A $139 portrait lens? Viltrox AF 56mm f/1.7 lens review 

Considering the image quality and autofocus being present, the price is absolutely fantastic

Very nice for the price, truly a golden era for budget af lenses by third party manufacturers

I like character in fuji old lenses, but when it comes to pure optics, this company is making revolution regarding price and quality relation. I would really like to see them coming with some mid telephoto zoom lens.

Viltrox is on fire lately and I absolutely love it!

I picked this up immediately. I've been in the market for the fuji 56 1.2 v1 for awhile. Had seen it as low as $300. But for this to be under $150 was just a no brainer. When I got the lens, I couldn't believe how small it was. Comparable height to the fuji 35 f/2, a bit wider, and lighter. It fits super well on my xt30ii and couldn't be happier with it. Fine with taking the "quality hit" for just how compact this portrait lens is.

I thought some of these photos seemed a bit strange.. almost like a tilt-shift effect.. but then i realized these are miniature sets! so detailed!

I cannot believe that this is actually sharper and has less CA than the older 1.4 lens and so much cheaper! How is this even possible?

The Fuji 50mm f2 is stellar and this kinda feels like an XC version of it they never made - good on Viltrox

Seems truly great for the price. Before changing systems, I had the Fuji version of the 75mm f/1.2, and that was an absolutely brilliant lens. Viltrox really went from "your average cheap Chinese lens" to a brand that I respect, within a couple of years. Hope the 135mm f/1.8, which will be revealed on Sunday, holds up to these standards. If it's reasonably priced, I'm definitely getting it.

For me, the most impressive part is that they manage good sharpness with a rock solid bokeh. This is all for that price. I 100% agree with you, what a budget king. Now I'm curious about the 40mm ff, where I'm expecting a similar performance, which will be quite a pain in the bum for Sony once it's available for e-mount.

When I open a Viltrox review I assume there will be some kind of dealbreaker for me. Was not expecting to make it all the way to “highly recommended!” This seems like a perfect first prime lens experience for people used to kit lenses.

It would be interesting to see it compared against the Viltrox 56mm f1.4, the Meike 55mm f1.4 and others

Ordered, thanks for the review Christopher. As always a pleasure to watch and listen to.

This lens will put a big smile in any photographers face! Finally an affordable top lens!

What a fantastic lens! If I didn't already have the Sigma 56mm f/1.4, I would gladly buy it.

I was expecting the usual stop down to f/5.6 or f/8 for sharp corners. Impressive!

I would of loved to see them make a 56mm f1.2 to have a in between of the 27mm f1.2 and the 75mm f1.2

Chris, I’ve been waiting for you to review this lens and now I can put it on my ‘buy’ list. Dustin Abbott also gave it positive marks. Great value for the money.

I hope Viltrox will make this lens for Sony E mount too

Crazy that it's taken so long for a company to explore a cheaper AF lens market. I have the Viltrox 85mm and it's great, I could see myself picking this up soon too

I love low-budget camera lenses, and this lens is apparently fantastic! Thank you for this, Christopher. I really appreciate it!

Great to see more crop lens options for the Fuji X and Nikon Z mounts.

I feel like if Viltrox builds a better reputation for their quality control, they have a chance to put their name up with Sigma and Tamron as one of the best third party manufacturers.

comparing this to your sigma 56mm review, optically speaking this one seems to perform even better! less distortion, less chromatic aberration, albeit with a less macro magnification.

Maybe Fuji should release the XC version of XF 50mm f/2 as a response

I just received my copy. I was waiting for Chris's video but I hit the trigger first. First impression is very good

What an absolute steal of a lens. If you don’t already have this prime length you should 100% pick it uo

I hope they will make 23mm version

This is pretty amazing. It's all the more a shame that Nikon seems to neglect its APS-C Z lineup. Speaking of Nikon, do you plan to review their new 28-400 lens?

I don't know if it's my monitor, but the images look extra bright to me, to the point that i thought contrast wasn't good and ghosting was a thing.

Seems amazing just lacking a bit of transmission possibly but nothing to really offset overall quality, im super xcited for this one !

Viltrox keeps slaying. I really want to get the 75mm f1.2. But at this price and quality this lens is worth getting just for a compact portrait lens option.

If viltrox makes more 1.7 cheap lenses, I will purchase one in the future

Thanks for the review Christopher. Do you think this low budget lens is better than Sigma 56mm f1.4?

Finally, I am waiting for this! This will be my deciding factor. (Commented before watching the video)

This is a gem! As always great review. Much an appreciated.

Just ordered one based on this review Edit: other RU-vid reviewers are saying this lens is soft at F1.7 🤔

sadly they didn't keep the build quality of the 56 f1.4 version in this lens but anyway the image quality is far better

Absolutely incredible image quality.. Viltrox is killing just about every other lens manufacturer as far as the quality/price ratio.

It looks like the Viltrox is slightly better and cheaper. I'd probably go that route if I were in the market for a super budget portrait prime for APS-C.

Damn, viltrox is absolutely fire, especially their newest lens

Would like to see you do a video on the Fugifilm 90mm F2.

One minor thing that I think some people forget, and is fairly irrelevant. Most crop-factors are technically 1.52x but most people round off to 1.5x, so if you do that yes this is an 84mm lens, but technically if we follow the spec of most crop sensor cameras (excluding Canon and a few others perhaps) it wouild be an 85.12mm so 85mm, but the extra 1mm at that equivalent focal length is not likely to be noticeable to anyone. That being said, this lens will probably give the more expensive lenses a bit of a run for their money at just $139. Too bad these lenses didn't exist when I had a Fuji camera or I would have held onto it (but i was consolidating into one single system, but at least this lens is also available for Nikon Z so if I ever do invest in an APSC camera for NIkon Z, I'll have options aside from what is already on the market from companies like Sigma for the Z system).

I picked up the 13mm and its been a dream!

Sadly price bumped for all X mount lenses from Viltrox and now is $180 USD.

Is it worth saving about $120 with this Viltrox 56mm F/1.7 vs the older Viltrox 56mm F/1.4? I'm more for bang for the buck, not sure if the physical aperture is a big of a deal. Most importantly, going to use this 56mm for long term portraits and image quality matters a lot for me.

Wow. That’s pretty surprising considering the price. Nice.

How well does this lens create background blur (bokeh)? Additionally, could you provide insights on its low-light performance? I'm also interested in understanding how the autofocus performs specifically for capturing moving subjects in photography, not videography.

This lens looks very alike to my Lumix 25mm f1.7 lens for MFT

Good. I have one on the way.. I was teased with $132, but charged the full $139

Viltrox is now a very interesting option for Fuji and Nikon ( not only apsc models but also with full frame 45mpix (z7-8-9) in DX mode which lets more than 20mpix definition which is fairly sufficient for portraits when you generally don’t t have to crop a lot). The build quality of metal lenses is far more better than the Nikon SE line for instance for almost the same price and gets a diaph ring which is very pleasant. Nikon didn t think these 2 options were really a plus and didn’t integrate them in its SE line and it s really a shame. Viltrox offers even 2 option for its 56mm with f1.7 and f1.4 which is good. The f1.4 is of course better everywhere but this f1.8 is really a good opportunity to try and love prime lenses. The only thing that surprises me is the very short lens hood… strange for this focal. Anyway thanks a lot viltrox for these new and efficient lens and yes a comparison between the viltrox two versions and the sigma would be very interesting.

Sir I need your review on the new nikon 28 400. That lens looks promising.

There absolutely is no more excuse for making bad lenses. If Viltrox can do it at this price, every other lens should be excellent as well.

Christopher, did you have an extra cup of coffee before this one? Haha, I'm not complaining, it just felt energetic :)

Will you please test Carl-Zeiss, Zeiss 15 MM f2.8 ZE Thank you for all the tests 👍

You reviewed the ttartisan 56mm 1.8 as well but which do you prefer ? The price for the viltrox doesn’t seem to be at 139 usd anymore

This is going sell by the buckets loads. What an amazing performance for peanuts

Great review, thanks!!

very nice review. thank you

Which one is better: Viltrox 56mm f1.7 or Sigma 56mm f1.4?

These Chinese autofocus primes are getting scarily good. I am sure first parties are taking notice...

Obviously a good quality and value for money lens, however I wiĺl not let gas overtake me, and will remain very content with my Sigma 56 1.4, though have noted your comment that this msy be a better lens, the Sigma 56 1.4 does everything that is needed and will be retained for a very long time.

Thanks for this review

Looks great for the price. That vignetting is very heavy though, and will have a negative impact on the background separation in the corners. I've only recently learned that DOF increases in the corners of lenses that heavily vignette and I don't think it's common knowledge. Maybe that's something you could mention in the reviews? (At least in extreme cases like here)

Nice saves money in the imho pricy fuji system 👍

I wonder how this lens will perform on 16mp fuji old body

It's no more 139 - now it's 158 at best, and into germany, around 199 EUR. Still, way cheap for a great portrait lens.

I just ordered my copy today

Wow. I thought this lens was going to be a turd. I own many of the other Viltrox lenses, including the higher priced 56mm f1.4, but this is truly a bargain price for such a capable lens.

No aperture ring , but can't complain at that price.

How does it compare with the TTArtisan AF 56mm 1.8?

Viltrox are as sharp or sharper than Sony G lenses

I checked the price on viltrox official website and it's 199 euro ☹️ why big difference than what you said it is ? Is it a country related ?

When I checked out pricing, there were a number of X cameras listed for Fuji, but interestingly not the X T1. Is this just a lazy oversight is does it not work on the X T1?

Chris, the 56mm on APS-C provides a 84 to 90 mm Field of View, but the Depth Of Field would still be that of a 56 mm, right? So not entirely truly like a 85 mm portrait lens? I think about an APS-C as a cut-out or cropped Full Frame Image, everything else is pretty much the same. Don't get me wrong, this is probably still a really good portrait lens, just thinking about what it would really mean. Since this is a cropped image, you'd need to stand further from the subject to fill the frame, the same as an 85mm on FF. I guess the image would be less "collapsed" than a 85mm lens on FF. But that f/1.7 would do nice subject separation as it is sharp wide open. Almost a dream, this thing. @JamesReader, this is one to try out! Canon will never want this kind of competition. This is a stunning price / performance, one that would cause a Canon R7 to actually make sense. Bright (R7 AF would actually work), compact, light weight, sharp And at the price of a Canon lens hood it is economical too. But no.

Is vignetting and distortion corrected in the Fuji jpegs?

How do you set the aparture without the ring?

can you review video tracking on nikon z?

Given that Viltrox provided you this lens for your review, could they have cherry-picked one in production with the best performance?

Chrsitopher, you must mean excellent sharpness... for the price.

If only it came out with a EF-M mount

I bought it after your video

Oof there goes the resell value on my sigma 56

Some of the Fujifilm lenses are starting to look rather vintage at this point; and expensive vintage at that.

I am confused. Having already a 56mm f1.4 which is quite sharp and pleasant to the eye, why would Fuji users go for this lens when the other can be obtained for roughly the same in the used market? Bit weird choice by Viltrox unless its Fuji release is a side effect of releasing it to Nikon neglected crop sensor

Current price is a 180. Bummer!

does anyone know if this will come in e mount

How it compares to Sigma 56 1.4?

I mean.. no matter how good is it, without an aperture ring is a big lose to Fuji

Like a Olympus mft 1.8 45....

Viltrox is killing it right now.. No reason for MF lenses anymore

This makes no sense at all! How come it's so cheap?!

no emount yet lmao