[Music] Howdy again everyone I always like it When a new lens from the viltrox company Lands in my test lab for evaluation they Seem to always offer something a bit Different as well as generally good Quality and a low price tag and as a fan Of ultra wide angle lenses with bright Apertures you can imagine my excitement At getting to test out their new Autofocus 16 millimeter F 1.8 lens for Sony's e-mount memories full frame Cameras yes this is a full frame lens And one of the widest F 1.8 full frame Lenses available today make it Especially useful for architecture event And particularly Astro photography oh And it has a filter thread for front Filters also as you can see with a Full-frame Sony camera in hand you could Be getting some truly awesome images With this particular lens does that all Sound pretty exciting to you well what About a recommended retail price of only 550 US dollars that makes this lens Potential actually amazing value for Money if the quality is there that is Anyway I'd like to thank Phil trox for Sending me a copy of this lens for Evaluation although as usual this is a Totally independent review when it comes To build quality one of the first things You notice is that Phil trox have done a Nikon here and blessed us with a light
Up information screen for showing your Focus position and depth of field Information and aperture as well this Kind of thing is a bit of a gimmick to Be honest but actually when out shooting The stars in the dark I did find it kind Of useful to help me know where my focus Area was anyway putting that to one side The lens is metallic tough and a little Weighty it's built on a metal lens mount Which has a weather ceiling gasket as Well as a USBC port for future lens Firmware update nice then comes the Lenses aperture ring which can be set to Turn smoothly or to click at every third Of an f-stop which is something I always Like to see on the side we get an auto Manual focus switch as well as Customizable function buttons then comes The metallic Focus ring which turns Extremely smoothly and works nice and Responsibly with the lenses Focus motor The good news is that the lens displays Very little Focus breathing not zooming In or out as you change Focus the not so Good news is that the lens is autofocus Motor is quite slow as you can see here However that's not really a major issue On an ultra wide lens and real life Shooting and at least it works silently And accurately The Lens comes with a Plastic hood and its front filter size Is 77 millimeters you'll want to use Quite a thin filter for the front though
To avoid extra vignetting I found that My murumi fit and slim filter worked Fine the lens does not have image Stabilization overall the lens's build Quality is fabulous here especially Considering it's rather affordable price Action Shooters might be occasionally Frustrated by the slow Auto Vegas All right let's look at image quality I'll be testing it today on a Sony a7r III camera with its full frame 42 Megapixel sensor in the camera Corrections are turned on at F 1.8 in The middle of the image we see Razer Sharpness and excellent contrast nice Let's take a look in the corners wow They are noticeably softer but still Looking pretty great what a pleasant Surprise at F 1.8 stopped down to F 2.8 To see notes I believe more brightness And sharpness inner corners and at F4 Those Corners are now razor sharp with No discernible color fringing awesome if You stop down as far as f11 or Particularly F16 the image will soften Due to the effect of diffraction still This is an excellent performance for a Full frame lens with such parameters at Such an affordable price point well done Fill trucks okay let's turn off in Camera Corrections and see about the Lenses Distortion and vignetting good News on the Distortion front there's Virtually none of it which is another
Little bonus although at F 1.8 those Corners are certainly looking pretty Dark stop down to F 2.8 and they Brighten but actually that's about as Bright as they get so you'll definitely Want to at least correct for Corner Shading let's see about close-up image Quality now the lens can only focus as Closely as about 27 centimeters to your Subject so you won't be getting too Close to smaller subjects here but the Good news is that even at F 1.8 Sharpness remains excellent close up now Let's see how the lens works against Point light we see a slight loss in Contrast some flaring when bright lights Are directly in the picture and a little Glaring when they're outside of the Picture on an ultra wide angle lens this Is a bit of a weakness really be sure to Use the lenses Hood which will help you Just a little While we're working on a dog let's take A look at coma levels on right points of Light in the image Corners there's just A little coma smudging but thankfully It's nothing too serious to stop down to F 2.8 and it's virtually gone let's zoom Out and look for sun stars now it's only At about f11 or F16 that very slight Sun Stars appear on the brightest Points of Light so nothing to write home about Here in case you're wondering is the Night sky picture I showed you a little
Earlier at F 1.8 in the corners we see Good Clarity and sharpness overall but The very brightest stars do see some Colorful smearing here okay let's take a Look at the lenses bocker it's not easy To get out of Vegas backgrounds with This lens due to its Ultra wide angle And unimpressive minimum Focus distance When you do get them though the lenses Blocker is generally quite smooth Although specular highlights can suffer From a little outlining and just a Little bit of an onion ring substructure And finally related Longitudinal chromatic aberration at F 1.8 it's there but it's not very strong I'd have 2.8 it's actually about the Same but as F4 it's finally gone so Overall the viltrox 16 millimeter F 1.8 Lens presents loads to be excited about Great build and image quality a really Bright aperture for Astro work and Event Photography and all at a very affordable Price what a treat for Ultra wide angle Enthusiast with full-frame cameras you See this is why Canon should open up Their mirrorless camera system to Third-party manufacturers in my opinion Lenses like this are worth buying into The Sony system 4 and I'm tempted to buy One of these lenses myself it's Fantastic value for money useful and fun So it comes highly recommended I love testing out lenses like this and
I want to say a big thank you to my Patreon supporters who enable me to keep Doing it if you want to support me and Standing around outside in a freezing Cold dead of night testing lenses Astrophotography capabilities then check Out my patreon page in the description Below where supporters get all kinds of Exclusive bonus content which I really Enjoy putting together ciao for now Everyone Thank you
