Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO APO Review

This is the first of two Viltrox lens review I have been working on recently. This first one is about the new Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO. The next one will be about the 55mm f/1.8 EVO. Both lenses were released on the same day back in April, and I have had them both since a few weeks before then too, so it’s fair to say that I’ve been a little slow in getting these written. This isn’t because I’ve not been happy with them though – quite the opposite – I really am very impressed with them. In fact, they have just slotted into my photography world quietly and perfectly providing me with exactly what I need a 35mm and 55mm lens.

This is exactly what happened with the Viltrox 85mm f/2 EVO too. The first major lens I reviewed from the brand was their bigger 85mm 1.8. I liked it, but the bokeh wasn’t quite to my tastes and the lens itself felt a little too big to me. But then the released the EVO and almost as soon as I received it I knew it was the right lens for me. It was smaller, a little lighter, had the features I wanted, was plenty sharp enough, essentially lacked any unpleasant optical aberrations, but had a little bit of character to the bokeh. I don’t need lenses faster than f/2 really either – especially with how good cameras and NR is these days – so in total it just felt like the perfect compromise of specs for me.

I then felt like I was waiting for more focal lengths of the same EVO series. These really could be the perfect answer to primes for the Nikon Z system for me. So I was pretty pleased when my contact from Viltrox got in touch to say there was a 35mm and 55mm coming along at the same time, and did I want to review both of them. Of course my answer was a resounding yes!

The 35, 55 and 85mm set

If you are familiar with the 85mm EVO then you might already be feeling pretty familiar with the design of the 35mm. You’ll have the same response to the 55mm when you see that too. All three lenses look the same. In fact, aside from the front element and the places on the lens where it literally says what the lens is, you’d be forgiven for getting them mixed up.

Line them up next to each other and you see just how similar they are. I have wondered in fact if this is a cost saving measure. Perhaps if they share lots of common components, the parts they are made of can be made and stocked more efficiently or maybe there’s a lower cost of manufacturing due to the higher quantities. One way or another, all three lenses are very similar to each other, and it seems to have been a very intentional choice to make them so.

For whatever impact this has on Viltrox in terms of their manufacturing processes, it also has an impact on the end user. Personally, I have found it to be an impact that balances toward positive too. To begin with, the aforementioned familiarity has an immediately positive influence on the user experience. Being able to mount a totally new lens and it feel a similar weight and size is one thing, but since these lenses are fairly feature packed with a few buttons and controls that are in the exact same position, there’s a familiarity in the usability too. Of course, this is mostly a novelty, as I get used to all of the lenses I use regularly in time anyway. But, that aside, there’s still a more long term convenience factor when it comes to how I stow them in my various bags. They just feel easy and convenient to carry and swap etc in use. The only small disadvantage is that they are easy to mistake for each other. I could tell my old Zeiss Batis lens set apart with just a glance – but this set I have to pick up and check what it says on the front or side of the lens. Though this really is a very minor nuisance in practice.

Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO build

Since the lenses are so similar to each other, I’m going to follow the same pattern of content as in my 85mm review. In fact, since the lenses are so similar, in some cases I’m actually going to copy, paste and only slightly tweak a few of the paragraphs. I’m going to do the same for the 55mm too. This might sound like cheating, but actually I still want to share the same information about each lens in each review separately, and since Viltrox have made them so similar – which as I say probably makes sense from a manufacturing efficiency point of view – it also makes sense from a lens review efficiency standpoint too.

The first thing I mentioned in this section about the 85mm isn’t going to be copy/pasted though. I mentioned not being so keen on the colour of the body of the 85mm lens. I kinda still agree with myself, but at this stage it feels much less of a factor to me. The lenses don’t perfectly match the Nikon Zf body, but I really don’t care – I certainly don’t notice this in use!

A tour of the lens

Starting at the base of the lens, the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO has a metal lens mount. On the mount itself, it also has a USB-C port for updating the lens firmware.

It also has a weather sealing rubber ring. As mentioned in my 85mm review, I have read somewhere that this might not indicate full weather sealing of the rest of the lens, though it would at least help reduce water ingress into the camera mount. Having lost a D3 to water damage after being out in the rain with it, I don’t really trust water-resistance in cameras anyway, but I did take the 85mm out in some rain, and it did get quite wet, and it was fine. I just suggest you take whatever level of precaution you are comfortable with.

Moving up the lens, the next part of the body seems to be metal and feels nice and solid. Then we have the aperture control which I think is also made of metal. There is a switch to set it to either click or not. With it set to click, it clicks nicely. If it’s set not to click, it also rotates smoothly.

The next section of the lens between the aperture control and focus control is made of plastic. This bit feels more hollow when you tap it – though it doesn’t necessarily feel cheap. This is also where you find the click switch for the aperture control, the AF/MF switch, and also a FN/function button, all of which feel perfectly satisfactory to click/press.

Next is the focus control which again I think is made of metal. This really is very smooth to rotate – though not quite as satisfying as a “proper” mechanical focus control – for what it is, it’s very nice! Forward of the focus ring, the front most part of the lens is also made of metal which also includes a bayonet mount for the plastic, nicely fitting hood.

Features

As is probably clear from the above, like the 85mm EVO, the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO has a few interesting features. It also has a few more features than many of the Nikon 1st party lenses too. As I mentioned in my previous review, this is a bigger deal than I probably thought it ever would be for me. The on-lens aperture control is the first big perk. I have really grown to appreciate how much more easily I can change the aperture when it is on a dial on a lens. As I said in my 85mm review, I don’t think that this is through some sort of nostalgia for older kit, I just find being able to change the aperture with my left hand on the lens and shutter/exposure compensation with my right hand on the camera more of a comfortable/logical shooting experience.

Admittedly, I don’t use the aperture click switch – I just leave it clicked as in my use case with this camera and lens it makes more sense when clicking through the settings and looking through the viewfinder of the camera seeing the settings change.

I also don’t use the MF/AF switch. I have my Zf set up so the AF is activated by a separate button press from the shutter button, so I don’t need to be able to switch a lens to manual focus. I don’t really manual focus with AF lenses much anyway.

A feature I am learning to love is the on-lens Fn button. When I wrote my 85mm lens review, I had the button set to exposure lock, but since then I have set it to allow me to switch between FX and DX shooting mode. Essentially this means that it acts like a quick digital zoom button – I don’t use this a massive amount, but since I rarely need more than 10mp in my final results, I quite like this as an option. It also feels like it makes sense as even though it’s a digital zoom, it doesn’t change the framing in a similar way to how a lens would… more on this when I finally get around to writing my Zf review.

The size

I have already talked a bit about the size of the lens as being the same as the 85mm. When I wrote the 85mm review, I was totally enamoured with the size – for an 85mm it feels small. Actually, for a 35mm 1.8, I wouldn’t mind if it was smaller. But then it wouldn’t have the same body as the 85, and I think ultimately that is the main factor here. And besides, it’s far from a huge lens, regardless!

AF Performance

Since reviewing the 85mm EVO, I have reviewed one of Viltrox’s higher end lenses, the 56mm 1.2 APSC lens. That lens showed me just how capable Viltrox are when it comes to making lenses with fast AF. The Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO is not as quick as the 56mm. It is as quick as the 85mm EVO though. As such, again, my thoughts are very similar. For everyday snaps, and even the majority of the sort of work I do as a professional, the AF here is totally fine. Given some really quick/erratic moving subject matter, it’s not going to keep up with some of the most highest end lenses on the market. But, we are definitely at a stage in lens design that making these sorts of comments feels like splitting hairs – I really can’t emphasise enough, that unless you’re undertaking specifically demanding subject matter, the lens is going to be absolutely fine when it comes to AF performance!

Image quality

As already outlined, I really couldn’t have been any happier with the 85mm EVO when it comes to image quality. I personally function in a world of more than one preference. I love my old vintage lenses, I love my newer lenses with character too. For example, at one end of the spectrum I found the subtle character of the 7Artisans 35mm 1.8 quite appealing, but also, at the other end of the spectrum, I obviously enjoy very much more characterful lenses such as the Omnar NK35-18 (a rehousing of Nikon’s 35mm 1.8 rangefinder lens). That is to say, you’ll never push me to tell you exactly what I specifically like when it comes to lens character – for me, it’s more about what’s right for the task at hand.

With that said, as illustrated by my 85mm 1.8 review, I do know what I like less. Fortunately, like the 85mm EVO, there is very little about the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO that I don’t like, and a hell of a lot that I feel that works very well for me for a specific area of my personal photography – that being where I am taking photos where I don’t really want the lens to have much of a noticeable impact on the final results.

Sharpness, contrast and colours

Just like the 85mm, the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO is very sharp. Wide open it’s amazingly sharp until the far corners where it is just about perceptibly softer in normal use given a flat subject.

Stopped down a little bit, it’s even more amazingly sharp, and is still sharp even in the corners. Stop down too much and diffraction kicks in. I really have nothing else to say. These lenses are just brilliant when it comes to resolving power. There’s also stacks of contrast, and the colours look great with the Zf hanging off the back of it!

Bokeh

As I have talked about, my big beef with the first major Viltrox lens I reviewed – the 85mm 1.8 – was the 2D bokeh. The 85mm EVO came along and fixed the issue for me. I really couldn’t have been more happy that I found a little bit of character and depth from the 85mm EVO. I expected the same from the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO and have been pleasantly surprised.

If you are the sort that wants perfectly smooth, flat, characterless bokeh, then this might not be the ideal lens for you as given certain circumstances. Shooting at mid distances, wide open, with foliage as your background the bokeh can be a touch busy. In reality though, this really is only going to be an issue for the most fussy out there who really don’t like any depth or character to their out of focus rendering. For my tastes, I think it looks great – I really have had no reason to complain at all.

Flare

Where this lens has caught me out a couple of times is how it flares. This is far from a major concern, but I have actually started carrying the hood with this lens – which is pretty unusual for me. On the odd occasion, I have had little bits of veiling flare, and little bits of ghosting. Now I should add, when this has happened, a little bit of re-framing has totally solved the issue. The hood seems effective at helping too.

What’s nice about the 35mm hood is that it also fits on the 55mm and 85mm. Neither really need a hood, but what I have found when carrying the 35mm with the hood is that I can also the attach it to whichever other of the other EVO lenses I am using – if nothing else, the little bit of lens protection this offers is nothing to be sniffed at, and carrying one lens hood instead of three works nicely for me – especially as it can be mounted on whatever lens is in use.

Vignetting

There is indeed a little bit of vignetting when shooting the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO wide open. As I’ve regularly said, this works for me. Maybe it wouldn’t work for you, but I am not averse to darker corners as a character trait in lenses.

Distortion and other aberrations

This sentence is literally copy/pasted from the 85mm review just with the name of the lens changed: In terms of distortion, I can’t see any. In fact, aside from the vignetting, I can’t see anything that might cause any offence to anyone shooting the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO in normal, i.e. not test conditions.

APO designation

I’ve never noticed any chromatic aberrations from results taken with the 85mm EVO, nor have I with this new Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO. The difference with this new lens – and the 55mm for that matter – is that it also comes with an APO designation within the nomenclature. Are these new lenses more apochromatic than the 85mm? I have no idea! In the real world all three lenses are very sharp and don’t seem to suffer from in-focus or out-of-focus area colour fringing.

Overall Character

I have referenced the 85mm EVO a lot of times in this review, and I’m going to do it again now. As with the 85mm, it’s incredibly difficult to find fault with the optical characteristics of the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO. There’s a little bit of a vignette, and some might have a mild issue with the character of the bokeh. If I have any concern at all, it’s about the flare, but it’s so well manageable through subtle changes in shooting position/angle or use of the hood, that in practical terms even this isn’t really a problem. But beyond those barely discernible traits, as far as I’m concerned it’s essentially excellent. It is – like the 85 – a lens that imposes very little of itself – it just makes for very high quality images, reliably and repeatedly.

Final thoughts

The struggle I have had writing this review is only going to get worse when I try and write my 55mm EVO review. That is to say, a lot of what I have found myself wanting to say about this lens, I have already said about the 85mm, and will want to say about the 55mm too.

All three lenses look the same, feel the same to use, and all take pretty much immaculate photos. The AF system isn’t the top flight system that Viltrox make, but it doesn’t really lag that far behind, certainly not in any way that it has any practical impact on a very large percentage of my photography. At 1.8 and f/2, they aren’t the fastest lenses, but they’re not very big either – and again, for my needs, size matters more to me than very low light performance or very shallow depth of field.

The whole final section in my 85mm review was about my definition of the concept of perfection being the enemy of good. In summary, the perfect lens doesn’t exist, and so the closest one can achieve in the search for such a thing is an ideal balance of compromises for the individual. In case I somehow haven’t made this abundantly clear, I feel exactly the same way about the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 EVO as I did about the 85mm EVO – it is, for me at least, the perfect balance of compromises, not just in terms of features, build, look and feel and optical quality, but also price point. Good quality AF lenses just aren’t really where I want to spend my money, so the fact that something this excellent is available for the cash it is, just makes it feel like an ideal fit for me and my needs. In short, I really can’t recommend the Voltrox 35mm 1.8 EVO APO enough.

You can find this lens to purchase off the Viltrox website here (affiliate link)

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