I ordered one to use with my A7RV, A1, A7SIII, for my professional and personal stills, video, astrophotography , landscapes, people, architecture and more. Cheers and thanks.
This is one of the better reviews. Some aspects of wide angle photography are emphasized here that other reviews don't even mention. This demo video also covers practical tests by which to measure the capability of any lens. Well done, thank you.
Great review! Also very glad to see someone showing off pans with this lens, rather than the typical push in, pull out moves you see with ultra wide angle lenses
I bought the 16mm last week, before this one I only had native Nikon lenses. But I got really impressed of the Viltrox, build quality and image quality was just super good. Use it mostly for astro photography
40 years go when I was shooting film on a Rolleiflex SL35E SLR I had a Tamron 17mm Full Frame Fisheye which gave gorgeous results, love the results from the Viltrox 16, took me right back...
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts. I like Tamron lenses as well. I didn’t buy any Sony lenses. I went with Tamron. I honestly don’t regret the choice.
You should have seen my reaction when I was reviewing the test clips. I was 100% sure I will hear something … I was like… what???? And I played it 3x in a row 😂😂
Great Review!!!!, Though most of us don't have full Frame, we have aps-c sensors, with the 1.5 crop, which makes that 16mm a 24mm, 24 is still on the wide side, though is great for Vlogging , interior and street video/Photos.... I'm considering Viltrox because of the 1.8 aperture...and 1.4 for the 13mm lens....Glass science looks very clean......The Focus pre set button is great to rack focus during a video shoot , automatic focus pulling, between two actors , and or scenes.... for those working alone , that is a great feature......
I just got this lens in yesterday and a K&F concept 77mm ND4-64 filter and CPL polarizer in one filter and what I love about the lens is that it takes the same filter size as my Sony 70-200mm 2.8 ii and mostly got this lens for taking pics of the northern lights up here in Alaska
@@2ndcoat3have also used it now for the northern lights here in Alaska and I love this lens a lot and looking at getting more Viltrox lenses now and wish they made a zoom lens
Thank you, Zdenka. Much appreciated! I was looking at this lens to do talking head shots so I could get some blurry background. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
It is a great lens, but for talking had videos I would probably go with something a little bit closer… 24mm… I usually use 17-28 and I have it mostly set around 20-21
@@ZdenkaDarula Thank you for responding! I was under the impression that 16mm for the Sony ZVE10 would be the equivalence of 24mm? Am I wrong in that understanding?
Thanks Zdenka, I recently switched to Sony after shooting Canon for more than 10 years. I'm using the Metabones adapter to use my canon lenses so I have time to migrate to native E mount. My first (and currently only) E-mount lens is the fantastic 28-200 f/2.8-5.6 Tamron and since I now miss on the wide end compared to my Canon, this is a very intriguing lens. I'll sleep some more nights over this but might end up buying one also
@@senthiljams I have the excellent Tamron 17-28 f2.8 lens and I am still getting this Viltrox 16mm f1.8. That f1.8 is 1 1/4 stops more light gathering than f2.8, which is a big help for astro shots to keep the exposure times short enough not to get star movement if not using a star tracker. And this Viltrox has lens features that the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 does not, and at a reasonable price too. Cheers and best to you.
@@ZdenkaDarula i love everything about it but two things and one is not about the lens :) 1. minimum focus distance is not that great (not a big deal) 2. it's too heavy for my vlogging style. If weight or MFD is not a problem, i think it's an amazing lens. Even if at $800, I think it's pretty worth it.
Hi Z. Thanks for the review. Seems like a nice lens for Sony Full Frame. I noticed there’s a LCD screen on the lens. Is that correct? That’s kind of unique isn’t it? Seems like you can get more precise readings 😊
You are very welcome. Yes it has display with everything. The only thing I noticed with the display is that is really trying to see your camera battery. Once I was done filming, my battery was completely empty, which is not usual.
Nice review. I have this lens on the way to me and also use a Sony a7III body. I am looking forward to playing around with it myself. In your video panning around a park with trees, I found the wide angle distortion a bit dizzying, though I didn't see it when you shot videos in the city, where I expected the edges to look stretched. I am wondering if the distortion of objects for products or portraits can be corrected in post-processing; some lenses with electronic correction to the camera (my Viltrox 20mm does not) have automatic correction settings in some processing software. I'm wondering if you've tested that.
Hi , I'm just changing the z50 from Nikon to...z5 😉 FF, I'm looking for a wide glass... I used Viltrox 33/1.4 and I was very satisfied with street photography and in rooms with little light. A year after doing this review, are you still using this 16? ...maybe 24/1.8 is a good alternative? The price difference is not a problem. Regards and thank you very much for your answer.
@@ZdenkaDarula Thank you for the efficient answer 👍, I use 75/1.2 PRO on APSC and this series from Vili is great 👌, I was going to buy 27/1.2 PRO but I decided to get FF which already has a larger matrix and stabilization. It will be helpful with "vintage" glasses 😉. The 16/1.8 is made similarly, solidly, with nice optics and seals. I don't need the LCD, especially since it consumes energy efficiently, as you describe. I don't make vlogs, so in my opinion 24/1.8 is a better choice - thanks for the tip - greetings from the Bieszczady Mountains 😉👊
Very interesting lens. What about using it in my case for talking head video in a tiny studio, for RU-vid? In my case the distance Camera (ZV-E10) - subject is 70 cm. Obviously the Viltrox e-mount APS-C 13mm 1.4 is a 24mm Full frame equivalent. Thank you for your opinion🙏
Are the function buttons a little redundant? You can do it all on camera screen. Guess its easier to read in bright light? Looks a good lens. Would love to see you do more video work on it. More samples please. Thx
The buttons and the screen itself has a great use in a genre that's not mentioned in the video. Astrophotography and night landscapes. Had in mind that genres usually had to be do with manual focus and sometimes you had to keep that settings of focus during many hours (Normally setting the hyperfocal at dawn). Having the memory set and the led to see focus distance without touching the camera and the tripod is very handy.
Great review. I have the Viltrox 13mm/1.4, and wonder about trading in one for the other...any chance you might do a comparative review of the two, even though/especially since this new 16mm is full-frame and the 13mm isn't?
Frankly, I don't like the digital display, disturbs the aesthetic of the lens. And its quite big for a 24mm equivalent and only f1.8. Still, I can't get around it unless I get the sigma...
Too heavy really, needs a tripod to shoot. I think I will go with Sony 16-35/4G lens. I can't think of why I would ever need f/1.8 on ultrawide lens and I'm pretty sure I would hate the weight.
Tak prepac ja som len reagoval na to, ze obcas pouzijes slovo “ahoj”. Velmi ma to potesilo. Ja som zo slovenska. Nahodou som narazil na tvoje videa a nedalo mi to sa ta neopytat. Inac super poucne, vela mi to dalo.👍
@@sajo2472 nevadí pochopila jsem podle jména. 🤓 ano říkám to schválně protože mi spousta lidi píše a ptá se proč to není v češtině nebo slovenštině ze nerozumí … také automaticky Slovinci píšou v jejich jazyku protože si mysli ze jsem od nich podle jména .. tak se to snažím nějak vyřešit 😉. Ti co nerozumějí usadil pochopí ze můžou psát po našem a ti ze Slovinska zase snad pochopi ze já nerozumím .. no je ti zamotané … akorát se chystáme na Slovensko máme tam rodinu v Martine . Doma jsem nebyla 4 roky tak se dost těším …. Posílám pozdravy tam k vám
@@ZdenkaDarula Dakujem. Som uz starsieho data (51 rokov), v anglictine nie som uplne doma😃, nejak mi to uz hlava neberie, venujem sa asi 40 rokov foteniu, snazim sa udrzat krok s technikou, ale velmi rychlo to napreduje. Som velmi vdacny za takuto tvorbu, kupil som si hohem gimbal tak skusam, doteraz som fotil prevazne zrkadlovkou a teraz ma zaujajo video tocene iphonom. Spociatku som si myslel, ze co moze zena vediet o technike, ale bol som velmi mile prekvapeny. Tak super podane, ma to hlavu aj patu, dobre vysvetlene,pre mna velmi poucne, niektory muzi to tak nedokazu. Len tak dalej👍👍👍(uz nebudem otravovat)😃