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News Viltrox AF 16mm F1.8 Full-Frame Lens for Leica L-Mount

xaviergut

xaviergut

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Joined
Mar 22, 2023
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There it is, the new kid on the block :)

viltrox.com

Viltrox AF 16mm F1.8 L Lens | 105.6° Ultra-Wide for Astro & Landscape

Full-frame 16mm F1.8 L-mount prime with 105.6° view, 15/12 optics, STM AF, 77mm filters, dust-sealed metal body — ideal for landscapes, night skies, and video.
viltrox.com viltrox.com

  • Full-Frame 16mm F1.8 Wide-Angle Prime.
  • Precision Optics: 15/12 Elements (4 ED, 3 Aspherical).
  • Fast, Accurate STM Autofocus for Photo and Video.
  • Durable Build with High-Grade Weather Sealed.
  • Excellent distortion and coma control.
  • Smooth focus switching with minimal focus breathing.
  • 77mm Filter Thread and Non-Bulb-Shaped design.
€569,05 €599,00
 
Oops:



Viltrox says the lens is only rated to -10C. At least, according to the video author. Too bad. That, plus the coma Richard found, pretty much takes it out of contention for astro. At least for me here in Colorado.
 
GeorgeHudetz said:
Oops:



Viltrox says the lens is only rated to -10C. At least, according to the video author. Too bad. That, plus the coma Richard found, pretty much takes it out of contention for astro. At least for me here in Colorado.
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I think he's being a bit overly dramatic. It doesn't make the lens junk, it wasn't a terminal failure and didn't work any more at all, it's just not suitable to use at less than minus 10°C. That doesn't make it junk.
 
Markuswelder said:
I think he's being a bit overly dramatic. It doesn't make the lens junk, it wasn't a terminal failure and didn't work any more at all, it's just not suitable to use at less than minus 10°C. That doesn't make it junk.
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I’m not so sure. If I had bought even one lens like this, and it failed in the field at -15C by design, I’d call it junk as well. After all, it’s not like it’s just one bad lens. They all will do this if the video author is to be believed. And Viltrox specifically mentions astro in their marketing material, which often happens on cold mountain passes. Therefore It’s a junk lens for that purpose. Of course if he’s miscommunicated what Viltrox said then he owes them an apology.

Viltrox is a hard pass for me until they fix this or they convince me this was a one-off failure. At least I know without any ambiguity why I pay more for a Sigma or Panasonic lens. I do hope they change the design, as they seem to otherwise make excellent lenses with good optics. I suspect they will.

The other comment I’ll make is that Richard found enough coma to comment on, even though Viltrox specifically mentions good coma correction on their web page, again with reference to astro. While I could appreciate why somebody would put up with a bit of coma to save $$$$ when compared to other lenses, it still represents a bit of a missed target on their part.
 
GeorgeHudetz said:
Viltrox is a hard pass for me until they fix this or they convince me this was a one-off failure
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It's not a failure. It's simply not designed to work below that temperature. It's not broken, it still works fine once the temperature goes up again. Did you watch the whole vid?
 
GeorgeHudetz said:
Viltrox is a hard pass for me until they fix this or they convince me this was a one-off failure. At least I know without any ambiguity why I pay more for a Sigma or Panasonic lens. I do hope they change the design, as they seem to otherwise make excellent lenses with good optics. I suspect they will.
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It depends on the usecase.

I will never use a lens in these circumstances, so for me it would not be a problem.

For others it will be a showstopper. But that is the same with zoomranges, apurteres etcetera.

But i'm happy with my Sigma 16-28mm F2.8, so it's no lens for me either.
 
Nevyn72 said:
I will never use a lens in these circumstances, so for me it would not be a problem.
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I've used my Panasonic m4/3 kit in those temperatures, and a bit lower myself. The batteries lost a lot of capacity/performance in those conditions, it doesn't make them junk, and I'm not going to get my panties bunched up and refuse to buy another. Anything for a few YouTube hits and a bit of exposure hey :)
 
I wonder how many cameras and lenses of any brand stop working at -10 degrees Celsius...

In any case, this lens might interest me for indoor video and low light. But if you use E-Stabilization (Standard), it applies a crop of approximately 1.1x, which makes the focal lenght almost 18mm, if I'm not mistaken.

On the other hand, it's also much cheaper than the Lumix 18mm f/1.8...
 
xaviergut said:
I wonder how many cameras and lenses of any brand stop working at -10 degrees Celsius...

In any case, this lens might interest me for indoor video and low light. But if you use E-Stabilization (Standard), it applies a crop of approximately 1.1x, which makes the focal lenght almost 18mm, if I'm not mistaken.

On the other hand, it's also much cheaper than the Lumix 18mm f/1.8...
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I use the Sigma 16-28mm f/2.8 for that. It still lets in plenty of light and is a bit more versatile.
 
I don't know if it's a coincidence or not, but the official Viltrox page on Reddit posted samples from this l mount lens made in Norway (it looks like)
 
Markuswelder said:
It's not a failure. It's simply not designed to work below that temperature. It's not broken, it still works fine once the temperature goes up again. Did you watch the whole vid?
Click to expand...
Did you read my whole post - or even the part that you quoted? I said that I will not buy a Viltrox until they redesign them, or they convince me that what Matti experienced was indeed a one-off failure. Which seems unlikely unless he got bad information from Viltrox.

So - like I said in my post above - assuming the information Matti got from Viltrox is correct, we know that the 16mm fails to operate by design below -10C. This is a far greater transgression than simply a single lens that was improperly manufactured. It shows that they are not making their lenses to the same standard that the rest of the industry is.

And yes, not everyone cares, and that’s fine. They are a great value, and I’m sure plenty of folks will make great images with them. But now we know at least one of the reasons they are cheaper than other manufacturers. I do think they should be more transparent about that. I looked on their web pages for a few of their lenses and they do not list the acceptable temperature range in their specs table. So I can’t tell if it’s just the 16 that is hampered by this, or all their lenses. For now I have to assume it’s all their lenses and hence I will avoid the brand until more information becomes available.

I do hope they make a design change, or at least become more transparent about this limitation. They seem to be doing everything else right, and otherwise are a great addition to the market. But the temperature issue is a surprising limitation.
 
The Rigger said:
I suspect a fair number. Hell, *I* stop working at -10C.
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Sure! Many people simply don’t want to spend time outdoors at those temperature. And for them the Viltrox will be fine. Just be sure & remember the limitation if you ever decide to take a vacation to Iceland to capture the northern lights.
 
I can't remember ever buying an electronic device that claimed to be operable below -10ºC. My S5 is only rated down to 0ºC. The S1 II and all of Leica's SL cameras are only rated to -10ºC so if someone wants to use a lens below that temperature I'm not sure which camera they expect to be able to use it on.

Personally I'm very happy to see a new and compelling lens available for the system and look forward to seeing more Viltrox lenses available, hopefully sooner than later.
 
When I saw this lens my first thought was astro-photography. I don't do a lot of this but when I do this lens looked attractive. But, like George, I noticed the coma comment and pretty much lost interest. I don't generally shoot below -10C so I had not noticed that limit until George brought it up.

This is not a new lens for Vitrox, it has been around for Sony and Nikon for quite a while. For interest I went to the B&H web site and looked at the customer comments and reviews; there were 78 of them. As usual these were mostly very positive. But among the more negative, no one brought up the -10C limit. A couple astro-photography shooters complained about the coma; and one said it had no coma. Interesting, for repair it needs to be shipped to Hong Kong. This eats up much of the savings of buying this lower cost lens (but apparently it can be repaired).
 
I checked Sigma to see if they had a lower limit on the temperature, and they are somewhat vague, only saying that you should avoid using it in extremely hot and cold temps. In their warranty doc it does not mention temperature at all, at least that I could find.

In the user manual for the S1RII, they have one line where they say if you want to use the camera down to -10C, to be sure and use a lens that is similarly rated. So there’s an implied lower limit there.

All I can say is that I have seen Sigma, Panasonic, Nikon, Sony, and Fuji cameras & lenses be used reliably at temps below -10C. Of course, the warranty is another issue and perhaps Panasonic would also refuse to replace a lens that failed to work at -15C. I suspect they would. So, OK, perhaps it harsh to judge Viltrox on their warranty. But to see one fail to operate at -15C when even the 20-60 works at that temp is enough for me to avoid the brand until I see more data. But I tend to push the temperature envelope more than most.
 
GeorgeHudetz said:
But to see one fail to operate at -15C when even the 20-60 works at that temp is enough for me to avoid the brand until I see more data. But I tend to push the temperature envelope more than most.
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To be fair, when I was shooting with the S5/20-60 the other day, and it was well below freezing, the zoom mechanism on the 20-60 was very stiff; I felt like I had to be extra careful to avoid breaking something. (Didn’t have a thermometer with me and I can’t remember the forecast temp, so I’m not sure exactly how cold it actually was. I just know my hands were going numb.) I suspect the fp does better at those temps because the only moving parts are the controls.

…that reminds me, I still haven’t pulled the pics for that day off the camera. :rolleyes:
 
Travis Butler said:
To be fair, when I was shooting with the S5/20-60 the other day, and it was well below freezing, the zoom mechanism on the 20-60 was very stiff; I felt like I had to be extra careful to avoid breaking something. (Didn’t have a thermometer with me and I can’t remember the forecast temp, so I’m not sure exactly how cold it actually was. I just know my hands were going numb.) I suspect the fp does better at those temps because the only moving parts are the controls.

…that reminds me, I still haven’t pulled the pics for that day off the camera. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Better get those shots! :)

On my side, pretty much all my very low-temp work has been with primes, although I’m sure I’ve used the Sigma 14-24 Art in very cold conditions as well.
 
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