Don't sleep on the Viltrox 75mm 1.2!

Had the lens for some time now.  Well known that the IQ is stellar but I often seen mentioned that the AF is lacking.

This doesn't match my experience. Long focus throw were slow indeed but the lens did very good at tracking and felt quite swift if the focus was already close... almost better than native lenses it seems...

Few days ago a firmware got released and it clearly improved the speed. Coincidentally,  I then took the lens to my ultimate test which is indoor sport. Mounted on the X-H2S.  (AF-C, Tracking mode, 30-40 fps)

I would usually get the XF 90 2.0 or the XF 50-140 2.8. They did okay-ish, but the results would be erratic. I could almost never get an entire sequence in focus... Lacked consistency, which disappointed me quite a bit.

The Viltrox on the other hand transformed my H2-S. I got a significant higher amount of keepers. Missed shots were due, most often, to "wrong" acquisition of the tracking target. Barring that, I could finally get sequences of action in focus from start to finish.  A much more predictable tool overall.

So happy that Viltrox made this lens (and the 13 1.4 before that).  They really are improving and putting quality out there.

It sounds unexpected, but give it a try, you might get surprised

RobertMachin wrote:

Had the lens for some time now. Well known that the IQ is stellar but I often seen mentioned that the AF is lacking.

This doesn't match my experience. Long focus throw were slow indeed but the lens did very good at tracking and felt quite swift if the focus was already close... almost better than native lenses it seems...

Few days ago a firmware got released and it clearly improved the speed. Coincidentally, I then took the lens to my ultimate test which is indoor sport. Mounted on the X-H2S. (AF-C, Tracking mode, 30-40 fps)

I would usually get the XF 90 2.0 or the XF 50-140 2.8. They did okay-ish, but the results would be erratic. I could almost never get an entire sequence in focus... Lacked consistency, which disappointed me quite a bit.

The Viltrox on the other hand transformed my H2-S. I got a significant higher amount of keepers. Missed shots were due, most often, to "wrong" acquisition of the tracking target. Barring that, I could finally get sequences of action in focus from start to finish. A much more predictable tool overall.

So happy that Viltrox made this lens (and the 13 1.4 before that). They really are improving and putting quality out there.

It sounds unexpected, but give it a try, you might get surprised

Sounds great, but i really wished it focused closer.

Where can I see your indoor sports photographs? Thanks

fernandojval wrote:

Where can I see your indoor sports photographs? Thanks

I would like to see them also Hard to belive, that stepping motor in Viltrox 75/1.2 outperforms quad LM from 90/2 in action shots 

Fuji Maine wrote:

I hadn't heard about the firmware update yet so thanks for the heads up. When I did a quick Google search for it I found a fuji rumors article about the FW update which FR says is a beta firmware and the comments section is filled with people saying it bricked their lens and had to restore the original FW. You didn't have any of those issues?

Yes I've seen that. Took a risk but I made sure to have the original firmware at hand in case something went wrong.

Have nothing bad to report so far.

fernandojval wrote:

Where can I see your indoor sports photographs? Thanks

I don't post them publicly unfortunately as it's mostly children (following my daughter's tournaments)

If I get a chance to photograph an adult session, I'll be sure to post

What aperture are you shooting at?

fernandojval wrote:

What aperture are you shooting at?

The lens is great at 1.2, so 1.2

Gives 800 ISO  and 1/800 as shutter speed.

Fuji Maine wrote:

I hadn't heard about the firmware update yet so thanks for the heads up. When I did a quick Google search for it I found a fuji rumors article about the FW update which FR says is a beta firmware and the comments section is filled with people saying it bricked their lens and had to restore the original FW. You didn't have any of those issues?

This is exactly the reason why I'm waiting for the non-beta version to be released.

The lens focuses fairly well for me so far on my X-H2S. There were times where, immediately after I took the shot, I'd question whether the image would be slightly out of focus, but ends up being perfectly in focus.

From where can I download this beta firmware?

fernandojval wrote:

From where can I download this beta firmware?

https://www.viltrox.com/newsinfo/5554154.html

For good measure, here is the original firmware if need to backtrack:

https://www.viltrox.com/newsinfo/5556206.html

Nemofoto wrote:

Hi all,

Could you please tell me how this kind of focal length works on a body which is not stabilized? I am really interested in this lens but i have an x-t2 and i am afraid that it might be hard to use such a long focal lenght without stab. What do you think about that?

Thanks for your help.

If You will follow the rule of shutter speed = 1/focal length (multiplied by x1.5), there is nothing to worry about. Image Stabilisation is an quite modern invention. People did use telephoto lenses without stabilisation, back in the times with no problems

Fuji Maine wrote:

I hadn't heard about the firmware update yet so thanks for the heads up. When I did a quick Google search for it I found a fuji rumors article about the FW update which FR says is a beta firmware and the comments section is filled with people saying it bricked their lens and had to restore the original FW. You didn't have any of those issues?

It seems most if not all of the "bricking" was due to pushing the update with a mac platform, instead of a PC.  The suggested fix that seems to work, is to update the lens with an intel machine after going back to FW 1.0.0.

nuramori wrote:

Fuji Maine wrote:

I hadn't heard about the firmware update yet so thanks for the heads up. When I did a quick Google search for it I found a fuji rumors article about the FW update which FR says is a beta firmware and the comments section is filled with people saying it bricked their lens and had to restore the original FW. You didn't have any of those issues?

It seems most if not all of the "bricking" was due to pushing the update with a mac platform, instead of a PC. The suggested fix that seems to work, is to update the lens with an intel machine after going back to FW 1.0.0.

Thanks for that info. So, use a Windows machine and it should work fine. Maybe I'll give it a try.

The Viltrox 75mm f1.2 focuses faster and better than the Fuji 50-140mm f2.8?

RobertMachin wrote:

Had the lens for some time now. Well known that the IQ is stellar but I often seen mentioned that the AF is lacking.

This doesn't match my experience. Long focus throw were slow indeed but the lens did very good at tracking and felt quite swift if the focus was already close... almost better than native lenses it seems...

Few days ago a firmware got released and it clearly improved the speed. Coincidentally, I then took the lens to my ultimate test which is indoor sport. Mounted on the X-H2S. (AF-C, Tracking mode, 30-40 fps)

I would usually get the XF 90 2.0 or the XF 50-140 2.8. They did okay-ish, but the results would be erratic. I could almost never get an entire sequence in focus... Lacked consistency, which disappointed me quite a bit.

The Viltrox on the other hand transformed my H2-S. I got a significant higher amount of keepers. Missed shots were due, most often, to "wrong" acquisition of the tracking target. Barring that, I could finally get sequences of action in focus from start to finish. A much more predictable tool overall.

So happy that Viltrox made this lens (and the 13 1.4 before that). They really are improving and putting quality out there.

It sounds unexpected, but give it a try, you might get surprised

I remember reading posts/reviews like this one about the Viltrox 56 1.4 when that Lena came out.  I finally purchased it after many many months and I was disappointed of the AF performance.  Inconsistent and inaccurate when I was shooting outdoors under (plenty) of daylight.  In low light it was unacceptable.  And yes I did load the latest firmware.

Like some poster said in a recent thread, it will be best to stop listening to reviews and for me is better to try that lens first this time and I don’t want to be stuck with another Viltrox lens that I don’t want nor like 😬