[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my video review of the VR Autofocus 28 mm f1.8 STM lens this lens In many ways is kind of the Forgotten Lens in vr's 2023 lineup it's actually Part of the series that goes back to 20 21 that features a 24 mm 35mm and 50mm F1.8 lenses along with this 28mm f1.8 it Was actually part of the road map Scheduled to be released back in 2022 and uh but for whatever reason it Got pushed back a little bit so it's Part of that particular series which is Designed around Sony emount which I'm Reviewing here also available a Nikon Z Or Zed Mount Phil TRS in many ways is Just moving so fast they are a company On the the move and as a byproduct of Them moving so fast the slight delay on This particular lens means that they've Already kind of moved past this onto Their newest designs their more 2023 Lineup which are kind of higher quality Even more feature-rich Lenses and so as a byproduct this lens Is not getting a lot of attention Because they have so many other High-profile lenses that have come out In 2023 at the same time however there Aren't a lot of 28 mm lenses on Sony There's Sony has a lot of lenses at this Point there are so many different E-mount lenses but 28 millimeters is not
A very common one and what options are There tend to be at extremes either the You know the very old 20 Sony 28 mm F2 Which isn't all that amazing optically Then you have the very large Sigma 28mm F1.4 art though that's not a DN lens it Wasn't designed for mirrorless and so It's larger still it's several times Larger than the lens and of course it's Much much heavier all of those things And then you know you have some manual Focus lenses the laa AR Argos 28 mm f1.2 That I reviewed before but those tend to Be more Niche products so in many ways I Think this lens could serve as the sweet Spot for a lot of people who love the 28 Mm focal length so the question is is is It worth its price point of 379 or right under $350 if you use the Discount code that is in the description Down below Well that's what we're going to try to Answer right after a word from our Sponsor today's episode is brought to You by Phantom wallet the minimalist Modern wallet that is now even better With the new Phantom X that is crafted From aluminum right here in Canada it is 22% smaller and 35% lighter while still Making it easy to access your cards and Money when you need them thanks to their Unique Fanning mechanism you could even Customize your wallet due to its modular Design with accessories like a money
Clip cash holder ID display and even Chipolo and air tag tracking integration Visit store. fanom wallet.com to check Out their unique sizes Styles and Finishes that span from aluminum to Wood To carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 For 15% off when you're ready to check Out so this follows very very closely in The blueprint for all of the other Lenses in this series to date all of Them have nearly identical Dimensions so 70 m mm in diameter or 2.8 in 88.2 mm in Length or 3 1/2 in and it weighs in at 367 G or 12.9 o so again almost all of Those physical dimensions are identical And it's about 17 G heavier than the 35mm f1.8 which was the last one in the Series that I reviewed like all of those Lenses the build quality is actually Really nice it's all metal construction Uh it's built around a brass lens mount It's very good materials here in the Overall design and the lens feels Substantial it feels quality there is an Aperture ring on this it is a declick Aperture it is a little bit on the firm Side in terms of the rotation uh for Stills that's not really a big deal but Of course if you wanted to do aperture Racking being on a little on the stiff Side could you know just cause you to Introduce more vibrations and so not Optimal for that but there are the Markings at the 1/3 stop to tense on
Here or 1/3 stop markings but not any Detents there your only detent is Between the F16 and then there's some Resistance before you get into the Automatic mode so if you don't like an Apture ring just put it in automatic Mode and leave it there and you can Control apture from within the camera we Have a nine bladed aperture Iris here And I will note that on vtr's newest Lenses they've moved to a little bit Higher aperture blade count but this is The same aperture Iris design that we've Had for every other lens in this series It does come with a lens Hood in this Case like all of them they are plastic Not metal it is a fairly shallow lens Hood kind of ordinary there but one Thing I will note is that when you Reverse it for storage it reverses Really really tightly and so it's not Going to take up hardly any additional Room in the bag and so that does make it A nice uh lens Hood to bring along quite Easy to deal with now there aren't any Of the features that we've now started To come to expect from VTR in 2023 There's no Focus hold button or AFM Switch here there is no weather sealing Unfortunately but we do have is a vro Standard and that there is a USB C port On the lens mount that allows you to do Easy firmware updates unfortunately Another hold over from vtr's kind of
Former lens design is that we have a not Overly close minimum Focus distance of 37 cm and a fairly low maximum Magnification of 0.10 times now up close Image quality is quite good but Unfortunately you're not going to get Extremely high magnication from this Particular lens one final thing that I'll detail that could be copy specific But just in case you encounter the same Thing I noticed on both my A7 R5 and Then my alpha 1 bodies that I felt like The inbody image stabiliz stabilization Was a little bit jittery with this Particular lens so I wondered if it was Properly communicating the focal length I went into the settings and I changed To a manual setting of 28 mm and a meter That behavior improv so this is probably Something that can be fixed via firmware Update but for whatever reason at least In this particular copy I don't think it Was sending the right information to the Camera in terms of that focal length and So unfortunately as a byproduct the Ibis Behavior wasn't quite right again Thankfully we're set up to get easy Firmware updates and that's probably Something that needs to be fixed via Firmware so let's talk autofocus like All of this series autofocus comes via a Lead screw type STM motor and so the Lead screw type is the more robust kind Of higher end STM motor and I will note
Here that uh Focus activity is Essentially silent in normal operations You can hear a very light worrying sound If you put your ear right next to the Barrel and do Focus but it's not enough At least in my experience to be picked Up on camera um through the onboard mic So not really an issue there at all as You can see here Focus speed is fairly Good I tested both indoors and Outdoors And focus transitions are you know quick Enough and confident I found found that In just general purpose shooting I had Very very good accuracy very well Focused results so I don't have any Reservations there I did test some Action sequences and so in this first Burst there are 25 shots as I went Through and evaluated them I found that There were 21 that were perfectly Focused three that I would only call Acceptably focused and then one that was A back focus miss the second sequence Here I shot 31 frames in that sequence And they're basically all perfect so got A little bit better result on that one So for that kind of somewhat predictable Action I got good results I got not as Good of results when Nala was walking Persistently towards me that's something That really only the best cameras do Well for whatever reason and you can see That this was not the best result and That The Closer she got the more back
Focused the results Got I also found that if did work well Under normal conditions when shooting Either an animal or human subject I also Found that in low light conditions I was Able to get fine autofocus without any Kind of major slowdown so all of that I Would say is good now when it came to The video side of things some good and Some bad when it came to the focus pools The pools themselves are smooth as you Can see but one thing I noticed that it Never quite nailed the focus on my Foreground subject the background was Fine but the foreground subject was not It seemed to be somewhat isolated I Didn't have that same kind of issue Elsewhere uh for example when it came to My hand test I didn't have a problem With it transition conditioning from my Hand to my eye there's one situation Where I inadvertently left my eye Exposed and it stayed locked on that Which is what it should do the camera Lens combination should do under that Circumstance overall however I would say That that test went well likewise when I Was out kind of just shooting various Video clips where I wanted to transition From one subject to another there is a Fairly low amount of focus breathing and So I found that Focus transitions looked Good they looked smooth there wasn't Anything jarring about them and so
Overall I would say that autofocus was Positive for me it's not Sony GM level Of positive but for this kind of level Or class of lens this is really quite a Strong autofocus Performance so as we look at the image Quality from the series there's a lot of Familiar patterns that I saw reemerge Here the MTF chart looks good but not Great I actually felt like the real World results looked a little bit better Than what this MTF chart would suggest To me but you don't have to take my word For it let's Dive In let's take a look Together so we'll start by taking a look At vignette and Distortion here and so You can see that there's a little bit of A ping cushion Distortion and then there Is a heavy amount of vignette now while The amount of distortion is minimal you See I used a minus three to correct and That works okay in these middle lines But you can also see that it has kind of Artificially created a little bit of Unevenness along the edges and so Unfortunately it's a little bit of a Complex Distortion pattern now when it Comes to the vignette had to max out the Sliders here to correct for that that Vignette is very heavy probably Approaching four stops in the corners Now there is an automatic correction Profile as you can see here it does Fairly good not perfect but fairly good
With the Distortion you can see to me it Looks like there's still some vignette That's left over so it's not corrected Quite as much as what I would like the Other major Optical flaw here is that There is definitely some fairly Pronounced fringing after the plane of Focus and so that's going to show up in Some bouqu highlights and you can see Just not a ton of the purple so much but After the plane of focus definitely some Of that green fringing which will be an Issue in some situations take this shot Right here and so you can see that if I Zoom in here detail looks pretty good But you can definitely see after the Plane of focus there's some of that Green fringing in these high contrast Areas now the other type of chromatic Aberration which are lateral chromatic Aberration they show up near the edges Of frames uh you can see here that That's a non-issue even without any kind Of corre we have a nice transition from Black to white it's that longitudinal Style chromatic aberration that is the Problem here so for our sharpness and Resolution test here is the test chart I'm going to shoot on a Sony a7r Mark 5 And show you results here at 200% so Definitely a torture test that's 61 Megapixels shown at very high Magnification and yet you can see in the Middle of the frame it actually looks
Quite good good detail there if I pan Over this direction still holding up Pretty well up in here contrast has Dropped dropped a little bit as you can See but still a fairly strong result and Then if we go all the way down towards The corner you can see that the corners Look okay you could just see that They're just not as quite as crisp here As what we have seen there in the center Of the frame over on this side the same Is true you know it's just the details Don't really sparkle yet now of course Out in the real world things aren't Quite as demanding and so here in The Sweet Spot in the center of the frame The shot of Ferrari shows a beautiful Amount of resolution and and texture all Throughout his fur very very good Focus As you can see and so I mean there's Nothing wrong with that image now Stopping down from F18 to F2 gives us just a tiny bit of contrast Boost there in the center of the frame Going off towards the mid-frame again It's a very Mild improvement down here In the corner you can see just ever so Slightly more contrast but it's nothing Has really changed all that much yet now It's in the jump from F2 to f2.8 that we Have a more significant boost here in The corners Corners starting to look Really quite good if we pop back to the Mid-frame you can see that the mid-frame
Contrast is looking strong if I go over To this side you can now see a lot more Detail and contrast a little more Sparkle coming into the Queen's eyes There and then if I stop on down to F4 You can see now that there's really Really good contrast and detail and so Everything is strong everywhere we look In the frame just a really really great Performance right up here into the Corner you can see good detail there up Here at the top everything is looking Nice and crisp now you can see from f5.6 To f8 on this high resolution body that We Peak pretty much at f5.6 f8 is almost As good just a very very slight bit off Mid-frame both look good but f5.6 is Probably a little bit better and even Down here into the corner the corner is The only place where you might just get A slight more at f8 though I think You're splitting hairs at this point now After f8 defraction is really going to Start to hit and so you can see by F-16 Which is our minimum aperture everything Has softened up quite a bit though F-16 Is not a a tiny minimum aperture and so You can see that it's not great compared To what the lens has been but neither is It unusable either now as is often the Case with these viltrox lenses the Minimum Focus distance and magnification Is not great however because we're not Super close we've got a nice flat plane
Of focus and good detail up close and so As a byproduct for example in this shot Again that's not a lot of magnification Obviously but if I zoom in there and Look at it at 100% magnification the Detail looks really quite good up close And that leads us to a discussion about The bokeh here you can see there's just A little bit of that fringing that shows Up here so a little bit of outlining but The boka looks pretty decent there in This shot here a monochrome I think that Everything actually looks really quite Nice up close obviously you have that Advantage here we can see a fairly good Subject isolation and very good detail On the subject and then as we transition Towards defocus B is looking pretty Decent there this image I think looks Really really great this spider web and So we've got a nice amount of focus There in the center of the web and then Everything else is pretty nicely Defocused this is another image and I've Kind of given this a processing look but It really kind of Suits the Autumn scene Looks really nice now if you get a Situation like this where there isn't a Lot of distance between the subject and The background and the background is Somewhat busy as we've got here you can Definitely see that it's not perfectly Creamy so there are situations where the Bokeh can tend towards a little bit more
Busyness if you're not in an optimal Situation now I do feel that vtr's most Recent Optical glass is better than what It was in this particular series you see That a lot with the fringing for example And so it's a little more prominent here At the same time however they were Making progress throughout the series And so I feel like the color rendition Is better in this lens and what it was And a lot of them and so colors there Actually look really quite Rich uh here I think colors look really really nice In this image uh in this image obviously I think colors look really fantastic as Well now here once again I've kind of Processed for the Misty kind of autumn Scene but you can see that just the Images look really really great and so The colors here I have intentionally Muted them just a little bit but overall I found that images were certainly I was Able to process them and get an in Result that I was really quite happy With now flare resistance was another Area that I thought actually was quite Good for a not overly expensive lens we Can see that contrast is holding up Quite well here at the wide open Result In the same setting you can see the 18 Bladed Sunstar a little bit of a Ghosting pattern here but to me it looks Artistic rather than nasty and what I Found in just general shots where I put
The sun in the frame is that they Weren't marred by any kind of ghosting Artifact I could stop down and get a a Little bit of a Sunburst not as clearly Defined as what I would like but looks Pretty decent and all I've gotten here Is just a little bit that is not Destructive to the image at all uh in This setting here wide open I think it Looks great and obviously the sun's a Little less intense early in the morning Like that but I think the capture of the Morning light is nice in that image in This image here obviously we've got the Sun right at the frame this is a middle Aperture of F5.6 you can see there's just a little Bit of a ghosting artifact here but That's it uh otherwise the image looks Really really great another image here Where I've intentionally kind of put the Sun near here to give the Sunburst Effect but you can see contrast in the Image looks nice overall looks really Good one final thing that we'll look at And that is coma performance for at Night so overall the look is pretty good Here there's two flaws I want to point Out number one because there is a bit of Fringing you can see that on these Really bright Points of Light the Celestial bodies that are brighter I see A little bit of fringing and then as we Get towards the corner you can see that
It starts to look more like flying Insect so definitely some coma smear Unfortunately in the corners of the Frame I did try testing or stopping down To F2 it's not really a significant Improvement it just seems like they're a Little bit more in focus and so this is Obviously an image or a lens that you Could use for shooting the night sky but Neither is it going to be a Top Choice For the issues that I have detailed here So in conclusion by the standard of this Particular series 24 3550 and then this 28 mm lens I think That this is actually one of the best Options in the series it uh does a lot Of things quite well and overall image Quality results look quite good I got a Lot of greatl looking images out of it Without a whole lot of effort and so I Think that if you're looking for a 28mm Lens I think that it's certainly a Worthwhile option in some ways the Perception of this lens is Tainted a Little bit or the fact why it's getting Overshadowed somewhat is it's gotten Overshadowed by some better lens Releases from VTO in 2023 essentially What we're getting is a 2022 lens in 2023 and I think that it would have the Perception would have been higher of the Lens if it were released at its original Kind of plan point in 2022 at the same time it is still
Perhaps the best most well-rounded 28mm Option on Sony's platform and I suspect Probably on Nikon as well it's a lens That really doesn't have any kind of Major glaring flaws it does a lot of Things you know quite well and it Certainly serves that focal length very Well without a huge investment so I Think it's certainly worth exploring if You love the 28 mm focal length and You've been looking for a better option For your Sony or Nikon camera I'm Dustin Abbott and if you look in the Description down below you can find Linkage to my full text review there's Some buying links there linkage to an Image gallery if you haven't already Please like And subscribe thanks for Watching have a great day and let the Light [Music] In
