Viltrox AF 50mm F1.4 PRO Z Review

Introduction

Ease of Use

Weighing in at 800g and measuring 84.5mm in diameter and 111mm in length, the all-metal bodied Viltrox AF 50mm F1.4 PRO Z is about par for the course in terms of its size and weeight for such a fast, well-built 35mm full-frame lens.

Its overall dimensions and weight make it well-suited to a camera like the Nikon Z8 that we tested it with, as shown in the photos below, even with the supplied hood attached.

The comparable Nikon Z 50mm f/1.4 is much smaller and lighter, weighing in at 420g (14.9oz) and measuring 86.5mm (3.5in.) in length, plus it’s even cheaper too. This Viltrox lens does have a more robust all-metal rather than plastic build, though, and offers far more external controls.

You could also consider the even faster Nikon Z 50mm f/1.2 S, but that’s much bigger and heavier (1090g) and at £2,299 / $2,099 much, much more expensive.

The Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S weighs just 415g, but is the slowest of all these 50mm lenses in terms of the maximum aperture and surprisingly more expensive than the Viltrox.

The build quality of this lens is excellent, with the all-metal barrel construction and matte black finish adding to the premium feel.

It has a sealed dust and moisture resistant design, although Viltrox stops short of saying that it’s 100% weather-proof, and the front element features a water and smudge-resistant coating.

It has a supposedly more durable brass-plated lens mount and it accepts 77mm filters via metal threads on the front of the lens.

This lens features an aperture ring that has 1/3EV stops ranging from f/1.4 to f/16 and an Auto setting. 

There is a Click switch on the bottom-right of the lens barrel lets you select whether the aperture ring clicks into place at each aperture stop or rotates smoothly for silent operation during movie recording.

There is a round, clicky, unmarked customisable Function which can be programmed to quickly access various functions from within the camera.

There is a fairly wide, ridged focus ring. Manual focusing is possible by using the focus mode switch to toggle between AF and MF.

There are no hard stops at either end of the range, making it a little more difficult to set focus at infinity. Polariser users should be pleased that the 77mm filter thread doesn’t rotate on focus.

The lens utilizes a Dual HyperVCM motor to provide quiet and smooth auto-focusing, making it very well-suited to shooting video.

When it comes to auto-focusing, the Viltrox AF 50mm F1.4 PRO Z proved to be an almost silent, fairly quick performer on the Nikon Z8 camera that we tested it with.

We didn’t experience very much “hunting”, either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing almost all of the time, but it’s not as quick to find and lock onto the focus point as rival Nikon lenses.

This lens does not feature optical image stabilisation, so it relies on the camera body’s own built-in stabilisation.

One other significant feature is the USB-C Firmware Upgrade Port which as the name suggests allows you to update the lens directly using Viltrox software, rather than via a camera body.

This lens is commendably supplied with both a soft case and a good quality plastic petal-shaped lens hood (PL-68A).

Focal Range

The 50mm focal length provides an angle of view of 47 degrees on a 35mm full-frame camera.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, were not very apparent in our test shots, only appearing in very high contrast areas. The example below shows the worst-case scenario.

Vignetting

With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/1.4, there is some light fall-off in the corners as you’d expect, requiring you to stop down by at least 3 f-stops to prevent it completely.

Distortion

There’s just some slight barrel distortion evident in both the JPEG and RAW files.

Sunstars and Flare

The Viltrox AF 50mm F1.4 PRO Z is capable of producing quite nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/16, as shown below.

The lens is susceptible to flare when shooting directly into the sun, though, even with the supplied lens hood fitted, but it’s mostly well-controlled.

Macro

This isn’t claimed to be a macro lens, but it does usefully offer a minimum focusing distance of 45cm with a maximum magnification of 0.145x. The following examples demonstrate how close you can get to your subject.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

In the AF 50mm F1.4 PRO Z lens, Viltrox have employed an iris diaphragm with 11 circular blades, which has resulted in very appealing bokeh for a standard prime lens.

We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we’ve included several examples below for your perusal.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp the Viltrox AF 50mm F1.4 PRO lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.