I’ve had this lens for many months now and I’m extremely happy with it. I have a “build quality” observation - the lens hood is over-engineered. There’s no wriggle room whatsoever with lining it up correctly with the lens and it can be quite a chore to lock into place - especially in the field when you’re trying to move quickly. I would still buy it again but it’s a needless annoyance that they need to fix.
Great video Matt. I love the Z 50 1.8 but it’s great for people to have options. I’ve said it before, but I bought the Z50mm after your first video with it. I loved the colour and rendering. I have to say I also like the real world review where we hear you talk us through everything you’re doing. This is better than test charts:) Can’t wait to see you on Greys again.
The Viltrox looks to be a capable lens. The Z 50mm f/1.8 is in a class of its own. It was the first Z lens I bought with my first Z6 camera. It's basically my "Camera 1" lens for 99% of my videos.
Thanks for posting this Matt. This shows what we're paying for with the z 50 native, which is glue to my camera most of the time. Better coatings and performance wide open, although slightly. It's clear, if you want the best, with guaranteed autofocus performance and firmware support to come just pay a bit more and get the native glass. Otherwise, the cheaper Viltrox can serve as a cheap "nifty 50" and get you there about 80-90% of the way depending on your use case, at least for a z mount type lense. I personally would get a 50mm 1.8g over the Viltrox simply for a cheap "nifty fifty", and I do have one, for the added character the lens brings.
Perfectly timed video for me Matt, I have been thinking about purchasing one or two Viltrox Prime lenses and your comparison with the equivalent Nikon lens has been extremely informative, thanks mate.
Hello Matt, So good th hear your thoughts. It will be good the see next Friday's livestream with Greys of Westminster.. Keep well, keep safe and have fun.
Own 13mm Viltrox. Great lens. Only problem is - if you plan on using it for video, it lacks lens stabilization. Absolute deal breaker. If you use it on camera mounted on tripod / or on gimbal, then you should be OK. Will buy next Viltrox - only after they introduce in-lens-stabilization. Stabilization is a must in today's lenses. Thank you
Thanks for the comparison. Just a quick tip for Capture One: you can hold shift when you've got two images side by side and the action (pan, zoom, etc) is sync'ed for both images.
It is hard to beat the 50S image quality. It is definitely one of the sharpest lens that I ever shot. Sadly 50mm isn’t really my focal length, I ended up selling mine!
sorry,noob question,how do we open the lens's iris manually?we can do it easily with the f mount..with the little "knob" or "lever"..i cant find a way for the viltrox lens..
Hi Matt, curious if / when you use lens hoods? I’ve been contemplating whether the room they take up in the bag is worth it for most situations? I picked up a few smaller Sensei metal hoods to save some space as a compromise.
As to Capture One (C1), I do not expect much from support. If they don't - good luck to you - then you need to file an RfC for them to add support AND wait for other photographers to do that too and they will start working on it when they deem enough photographers have asked for it. So that may take a couple years. IIRC Adobe once had a basic tool program you could download to create your own specific lens profile. But that may be too simple - just don't know. I can imagine a tool can easily correct pincushion or barrel distortion, but with aspherical elements there may be a form of field curvature where - say - barrel in the center becomes pincushion at the edges. And that may be too much to ask from a basic tool. (I stay away from 3rd party lenses for 50 years now, like the proverbial plague, for this and other reasons. No, I do not condemn you for doing so. It's a free world (at least my part of it and I wish and hope yours too).) In a Windows 10 system with Lightroom Classic (LrC), look here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Lightroom Classic\Resources\LensProfiles\1.0\Viltrox\Sony as this gets you to the folder where the lens profiles are for Viltrox lenses on a Sony camera. No, today, in the latest update, there is no Viltrox\Nikon folder. Does that matter? Meh. Nikon's Z lenses add their lens profile to the raw shot - if I understood that correctly. Switch that off and you may see some distortion of the naked lens. But, switching it off in camera may or may not skip the profile addition into the shot. And if a raw shot has no profile correction included, then you depend on the raw processing software (C1, LrC, Camera Raw) to be able to apply the correction in post. Corollary question is if a 3rd party lens that is full manual at least sends its metadata to the camera - I have a full manual lens (1840s Petzval design lens) that does not do so. And the Nikon firmware in my Z 7ii does not allow me to properly tag this lens in the camera. Yes, Nikon has its own lens database that is frequently updated like firmware (and I have updated the firmware in some of my Z 1.8 S primes too) but that is only about Nikon lenses and does not allow to enter, say, a focal length they never made. I feel Nikon should - a chore for an influencer to influence? - add a function for me to enter a random focal length, max aperture and some text to describe the lens. That's just a simple addition along the lines of what is already there. Now I can specify a lens of 85, 86 or 100mm but not the 90 that I have - it's in the item in the menu (wrench icon) where you can specify three different adapted lenses. Now, as a novel idea, imagine a simple FtZ or X2Z adapter for manual lenses that allows us to enter a specific lens into its firmware (say over USB) so it will only tell the camera "this is a fully manual lens and these are its metadata". A Z shooter might want to buy a couple of those adapters for their manual lenses.
thanx for review. if you are testing lens for backlight with a filter on it, then you actualy testing a filter, not only the lens. also 9:57 both lens have same FOV but nikon has auto correction in C1, so it's corrected and then cropped
Hi Matt, I noticed in the editor that it looks like you're running a slightly out of date Firmware on your Z6 II. Is there an issue with the Viltrox on the new firmware, or is it that you just haven't got around to updating the camera? Sorry if you addressed this and I missed it.
I don’t know 🤷♂️ The Nikon looks better, but maybe because of Capture One. I would just buy the Nikon lens. Why? Price wise you’re not saving much, and I know the Nikon lens will last many years.
What a great review. The larger view from the Viltrox at first put me off, but I realize that if you're just using the lens the difference doesn't matter as you can adjust your composition. Overall the Viltrox lens gave me more of a green vibe than the Nikon. Not a lot, but more green. The focus looks really good and not something I'd complain about, though I prefer the fall-off of the Nikon. As someone who loves shooting directly into the sun the Viltrox would likely give me fits, but a good appearing lens overall. One question that came up during the video. How much of a problem was fringing and aberrations when using film. I understand the causes of the fringing and aberrations, but how difficult when film was king?
Great review Matt! My biggest question here would be why the 50mm Viltrox seems to be not exactly 50mm but obviously wider, lol. I've said it before somewhere else but lets move a little the youtube algorithm (hence writing a comment) that despite all obvious advantages of native prime lenses, one of the top factor that seems to be underrated is the weather sealing! One of the biggest pleasures of street photography is to go out in the pouring rain, snow and fog where proper sealing is required at least to feel more comfortable with your gear. Not to mention if you're in nature and weather gets worse in minutes like it did with me in December. From +10°C to 0°C + wild snowfall in 1 hour and I was exactly with the 50mm1.8S. Weather sealjng is a top priority! 🤌
Hi Matt I wonder a bit because it says more about a Nikon S lens or Viltrox lens if a Viltrox lens is almost in the same league as Nikon, because we are not talking about a little more reputable Sigma or Tamron lenses, and in tests between Viltrox and Sony GM, there is always a lot of difference, and I know from personal experience that Nikon's best lenses are really good! Cheers Jess
I think this is the best lens I have seen from Viltrox, but that might say more about what Viltrox are up to. The Nikon 50mm 1.8 is an outstanding lens, and still exceeds the Viltrox critically in some areas ... and no weather sealing on the Viltrox. The green fringing is really strong on the Viltrox, these factors alone are enough to choose the Nikon for the extra $200 or so in my opinion.
Thanks Matt for this great comparison. It tells me that you get what you pay for. I’m a crazy NIKON fan and I would never ever buy a 3rd party lens because all the Z-lenses are soooo good! It’s me. Sometimes my heart-decision is bigger (more important) than my brain-decision. Nikon is Nikon…. finish!
