Viltrox started off with a very good strategy by introducing the first ever pro lens from the company, the Viltrox 75mm f1.2. It was a success, and many photographers who own it love it. Does this Viltrox 27mm f1.2 have the same mojo? Time will tell. But for now, Viltrox is busy fulfilling the orders. (Viltrox loves the Fujifilm community because both lenses are available for Fujifilm at the beginning.)
Right: Viltrox 27mm f1.2 without lens hood
Intro
Viltrox has been teasing this lens as early as April 2023. While I am not sure if it gets the attention it intended for from the rest of the photographers, it did raise my eyebrows when I first aware of this teaser. A 27mm lens is going to be the next pro lens from Viltrox is going to be an interesting one.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/52″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
They do away with the usual standard focal lengths like 23mm or 35mm and choose 27mm instead. But is that really a wise choice?
Putting that aside, there is a saying that 40mm (in full frame equivalent) is a sweet spot between 35mm and 50mm (in full frame equivalent). One step back, you can get 35mm. One step forward, you can get 50mm. But I think only if the surrounding allows us to do so.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f2.8 . 1/80″ . ISO 200 . Nostalgic Negative
Also, I have a “cast in stone” impression with the 27mm (or 40mm in full frame equivalent) lenses are tend to designed as compact as possible. Making it an everyday lens for every photographer. But Viltrox’s approach is totally different, giving us the best possible optic one ever desires for this focal length.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/450″ . ISO 500 . Nostalgic Negative
Design and Build Quality
Similar to the Viltrox 75mm f1.2 (I will just mention 75mm from now onwards), the metal-built quality is identical, solid, great build, and feels premium. So is the weight too (560 grams).
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/80″ . ISO 320 . Nostalgic Negative
Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f4 . 1/500″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
The aperture ring is clicky and is a pleasure to use and the focus ring is smooth with minimum resistance.
Surprisingly, the filter size is only 67mm as opposed to the 75mm (72mm). Also, it is dust-proof and waterproof.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/240″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
It also comes with a plastic lens hood. Although I feel that it should come with the metal hood to suit the “Pro” name, I guess this is to reduce the overall weight of this gigantic lens.
Image Quality
The image quality is fantastic, clinically sharp, and deep contrast. At wide-open, the subject is pop and clearly separate from the off-focus foreground/background beautifully. Just like the 75mm, the shots are totally usable.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/80″ . ISO 320 . Nostalgic Negative
The question here again is whether clinical sharp is a bad thing or a good thing? The answer is subjective to individual photographers. For me, I’m okay with either sharp or not sharp, it’s the lens characteristics. If I want to bring it out for a shoot, it means I have my expectations for what the results coming out from the lens.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/80″ . ISO 500 . Nostalgic Negative
Also, it has zero cchromatic aberration but with little vignetting can be observed if one is nitpicking. Removing vignetting should be easy with post-processing software, so I am not so bothered by it.
The sun-star result is not the best but pretty decent with a nice shape.
Focusing
This lens comes with an STM Stepping motor. It gives a fast and silent experience. It is very snappy and probably even better than the 75mm that I tested sometime back.
Also, there are times that the lens does not focus well which usually happens while shooting at MFD or a highly exposed area. But this don’t happen every single time so I believe this can be fixed in future software release.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/80″ . ISO 2000 . Nostalgic Negative
The lens/focus breathing is good here. The focus distance did not change dramatically as you change the focus distance from MFD to infinity and vice versa. In my opinion, this is a thoughtful engineering from the Viltrox engineers. Although this does not impact to photographer, this can be a great deal for a videographer. As far as I know, many cinematic videographers use this focal length for their shoots.
Minimum Focus Distance (MFD)
28cm MFD may not sound like a big deal but in fact, it is impressive. For reference, it is much closer than XF27mm f2.8 WR (@34cm) and TTArtisan 27mm f2.8 (@35cm). With this close MFD, photographers can take the opportunity to get closer to the subject and give a stronger compression with the background.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/125″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Price Point
549 USD is the price. Is it expensive? For comparison, XF27mm f2.8 WR is selling at 399 USD at B&H, TTArtisan 27mm is 159 USD and lastly, Voigtlander 27mm f2 is 595 USD. So it is kind of hard to determine whether 549 USD is really expensive or worth buying. It’s all up to the individual.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/105″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
Others
It also comes with a USB-C port right at the rear lens. This also means future firmware improvement to the lens is possible.
Viltrox 27mm f1.2 shares a lot of similarities with the 75mm counterpart. This also means things like missing aperture ring lock release that prevents accidental switches. But this is not a deal breaker.
Who is this for?
This lens is not a usual lens in terms of size and weight. Using this lens as a street lens is fine but not sure if one can sustain carrying it over time.
Right: Fuji X-T5 . Viltrox 27mm f1.2 @ 27mm . f1.2 . 1/1700″ . ISO 125 . Nostalgic Negative
From what I see, professional photographers should benefit from using this lens for their works. What genres will be quite dependent on what the photographers want to achieve with this lens? In general, it can cover typical genres that I always mentioned in other posts.
Conclusion
I think this is the right move from Viltrox where 27mm is indeed in a good spot in the overly crowded market space with 23mm and 50mm/56mm focal lengths. Also, let’s not forget that the price is really attractive if you are comparing it with other f1.2 and f1.4 range of lenses.
If you put size and weight aside, you will be rewarded with fantastic image quality and I couldn’t ask for more from it.
Viltrox has quite a number of lenses up its sleeve for the Fujifilm community. But for now, there is a leak with the Viltrox 20mm f2.8 and it is expected to be arrived in Q4 2023. Also, a LAB series that is meant to be superior to the Pro series? I think we will know the answer in the future.
Thank you for reading.
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