Viltrox is reportedly due to announce a pretty affordable 85mm f/1.8 AF lens for Nikon Z today. However, the lens has already been in stock, retailing at $399 – half the price of the Nikon’s version.
2020 DIYP Holiday Gift Guide – Lenses
With your new camera picked out, it’s time to get a lens. Or maybe you’re happy with your cameras, but you fancy trying a new lens. Whichever might apply to you, here are a few of our favourites that were either announced or released this year. A couple of the lenses in this list were announced before 2020, but it took a while for them to actually exist!
Tokina launches 23mm and 33mm f/1.4 lenses for Fuji-X
Tokina has launched two new lenses for Fuji X-mount. Tokina atx-m 33mm f/1.4 and atx-m 23mm f/1.4 are fast AF primes for APS-C models, and they should come in handy in a variety of shooting situations.
Viltrox completes its fast autofocus prime lineup with the 56mm f/1.4 for Canon EF-M
Viltrox has now released the third lens in its fast prime autofocus lens series for the Canon EOS M APS-C mirrorless lineup. Adding to the 23mm f/1.4 STM and 33mm f/1.4 STM announced last month, the new Viltrox 56mm f/1.4 maintains the look and feel of the two existing lenses while retaining their small, lightweight stature.
With a focal length primarily thought of as a portrait lens, offering a field of view equivalent to that of about 90mm on full-frame bodies, the new lens rounds out the trio quite nicely.
Viltrox has released their EF-M 23mm f/1.4 and 33mm f/1.4 autofocus lenses for Canon EOS M cameras
It’s not exactly news that Viltrox has been planning to expand its lens lineup, and two of the three new lenses designed for APS-C mirrorless cameras have now been released in Canon EF-M mount for EOS M mirrorless cameras.
The Viltrox 23mm f/1.4 STM and 33mm f/1.4 STM are both autofocus lenses with a wide f/1.4 maximum aperture and feature a rugged metal construction with a built-in USB port for firmware updates. Interestingly, they only seem to be available in silver, and not the typical black of the Sony E mount and Fuji X mount versions.
The Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 for Sony E Mount can become an f/1.6 lens with just a simple firmware update
The Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 lens has started to become quite a popular lens choice for Sony E mount shooters due to its decent level of performance vs its fairly low $399 price tag (compared to the $600 Sony). It’s also available in Fuji X flavour, too. But can this lens go even faster than f/1.8? Yeah, apparently.
The video above by Stefan Malloch was actually posted back in April, but only just now seems to have gained any real traction, but it turns out you can update the Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 lens to f/1.6, giving you an extra third of a stop, rounder bokeh and a slightly (barely noticeable, really) shallower depth of field, with just a simple firmware update.
Warning: three Viltrox prime lenses can damage your Fujifilm X-Pro3
Viltrox has just issued an official statement that some of their lenses can damage your Fujifilm X-Pro3. So, if you use this camera, you might not want to pair it with Viltrox 23mm f/1.4, Viltrox 33mm f/1.4, and Viltrox 85mm f/1.8.
New Viltrox roadmap shows nine new lenses on the way including Micro Four Thirds cine lenses
Viltrox has posted their updated lens roadmap to Weibo and it shows nine new lenses coming between now and next year. Viltrox is traditionally known more for (relatively) inexpensive lens adapters and various accessories, but they’ve actually been making lenses for a couple of years now for various mirrorless systems including Sony, Fuji, Nikon and L mount.
The new lens roadmap shows Viltrox’s existing 9 lenses along with 9 new ones, expected to come out over the next year or so. There is a mix of Micro Four Thirds, APS-C and full-frame lenses coming and while they don’t mention the mounts for the APS-C and full-frame lenses, I think some can be fairly safe bets.
2019 DIYP Holiday Gift Guide – Accessories & Gadgets
All photographers and filmmakers have accessories and doohickies in their bags to help them with their pursuits. And now that we’ve covered cameras, lenses, lights, bags, tripods, sliders & gimbals out of the way, it’s time to crack on with those in today’s final 2019 DIYP Gift Guide. Here are some of the things we find absolutely invaluable in our work and some of the new tools and toys that have come out this year.
A review of the $95 Viltrox Nikon F lens to Sony camera speedbooster adapter
The fact that I’m writing this review is the result of someones slip up, a happy accident and unexpected windfall for a mate. The VILTROX NF-E mount Focal Reducer Speed Booster.
Here’s the backstory, a close friend ordered a Viltrox basic adapter to use Nikon Ai lenses on his Sony A6000. We got him a great price on eBay, about $32.00 as I recall, and the adapter promptly arrived almost exactly on the due date. It sat on his bedroom cupboard along with a little Nikon 35-70mm zoom he bought at the same time for several weeks, then a few days ago he finally brought the camera/lens/adapter combo to the coffee shop so I could show him how to shoot using manual focus with his A6000.
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