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Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 XF PRO - Review / Test Report |
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Lens Reviews -
Fujifilm X
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Review by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2023
Introduction
Over the years, we have seen quite a few Chinese players, but most of them are still on the exotic side of things - except Viltrox. And since last year, they seem to be in full attack mode in the medium to high-end market. Especially the Viltrox AF 75mm f/1.2 XF Pro and AF 16mm f/1.8 FE surprised us with a combination of great quality at an affordable price. And the Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 XF Pro just made it into our lab. As the name implies, it is for the Fujifilm X mount, but other mounts will follow shortly. Obviously, it's an APS-C format lens equivalent to around "41mm f/1.8" in full format terms. "40mm" lenses have seen some popularity lately, so this makes sense. It's available for $545. While this isn't cheap anymore, but it's certainly attractively priced, given its speed.
Following the tradition of the AF 75mm f/1.2 XF Pro, the AF 27mm f/1.2 XF Pro has exceptional build quality. The lens body is made of metal down to the mount. It is also dust- and splash-proof thanks to no less than 10 seals. The focus ring operates smoothly. Viltrox also implemented a dedicated aperture ring with a nice click action. A deep petal-shaped lens hood is part of the package.
As you may have guessed from the product photos, it's not an especially small or lightweight lens, but f/1.2 comes at a price.
The Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 XF Pro features a stepping motor. The AF speed is perfectly fast on modern Fujifilm cameras, and the focus operations are silent. Manual focusing works "by-wire", as usual. Firmware updates are possible via a dedicated USB port on the lens mount.
| Specifications |
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| Equiv. full-format focal length | "41mm" |
| quiv. full-format aperture (DoF) | "f/1.8" |
| Optical construction | 15 elements in 11 groups (2xED, 5xHR, 1x aspherical) |
| Number of aperture blades | 11 (rounded) |
| min. focus distance | 0.28m (1:6.6 max magnification) |
| Dimensions | 82x92mm |
| Weight | 560g |
| Filter size | 67mm |
| Hood | petal-shaped (bayonet mount, supplied) |
| AF motor | Stepping type |
| Other | HD Nano coating, aperture ring, dust- and splash-proof, USB Port |
| Available Mounts | Fujifilm X |
Distortion
The Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 PRO XF doesn't require any auto-correction when it comes to image distortions. The lens is basically fully corrected, as you can see below.
Vignetting
Ultra-high-speed lenses tend to produce quite a bit of vignetting at large apertures, and this also applies to the Viltrox lens. In RAW images, the vignetting is very high at f/1.2. A light falloff of ~2.7EV (f-stops) is way beyond our usual scale for APS-C lenses. Stopping down to f/1.6 reduces the falloff substantially, and it's not a major issue anymore beyond f/2.8 onward. Activated auto-correction reduces the vignetting by 1EV (f-stop) at f/1.2 - this is still visible in many scenes. The issue is reasonably well controlled at f/2 and, once again, mostly resolved at f/2.8.
MTF (resolution) at 26 megapixels
The Viltrox 27mm f/1.2 XF Pro produces even better results than the already impressive 75mm f/1.2 XF Pro. The broader center quality is already excellent at f/1.2. However, even more surprising is the good to very good result of the outer image field. Stopping down to f/1.6 doesn't make a hell of a difference, but there's a slight boost at f/2 with the borders/corners now residing firmly on very good levels. The peak quality is reached around f/2.8. Diffraction has an impact from f/8 onward. As usual, aperture settings beyond f/11 should be avoided unless required for the shot.
The field curvature is low. The centering quality of our sample was Okay, with a tad softer results on the right image side (slightly visible in 40mp images).
Please note that the MTF results are not directly comparable across the different systems!
Below is a simplified summary of the formal findings. The chart shows line widths per picture height (LW/PH), which can be taken as a measure of sharpness.
If you want to know more about the MTF50 figures, you may check out the corresponding Imatest Explanations
Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)
Lateral CAs are basically negligible.
Bokeh
You won't really purchase an f/1.2 prime lens if we weren't interested in shallow depth-of-field photography, so let's check how the Viltrox lens performs in this respect.
Out-of-focus highlights are nicely rendered with a smooth inner disc and very soft edges.
At f/1.2, the circular shape of the highlight discs is only maintained in a fairly narrow zone around the center. The highlight shape deteriorates rapidly with pronounced "cat eyes" near the borders/corners. As usual, stopping down broadens the zone of truly circular discs and the corner discs are mostly restored at f/2.
The general blur is very smooth in the background - illustrated to the left below. The less important foreground blur is slightly less pleasing with a more distinctive blur "edge".
Bokeh Fringing / LoCA
Boheh fringing/LoCA is an axial color fringing effect with purplish halos in front of the focus point and greenish beyond.
The Viltrox lens does an average job in this respect with a fairly pronounced color fringing present at f/1.2 and f/1.6. Traces remain at f/2, and the issue is mostly gone from f/2.8.
The focus shift is marginal as you may notice when scrolling through the aperture range.
Sun Stars (Experimental)
Below is a sequence of images from f/4 all the way up to f/16 - illustrating the Sunstar behavior (using an LED on a dark background). Sun stars are an aperture effect when shooting bright light sources such as street lights, the sun, etc. At large aperture settings up to f/4, there isn't much going on - surely because of the 11 aperture blades. The sun stars start to emerge at f/5.6. The most pronounced sun star effect is reached between f/11 and f/16, but it remains comparatively underdeveloped.
Sample Images
Click on an image to download the full-size variant (Note: Images taken at 40mp with the X-H2)
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 800 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/2.8 |
| Exposure | 1/40s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 320 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/1.2 |
| Exposure | 1/40s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 125 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/5.6 |
| Exposure | 1/75s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 800 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/2.0 |
| Exposure | 1/8s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 160 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/1.2 |
| Exposure | 1/40s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 800 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/2.8 |
| Exposure | 1/12s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 800 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/2.8 |
| Exposure | 1/25s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 640 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/2.8 |
| Exposure | 1/40s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 125 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/1.2 |
| Exposure | 1/80s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 200 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/1.2 |
| Exposure | 1/40s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 200 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/1.2 |
| Exposure | 1/60000s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 200 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/2.8 |
| Exposure | 1/80s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 125 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Exposure | 1/160s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 800 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/1.2 |
| Exposure | 1/9s |
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| Make | FUJIFILM |
| Model | X-H2 |
| ISO Speed | 800 |
| Focal Length | 27.0mm |
| Aperture: | f/2.8 |
| Exposure | 1/18s |
Competition
As mentioned in the introduction, the Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 XF Pro occupies a spot that hasn't been taken by Fujifilm or Sigma yet.
The nearest competitors are probably the Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR and the new Sigma 23mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary.
Given its performance, the Viltrox doesn't have to fear either of them except in terms of weight.
Verdict
Viltrox has delivered an impressive piece of equipment - again. The Viltrox AF 27mm f/1.2 XF Pro is sharp at f/1.2 and great at medium aperture settings. As expected, the RAW vignetting is on the high side at f/1.2, but auto-correction reduces the issue to a more manageable level. Image distortions, as well as CAs, are negligible in their original form already. The quality of the bokeh is good but not flawless. The general out-of-focus rendering is very smooth in the background. However, the "cat eye" effect sets in quite early, and there's some bokeh fringing at very large aperture settings. Flare is quite well controlled for such a fast lens. The Viltrox lens isn't a king when it comes to sun stars, but given the 11 aperture blades, the designers simply focused on bokeh quality instead.
The mechanical quality of the Viltrox Pro lens is outstanding and easily on par with Fujifilm's own prime lenses. It's a tightly assembled, all-metal body with smooth, high-quality controls and fast AF (on the X-H2, at least). Internal focusing, weather-sealing, and a water-resistant coating on the front element provide protection against tough outdoor conditions.
We quite like this Viltrox lens - a lot. "Highly Recommended," and we are already looking forward to the next one.
Mechanical Quality:
★★★★★
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