I bought the Nifty Fifty Viltrox as a small and lightweight addition to the 1.2 GM. It feels almost cheaper than the Sony 50mm f/1.8. The AF-C-Tracking is shaky and more easily distracted than on the Sony 50mm f/1.8. The bokeh isn't exactly beautiful, but it's not really bad either. Otherwise, I find the optical performance quite impressive. Here are some indoor shots from shorter distances, all shot wide open with the A7iv. Please fill out this thread with more pictures.
It's impressive, for sure. We need to see much more from this one in different environments, what are the weaknesses? But it is going to raise eyebrows in Japan and Europe because of what might come next.
And it won't be merely a case of 'performance' as aesthetics form a large part of the Chinese character. Watch anything made by Wong Kar-wai, for example.
I was eyeballing this lens after Dustin Abbott's sparkling review myself, though I am hard pressed to justify replacing my perfectly "good enough" ZA 55 1.8. The one that really tempts me is the old ZA 50mm 1.4, every picture I see from that lens just hits me right, and in comparisons on sites like The Digital Picture tell me that lens punches above a lot higher priced and spec'ed modern glass to my eye... but the size weight are the main things holding me back on that one.
This 50mm f2 Air is the ideal size weight and sharpness with little to no CA or LOCA, so that is a pretty big win. The bokeh doesn't bother me, and I like the round highlights with very little cats' eye to be seen. The business of distant bokeh situations I think has a lot to do with how sharp a given lens is corner to corner, and this lens is sharp right to the edge. A small price to pay for something that can be cleaned up simply in PP by reverse masking and denoising the background on the occasional "artsy" print where you want it creamy in the background.
Now Dustin says the AF was stellar on his demo copy, but he didn't really go into continuous tracking... I'd like to hear more if that is a thing as you have more time with it, because no matter how sharp a lens is, missed focus ruins the shot and a less sharp lens with spot-on focus for a given shot still wins in my book.
At 205 grams, this will make a perfect travel lens, for me, paired with a zoom like the Sony 20-70mm f4 or GM 16-35mm f2.8 II. My GM 50mm f1.2 lens is not as practical for traveling.
I have a trip coming up, so I ordered one off of E-Bay (grey market). I would normally never buy a grey market auto-focus lens, but at $180, I'm not worried about it. This will likely be the best price-performance purchase I have ever made in photography gear.
For me personally, the Viltrox AF 50/2.0 FE is the perfect lightweight partner for my Sony FE 24/1.4 GM, my Sony FE 135/1.8 GM or my Sony FE 70-200/2.8 GM OSS II for day trips or travelling.
blnmen57 wrote:
Here are a few more shots with the Viltrox 50/2.0 AF with f/2.0 aperture.
[6 images]
Thank you for all the images! It's looking good!
A question: the EXIF values for the lens has changed. The first set you posted showed the lens name as Sony E 50mm" (or something like that) with a FL of 50mm and 75mm in 35mm film langauge. Now it is Viltrox 50mm and it is 50mm just as expected.
Is the lens firmware updated in between?
@Jonas B
I have only exchanged the DXO lens module, as there is currently no DXO module available from DXO-LAB for the Viltrox AF 50/2.0 FE.
For the time being I am using the DXO module from the Sigma 50/2.0 DG DN C as an intermediate solution.
Unfortunately, DXO Photolab 8.0 imports several modules at once
from different manufacturers, which of course leads to some problems.
There is currently no FW update available for the Viltrox AF 50/2.0 FE.
blnmen57 wrote:
I have only exchanged the DXO lens module, as there is currently no DXO module available from DXO-LAB for the Viltrox AF 50/2.0 FE.[...]
