OL: Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 FE – A Great Budget Option



Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8:  B&H Photo / Amazon

The Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 FE is a great lens for photographers on a budget and you can read the full Optical Limits review here. Below you can find an excerpt from the review:

The Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 FE is a super affordable ultra-wide lens that is capable of very good results – with a flaw. Technically, it produces very sharp results at relevant aperture settings. However, strong field curvature is an issue at large apertures, so for best results, you should stop down to f/5.6. Whether the field curvature is relevant to you at all depends on the application. It’ll be noticeable if you do astrophotography or city scenes at night if you shoot at f/2.8. For vlogging or typical landscape photography, this isn’t a real issue. The amount of vignetting is very high at f/2.8, but with activated auto-correction, it’s not a big deal from f/4 onward. Image distortions are present but not overly pronounced. They are a bit wavy, though. Lateral CAs are generally nothing to worry about. The quality of the bokeh is decent for a lens in this class.

Despite the low price tag, the build quality is surprisingly high. Unlike in their Pro lenses, they’ve used plastic for the lens body, but it feels pretty good despite the very low weight. Combined with its tiny size, it’s also not a burden in your camera bag. There is no weather sealing, but that’s hardly surprising. The AF is sufficiently fast and silent.

Overall, the Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 FE is probably the go-to lens for people who are on a budget. Yes, something like Sony’s own FE 20mm f/1.8 G is better, but it also resides in a very different price sphere.

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