Viltrox 9mm f2.8 – Ultrawide Is In The Air

The Viltrox 9mm f2.8 Air is the latest addition to the growing “Air” lineup. If you’ve been following the series from the start, you’ll notice an interesting trend: the focal lengths have been gradually moving wider: 56mm, 35mm, 25mm, 15mm, and now an ultrawide 9mm. It makes me wonder what Viltrox has planned next. Maybe something in the 75mm range? But that’s a speculation for another day.

Intro

This isn’t my first time shooting at the 9mm focal length. I actually owned the Laowa 9mm f2.8 years ago, and I absolutely loved how ultrawide it was while still staying incredibly compact. Unfortunately, I eventually had to let it go to fund other lenses at the time.

The Viltrox 9mm f/2.8 Air was first announced on 19 September 2025, launching initially for Sony E-mount and Nikon Z-mount, with the Fujifilm X-mount version following on 26 November 2025. Viltrox has clearly been putting strong focus into expanding the Air series, and the 9mm is yet another step in that direction.

Before I continue further, I would like to thank the good people in Viltrox for sending this lens to me. As always, my thoughts and opinions remain entirely my own, based solely on my real-world testing.

Design and Build Quality

The 9mm f2.8 Air continues the design language established like its siblings. It shares the same clean, minimalist aesthetic, no aperture ring and a smooth manual focus ring with minimal resistance. It truly retain the consistently compact form factor across the series.

Like the rest of the Air lineup, this lens uses a plastic build quality and a 58mm filter thread. The build feels solid with no noticeable creaks or cheapness, and the matte finish does a great job resisting fingerprints. Oh yes, a lens hood is included as well.

The weight is also in line with the family’s philosophy of portability. At 175g, it sits comfortably among the other Air lenses, which range between 170g and 180g. Consistency seems to be a deliberate design goal here, and Viltrox is clearly sticking to it.

Image Quality

Wide open at f2.8, image quality is impressive for such an ultrawide lens. Distortion is well-controlled, it is barely noticable with my not-so-perfect eyes. Sharpness is good, with pleasing contrast and almost no chromatic aberration. Some vignetting is visible at f2.8, but honestly, that’s quite normal for a 9mm lens and not something that detracts from real-world use.

When it comes to background blur, it isn’t my favorite look. The subject separation is definitely there, but the way the blur renders feels a bit forced and not entirely natural.

Sun star is fine, but some flares are noticeable. I think it is fine as it gives some characteristic from the lens optic.

Focusing

Autofocus performance is fast, accurate, and responsive in most shooting situations. The only time I noticed a slight slowdown when I am focusing at the minimum focusing distance.

Focus breathing is very minimal, which is great news for videographers who want consistent framing during focus pulls.

Minimum Focus Distance (MFD)

With a 13cm MFD, you can get extremely close, so close that your lens hood may cast a shadow into the frame. At such distances, the image does soften slightly at f2.8 and loses a bit of contrast, but this is expected for ultrawide close-up shots. Still, it’s a fun feature for anyone who enjoys creative perspectives.

Price Point

At USD 199 / EUR 229 / GBP 190 / CAD 289 / JPY 33,000, the Viltrox 9mm f2.8 Air is very attractively priced for an autofocus ultrawide lens. For comparison, I used to own the Laowa 9mm f2.8 in the past. It costs USD 600 and was manual focus only. That alone shows how strong the value is here.

Others

As with other Viltrox lenses, a USB-C port is included for firmware updates, located discreetly at the rear of the lens. Personally, I prefer this design over exposing a port on the lens barrel with only a rubber flap for protection.

It seems that weather resistance is not stated anywhere about this lens, let’s treat it as non-existance.

Who is this for?

An ultrawide lens like this has a lot of creative potentials. Whether you shoot landscape, cityscape, travel, astro, or even experimental portraits, having a 9mm in your kit can open up new possibilities. Even if you don’t use ultrawide lenses often, it’s one of those focal lengths that’s great to have when inspiration strikes.

Conclusion

The Viltrox 9mm f2.8 Air stays true to the philosophy of the Air series: compact, minimalist, and affordable. I also want to give credit to the Viltrox design team, the consistent size and weight across the Air lineup is a huge advantage for gimbal users and for photographers who want to pack multiple lenses in a small bag. In fact, if you own all five APS-C Air lenses, their combined weight is under 900 grams. That’s incredible portability.

At a 13.5mm full-frame equivalent, the 9mm f2.8 Air may be niche to some but with its solid autofocus, good optical performance, and very reasonable pricing, it’s a fantastic ultrawide option to keep in your collection. You never know when you’ll need it, and at this price, it’s an easy lens to justify.

Thank you for reading.

If you are interested in this lens, head down to this affiliate link to purchase yours.

Disclaimer:
1. All the shots taken here are shot by me.
2. Most of the shots are straight out of the camera with some shots edited via In-Camera Raw Processing.
3. The opinions are based on my experience. If there is any mistake, please kindly drop me a message and I will gladly make the amendment.
4. I reserve ownership of these images, if you wish to use my images, please notify me.

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