Review: Viltrox 28mm 4.5 AF Pancake

3 weeks ago 5

Introduction

viltrox af 28mm 4.5 fe pancake review sharpness contrast bokeh coma vignetting 42mp 63mp sony a7 a7rii a7iii a7riv a7rv a7iv a1 a9 a9ii

We didn’t see many pancake lenses for Sony’s fullframe E-mount cameras that actually deserve that title and when it comes to those featuring auto focus it starts to look really dire. Viltrox comes to rescue by offering this Viltrox AF 28mm 4.5 FE Pancake lens with the nickname “Chip”. As is always the case with such small lenses, there are some quirks to be aware of, so let me walk you through them.

Sample Images

You can find most of the sample images in full resolution here.

Specifications

The Viltrox 28mm 4.5 VCM Asph ED has the following specifications:

A crowdfunding campaign for this lens starts on indiegogo on September 29th.

Later you should also be able to buy it from manufacturer’s shop (use the code “PRnet” for 8% discount) | B&H | ebay.com (affiliate links) for $99

Disclosure

The Viltrox 28mm 4.5 VCM Asph ED was kindly provided free of charge by Viltrox for reviewing purpose for a few weeks prior to release.

Handling/Build quality

Well, there is not a lot to talk about here. This is the first lens I came across so far that features auto focus but cannot be focused manually.

This is also a fixed aperture lens with the only aperture being available is f/4.5. The lens cannot be stopped down further.

The only thing that can be moved on this lens is the lever for opening or closing the built-in lens cap.

You can also see a mask on top of the front element with an octagonal opening. This is supposed to create sunstars despite the lens not having an actual diaphragm, more on that in the corresponding section.

As this is an auto focus lens it features electronic contacts. To my surprise it also features an USB-C socket for potential firmware updates.

As you can also see here, the rear element is way bigger than the tiny front element.

The auto focus performance was generally good and also fast. At times I would have wished to be able to override it manually though, which isn’t possible with this lens due to the lack of a manual focus ring.

As is common with modern auto focus lenses the optical block moves freely when the lens has no power.

Vignetting

Light falloff

I was hoping the big rear element helps to tame the vignetting, but I still measure 2.9 EV, which is certainly noticeable in the field. The Brightin Star 23mm 5.6 showed 2.6 EV, the Funleader 18mm 8.0 an even stronger 3.9 EV. The Funleader x Brightin Star 28mm 2.8 XSlim Pro is at an advantage here as it features a diaphragm (2.9 EV at f/2.8, 1.6 EV at f/11).

It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.

The vignetting is easily visible in real world pictures, as can be seen from the sample above.

Color cast

Some wide angle lenses, especially very small ones, show a bit of a color cast towards the corners, this Viltrox 28mm 4.5 is one of these lenses. With evenly lit or mostly white subjects you may spot a blue color cast in the corners.

You can check out my article How to: Correcting Color Cast in Lightroom where I explain different methods to fix this.

Sharpness

infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)

For a slow fixed aperture wide angle lens the one thing that would be important to me is across frame sharpness at infinity.
We definitely need to manage expectations here, the lens is neither as contrasty nor as high resolving as say Sony’s compact G lenses, but then those are several times bigger and more expensive.

This wouldn’t be my prime choice when aiming to create high resolution landscape or architecture pictures, but it certainly does a good enough job for street or documentary photography.

It is also better here than the other non-AF pancake lenses for E-mount I tried (Brightin Star 23mm 5.6, Funleader 18mm 8.0, Funleader x Brightin Star 28mm 2.8 XSlim Pro). The TTArtisan 28mm 5.6 M is not as compact as the aforementioned lenses, but its corners also never look good when used on a Sony camera.

Sharpness close (0.32 m, 1:9.4)

At close distances the resolution is good, but contrast could be a little higher for my taste. Compared to other lenses I more often found myself increasing contrast in post with this lens.

Flare resistance

Good flare resistace would also be important to me in a lens like this, so where do we stand here?

Sony A7III | Viltrox 28mm 4.5

As can be seen from the pictures above a light source outside the frame may create severe issues with veiling flare running across most of the frame.

With the sun close to the center of the frame veiling flare becomes less of an issue and I haven’t seen any ghosts from this lens at all, I am not exactly a fan of those huge sunstars created by the mask with octagonal opening though.

Now these are mainly staged scenarios you see here, in the field it wasn’t as much of an issue and often slightly reframing helped, still a good idea to check in the viewfinder if there is a lot of veiling flare like in the sample above.

It still does better than the other pancake lenses I tried, so that’s good news.

Bokeh

A maximum aperture at f/4.5 in a 28mm lens doesn’t exactly make for a lens that will be famous for creating a shallow depth of field. Due to the decent minimum focus distance it is still possible to create some bokeh in close focus scenarios and it even looks surprisingly nice.

Coma

Coma is generally reduced when stopping down, but as you already know stopping down is not possible with this lens. This aberration is still decently corrected at f/4.5.

Distortion

Distortion is surprisingly well corrected, there is only a tiny bit of distortion visible. A correction profile is not available yet, but I don’t think it is needed for this lens’ typical applications.

Sunstars

This is a fixed aperture lens so normally there would be no sunstars, but – as shown in the handling section – a mask with octagonal opening has been placed in front of the front element, so this lens does actually create sunstars with eight rays.

The thing is, the effect cannot really be controlled (the rays are often extremely long) and reminds me very much of what you get with those Star Effect Filters, as those rays also have a bit of a rainbow pattern as you can see here:

I am not sure if I am a fan of this. I would have preferred if that mask with the octagonal opening was the built-in lens cap, allowing you to decide if you want these sunstars or not.

Chromatic aberration

lateral

Sony A7rII | Viltrox AF 28mm 4.5 FE

There is a low amount of lateral CA which is easily corrected in post.

longitudinal

Due to the maximum aperture being f/4.5 you will only encounter bokeh fringing in your pictures. Purple fringing is also not really an issue.

Conclusion

good

tiniest fullframe auto focus lens
fair price
CA correction
low distortion
built-in lens cap

average

resolution and contrast
vignetting (for a pancake)
flare resistance
handling (no manual focus ring)

not good

fixed aperture
weird sunstar artefacts
slight color cast in the corners
no filter thread

Designing a tiny pancake lens – and offering it at a very affordable $99 – means there must be some optical compromises. And with the pancake lenses I previously reviewed, there certainly were a lot of those compromises – and those lenses didn’t even feature auto focus.

Here some of those compromises are also obvious: fixed f/4.5 aperture, no manual focus ring, no filter thread, high vignetting. But in the field, you may not even notice these on a regular basis. The fixed f/4.5 aperture in fact proved to be less of an issue than I initially expected and I ended up enjoying my time with this lens – something I cannot say about most of the competitors.

So out of all the pancake lenses for fullframe E-mount cameras (I think I have used all of them) this is actually my favorite so far. The inclusion of auto focus also makes it appealing to a broader audience than a purely manual focus lens.

This lens seems to be best used for street or documentary photography. The inconspicious size and the auto focus can surely come in handy here. And if your main lens is a fast 50mm, you can just put this 28mm lens in your pocket for the times you need something wider.

A crowdfunding campaign for this lens starts on indiegogo on September 29th.

Later you should also be able to buy it from manufacturer’s shop (use the code “PRnet” for 8% discount) | B&H | ebay.com (affiliate links) for $99

PS: Viltrox is also running a photography competition, be sure to check it out!

Alternatives

Auto Focus

Samyang 24mm 2.8 AF:
Samyang calls the 24mm 2.8 tiny, but it actually looks huge next to this Viltrox. It is still one of the smallest AF lenses and has the benefit of a more traditional design.
Unlike the other alternatives I will mention here it isn’t really a pancake lens though.
buy from Amazon.com | Amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H for $199 (affiliate links)

Manual Focus

Funleader x Brightin Star 28mm 2.8 XSlim Pro:
I already talked about the 28mm 2.8 XSlim Pro in most of the categories above. It is an M-mount lens that doesn’t pair really well with Sony filter stack. It does look cute, but check out my review first to make sure you can live with the compromises it comes with.
buy from Funleader.com shop | ebay.com (affiliate links) for $359

Brightin Star 23mm 5.6:
Another fixed aperture lens. It didn’t really convince me, but have a look at my review to see if it might be for you.
buy from Amazon.com | ebay.com (affiliate links) for $98

Funleader 18mm 8.0 Pro:
The focal length is very different, but this is also a fixed aperture lens and the only other lens which is similarly sized. The optics are a bit worse, especially the very wavy distortion, bad flare resistance and even higher vignetting should be mentioned.
buy from ebay.com (affiliate link) for $140

7Artisans 35mm 5.6 Wen:
The focal length is different but it has a similar minimum focus distance and also a fixed aperture. I haven’t reviewed this one.
buy from amazon.com | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H new for $138 (affiliate links)

Sample Images

You can find most of the sample images in full resolution here.

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My name is Bastian and I am your expert here when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, super fast portrait lenses (ranging from a 50mm f/0.95 to a 200mm f/1.8) and I also have reviewed way too many 35mm lenses. Don't ask me anything about macro or wildlife shooting though.

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