Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.4 E Lens For Sony E

I've had almost every Fujinon lens there is but sold almost everything when I kinda lost interest in photography. So I got the bug again but wasn't going to break the bank buying a bunch of expensive lenses when I found the Viltrox line. I purchased the 23 and 56mm 1.4's and couldn't be happier. Fast quiet focus, solid build and outstanding picture quality. And for a third of the price of Fuji!

A good portrait starter

I've been wanting a longer focal length for potraits, but I didn't know if I was fully prepared to drop the money on the Fuji 56mm. I thought that this Viltrox might be a good way to dip my toe into that focal length, and it definitely is. Pictures are sharp, so far. And though I haven't fully put it through its paces, it isn't immediately obvious that I'll want to upgrade to the Fuji 56mm. This seems like a good lens that's a great bang for the buck.

A good value, but not jawdropping

This is a good alternative to Fujifilm's 56mm f/1.2. I rented that lens, and was underwhelmed with it as a portrait lens: slow autofocus, anxious bokeh, large, heavy, and very expensive. Frankly I don't think it's one of Fuji's better lenses compared to their others. It's not bad, it's just not up to the usual standard. It's one of their older ones and needs to be refreshed.The Viltrox is a decent high-value alternative to the Fujifilm but it's not mindblowing. It's clearly targeted as a compelling alternative, a direct competitor. It's light, compact, bright, and the autofocus is quite a bit better than the Fuji f/1.2. (See footnote.)It's got reasonable bokeh although to be honest I don't like it better than the Fuji's. A wicker chair in the background of one ... MoreThis is a good alternative to Fujifilm's 56mm f/1.2. I rented that lens, and was underwhelmed with it as a portrait lens: slow autofocus, anxious bokeh, large, heavy, and very expensive. Frankly I don't think it's one of Fuji's better lenses compared to their others. It's not bad, it's just not up to the usual standard. It's one of their older ones and needs to be refreshed.The Viltrox is a decent high-value alternative to the Fujifilm but it's not mindblowing. It's clearly targeted as a compelling alternative, a direct competitor. It's light, compact, bright, and the autofocus is quite a bit better than the Fuji f/1.2. (See footnote.)It's got reasonable bokeh although to be honest I don't like it better than the Fuji's. A wicker chair in the background of one of my shots looked like it was just the right frequency to washboard instead of blurring smoothly. You'll have to be careful about what's not in-focus so you don't get distractions from the subject. Not everything just melts into dreaminess.Optically, it's very good but falls short of excellent. Sharpness is good with only slight field curvature. (Read Roger Cicala's articles on Digital Photography Review to learn more about assessing sharpness more specifically than the usual sharp/soft descriptions you'll read online.)More problematic than sharpness is chromatic aberration. Out-of-focus areas have pretty significant green/purple fringing. You'll need to be careful with high-contrast defocused areas to get good color rendering. The attached sample image demonstrates this; it's harsh sunlight shining sideways across paving stones. The shadows nearer to the camera are purple, more distant are green. This is shot wide-open at roughly a meter so it's a worst-case demonstration of this weakness. For me, 56mm is pretty long for portraiture, so I'm generally going to be much further from my subject and DoF is correspondingly greater; and that mitigates the effect a lot.These weaknesses are acceptable and pretty easy to work around once you know about them. I like this lens. It's a keeper, and I hope it encourages Fujifilm to engineer a newer generation of the venerable 56mm f/1.2!Footnote: I did get one weird blip in cold weather where suddenly my camera started activating focus check aids, as if the lens stopped signaling to the camera that it was AF capable. It hasn't recurred, so maybe I hit the focus lever button accidentally.

After Owning the Fuji 56mm 1.2 this Viltrox Surprised Me

I'm giving this five stars based on quality for the money and compact size. Photography is my full time living so I test every lens I buy both in the studio with ISO 12233 targets and in the field. Although there are some subtle differences between this and the Fujinon 56mm 1.2 R which I also owned for a few years, they are not significant.The Viltrox is slightly sharper in the center from f1.4 through f4 then the difference is less noticeable from 5.6 and smaller. The Fuji is only slightly better at the extreme edges and corners. If you're using this as a portrait lens the difference is immaterial.I love that it's also small and lightweight. Although I really loved my Fuji 1.2, it's not worth 3X the price, the extra bulk and weight and I rarely shoot at 1.4 ... MoreI'm giving this five stars based on quality for the money and compact size. Photography is my full time living so I test every lens I buy both in the studio with ISO 12233 targets and in the field. Although there are some subtle differences between this and the Fujinon 56mm 1.2 R which I also owned for a few years, they are not significant.The Viltrox is slightly sharper in the center from f1.4 through f4 then the difference is less noticeable from 5.6 and smaller. The Fuji is only slightly better at the extreme edges and corners. If you're using this as a portrait lens the difference is immaterial.I love that it's also small and lightweight. Although I really loved my Fuji 1.2, it's not worth 3X the price, the extra bulk and weight and I rarely shoot at 1.4 much less needing 1.2. Unless you shoot film, apertures that wide are more about trying to impress others than practicality. If you focus on someones eyelashes at f1.2 there's a decent chance their cornea will be out of focus. Many times the Eye-AF system can't even be accurate enough for 1.4 or 1.2.I still want to use this in everyday shooting some more for the final word but so far it's a keeper.

Best of the Viltrox series

I’ve bought all Viltrox lens for the Fuji X-system. This lens is by far my favorite of them all. First, these lenses are high-quality and in professional testing and reviews, they rival Fuji’s first-party lenses.For some reason I became enamored with the 56mm. I don’t know if it’s the focal range or the bokeh but it is even superior to the 85mm which I also use for portraits. The fall off and depth of field is beautiful in this focal length and the field of view is perfect to isolate your subject.My favorite and best Viltrox lens thus far. Looking forward to more fo their lenses.

Fantastic lens at an unbeatable price.

I was using the Fujifilm 50mm f/2.0 as my nifty 50. I wanted a bit more and this lens does it for me. I was a bit concerned about the size and weight but was pleasantly surprised when I mounted it on my XPro3. Easily has become my go-to walking around street lens. You can't beat the ability to capture street portraits with this lens. Like so many others have said, why pay more when you can get quality like this.

Imperfect, but it doesn't need to be

If you've done some research on this lens, you know it punches well above its weight class. Sharpness (in the center) is pretty exceptional, even wide open at F1.4. I've pixel peeped the shots and they're no softer than the images taken with my 35mm F2, at least in the center. Unfortunately I don't have the Fuji 56mm to directly compare but from what I've read online, the two are very, very close in terms of image quality and sharpness. Without a side by side comparison at a 100x crop, you'd almost certainly never notice the difference. Note that the autofocus performance on this lens is actually superior to the outdated 56mm, which is from 2012 and uses Fuji's sluggish first-generation autofocus motor. At less than half the price, this F1.4 lens offers pretty ... MoreIf you've done some research on this lens, you know it punches well above its weight class. Sharpness (in the center) is pretty exceptional, even wide open at F1.4. I've pixel peeped the shots and they're no softer than the images taken with my 35mm F2, at least in the center. Unfortunately I don't have the Fuji 56mm to directly compare but from what I've read online, the two are very, very close in terms of image quality and sharpness. Without a side by side comparison at a 100x crop, you'd almost certainly never notice the difference. Note that the autofocus performance on this lens is actually superior to the outdated 56mm, which is from 2012 and uses Fuji's sluggish first-generation autofocus motor. At less than half the price, this F1.4 lens offers pretty outstanding value.It's not without its faults. The exhaustive list of drawbacks to this lens I can think of include: clickless aperture ring (that still changes exposure in hard stops), lack of WR, relatively mediocre handling of chromatic abberations, corner softness at wide apertures, and stronger than average flaring with bright lights. These have all been relatively well documented across articles and video reviews on the web. If you're willing to put up with these, you may find this to be a killer portrait/general purpose lens for a steal of a price.

Outstanding lens for the price

Amazing lens for portraits. Very fast and accurate autofocus on my x-t30. There were some metering issues that resulted in some images being underexposed, but I can forgive that given the quality I am getting for the price. Image is super sharp even at wide open apertures. Edges might be a bit softer but I didn't care because my subjects were always in the sharp part of the frame. There was some purple fringing in bright scenes. Easily corrected in post. It has a unique color rendering that is a bit different from fuji optics.

Rendering is almost like some of my favorite vintage lenses!

Much smaller than I expected, but feels very well built. Autofocus is extremely snappy and so far pretty accurate (I'm using an x-t2 and x-h1).Pretty sharp wide open, but with pretty bad chromatic aberration (to be expected of a lens of this cost). The CA isn't too terrible to fix in your editing software of choice. Gets extremely sharp once you stop down to f2 and above (CA lowers a ton as well).Wish it was weather sealed, and I actually wish it had a plastic hood instead of metal (does a better job at absorbing hits, instead of just transferring it into the lens) but honestly there is basically nothing I can complain about.Overall, I highly recomend!