Two more done Polaroid style, but offering here mainly as more of a mini lens review of the Viltrox 28 f4.5 fixed aperture lens and not quality imagery I admit this lens intrigued me.
Background. I do like having some fun with the toy camera look. Unfortunately the toy lenses are all optically very slow, like f10 and 11, and have prominent optical fall-off from about 1/3rd out from center. I was thinking this might be similar but with the same kind of resolution fall-off starting maybe ⅔ or ¾ the way out, along with the slightly faster aperture. Granted, f4.5 is significantly faster than f11, but I remained optimistic.
Final impression is, a solid "Meh." It's too sharp to render an effective "toy" look, and then there isn't enough other character to carry it to usefulness -- the other, faster compact or lightweight options of the Fuji 27/2.8 or Viltrox 25 "air" are both more flexible, superior optically overall and offer broader application usefulness. So it is essentially exactly what it claims to be, a good quality AF lens that's about the same size as a factory body cap. It's main upside is with it mounted to my XT4 I can slip it in my pocket. So there you have it. This one will be in the B&S shortly for $65 all in shipped
Here are two simple images from a short walk around my office. Polaroid style and square crop just for some added interest...
Oh, PS note: The lens is significantly "sharper" than it looks here. I have capture and output sharpening off and clarity at a minus 20 to get the soft Polaroid film look in the images B&W added to better show performance when normally sharpened.
Jul 30, 2025 at 01:52 PM
Previous versions of Jack Flesher's message #16861362 « Fujifilm X-mount Image Thread »
I admit this lens intrigued me. 