I have always liked using prime glass so I decided I would try and find a 56mm-ish lens (85mm full-frame equivalent). I wanted it to be fast and I also wanted it to be able to provide decent bokeh. There is of course the Fujinon XF 56mm f1.2 R WR currently for £918.00 but I didn’t want to spend that much not so soon after buying the XF16-50mm zoom, so I started to look at third-party lenses.
Fujifilm opened up its XF mount to third-party manufacturers in 2020. They said, “… our customers want more lenses and we want to satisfy that need”. Tokina were amongst the first to start making XF mount lenses but many other manufacturers soon followed suit. I have posted here on A Sensored-View that I have purchased two of the TTA lenses this year, the 27mm autofocus and the manual 40mm Macro, both which I am more than pleased with.
So, I looked first at TTA and found that they do indeed have an AF 56mm F1.8 which is currently £159.00. Looking at the reviews they were on the whole positive for the lens’s price point. On closer examination I found a sticking point – there is no aperture ring. The other two TTA lenses I have do have the aperture ring and one of the nice things about the Fuji camera system I think, is that the XF lenses come with an aperture ring. I like that “old-school” retro feel. So, for now, the TTA was out.
I then started to see reviews about the Viltrox AF 56mm F/1.4 XF which were very positive and the lens comes is at a reasonable price point of £248.00. They also do an AF 56mm F/1.7 XF which is a lot smaller than the f/1.4 but this comes without an aperture ring. Neither of the Viltrox lenses are weather-sealed, unlike the Fuji.
I took the plunge and purchased the F/1.4 version with the aperture ring. The lens arrived and in the box was an instruction leaflet, a drawer-string lens bag and a metal lens hood. The lens itself is of an all-metal construction, solid and at 290 grams it doesn’t feel overly heavy. The aperture ring has a smooth rotation with no click stops. Whilst I prefer the positive feel of clicks on an aperture ring this isn’t a deal breaker. The ring rotates smoothly until you reach F/16 when there is a slight click, and then it moves on to the A setting. As a bit of decoration, there is a small red badge on the side of the lens which is reminiscent of the “red badged” Fujinon lenses. The manual focusing of the lens feels firm and smooth. The focusing barrel itself is 35mm wide and takes up half the lens’s total barrel length. There is a difference here to Fuji XF lenses in that whilst they also have a similar sized grip on their lenses it is only the 8 – 10mm at the end of the barrel that is the actual manual focusing ring. As a result I have to be careful that I don’t move focusing on the Viltrox as I grip the lens to steady it. The metal lens hood clicks snugly into place on the end of the barrel and is reversible for storing. The lens takes a 52mm filter size.
On the mounting plate side of the lens, there is a USB C port with which you can update the firmware of the lens. This operation could not be simpler. Go to the Viltrox site and download the latest firmware update from their support section to your computer. You then connect the lens via the USB C data cable to the computer. This will add a Viltrox drive letter. Open that and then open the text file inside. This will tell you which version of the firmware is currently installed on the lens. If it is earlier than the one that was downloaded from Viltrox, then simply drag the .dat file from your download to the Viltrox drive. Job Done!
The lens itself works well on the X-T4 and X-T5. Autofocusing is focus-by-wire and is crisp and accurate. I had no problem in low light and the colour rendition and contrast are also very good. The bokeh when the lens is used wide open is very nice. Sharpness is very good even when wide open but you have to remember that at f/1.4 the depth of field is narrow at its closest focusing distance of 600mm.
To conclude I have no regrets about purchasing this lens and whilst there are valid arguments for purchasing the best lens you can afford, it doesn’t mean that you always have to pay through the nose to get quality.
A Sensored-View 