Thank you to Viltrox Malaysia for graciously loaning me the Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 Lab for review.
And a special thanks to Samantha from Elementz & Ajiitha from @dancefitnest for their permission to shoot & use their photos for this video.
Finally, I would like to thanks to Mr. Choo Loong Sui for helping arranging and facilitate all the tests,
Follow this link for sample images : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H3Od0pjQS44JZhWXqo7bpef7LohlArSX?usp=sharing
And here is the associated Youtube video for this blog post : https://youtu.be/Yb-e2q9-Bas
Intro
This is a review that I wasn’t expecting to do but by chance, I went to a photography fair and asked Viltrox Malaysia (i.e. their Malaysia disti, VPhoto) if I could borrow a Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 Lab for some testing and review.
One thing led to another and lo and behold, I got a 135Lab for review and comparison with the 135GM who I happen to own.
Viltrox Malaysia was very generous and let me hold onto the lens for 3wks. As a result, I got to test it in quite a few different scenarios.
TLDR
The Viltrox 135Lab is well-built. It is heavy and large even for a 135 f/1.8. Optically, it is close to being excellent and is comparable to the 135GM in most aspects and in fact is slightly better than the 135GM in terms of longitudinal CA.
Photo AF is quick and confident, comparable to the 135GM except in continuous focus-tracking at high (10fps or higher) frame rates.
There are some minor niggles and quirks with the lens but considering its price, a potential buyer could overlook all that and consider it a worthwhile compromise.
Optical Deep Dive
Right, now its the most interesting section, I am gonna talk about CA, sharpness, distortion and all. Things that most people’s eyes would glaze over when I mention even one of them 😉
| Sharpness | 135Lab is slightly softer than the 135GM both in the center and corners but only noticeable to 100% – 200% crops. |
| Contrast | The 135Lab and 135GM appear to be similar in this aspect. |
| Color | 135GM and 135L both render color pleasingly. |
| CA | Both the 135GM and 135Lab has comparable levels to latitudinal CA, which is as close to none as I can say at the A7 IV’s 33MPThe 135GM barely exhibits any longitudinal CA but the 135Lab has nearly zero on my test shots. So the 135Lab is better in this aspect. |
| Distortion | The 135Lab and 135GM exhibits very low pincushion distortion but both lenses still has worse distortion when compared to the 30yr old EF 135L |
Note that all tests are done using a Sony A7 IV.
The Tests
I had the fortune to test the 135Lab head-to-head during a local school’s sports day that had 8-16yr old students competing in track events. In this test, I tested AF tracking obviously and also in some severely backlit condition during the day.
The next test was during a Beyond in Memorium charity concert by a local band in low, changing light conditions with haze as well some movement. This was the acid test for performance in really challenging lighting conditions.
The third test was during a Zumba instructor shoot that wasn’t really for testing much of AF but is much closer to more typical portrait conditions.
The final test was done on the Saloma Link bridge in Kuala Lumpur just to confirm some of my findings from the previous tests.
AF performance
The 135Lab’s AF is surprisingly good to me, especially considering the previous Chinese-made lens that I tested and reviewed really wasn’t great, especially when used in demanding situations.
The 135Lab could track most subjects and even worked really well during my sports day 50m, 100m sprints. It only lost the subject it was tracking slightly more often than the 135GM and definitely could deliver quite a good selection of in-focus shots during the bursts.
However, at closer inspection the 135GM shots seems a lot sharper which is strange as we know that optically the 135Lab & GM is nearly as sharp.
Once I put the bursts side-by-side, I noticed the 135GM is able to achieve pin-point sharpness on continuous 10fps electronic shutter bursts maybe 70% of the shots; while the 135Lab could only get to 30% shots that is actually pin-sharp, while the rest of the shots, while somewhat in focus, the focus isn’t right on the runner’s face/eyes.
This was only noticeable on the shots during sprints, normal walking, jogging, in challenging low-light conditions at a concert, the 135Lab’s AF is comparable to the 135GM which is an amazing achievement for Viltrox, IMHO.
The “Minor Niggles”
- Lens hood exceedingly difficult to remove from storage position
- Click-delick, AF/MF and aperture ring too easily knocked out of position during lens mount & unmount
- USB-C jack requires keeping the rear lens cap off when in use
- Firmware update requires plugging in a USB-C power adapter to the lens & using a mobile app that requires login & registration on Viltrox’s website.
- Login & registration on Viltrox’s website is unintuitive and slow.
- Certain lens functions can fail to work occasionally although removing the lens & remounting it normally fixes it
- This lens has a particular bad case of the “Linear Motor Rattle”
- The aperture ring while on “click” mode sounds particularly sharp and bad; the clicks also do not correspond to actual stops
- The RAW files taken with this lens is labelled as being shot as a Sony 135 f/1.8 GM in its metadata.
The first niggle I found as soon as I held the lens at Viltrox Malaysia, the lens hood is exceedingly difficult to remove when its reversed in the storage position on the lens.
This might sound like a nit-pick but it’s the first in a long line of small operational details that I found bothersome. The AF-MF button, click & de-click toggle button, the aperture ring is easily knocked out of position when mounting & unmounting the lens. This is due to the positioning of these buttons.
The position of the USB-C jack at the lens mount is also problematic as one has to leave the rear of the lens completely open to dust & other nastiness when you need to use the jack.
This leads perfectly to my second niggle, updating firmware of the 135Lab is a problem. The instruction for firmware update on the Viltrox website is plainly wrong, I followed it and it doesn’t work.
I had to dig through Youtube to find clues on how to do it and finally figured out how to do it. I might do a video about that.
Basically, one had to power the lens via USB-C and then update the firmware via Bluetooth using the Viltrox mobile phone app.
Also of note, you have to register for an account to use the Viltrox Lens mobile app AND the registration process is not smooth at all.
And as mentioned before, to connect the USB-C cable to the lens, you had to expose the rear of the lens to the environment for at least a few minutes and that always makes me nervous.
The rear element for this lens is actually very far inside the barrel, so if something were to fall inside, it will be nearly impossible to remove it without brushing against the side and introduce even more foreign objects into the back of the lens.
It’s just a bit of a nightmare.
Right… final niggle, stability. On the first test, as soon as I connected the 135Lab to my Sony A7 IV (and yes, both are on the latest firmware); the aperture ring wouldn’t work, neither would the front wheel of the camera.
I had to power down the camera, take out the lens and reattach the lens twice before I got everything working again.
But do note this is the only time I have encountered this in the last 3wks.
Buy or No Buy?
Let’s face it, the main attraction for the Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 Lab lens is the price and its value for money.
In that, it is nearly without competition… except, oh no… it does, there has been a Samyang / Rokinon 135mm f/1.8. The Samyang is an older lens, doesn’t use a linear focussing motor, might be optically slightly inferior but it is much lighter (at 772g based on the website specs).
I would urge anyone considering the Viltrox due to pricing to take a look at that lens too. I would also remind any potential buyers regarding the minor niggles I have detailed earlier, those are compromises you would have to put up with if you do decide to take the plunge with the Viltrox.
That being said, the Viltrox 135mm f/1.8 Lab lens does IMHO represent a major milestone as a lens manufacturer as it has made a full-frame large aperture lens that is comparable to a Sony GM lens in quite a lot of aspects and is selling it for a fraction of the price.
Follow this link for sample images : https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H3Od0pjQS44JZhWXqo7bpef7LohlArSX?usp=sharing
And here is the associated Youtube video for this blog post : https://youtu.be/Yb-e2q9-Bas
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