Viltrox 23mm f/1.4 Lens Review for Nikon Z DX Cameras
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- čas přidán 27. 02. 2022
- I review the Viltrox 23mm f/1.4 autofocus prime lens for Nikon Z series DX APSC cameras. This lens is also available for Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X, and Sony E mounts.
Viltrox 23mm f/1.4 Link! amzn.to/4bdvjPP
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Thanks for sharing this great review of the Viltrox lens. I thought it was interesting to see that changing the aperture cleared up the light stars. Thanks again for sharing some of your editing. I learned something new this morning. I didn't know that you could manually pick out colors to be removed for chromatic aberration.
Thanks, Stephen! Chromatic aberration is basically always pink or green, the eye dropper lets you select the exact shade for lightroom too fix.
Great in-depth review Phil. Looks like a pretty good lens, the image quality is pretty decent for both stills and video. Nice one buddy! Cheers
Thank you, Peter! You are too kind. I look forward to using this lens in the future, especially in video situations.
Great review and I agree with your thoughts. Looks like a wonderful video lens. Not as wide as I normally film at, but it does look really good. These third lens makers have really stepped up their game in the past few years. 👍📸
Thanks, David! I really do like that lens for video. Photos too but 35mm full frame equivalent is not my favorite focal length for stills. It is just right for slightly longer than arms length video with bokehfied background. I set it up in my “studio“ at home last night to see how it looked and it’s really nice.
thanks for this. definitely getting this cause of your review! love from Malaysia ❤🙏🏻
Thank you!
Thanks for the review. I have had the Viltrox 56mm 1.4 for a couple of months and I really like it. I have used it for indoor concerts and events and the low light capabilities make it ideal. I have also used it for basketball games standing near the end line. The 56mm makes it a great 85mm lense which filled a prime lens gap for me.
I am hoping to review the 56 1.4. That is the most interesting lens in the Viltrox line to me. Thanks for watching, Paul!
More power to your channel. Quality content 👌
Thank you!
You definitely need to mix in some more reviews Phil. I enjoyed this one and it got me thinking 🤔. We have some lenses you might want to review. Now that the weather is getting better, it might be getting close to rode trip time😉.
Nice! You know there is a good system of trails near me at “enterprise south nature park”
Great review Phil. Viltrox make such good lenses for the money you pay. The pics in video have this certain color to them. that I like. Thanks for sharing the video 👍🙏
Thank you, Adrian! 35mm full-frame equivalent is not a focal length that I would use a lot for stills but I really like this lens for video. I'm going to use it in situations where I can put the Z fc on a tripod and make a clip somewhere on location. I just love the separation it gives me and the auto-focus is rock solid in video mode.
Great videos, thanks.
Thank you!
I have the Sigma Trio in DX/APSC size lenses for the Sony. 16mm, 30mm and the 56mm Primes @ F/1.4. I have been using the MegaDap adapter on the Zfc and Z50 with these lenses and they are sharp. As you know the Nikon DX line has three zoom lenses and that is it. Would like to test out that 23mm F/1.4 Viltrox. It would fit between the 16mm and 30mm from Sigma. I have been comparing the 28mm F/2.8 plus the 40mm F/2 and am wondering if it is good enough for street photography and landscaping. My opinion they are not wide enough. So budget wise this Viltrox lens is perfect but looking at the other lenses from them and comparing to see if it fits my needs. Less expensive than the $1000 Nikkor 20mm and 24mm F/1.8 primes. Love your videos.
Thank you, Randall! I think this lens is certainly worth the money if a 23mm prime is what you need. I like it for stills and LOVE it for video. It's a good focal length for my video needs and it focuses perfectly on the Z fc.
Phil perfect timing for this video. I own the Z50 and was looking for fast prime lens. I been interested in this lens, but not having a click aperture ring and no VR has me be hesitate to buy. Besides the one time in your video, did you have trouble with aperture ring moving around while shooting? Looking forward to Heather video using this lens.
Hi Cesar. I never moved the ring. I set the ring to the A position and adjusted aperture with the front command dial on the Z fc. You can do it that way on the Z50 as well. It's the same way you control aperture on lenses without an aperture ring. If you want to, you can control your aperture with the ring on the lens but with it being clickless, it might be easy to accidentally adjust your setting. There is one click as you go past f/16 and into the A setting so once you are in A it stays there.
The one time in the video where I wanted f/16 and accidentally got f/14, I bumped the command dial on the front of the Z fc, not the aperture ring on the viltrox.
Looks like a great little lens to try out! I am going to be doing some more portrait work this spring and summer and might give it a go on my Z50.
I have already slipped it into a couple more videos as a video lens. Really enjoy it in that capacity. They have a 33 and a 56 mm that I might look into in the future for portraits.
@@PhilThach I really want to try out Nikon’s 28-75 that just came out. Right now I’ve been shooting with the kit lenses and want something 2.8 or less. However, I really want to get a prime lens. I find myself setting my my lens to 50mm and moving myself around and not the zoom ring.
@@KyleStendel 28-75 looks like a nice lens!
Hey, great review. I'm using z50 and I was wondering do you think this one will be a good budget solution for low light videos at dance festivals (with Gimble and some additional lights)?
That is a great question and unfortunately I don’t know if I have the answer because I’ve never done that type of photography but I will tell you that when I go to Walt Disney World in a few months this is the lens that I plan to use to make videos inside the dark rides there.
@@PhilThach great, but I was thinking of getting it this month as it is discounted to the price of the 33mm and I am going in a festival in July, so to have some time to test it out :) I'll drop a line with some feedback and a link to the result, but keep in mind I'm just an amateur starting with videography :)
1.4 a beast! My favorite aperture also…
Thanks for watching!
Hi. Thanks for the review. I just received the silver version of this lens for my Zfc. I'm wondering what the control ring closest to the front actually controls. Can it be customized? Or, if camera is in manual focus does it do the focus? Thanks again.
The large ring is the manual focus override ring. That’s a really good question about can it be assigned to another function besides focus, I will check on that later this evening. I bet the lens looks nice in silver on the Z fc! Thanks for watching.
@@PhilThach Thanks for the quick response. IMHO it looks great.
I love this lens, make sure you update the lens as soon as you get it.
Thanks!
Great Video Phil I have 2 Viltrox Lenses and love them both on my Z50 this one you reviewed and the 85mm F1.8, also check their website for firmware updates Viltrox are good at releasing updates for their lenses you update through the USB on the lens.
Thank you, Keith I do need to check and see if there is a firmware update available for this one. If there is I might make a video showing how to update it. I would like to try their 85 1.8 which I think is a full frame lens on my Z6 or maybe even the canon version on my R6. I think the lens of theirs that I want to try out the most though is their 56 mm 1.4 for Z DX.
@@PhilThach Yea the 56 F1.4 is on my list also these Viltrox lenses are great value compared to the Nikon equivalent is there anyway you can get Heather to make another editing video would be great thanks.
@@Mickbo93 I think I might be able to get her to do that at some point. I really appreciate and I’m sure she does too you’re showing an interest in a video of that sort.
Thanks for this review, i have the same camera and i want to buy the viltrox 23 mm 1.4
Glad it was helpful! I think you'll like the Viltrox 23 if you get it!
Nice haircut!
Do you get to keep the lens?
Thank you! Yes, as far as I know I get to keep it so I'll be using it in the future, especially for video!
Hi! I don't know if buy this one or Nikkor 28 f2.8 because is more portable. I want it for Street photo (low light) and vlog too. What do you think maybe is better option for me?
This one is better in lowlight, and the Nikon is more portable so it’s up to you to decide which one of those is more important to you.
@@PhilThach Thank you! I decided that the best camera is the one that is always with me so I went for the most portable lens, Nikkor! your videos are very good
Thank you Phil! Althought Sigma was released a new 23/1.4 lens for Z mount (APS-C) recently, I think Viltrox version is better than Sigma one.
Interesting. Thank you!
Above f11, diffraction kills the sharpness :) Lovely review, BTW. I am planning to get all three 56, 33, 23 :)
The best Viltrox lenses are 75/1.2 and 13/1.4, I feel these two are even better than Fuji lenses while prices are still very good.
The non click f-stop lense ring could be useful for video.
That is something I have heard people say about clickless apertures, I personally have never had the need to change aperture in the middle of a shot but if you did have a need to do that, A clickless aperture would be the way to go. Thanks for watching!
Looks like the Pocket 2 did a decent job for you!
I did enjoy working with it during the night time portion of this video but then when I saw how good the video looked coming out of the Z fc with this f/1.4 prime, I didn’t use the pocket 2 any more. I will definitely use the pocket 2 a lot in the future it’s just so convenient and it’s the best hold in your hand camera I have owned. But if there is a situation where I have the camera on a tripod and I’m talking to it, I think this 1.4 lens will be the one. I guess it all depends on how much gear I want to carry. often that is a greater motivator for what I use than what actually looks the best.
I thought to purchase it for video purpose ... would love see a 17mm f1.4 ... ^^
I was really happy with this lens for video and plan to use it in the future in situations where I want to talk to the camera and I am able to put it on a tripod and step back 3 or more feet.
💕💕💕👌💕💕👌💕💕
Thank you!
Nice review Phil. I will have to forgive Heather for that treasonous Georgia Bulldog t shirt, though, just this time. 😂
Thank you, Hassan! Heather won’t give up that shirt under any circumstances I can assure you. She got her masters degree from the University of Georgia and she is a diehard Georgia bulldogs football fan. We went to the Tennessee Georgia game in Knoxville last year and next year we are traveling down to Athens to see the game there. Where we live in Tennessee it is only about 15 miles to the Tennessee Georgia state line so we have accepted Heather and her bulldoglyness as one of our own. 🤣😂🤣 Also, Go Vols! 😀
Thanks for the review. I was looking at these for Fuji. But all the reviews were horrible. I guess for the money they are OK. The new Sigma lens for Fuji I think are all winners.
I wonder what the problem is with these lenses on the Fuji bodies. It seems to focus really well on my ZFC. Image quality is outstanding once you stop it down a little and it’s not bad wide open.
@@PhilThach lots of distortion in the corners and not very sharp. The Sigma trio of primes were coming so I decided to wait. They all got great reviews on Sony cameras. I’m really only interested in the 56/1.4. But they are about the same price point as the sigma’s.
@@bobdrawbaugh4207 On a lens like this I don’t even look at the corners. What I’m looking for is sharpness in the middle or the rule of thirds area of the frame and the rest can be just as soft as can be. I really want to try out their 56 1.4. Thanks for watching, Bob and for the information!
I own 2 of these lenses for Fuji (23mm and 56mm) and I am super happy with them. Plenty sharp in the center, and I could care less about sharp corners, especially for the price. I would not hesitate to purchase more for XF or Z, the 13mm for XF and their 24mm for full frame Z are next on my list.
@@BillWhitworth I hope they release that 13mm 1.4 APSC for Nikon Z! :)