a free gift and free shipping!!!

https://www.thinktankphoto.com/?rfsn=7232819.5f5392&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=7232819.5f5392

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.

Please also stop by my Youtube channels Liam Photography

Forgotten Pieces of Georgia Project

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