Viltrox AF 40mm f/2.5 E Lens (Sony E)

Viltrox impresses again with this little lens! Great optics and natural field of view. Paired with my Nikon Z5, it is great being just wider than a 50mm but a bit tighter than 35mm. Absolutely perfect for everyday photography of family, street, travel, etc. and the autofocus is fast and accurate. I have had nothing but positive experiences with Viltrox equipment and this lens continues that!

This is my first Viltrox lens and I am using it on my Z7. I mostly shoot landscapes, cityscapes, and whatever randomness I see. This lens is super fast, quiet, very lightweight, and really sharp especially for the price. I know people will compare it to the Nikon 40f2, but this is around €80-€100 less, which I why I went with it. I'm enjoying it so far and will definitely buy more from Viltrox in the future.

First question that is in everybody's mind is how it compares with Nikon 40/2. After taking a couple hundred images, I like it a lot more than 40/2. The images look sharper with more contrast and more vivid colors. Which is not surprising taking into account that Nikon is a simple double-gauss design, prone to spherical aberration, and Viltrox has quite complex optical formula. Looking at the test charts, the central resolution is already good wide open, the corners are only slightly worse. It improves a bit at f/2.8. At f/4 the lens is excellent, and at f/5.6 it's nothing short of outstanding. Contrast it high and colors are bright. The distortions are very low, no correction is necessary. There is very little lateral CA, hard to notice unless specifically looking for it. The longitudinal CA is worse, but again not really noticeable in real pictures. Vignetting is average, I'm using +40/30 correction in Lightroom. Flare is below average, bright light creates both loss of contrast and colorful flares. The lens hood is too small to do anything.