How’s it going, I hope you are well. In today’s post, I will be talking about the new Viltrox 23mm f1.4 Lens for Fujifilm. Now this isn’t a scientific review, where I point the camera at loads of charts, it’s more of a real-world test, but I will be providing you with a pack of images and video clips for you to download for free, so you can see for yourself how this little fella performs. There will also be a Youtube video at the bottom for you to check out where I deep dive a little further into the Viltrox 23mm lens.

Viltrox 23mm f1.4 lens review

Viltrox 23mm build quality

So first off let's talk about the all-important build quality.

The build quality is decent, it feels lighter than the Fuji XF 23mm f1.4 and balances really nice when mounted to the X-T3. Overall it looks great too.

It comes with an awesome metal lens hood that fits on the front with ease, it definitely oozes quality.

The lens mount is solid and the focus ring is buttery smooth, it feels great for manual focusing, but if I was to compare the overall feel with the fuji f1.4 I would say that the fuji feels more solid in terms of the overall build.

This is probably to be expected though as the Viltrox comes in 40 grams lighter with an overall footprint of pretty much the same size.

I guess the lighter weight could definitely be seen by some as a bonus, whereas others may prefer the more solid build of the fuji. To be honest I do like the overall feel of the Viltrox and wouldn’t hesitate to give it a thumbs up in this area.

Viltrox 23mm aperture ring

So the Aperture ring feels light and turns a touch more freely than I would prefer, it’s also clickless until you get past f16 where there's a click to confirm you have it set to the auto aperture mode.

I actually prefer a clickless aperture ring for video work as it allows for a gradual change in exposure and aperture settings without the hard stops you get from a clicked aperture.

For stills though, I prefer my aperture ring to be clicked as it means it’s harder for the aperture ring to be turned accidentally.

So there’s a pro or con here depending on if you’re primarily a stills shooter or a video shooter.

One thing I would say is that the aperture ring is so close to the lens mount that I've never accidentally turned it, so it's not too much of a big deal.

There is one fairly big caveat though with this clickless ring and that is that you don’t get that smooth transition in exposure that you would if you were using a manual lens.

(I explain this in more detail in my video where I compare it with an old vintage lens)

Another drawback is that we can hear the aperture blades move when the ring is moved. It's quiet as we move from f1.4 through to about f4, but then it tends to get fairly noisy.

It’s at its worst at around f5.6. Unfortunately, if you are using the camera's built-in mic, this noise will be recorded. I've tested it with an external mic attached to the hot shoe too and although not as noticeable it is still heard between f5.6 to f16.

So when it comes down to it, it makes the clickless aperture somewhat less appealing. The only positive is that it's a tad easier to turn when filming.

Viltrox 23mm autofocus lens

Now let’s talk about autofocus and I think this is where this lens really shines. It's snappy and quick to acquire focus for stills and performs impeccably in most situations. It’s really quiet too which is a big improvement over the noisy Fuji XF lens.

Is the Viltrox quicker than the Fuji?

Well, to be honest, I’m saying that it feels a tad quicker than the Fuji lens but that’s not a scientific result, just my initial thoughts?

For video though, it does have some quirks.

The STM motor is very quiet for video and can hardly be heard, so I really feel they got the balance right there.

In continuous autofocus it's nice and smooth, tracks the subject well and focus breathing is kept to a minimum. The face detect works well too, especially on the x-t3.

So I have found a couple of issues. Firstly I haven't found a way of slowing the focus speed down and currently, it feels too quick for that cinematic look when pulling focus between two objects.Which is definitely a shame, I should point out at this point though the fuji 23mm lens sucks at this too and kicks off a grinding, whirring noise in the process. (I explain this in more detail in my viltrox lens review video)

Now I did find another little quirk with the continuous autofocus and that is when you have the aperture wide open and focus the lens and begin filming everything works as it should, however, if you bring the camera closer than the minimum focusing distance to a subject and then move the camera back it can't acquire focus again and everything becomes blurred. It doesn't matter where you point the camera, it just can't acquire focus again.

This goes away though when you stop down to f2 and beyond. This could be an issue if you like to get an out of focus foreground or if you're shooting through something like a bush for example. (I explain this in more detail in my viltrox 23mm lens review video)

Manually focusing is a breeze though with the buttery smooth focus ring, especially if you set your manual focusing to linear as opposed to non-linear. You will need to dig around in the menu to find that and I believe it’s only available on the newer fuji models, from the x-h1 and newer I think.

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Viltrox 23mm f1.4 image quality

So moving on to the actual image itself. How does it look?

Now one thing to mention here is that I’m the sort of photographer that looks at an image with the mindset of how well the image looks overall, I enjoy things like character, colour rendition and contrast, over whether an image is tack sharp when magnified to 200%.

Now there’s certainly nothing wrong with zooming in and looking around an image for the finer details, but it’s not something I personally do that much.

So as this is a real-world review as opposed to a scientific one, I will let you be the judge of the IQ yourself. I've taken a set of images and put them in a pack for you to download.

DOWNLOAD THEM HERE

I've taken a series of images with the fuji f1.4 and the same with the Viltrox 23mm lens so you can see the results for yourself and compare the two.

But if you want my opinion, here it is, now are you ready for this.

Well, in my opinion, the Viltrox is head and shoulders sharper than the fuji, that's not just in the centre but unbelievably sharper at the edges too.

Now I’ve always known that the Fuji 23mm xf lens wasn't particularly sharp wide open and, to be honest, it’s never bothered me that much, but I've never had enough confidence in the fuji xf to shoot group photos unless I stopped down to say f5,6 where it improves somewhat at the edges.

So I can see the Viltrox could play a big advantage here for wedding and portrait photographers.

When you get down to f11 f16 the images are fairly similar in terms of sharpness, but let's face it, you're not buying one of these to shoot at f16. You want it sharp at f1.4 right and I have to say the Viltrox excels in this department.

VILTROX IS ON THE LEFT, FUJI ON THE RIGHT.

Overall when you are looking at the images side by side at normal magnification you can't really tell the two apart, the colours, bokeh and contrast are pretty much identical from my tests and this is great because I just love the way the xf looks and for that reason, it is one of my favourite Fuji lenses and my favourite focal length too.

Overall I really like the image quality of the Viltrox 23mm lens. The bokeh looks nice, it focuses nice and close and has a lovely feel to the overall photo. There is a vignette from f1.4 through f3.6 and there can be significant flare when shooting towards the sun, but fringing is kept to a minimum.

Personally, I don’t mind the slight vignette, it's easy to correct in post-production if you need to.

The flare though can be seen as either a pro or con depending on how or what you are shooting.

For example, when I’m shooting portraits of a couple during a portrait session it’s nice to get some of that flare in your image at times, but if I’m shooting a formal group photo at a wedding then flare can be a real nuisance. So definitely something to be wary of, but can be used to create stunning images too

conclusion

So who is Viltrox 23mm lens for and how does it compare with the fuji equivalent.

So this lens performs well for both stills and video but both have their little quirks.

Video shooters that don’t tend to use the aperture ring to change exposure, will be more than happy. Those that were hoping for that smooth transition in exposure will feel disappointed especially as the sound of the blades moving is picked up with both the internal and external mic. Focus pulling is not really possible unless you shoot in slow-mo which is disappointing.

The flaring, on the other hand, is lovely for video as is the manual focus.

Stills shooters will be sure to love the snappy autofocus, great image quality and nice build, they may feel disappointed with the slight vignette, lens flare and clickless aperture though.

So a lens at this price point should lack far behind a native lens that costs over twice as much, but it really doesn’t.

It's definitely worth the money and a great introduction for anyone looking to get a fast prime that doesn’t have the budget for the native glass.

I will definitely be using it through the coming wedding season and I will keep my blog updated for any future developments.

Here's a couple of further points that are worth mentioning

Viltrox are known for their firmware updates and I feel many of the little quirks could be ironed out with an update. Updating is easy with the micro USB port. I should also mention that according to the Viltrox website, the lenses will not work with the x-pro line of cameras due to the mount. But you can check out their website for more details on that.

make sure to pick up the images and video clips to take a closer look at the IQ for this lens and feel free to watch the video below for demonstrations.

Viltrox 23mm F1.4 lens review