[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott vro is back with Another inexpensive full-frame prime Lens for those who want to travel light The 40mm f2.5 is a full-frame normal Prime lens that is initially coming to Nikon Z Mount and it costs just $158 now for that money you're getting a Lens with sharp Optics decent build good Autofocus accurate autofocus and a very Useful angle of view but of course There's also the Nicor 40mm F2 that's Available for just about $100 and more So is the vrox AF 40mm f2.5 Z worth Buying well we're going to find that out In today's review so let's start by Taking a look at this focal length Itself I love 40 mm myself it is within That what's called normal range which Very closely approximates what the human Eye recreates as a byproduct images Taken with a focal link like this tend To be very relatable they look uh very Kind of natural and appealing in the Sense that they remind us of things that Our own eyes would see and so in that Sense it is a very useful to me it's Actually a bit more useful than what 50 Mm is it's a little bit wider so it's More useful I think in a typical room I Use something like 40 mm very often when I'm recording family events birthday Days things like that because again it's The images are have a little bit of a
Sparkle to them that people like but Also it seems to be a just right F focal Length in a typical sized room and so For that I find it useful as a Walkaround focal length also very useful Now as far as the build and the design Here this lens is as you can see from These photos is basically almost Identical to the 20mm f2.8 that I Reviewed last year and so like that lens It is very similar in terms of the build Quality the overall exterior Dimensions It feels about the same and so in this Case it is a plastic lens but it isn't a Cheap feeling lens at all there's Something about the Plastics that feel Fairly robust and I so far the 20 mm has Held up really well for me I suspect This lens will as well so the overall Dimensions are 68 mm in diameter or 2.7 In it's just a little bit wider because Of that flare to the larger Z Mount and So that's actually the widest point on The lens so 8 mm or 2.7 in in diameter The length is right under 60 mm or 2.2 In the lens weighs in at 180 g a bit Heavier than the 20 mm but 40 mm means You're going to have larger glass Elements so that is 6.3 oz so that makes It a little bit heavier actually than The Nicor 40 mm F2 but difference here Being is that the build quality is Actually better on the vtrs we have a Metal lens mount just a little bit more
More robust feeling lens overall so I Mean obviously neither one of them are Going to break any kind of Records but If you're holding them side by side it Is actually the vro that feels like the Better made lens now we have a 52mm Front filter thread up front very common Also again shared with that 20mm f2.8 it Does include the lens Hood and the pouch I have one complaint about the lens hood And it doesn't and that is that it Doesn't bayonet into place very Precisely it's not hard at all to move Move it and when you're mounting a lens On Nikon it happens to be the same Direction that you're rotating the lens Barrel to actually Mount the lens and as A by product it's really easy to move That lens Hood at the same time because Everything you're needing to rotate is Moving in that same direction they could Definitely use an improvement to the Locking a aspect of the lens Hood itself But again lens hood is included with This where it isn't with the Nicor so Some value there though as you can see It's a very shallow lens Hood now There's some debate as to how much Actual shading it's going to to Accomplish it comes with a little little Pouch as well again not a huge amount of Protection value but again you know at Least there's a little bit more in the Box now like the 20mm there is basically
No features on the barrel there's no Switches no aperture ring nothing like That basically it's just the manual Focus ring now the manual focus ring is Just fine it has good damping has good Precision uh I have no qualms with that Inside there are seven aperture blades They are not rounded aperture blades so Unfortunately you will see that apture Shape in some situations when the lenses Stopped down a little bit and so you Might see that in your specular Highlights so just something to be aware Of like all of the VR autofocusing Lenses it does have a USB port in this Case USBC on the lens mount to allow you To do firmware updates it's a really Smart move by VR and it is something That I've seen kind of spread out across Almost all uh quality third-party lenses At this point now minimum Focus distance Is 30 4 cm until the maximum Magnification is a ho hum 0.14 times Enough to be useful but not as good is The 0.17 times on the Nicor lens Obviously no weather seiling on a lens Is inexpensive though we do have a HD Nano multi-layer coating on the front Element to help with fingerprints and Oil things like that so this is a lens With no bells and whistles but it does Feel nicely made has a good manual focus Ring there's really not a whole lot to Complain about particular when you're
Talking about this amount of money so Let's talk autofocus we have an STM Focus motor in here while I found that The 20 mm focused quickly it's a little Bit slower probably the same Focus motor But driving again a little bit heavier Glass elements so autofocus is a bit Slower here I find it only medium fast And so you'll see that the transitions There is just a you can you can see the Movement rather than it being kind of Instantaneous back and forth but at the Same time in ordinary shots where I'm Not doing a big pull from one to the Other probably 80 to 90% of the time Autofocus feels nice and snappy it's Only when you happen to go from Something close to far away or vice Versa that you actually sense that a Little bit slower movement I did find Very good Focus accuracy here however Whether I was shooting family events Whether I was shooting some portraits it Locked onto the eye very well I took a Few shots of Ferrari as he was walking Along toward me and I was very Pleasantly you know pleased to see Autofocus locked accurately even on that Moving subject moving towards the camera And it was accurately focused which you You might think that's not a big deal But in my experience having you know Reviewed hundreds of lenses it's just Not always the case that autofocus is
Able to nail that particular type of Situation now on the video side of Things I F found that autofocus pulls They are smooth but they're not Particularly fast and what I found maybe More importantly is I begin to do things Like my hand test the hand test did not Go particularly well because I found That there's a tendency for Focus to Kind of hang on the subject it's already Got Acquired and there's a a bit of a Lag before it starts to focus on Something new when that is is removed And so for my hand test didn't really go Well I tried speeding up the autofocus Speed for video in camera but what I Found happens is that it still hangs Some when for example in this shot where I'm transitioning from one subject to Another kind of hangs on one subject and Then it actually focuses fairly quickly To the next subject once it actually Begins to acquire Focus but it's not Necessarily a smooth and cinematic Experience so uh overall as far as you Know not stepping not having kind of uh Settling or pulsing there's good Focus Confidence which is the case with this Lens in general but it's not as good in The transitions as what I would like and So I would say that video tracking works Well but video Focus transitions are not Fantastic there's a bit of focus Breathing but that's not bad fairly well
Controlled here that's not really the Main issue it's more just I would like It to be just a little bit more reactive In those types of situations so finally I'll give you a breakdown of the optical Performance and then if you want the Detailed Deep dive that will come at the End of the review we have 10 elements in Six groups here half of those being Exotic elements this is a little bit of A higher end Optical design than what Say the Nicor you know 40mm F2 is and so As a byproduct the MTF looks fairly good It's um it you know it's not exceptional In the center of the frame but it's a Fairly flat plane of focus and what I Found is that in the real world it Actually feels like one of those lenses That is maybe better than what the MTF Suggest one thing that has definitely Stood out to me in the last about two Years is that the optical glass on vro Lenses has really improved that was one Of my least favorite things about uh vro Optics in the early years but I feel Like their Optical glass has improved Where now colors look really good colors Have a very nice feel to them and here On Nikon I feel like they have a a Really it's a it's a good match there There's good contrast to the images now As far as some of the detailed there is Very minor amounts of longitudinal Chromatic aberration before and after
The plane of focus it's not bad but it Is noticeable ALS also you'll see some Lateral chromatic aberration near the Edges of the frame again nothing extreme But it is there as far as the Distortion In vignette there's almost no Distortion You're not going to have to worry about Correcting anything there there is However a a moderately heavy amount of Vignette somewhere between two and three Stops and so just be aware that that is Going to be a factor that vignette and And at least some situations is going to Need to be corrected as the M MTF Suggest the center performance is good But not exceptional it it's it's good Enough that in real world work it looks Great in my more demanding chart test it Looks just kind of average but I am more Impressed even in the chart testing of What I see in the mid-frame and then Also in the corners this is a lens that Works really well in the rule of thirds The typical places where you're actually Composing it's really really sharp in Those zones and so I I do actually like That sharpness profile because it puts The sharpness where you're most likely To use it when shooting at you know Wider apertures there is only a minor Improvement to contrast at f2.8 which is Only a onethird stop down so just to Give you an idea F2 is in the the Nicor 40mm F2 uh that F2 lens is 2/3 stop
Brighter than what this lens is this Lens is onethird stop brighter than an F2.8 lens so that little bit of stop Down doesn't really make a major Difference at F4 however there is a Significant uh Improvement to contrast And detail it's very strong across the Frame even the corners are now very very Sharp at that point you'll see that Really strong performance remain across F5.6 f8 at f11 you'll start to see some Softening due to the effects of Defraction I'm testing on a 45 megapixel Body so higher resolution bodies you see Defraction earlier by F-16 it's very It's much more obvious the softening due To defraction when it comes to the Bouquet quality it it is a little bit of A mixed bag uh there is a somewhat of a Bubble bokeh effect and you can see in This shot of the de in the morning the Outline looks kind of cool there me Again B is subjective so some people Love it some people you know won't love It what I find for me is that I like That image fine but I in some other Shots I felt like there's a little bit More outlining than what I prefer which Makes backgrounds a little bit busier Than what I would like it's better when You're very close to your subject and The background is more blurred out the Bokeh looks softer there and I like that Better there's also a bit of a mixed bag
When it comes to flare it's really not Bad when you're within the frame itself Some very mining ghosting artifacts not A lot of loss of contrast but you will See some flashing effect when the Sun or The light source is right out of frame That can be used artistically but again Just to be aware that it's there it is An optical defect if you want a deeper Dive at all the Optics itself just stay Tuned right after our conclusion here my Conclusion is this this is another great Bang from the buck lens I I really love That we are getting some really quality Lenses in and around the $150 range Which means that if you've spent a lot Of money on a new camera you can at Least put some glass on it relatively Cheaply and so I really appreciate that Autofocus is not blazingly fast but it Is quiet and it is accurate I think that For most people in most situations it's Going to get the job done and they won't Complain about it images look very good Actually images don't look like they Come from a cheap lens and as far as the Bang for the buck optically I think this Lens is really quite strong I think the Biggest decision has to be made between This and the Nicor 40mm F2 the Nicor has A little bit cheaper a build and it is More expensive but it also has a Brighter maximum aperture autofocus is a Little bit faster I'm actually waiting
For that lens to come in right now Myself for me to review it and I will do A head-to-head comparison between these Two lenses in the future and give you a Little bit of a deeper dive there but I I do think that the decision between Those two lenses is going to be probably The biggest deciding factor at the same Time however this is a very welcome Addition to the catalog and I love Seeing these thirdparty lenses coming to Full-frame Z Mount at this point that's Fantastic if you want more information You can either check out my uh text Review that is linked in the description Down below along with an image gallery And some buying links or you can stay Tuned right now and we'll dive into a Deep dive of the Optics [Music] Together all right so we'll start by Taking a look at vignette and Distortion You can see that as far as Distortion Goes it is so negligible that you Probably aren't going to need to worry About that definitely some vignette in The corners however I dial in a plus 72 To correct for the vignette now one Other thing I want to point out and that Is that there is a pro file that's Showing up here in Lightroom but you can See that for some reason it really Really overcorrects the uh Distortion And actually creates a fair bit of
Pincushion Distortion that just isn't There natively you can see that it's Very neutral natively you click that Correction profile and it actually Creates some pincushion Distortion so Just watch out for that now we can see That there is some longitudinal Chromatic aberration before and after Plan of focus I mostly see it in the Form of a little bit of blue green Fringing afterward so if we take a look At this image obviously very high Contrast you can see it's it's it's Minimal but you'll see some of that Bluish fringing that's taking place There uh right beyond the plane of focus Likewise you can see here that there is Some lateral chromatic aberration the Lateral chromatic aberration are Actually a bit worse than the Longitudinal Style again this is the Oneclick variety that's easily easy to Correct so probably not really a big Deal now a look at our overall test Chart here and this is on the 45 Megapixels of my Nikon Z8 body so uh Taking a look at just 100% magnification You can see that everything looks really Crisp and detailed everywhere on the Frame of course we take a look at a Higher resolution of 200% so at 200% Magnification we can see that contrast Looks good detail is not off the charts In the center of the frame which is
Exactly what the MTF suggest what I did Find though is that this lens definitely Looks better to me in the rule of third Zone Uh these these mid-frame areas than what The MTF suggest and you know that's on Both sides of the frame I actually saw What I consider to be good centering Here so looks really great throughout That zone popping over to the corner the Corner actually looks stronger than what I would have expected either on a higher Resolution body and again that's true as I look at the various Corners that's Really quite a good Corner performance Right off the bat from f/2.5 so what That means for real world images is that Detail and contrast are really quite Impressive you can see in the various Fibers of the Rope here how good and Crisp that looks this shot of Ferrari on The move and again I talked about this Couple of these shots earlier when it Comes to the autofocus but you can see That even on the Move there's good Detail on his fur and obviously very Accurate focus on his eyes the shot of Nala a still shot so allows the Optics To pop a little bit more you can see That you know while it's it's not like Up in the Zeiss Otis level it is very Nice good contrast and detail now if we Compare f2.5 to F2.8 we can see that you know you could
Argue that there is a very mild contrast Improvement there it's really not enough To see all that much you know I think I Start to see a little bit of a mo Pattern that shows a little bit higher Contrast you can see over on this side That you know there's definitely a Little bit there's a little bit more Contrast between the light in the dark But again this is not significant as of Yet you go from f2.8 to F4 and that Transformation becomes a little bit more Noticeable particularly in the corners Here where you can see now the corners Are bright and contrasty very good Detail so I mean basically everywhere That we look we're seeing very strong Performance by F4 all across the frame Things looking very good that Trend Continues from F4 to f5.6 which is just Very slightly better as you can see I Mean it's good across the frame though Again I'm impressed more elsewhere than The center although the center in real World results looks great but this looks Fantastic here now you'll be able to see A drop off starting to happen by f11 due To defraction you can see how much Softer we are from the peak there at F5.6 and if we switch that to F16 we can See that the image looks rather dull by Comparison to f5.6 and that's all due to The effects of defraction now our Minimum Focus distance we can see that
Detail and contrast are just okay here It looks not bad in this area and as we Get towards the edge here again it's not Looking bad but it's not off the charts Good but certainly usable at that point That leads us to the discussion of the Bouqu and so in this shot here we can See that the detail on the subject looks Really great the Boke looks good though With a little bit more outlining than What I would prefer you get a little bit Closer and it becomes a little bit Softer and I think it looks better there In this shot here with a lot of kind of Repeating patterns of the chain link Fence that's just too much outlining and So it creates kind of a bubble bokeh Effect that some people really like I'm Not necessarily a huge fan of it I Prefer to just get creamy and soft the Shot here once again you can see that You know there's definitely some real Outlining of these specular highlights And so again because bokeh is completely Subjective you'll some people will Really like that others won't now what I Think everybody's going to like is the Fact that we've got such nice detail and Color and such an inexpensive lens I Mean look at just how crisp the textures Look and the colors are very very nice In this shot here you can see that There's a wide VAR variety of colors There but you can see that it looks
Accurate it's nicely saturated it Doesn't look garish or go anywhere and So I'm impressed with the progress that They've made in their colors looking at This lens for portrait work we can see That skin tones look nice detail looks Nice the you know the bouquet again you You're getting some of that kind of Bubble Boke look but it doesn't look bad You know when we step back in this shot I think this shot looks really really Nice and again it's it's all the things Working together good skin tones good Detail on the face you know decently Blurred out background not bad at all And step back a little bit further and That's a lovely looking portrait shot so On a very tight budget you can Definitely get some nice looking Portrait work out of this lens finally Looking at flare resistance so here as We get near the edge of the frame I've Managed to catch a little bit of that Flashing that starts to take place as Far as ghosting artifacts it's pretty Minimal you can see here with the sun Star here at the center of the frame Which is not bad looking by the way it's Not amazing but not bad looking little Bit of some ghosting artifacts there but Nothing major we get off near the edge Of the frame there's a little bit of a Prismatic effect and then this ghosting Artifact here it's nothing that's too
Severe there's just a little bit of that Flashing effect that will create a look Like this which you know this is Probably a desirable look for many People but you just have to compose in The right way to get the result that you Want and so as you can see this is a Pretty good bang for the buck lens it Produces images that have nice punch Color overall feel to them it's sharper Than what we'd expect for a lens at this This price point and I think that that Focal length is extremely useful I hope That the Deep dive into the Optics is Help help you to make a more informed Decision for yourself as always thanks For watching have a great day and let The light in [Music]
