Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO – Z-Mount Review

The new Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO has been released today in E and Z mount. I’ve had this lens for a few weeks now, so thought I would push through a review for launch day. This thing is a beast of lens, it’s pretty big and a little heavy, but it’s also fast (AF and light gathering) and is really stunningly good optically speaking. It’s not the sort of lens I tend to carry every day, but I’ve been getting more used to larger kit recently, and with that I’ve found this impressive bit of kit quite compelling… that is at least as long as I don’t compare it too closely to the Viltrox 35mm 1.8 EVO lens I already own!

Of course, through no fault of the lens at all, I’ve had a bit of a job re-orienting myself to a wide angle lens for every day snaps. My last review was about a Tamron 50-400, and as someone who had really been finding telephoto lenses very enjoyable and easy to use daily, 35mm has been a bit of a jolt to the system. But as I say, that’s a me problem, and more than anything else, as the nights draw in, I have been thinking more about faster lenses again. It’s also hard to argue that a fast 35mm isn’t a very useful tool – especially one this good!

It came somewhat of a surprise to me that Viltrox didn’t already make this lens, though given some closer scrutiny of their product range, I realised it’s adding to a fairly strong selection of full frame, 35mm lenses they already make. They have their 35mm 1.2 LAB series lens which is even bigger and heavier, a touch faster, and is actually quite expensive (by Viltrox standards), and then there’s the 35mm 1.8 EVO series lens which is a lot smaller, lighter, less expensive, but a touch slower. This new 35mm 1.4 lens, a ‘PRO’ series lens, fits between the two. As I’ve said, it’s pretty big and pretty heavy, but it’s not quite as big as the LAB lens, and is also slightly – though perhaps not dramatically – cheaper. So with all this taken into account, is the Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO a potential sweet spot between the EVO and the LAB?

The short answer to that, at least from my perspective is possibly not. With the price and size difference between this new lens and the LAB being as small as it is, I’d probably be tempted up the range to the LAB is speed were my priority, and down the range to the EVO if size or price were the deciding factors. But, as you’ll read, by no means does that mean I’m not almost entirely impressed by this lens when considering it by its own merits alone.

Size & weight

Though I’ve said I’ve been getting used to larger gear, I think it’s important to point out here that this just means I haven’t found the Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO too problematic to carry. What it doesn’t mean is that I’m not going to acknowledge that this is a pretty big and heavy lens. For my personal tastes, for everyday life, a lens like this is too big as a prime lens. But, I should definitely caveat that by saying I am neither really a low light photographer, or a photographer that’s bothered about ultimate background separation given any particular focal length. If you are either of those types of photographer, the size and weight disadvantage here is probably a lot easier to swallow, especially given all the rest of the positive stuff I’m about to tell you about this lens.

Build quality

There is nothing about any of the Viltrox lenses I’ve reviewed that I have felt has fallen shot in terms of build quality, but like the 56mm PRO series lens I reviewed previously, this Viltrox 35mm 1.4 feels like it’s really built to last. As I have regularly said throughout my experiences with this brand, it is impossible to comment on the internal build quality. Even if I could successfully strip one down to its component parts, I wouldn’t be qualified to comment on how long the internals would be likely to last. At least in my world, time is therefore the only thing that I could use to determine the longevity is these lenses. But, from the perspective I have, I am certainly given no reason to think that this “PRO” lens from Viltrox wouldn’t survive a decent amount of professional use – it just feels extremely well made!

With the exception of the front of the housing around the optics, the lens hood mount, and the switches, every other external component of the lens seems to be made out of metal. There’s a satin/matte finish to most of the lens body that Viltrox claims is resistant to scratching – I have no idea how true that is, but it certainly feels good quality.

There’s also a weather seal around the mount of the lens. Viltrox seem to be claiming that the visible weather seal is just part of the overall weather sealing system within the lens, but again, short of taking it apart I can’t back that up. I’ve not been out in the wet with it yet either.

Features

The Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO has pretty much the same set of features as most of the other Viltrox lenses I have reviewed. There’s an aperture control that allows the lens to be set to 1/3rd stops. Via a switch, the dial can also be set to click or not depending on preference. There’s also an ‘A’ setting for Auto aperture control which the lens should be set to for shutter priority and program modes on the camera.

There’s a single Fn button too which I still have set to switch between FX (full frame) and DX (apsc crop) modes on the camera. Finally, there’s also an AF/MF switch which I have no use for due to having the AF activation separated from the shutter button. Useful for some people though, for sure! Finally, there’s a USB port on the face of the lens mount – this is for updating the firmware, and again is a consistent feature of Viltrox lenses.

Autofocus capabilities

As a lens in the PRO series from Viltrox, it has the HyperVCM autofocus which is apparently an upgrade over the STM system in the EVO series. Now, I’m not going to claim any specific expertise here – autofocus technology isn’t a specialist field for me – but what I do know is that VCM systems tend to be used in lenses where bigger optics need shifting faster within the lens. This adds up when comparing the EVO and PRO lenses from a technical requirement standpoint – the PRO is definitely a bigger lens, with no doubt bigger bits of glass to move inside it – but is the end product a faster AF? Well, as it currently stands with this Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO, I can’t see a massive difference. The PRO is certainly as good as the EVO, but I wouldn’t say it’s massively better. This surprised me a little as the 56mm PRO I reviewed before was a marked improvement over the (equivalent FOV) 85mm EVO. This is perhaps a product of this being a pre-production lens though – maybe a firmware update will speed things up a bit.

With all that said, I’ve not really had any problems in normal use. The only area of really noticed this is in doing my moving subject AF tests with the kid on her go-kart and dog. I got some sharp shots, but the hit rate was no better than the EVO I don’t think. For the rest of the subject matter I have shot with the lens, I’ve had no issue with accuracy at all. In fact, I’ve generally been quite impressed – I just thought I might be more blown away as I was with the 56mm.

Optical qualities

The more modern lenses I review, the less I find I have to say. The higher end the lens, equally, the less I find I have to say. The reality is with this lens as a modern and essentially high end as this one, I really can’t find much to comment on. But I will try…

Sharpness

The Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO very sharp. I haven’t taken an excessive amount of images with this lens yet, but I am yet to take a single in-focus photo that hasn’t shown near perfect sharpness everywhere that I could have expected it to. Even at 1.4 it’s very sharp anywhere in the frame where you might want to place your subject in the frame.

Of course given totally flat subject matter, I am sure there’s some fall-off in sharpness into the corners, but I haven’t noticed this impacting any of my “normal” photos. Even taking photos in the woods where it’s usually easy to see where lenses fall over, I need to zoom past 100% to see the sharpness fall-off toward the edges of the frame.

Stopped down to the middle apertures for these same sorts landscape type of images, it’s really remarkable – if you like a biting level of detail to your images, you’re onto a winner here – very impressive!

Bokeh

The bokeh is equally as impressive. Actually, I had worried reading the press literature that the bokeh would be ultra smooth and totally lacking in character in the way I disliked with the early 85mm I reviewed. Of course, being a 35mm, it doesn’t provide quite the same level of out-of-focus-ness anyway, but fortunately there is still just a smidgeon of character to the rendering too. That is to say, the out-of-focus rendering just has the tiniest amount of business to give the images a sense of 3-dimensionality without being even remotely distracting.

What’s possibly more impressive though is the consistency of the out of focus rendering. It doesn’t seem to matter what the subject distance is, the bokeh always remains similarly non-distracting, yet not without a little bit of character – very impressive!

Flare

I must admit, I haven’t been able to catch the lens out very often when it comes to flare – the only time I have was when some light was shining through a crack in the curtains in my living room and I managed to get this bit of veiling flare and a bit of a ghost. In more normal circumstances when I might expect flare, I haven’t seen very much at all – also very impressive!

Other aberrations

As with the EVO series lenses, which actually have APO in their nomenclature, this Viltrox 35mm 1.4 doesn’t seem to exhibit any colour aberrations at all – I’ve certainly not noticed anything – very impressive! I also can’t really detect any distortion in normal use, nor does it really exhibit any specifically dramatic Vignetting – though there is a little wider-open of course!

Overall character (and compared to the 35mm EVO) – very impressive!

Overall, it really is a very-if-not-stunningly-impressive lens when talking about the optics in objective terms. I certainly can’t find any reason to fault it. If anything I might call it a little clinical. It’s super sharp, the bokeh is consistently good without too much or too little character, and in normal shooting circumstances I find essentially nothing to complain about short of the little bit of flare I managed to make it do once. In short, if you are after a modern lens you can trust to have essentially zero negative impact on your images, then it seems to be a very easy lens to recommend.

Though, I must admit, I personally slightly prefer the EVO. Though I should emphasise, the EVO is a slightly less good lens, objectively speaking. I don’t think it is quite as bitingly sharp, though not far off. Bokeh is less controlled, but not by much, I think it might vignette a little more, and is more susceptible to flare, but I like it more for all those reasons! Just have in mind, if you reading this wondering what the hell I am on about, you need to know that I am an awkward bugger when it comes to lenses – a contrarian if you like – I preference a few character traits in favour of objective perfection. I also like my lenses to be smaller and lighter, and though that’s nothing to do with optical qualities directly, a smaller-lens compromise on optical quality is definitely one I am comfortable with!

Final thoughts

I suppose I would have to say that whilst I have found this lens compelling in many ways I have also struggled with it a little. This is not because it isn’t good, in fact it is – in case I haven’t made this clear – extremely good! The problem it has suffered for me is one almost entirely of comparison. This is both in terms of a lens I own, and am very familiar with, and a lens I don’t own, and haven’t even seen in real life.

Compared to the EVO, it’s clear the Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO is better lens, optically speaking, but there’s not an awful a lot in it. As I have said, I think the bokeh is a little better controlled across subject distances, and if I could be bothered to make more direct comparisons, I’d be surprised if I didn’t find it to be even more consistently sharp – the PRO certainly feels like it has more ‘bite’ to the sharpness. The issue for me is that those differences aren’t really relevant to my photography – especially when I actually prefer a little more character from my lenses. Moreover though, I prefer my lenses smaller and lighter, I don’t really need the extra light gathering power or more shallow depth of field – 1.4 compared to 1.8 really isn’t that big a deal these days. And finally, whilst the AF performance from the PRO might well improve with firmware, as it stands I didn’t feel like it was better than the EVO. In short, for me, the EVO is a better choice. For others looking at this choice, it might be hard to get past the fact that the nearly-as-good EVO is essentially half the price of the PRO too!

And then there’s the 35mm 1.2 LAB to take into account. It’s bigger and heavier, true, but not much. It’s also not much more expensive, and for those looking at specs for low light and shallow DOF, it’s also a 1.2 rather than 1.4, and by all accounts is pretty stunning optically speaking too. So why would anyone who wants a faster lens not fork out the little bit more for the LAB over the PRO? I think that’s what I would do if I was looking to buy a fast 35mm and was less worried about size.

Of course, none of this really takes away from how good the Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO is when considered in isolation, and it really is – as if I need to labour the point any more – very good indeed. And maybe that’s the point; perhaps I am viewing it too much through my own lens, so to speak. I highly doubt that anyone who – for whatever their own reasons – decides to buy one would find any reason to be disappointed. And ultimately, it’s hard to argue that more options for one of the most popular focal lengths isn’t a good thing – especially when it’s as good as the Viltrox 35mm 1.4 PRO!

You can find out more about this lens on the Viltrox website here (affiliate link)

Product Pricing: USD: $829, EUR: €859, GBP: £739, CAD: C$1,159, JPY: ¥157,800

Launch Offer: 20% off until November 30th – The discount will be applied automatically at checkout when buying from here

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