[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott Happy New Year to All of you and today we are going to Jump into one of our early reviews for 2024 and that is of the emount version Of the vro proa 27 mm F1.2 now like the emount version of the 75mm F1.2 with that lens I expected a Straight across Port it first came out On Fuji X Mount and my experience is With lenses that release on multiple Mounts that it's basically the same lens That is just ported over for different Lens mounts that's not what Vil tro did With the 75mm f1.2 instead we got a lens That surprisingly had a number of Additional features on emount and that's True here with the 27mm f1.2 it has core Upgrades like an AF MF switch a focus Hold or custom button and and it even Has a dclick option for the aperture Iris one of the other things that we get As an improvement on Sony is that Autofocus is improved largely because Not only does vro lenses work a little Bit better on Sony but of course Sony Has a more robust autofocus system at This point particularly when it comes to The fringes that we'll talk about a Little bit here today now like on Fuji This lens has a slightly uh tighter than 40 mm uh fullframe equivalency making This a really great normal lens now I
Know a lot of people are programmed to Think as 50 mm as being kind of that Optimal normal range but having shot a Lot of different lenses over my career Obviously at this point I'm really Partial to this particular point of view Because it gives you just a little bit Wider framing than what 50mm doeses so a Little bit more flexibility but when you Pair it with a huge maximum apture of F1.2 it also allows you to get really Shallow depth of field results making it A really versatile lens for a lot of of Things from Street to capturing family Events to shooting portraits but then Also the flexibility to do things like Landscapes or some Interiors it still is Very very useful now it's a little bit Different of a lens map here on Sony and Truthfully the Sony equivalents apsc Specific equivalents are you know lenses That tend to be old and expensive and so When it comes to this vro lens its only Real disadvantage compared to those Lenses is the fact that it is larger and Heavier than them but it also has a much Larger maximum apture and much better Image quality so this lens is a real Treat on Sony and we'll dive into all The details of why 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 as before with the x-mount version This lens physically in terms of the the Size and the weight is almost identical But we do have here is a lens that is 82 Mm in diameter or 3.22 in so compared to The 75 mm it's 5 mm narrower it is 92 mm In length or 3.62 in making it 9 Less Millimet in length compared to the 75 mm And it weighs in at 571 G or 20 o which Is about 110 G lighter than the 75 mm Now obviously particularly when you're Talking about that weight this is not a Lightweight lens on apsc and and so you Know that is going to be probably your Your biggest negatives to take in that This is in some ways a more natural fit On something like my a7r mark 5 in apsc Mode though I will note I recently
Traveled with both this lens and I was Doing the review of the a7c which which Is basically almost identical in size to The Sony a6600 A6700 cameras like that and I will say That I had no issues with carrying it For hiking or doing any number of things I wasn't using the grip extender because I wanted to travel as light as possible And so you know I shot an apsc mode on This camera because it gave me also the Option of shooting some of the fullframe Lenses I took along and frankly it Worked just fine now your mileage may Vary and your tolerance for how much Weight you're going to carry is going to Obviously vary somewhat but I will say That it does work now obviously as noted There are more features here and Everything works fine AF MF switch Always a treat to have having that Function button which you can program to Different functions within the camera is Very useful and while we have the same Aperture and aperture Iris as before Aperture ring in that we can do one Third stop uh clicks here you also have The option on the Sony version to Declick that aperture for smooth Aperture racking for those of you that Are inclined towards that some extra Features that make this lens really Really premium now there is also an 11 Bladed aperture Iris which again is more
Premium than a lot of the Alternatives Out there and so this lens is quite a Treat in a lot of ways you have a lot of Different looks you can do with the look Of the aperture and that wide open it Does have a little bit of a swirl effect But you stop it down even to say about F1.6 and you can get really circular Shapes all across the frame This is a thoroughly weather sealed lens As well and so it has by my estimation Based on the the Fuji diagram has 10 Seal points but there are at least three Different other potential seal points Here because of the button and two extra Switches and so I'm going to guess that There are 13 seal points though that Information has not yet been released by Vro it also has a nano HD coating on the Front similar to a flooring type coating To help with finger Tri fingerprints Moisture resistance and things like that Now the lens hood is included it is not A particularly shallow lens hood and I Do have a little bit of a complaint here In that it doesn't bayonet super tightly And so it isn't hard to kind of bump it Loose you can hear it clicking there and So you would feel like it's really Locked in but it just doesn't quite hold As much as what I would like I also note That everything else here is all metal It's really really nicely executed and The lens Hood being plastic just feels a
Little bit cheaper that's kind of the Nature of the Beast now the Rings Themselves move really nicely the um Manual focus ring even though it's Focused by wire it has really nice Damping and weight there's no visible Stepping or anything like that so it's Actually quite a nice manual focus Experience they have included a USB C Port and so you can do firmware updates To it and that is always very welcome And VR has proven that they will issue Firmware updates and help to continue to Improve the performance of their lenses And as with the x-mount version we do Have a better minimum Focus distance you Can focus as closely as 28 cm and so Instead of the standard 0.10 we used to Get on all vro lenses you got a little Bit better 0.15 times magnification Which is at least competitive at this Point means you can get some nice Looking close-ups with the lens that Just adds to the versatility of it so Again outside of the size and the weight This is a beautifully built lens that is Basically as premium as anything you're Going to find on Sony that is designed For apsc it's a really sweet lens now Autofocus here as before is a lead screw Type STM motor but as noted in my intro You get a little bit better performance On Sony for I think a couple of reasons You can see from my focus test that
Either indoors or Outdoors Focus speed Was really quite nice I've had the Opportunity to shoot with this lens uh Because I traveled with it in a lot of Different lighting conditions and Focus Was always topnotch I mean Focus speed Was good even in lower light situations Uh and you know either indoors or Outdoors and low light it didn't really Matter I was able to get quick autofocus So no real issues there my eye tracking Was typically very very good resulting In very good end results every now and Then it might get thrown just a little Bit but overall was excellent whether Shooting in video or shooting in Stills I also found that I was able to track Basketball action quite well even Shooting at f1.2 and it delivered just Accurately focused results again and Again and so I mean that's really really Fantastic obviously I found while Traveling part of what I was doing was Just being with family for the holidays That the autofocus worked really well For those kind of critical moments you Want to capture in life you know photos Of family and just the various things That you're doing it just nailed it and Delivered great results now what's a Whole lot nicer here on Sony as opposed To Fuji is the overall performance when It comes to video and so the focus pulls Were just smoother and more confident
Because Sony's autofocus for video is More confident and so as a byproduct I Got really nice uh in my focus pulls Test no pulsing no hesitation no visible Steps likewise when I did the hand test It was really really good and nice you Know confident transitions from the eye To the hand and vice versa my only Negative in that is that there is some Noticeable Focus breathing and so you Can feel a little bit of abruptness as You make those Focus transitions because There is an obvious amount of breathing That takes place that just kind of pulls You into the movement a little bit more Than what I would like outside of that However I have no really critiques for The autofocus performance it was Excellent on Sony and I shot on multiple Cameras I got good results on all of Them now when it comes to the image Quality I will do a detailed image Quality breakdown at the end and so if You want to skip ahead to that to get a More detailed analysis you're welcome to Do so it is timestamped below but to Break that down for those of you that Want just a quicker overview we have Switched to Hoya Optical glass in these Lenses and you can just really tell that There was a very specific point where All of a sudden vtr's glass just got a Lot better and that's definitely Apparent here you can see from the MTF
Chart that this is great results Particularly for an f1.2 lens the fact That the lens are already survived the Ultimate torture test and anything that I review on Fuji's 40 megapixel sensor Means that 26 megapixels on Sony is no Problem not to mention that Sony files Are still a little bit edier easier to Sharpen and all of that and so it really Delivers a really great image quality Result now one thing that I got to test Here that I didn't get to test on Fuji Is how much of the full-frame image Circle that it that it covers and that's A question that obviously a lot of People are going to have and so Obviously if as you look at this it does Not cover the full frame image Circle There is some very obvious hard black Mechanical vignette where the image Circle is not fully covered so in kind Of testing to see how much wider framing I got I did get wider than the apsc crop But we're probably talking something Like 6 or 7 millim and not you know any Kind of anything really significant Maybe that is worth it to you it isn't Really to me I'm going to just use this As an apsc lens I don't want to have to Mess with cropping all the time time Anyway now as far as other measures it Has minimal Distortion so little that You probably won't even want to correct It in most situations vignette is a
Little bit more obvious it's required a Plus 68 to correct so over two stops for Sure and so there are situations where I Did notice the vignette and there's Other situations where the vignette kind Of works but there are certain Situations like shooting here in Ontario And snowy environments where it's Obvious and I don't want to mess with That and so that will require some Correction there's excellent image Quality all across the frame even at F1.2 and uh it's this is a very high Resolving lens so the center is super Sharp mid-frame is very sharp and Corners just lagging a little bit behind There there is a fairly significant Contrast Improvement by f1.8 and then Throughout the rest of the aperture Range image results are just super sharp And because defraction comes a little Bit later at 26 megapixels I found that Even at the minimum apture of F-16 Results were still I thought perfectly Usable and so this is a lens that Basically works from f1.2 to F16 here on Sony the Boke looks good as a noted There's a little bit of a swirly effect That has something to do with very much Lemon or cat ey shapes along the edges Of the frame you can stop down to about F1.6 or smaller if you want really round Boke circles across the frame that's a Priority to you it has a very high 11
Aperture blade count so it does keep a Really nice circular aperture shape I Found in testing for coma that this lens Actually did really good for that as Well and it's very crisp with star Points and there's not a huge amount of Comatic distortion along the edges of The frame or aberration and so it Delivered really good results from that And surprisingly for an f1.2 lens really Flare resistance is quite good here and So particularly wide open I just get a a Really kind of very slight but artistic Veiling effect wide open and then when Stopped down there's just minor ghosting Artifacts not really bad at all and so In summation this is an incredible lens That just gets better on Sony more Features slightly better performance and It's it's kind of a no-brainer kind of Lens because to me this is an incredibly Useful focal length and if you're going To get just one prime lens and you can Deal with the weight this is kind of a Prime lens to get because you can just Use it for so many different things and Having that huge maximum apture of f1.2 Just adds to the versatility gives you Just more creative creativity in the Kind of shots that you can capture It's a great value at under $550 and you can use the code Dustin Abbott if you buy from vro and get an Additional 8% off and so getting that
Down just a little over $500 makes for a You know a pretty sweet value for a lens That just does so many things so well And so if you are comfortable with a Slightly larger lens go get one this is A fantastic lens and if you watch my 2023 da Awards you know that the x-mount Version of this lens was one of my award Getters and it's even better here on Sony now if you want an even deeper dive Into performance stay tuned and we're Going to dive into an image quality [Music] Breakdown now because Fuji X Mount is Only apsc I didn't have the opportunity To test how much of the image Circle That this lens would cover for a Fullframe camera so this is the apsc Crop on Sony if we take a look here you Can see that 6240 by 4160 that's the Pixel dimensions and so here is on Something like a Sony a7r Mark 5 61 Megapixels this is the fullframe image Circle so you can see 9504 by 6336 is the pixel dimensions now you can See that on the image Circle so this Would be the edge of the frame here you Can see because of the the ratio but you Can see that there is a significant Portion in that those corners that is Just not not covered at all and so this Is a hard mechanical vignette you're not Going to recover that by adding exposure Because all the light is being blocked
From reaching the sensor so obviously This is not a full-frame lens Masquerading as an apsc lens however we Can see that you can crop wider than the Actual apsc image Circle here if you're So inclined now you can see I there's a Little bit of vignette left in the Corners I didn't attempt to correct that But it's enough that you probably could Correct that but this is what I consider To be kind of a reasonable crop in so if 6240 on the long end represents the apsc Or super 35 crop I was able to leave it As wide as about 7110 now if we calculate 7110 by 4740 that has us at a little over 33 Megapixels and so that's getting us into Something more like the Sony a74 range With its resolution and so obviously not Bad and you can see that it's definitely Wider there's more in the frame so I Mean it's it's not something I would Personally do but if you want to go There it is viable I guess now when it Comes to the Natural vignette and Distortion here we can see that Distortion is nearly non-existent you Could leave this uncorrected and Probably never notice it even if you're Shooting a brick wall however vignette Is definitely noticeable now in this Case I did dial in a plus two to correct The very very minor amount of distortion If you wanted to mess with that but
Vignetting I've done a plus 68 in the Corners and moved the midpoint most of The way over to give an even Illumination here so a little over two Stops of vignette in the corner now as You stop The Lens down most of that Vignette will naturally dissipate so Here at F1.2 and then at f5.6 no correction on The right side or the left you can see The vignette is very noticeable but stop Down it's essentially gone and up here In the corners and here at the edges you Can just see that everything looks nice And clean so when it comes to Longitudinal chromatic aberation ations We have a very near app chromatic Performance here in that you can see There is very little fringing either Before or after the plane of focus and If you don't see it in this kind of Setting you're not going to see it in Many settings here for example I've Taken a shot of an old classic camera Here with lots of reflective surfaces And you can see that all the typical Places where you would see fringing I Can see just the slightest bit of Fringing right there but you know and Here and here but it's so min skule that Even at a pixel level you can scarcely Notice it so this is a really strong Performance when it comes to Longitudinal chromatic aberration
Likewise lateral chromatic ibration very Well controlled and here near the edge Of the frame on my test chart uh you can See that they're just isn't any fringing To point to all the transitions are nice And smooth now the fact that this lens Performed well even on Fuji's extremely Demanding 40 megapixel apsc sensor means That on a lower resolution 26 megapixel Sony sensor we're not going to have any Problems and so even at 200% 26 Megapixels we can see that the center of The frame very crisp mid-frame looks Fantastic you can see that bit of war That is developing there and that I only See that when you have a really high Contrast lens and so that's that's Actually a really positive sign and here In the corners we can see that right off To the very very edge of the frame we Actually still have continuing Resolution and it's resolving well if Anything I would say it's actually Sharper at the extreme Corner than what It is going back about four or 5% it Looks better here than it does here so That is a really impressive performance To give you some real world perspective At how this lens performs at wide Apertures you can see here that uh even This is a more typical 100% Magnification you can just see how all The little fine hairs are really well Delineated it's just really really
Beautiful uh this shot here you can see With skin tones this is at f1.6 but you Can just see how much detail is being Rendered by the lens it is a really Fantastically sharp lens now something a Little bit interesting at f1.2 to f1.4 You can see that the camera metered the Same so though the histogram shows that There is a difference but what is Interesting here is when you look into The corners and you can see that there's Actually a considerable amount of Vignette lift even at F1.4 so there's a little bit of a pro Tip if you you don't want to mess with Correcting vignette you can stop down to F1.4 and actually get considerably less And so as a byproduct because vignette Is not affecting the or because V Vignette is affecting the overall Metering less the camera is metering at A similar place even though the aperture Is a little bit smaller you can also see That there is a little bit of a contrast Boost there at f1.4 so that mild bit of Stop down does give you a bit of Improvement and obviously it's going to Give you brighter Corners as we've seen Already now from f1.4 to F1.8 there is a continued Improvement in Terms of contrast you can see that There's just a little bit more punch There and uh you can see that in the Midf frame as well which just looks a
Little bit crisper still and then down Into the corners where the corners are Looking number one a whole lot brighter You can also see there's just more Contrast Just Between the dark areas and The light areas at f2 and then at f2.8 We can just see continued improvements This lens is just now just at f2.8 it is Just mind-blowingly sharp in the center Of the frame we come down here amazingly Crisp with great contrast right off to The edge of the frame looking great There we'll take a quick look at Centering and you can see looks great up In the upper left and up into the upper Right we've already seen the lower right Well centered Phil tro is in my opinion Really starting to nail quality control As well and I just see a really Consistent performance out of their Lenses now as we stop The Lens on down I've got f8 on the left and then F16 on The right and we can see that while Defraction is starting to diminish the Results to where the contrast isn't as Good as we see f8 compared to F16 which Is minimum aperture on the right we can See that contrast is reduced a little Bit but we can also see that it's still Perfectly usable and so this is a lens That at least on Sony because of the Lower resolution point so I would Actually consider this to be perfectly Usable all throughout the aperture range
Now one key thing that vro has finally Started to improve in is improving their Minimum Focus distance and thus maximum Magnification and we can see here that This lens has a magnification of 0.15 Times uh contrast still looks good in The center of the frame I think it's Reduced just a little bit there's just a Little bit more Haze at minimum Focus Distance but overall it's still very Good and so as a byproduct you can get Higher magnification but here in real World use that contrast still looks very Very good and because there's not a lot Of fringing there even on something like Highly reflective like this with lots of Potential for it just gives me a lot of Room for doing up close type shots here I stopped down to F2 and you can see Magnification is high but that detail There is just Exquisite and so it you Know makes the lens all the more Flexible now often when you have a lens That has this high of a level of detail And contrast the boka suffers Fortunately in this case I think that Vro has struck a pretty nice balance and This image you know it's got that great Detail there but the bokeh even with a Lot of potential busy areas really looks Quite good now as talked about Previously there is definitely some cat Eye or lemon shape that produces almost A swirly effect at
F1.2 but for many people that can Actually be a desirable effect and if You don't like it you just stop down the Lens a little bit as we'll see in a Moment and that goes away but you can See here at f1.2 that ability to use Bouquet and depth of field to really Create Unique Images uh for portraiture Here we can see that we've got good good Detail on my daughter's face but you can See that the bab behind looks you know Really interesting and so here you can See at f1.2 kind of that cat eye effect Towards the edge however if I stop down For another shot this is only at f1.6 You can see already that we have Circular shapes almost per completely Perfect it's not quite perfect yet but Almost perfect right up to the very edge Of the frame now that Hoya optic Optical Glass in these lenses has really made it Difference when it comes to the overall Colors I used to find vtr's colors just A little bit garish and unnatural I'm Really impressed with the Improvement Now colors are really rich this is Fountain Hills Arizona a beautiful spot And so uh you know in that 11 bladed Aperture here you know to be able to Capture that in the sorro and to get That really cool effect there here's Another shot of the desert at Sunset and You can see just the colors are really Beautiful and Rich here back back in
Ontario you can see that while the Scene's a little more winry you can see That the colors are natural and they Look good for something like Street Here's a great example of all of the Things we've just talked about and so Getting up close great detail that's There but the bouqu here is really Creamy due to that huge maximum aperture And the colors look really really rich And so impressive now when it comes to Coma and shooting the night sky Obviously a lens with a maximum aperture Of f1.2 is very interesting for that Particularly one that's really sharp and So you can see we don't have any Fringing around the really bright night Sky points so that's very useful and you Can also see looking right to the very Edge of the frame there is very very Little coma that is there and so vrox Has done something that's pretty rare And that has created a huge maximum Apture lens that manages to handle Something like this really nicely with Very minimal coma so this is obviously Outside of the vignette which is Correctable this is a very tempting lens For shooting Astro with finally when it Comes to flare resistance the lens is Not perfect but for a large apture lens It is very good and so here at f11 you Can see the Sunburst effect but you can Also see that either in the primary
Source of the Sun and in the reflected Areas it has an affected contrast Likewise here at a larger maximum Aperture we can see that you know it's Less defined in terms of the blades but Again we're holding up really well in Terms of contrast overall this is a Really really strong performance I from Top to bottom I'm extremely impressed so If you made it to the end thanks for Watching have a great day and let the Light [Music] In
