Uncertain portrait hero: We review the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4

news7g05/28/2023

1 3 minutes read

Uncertain portrait hero: We review the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4

The Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 Lens is a meticulously designed ultra-wide-angle lens for Fujifilm X-Mount cameras. Featuring a physical aperture ring, compact design and sturdy construction, it is a great choice for Fujifilm users. In this article and the accompanying video, I will share my experience using the 13mm lens primarily as a portrait lens.

Build Quality & Handling

For the super wide angle lens, Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 is quite compact. It has a metal mount, a metal lens hood, and feels like a much more expensive accessory kit. The manual focus ring is large and easy to use, and those who love manual focus will appreciate the smooth focusing without any electronic jerkiness of some lenses. The aperture ring is large and has a satisfying click through each f-stop value without being stiff. While the lens isn’t compact, it’s not large and handled well even when I was shooting on camera. X-T5 or X-H2even with one-handed shooting, which I did for this review.

auto focus

The 13mm lens has an STM motor, and I found the autofocus to be on par with the Fuji Linear Motor lens. I didn’t notice any difference in autofocus speed and accuracy at the 13mm when compared to the Fuji 16-55 f/2.8, which I use regularly. It focuses quickly, and it’s also silent. Using the Viltrox 13mm on the X-T5 and X-H2 is a wonderful and only one time when the autofocus gets stuck. While capturing tree leaves in direct sunlight with autofocus set to track, focus struggled to lock onto a leaf. Once set to a single point, the problem was resolved and the lens locked immediately without any hesitation. The best part about autofocus is that I barely gave it much thought, as the camera and lens did their job and focused right on my subject.

Unstable portrait lens

I was most impressed with the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 when shooting a subject that is not suitable for the super wide-angle lens – portraits! I decided to try out Viltrox to take some outdoor portraits at night in one of my favorite caves in New York. Using Fujifilm X-H2, Viltrox 13mm and a Lume Cube Light Light Mini, I asked a group of musicians if I could take their portraits between performances. Admittedly, I was a bit nervous when using the super wide-angle lens for portraiture, especially when I was about to hold the lamp in one hand and the camera in the other. Of course, I’m afraid the face will be distorted, but I also think that I won’t be able to adjust the angle of light high enough that it won’t appear in my photos. The VIltrox has proven itself to be not only a great portrait lens, but also a great lens, period. Images are sharp, detailed, with vibrant colors and minimal distortion for such a wide field of view. Subjects emerge from the background and the lens even has a very pleasing bokeh effect. The fast f/1.4 aperture makes nighttime outdoor photography easy and enjoyable.

Image quality

The overall image quality of the Viltrox 13mm is excellent. In my testing, I found the image sharpest at around f/5.6, but also very good at wide. At f/11, the image becomes softer. At f/1.4, there is some color fringing, but this also disappears at f/5.6. Viltrox claims that the lens is designed to minimize distortion, and I found this to be true in my photos as well, which, while clearly taken with the wide-angle lens, did not look unduly distorted when shooting with a tripod. dung. The 13mm lens has quite a bit of vignetting at all apertures, but this is a simple fix in post-production.

Get It or Forget It?

The Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 did not disappoint. It looks, feels, and handles like a much more expensive lens, and I can’t find any major sacrifices in performance or quality when using this third-party lens. Personally, I find the 13mm to be quite a versatile lens, capable of capturing everything from portraits, concerts, family photos, and even flowers. In all these situations, I am satisfied with the performance and the results.