Viltrox 28mm f4.5 Review for Nikon Z: Addictive and Attractive

It’s crazy how much fun you can have with some lenses, and how the restrictions put in place by using these lenses can actually make your photography experience a much more focused one. The Viltrox 28mm f4.5 lens is one such model that can seem limiting when you first mount it to your camera, but actually gives you a rewarding experience with some fantastic results. This lens was previously released in Sony E mount — and now it’s here for Nikonians! If you’ve never had a pancake lens on your Nikon Z camera before, this lens is absolutely worth being your first one.

The Big Picture: Viltrox 28mm f4.5 Nikon Z Mount Review Conclusions

Good lenses inspire you to head out and take photos, making the experience a memorable one. Whether that’s because of the construction and handling of the lens, the results you get, or a combination of both, depends on what the manufacturers are thinking while designing such lenses. Viltrox already has a 28mm f1.8 lens in the Z mount range, but they’ve now also introduced the 28mm f4.5 for Nikon Z owners. A good move on their part, as this lens isn’t just a conversation starter when it’s spotted by others, but gives you results that pack a punch well above its size and price tag. Aside from some focus hunting and focus breathing, you’re going to see better photographs with this lens than you’d originally have given it credit for. At under US$ 100, the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 Z is great for street photography on a budget.

Pros

• So much thinner than you think it would be
• People will definitely stop you and ask why your camera doesn’t have a lens attached. My dad did
• Fast autofocus
• Sharp results, so much sharper than you would expect such a lens to give you
• Fairly good contrast in images
• Gives you a fine, enjoyable experience. Best paired with a camera like the Nikon Zf for old-school ergonomics
• Nano-coated, waterproof, and smudge-resistant front lens element
• Aluminum rear mount
• USB-C port for firmware upgrades

Cons

• Not really a con, but there’s no manual focus ring
• Fixed f4.5 aperture. Yes, you read that right. More on that below
• Focus breathing is very noticeable, but then again, this isn’t a lens you’d use for video
• Focus hunting in some scenarios

Who Should Buy the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 Nikon Z Lens?

This lens makes an ideal gift for any Nikon Z photographer you know. It was about time a third-party manufacturer made one for Nikon. Would the f4.5 aperture put you off? I hardly think so. It’s still fairly wide enough to use during the daytime, and most digital cameras these days have incredibly good high ISO capabilities at night. It’s hardly any thicker than a standard Oreo cookie, so it almost looks like your camera doesn’t have a lens on it.

If you’ve wondered what using a pancake lens would be like, the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 Z is affordably priced enough to take a chance on buying it. I certainly see myself using this lens out on the streets very often. It gives you roughly the same field of view that most smartphone cameras do at 1X zoom, but at much higher quality and with real out-of-focus background areas, not simulated.

Gear Used

• My Nikon Zf
• The Viltrox 28mm f4.5 that was provided to us is now ours to keep.

Quirks

This lens doesn’t have the following:

• A manual focus ring. This is because there is no manual focus option at all. The Viltrox 28mm f4.5 Z is meant to be used purely with autofocus, and while it’s not the fastest in the world, it’s no slouch. As a street photographer, you might be accustomed to turning manual focus rings for more precise focus at times, but there’s no such option here.
• Any aperture setting besides f4.5. That’s right, this is a fixed focal length and fixed aperture lens. If you find your image is too bright, you’ll have to increase your shutter speed or drop down the ISO. I first thought I’d gotten a bad copy of the lens when I needed to stop down the aperture and found that the front dial adjustments weren’t taking effect. I imagine this restriction was kept in place to keep the lens’s size and price down. It takes a while to get used to this, and you’ll catch on soon enough.
• A standard lens cap. Instead, it has a lens cover, much like the fixed-lens compact cameras of the 70s and 80s. In order to use the lens, you need to slide the tiny lever on the bottom of the lens, and out comes a lens smaller than a gumdrop
• Filter threads. If you’ve had a closer look at the photos, you’ll understand why. And if you’re brave enough to hold a large square glass filter over this lens without dropping it, you could get away with long exposures, if you really need to do so with this lens.

Build Quality and Ergonomics

It’s thinner than many everyday things that aren’t that thick, such as a square bedside alarm clock, a power bank, a standard 1TB hard disk, an omelette sandwich, or an ice hockey puck. Weighing around 60g or a little over 2 ounces, you won’t even know it’s in your camera bag. Just remember to always close the lens cap before you store it away to prevent dust from settling on the lens.

Ease of Use

There’s no widening or stopping down; the aperture remains at f4.5 always. You’ll have to adjust your shutter speed or ISO for any exposure adjustments. Aside from getting used to not using your aperture dial, the lens itself is very simple to use. Nikon’s recent Z cameras have all either been introduced with good autofocus or have had them improved with firmware udpates. Just pick the AF mode and zone that suits you best and keep clicking.

What really endeared me to this lens is its simplicity. I was able to focus entirely on the frame when I realised that multiple things had to be let go of. No aperture adjustments to keep fiddling around with, no manual focus ring, no filters to worry about, and no lens cap to keep checking for in my pant pocket. I used this as an excuse to try out some new Nikon Imaging Recipes and shot them in jpeg.

Focusing

When I began using this lens, I didn’t expect such heavy focus breathing to showcase itself, but I quickly got used to it since at 28mm, it’s wide enough to retain a large part of the surroundings in the frame. It’s great for selfies, too—take a look at the sharpness in my eyes in this one.

Focus hunting happened when I was trying to focus on a 4×4 through some fencing. Ordinarily, I would switch to manual focus in such instances, but since this lens doesn’t give you that option, it can take a while to get these kinds of shots. I went closer to the fence to avoid the lens focusing on it, got focus on the 4×4, stepped back to get the fence in the frame, and hoped the lens wouldn’t focus on it again. Thankfully, this time when I refocused, it stayed on the 4×4.

Image Quality

I couldn’t notice any barrel distortion (example above), however, there was quite some vignetting in many images

I’m not adding any edited images here; I shot all of the below photos in JPEG and was very happy with the way the results turned out. I must add here that these images all have various in-camera Nikon picture profiles applied, and no post processing has been done. If you’d rather shoot RAW files but also want simpler and quicker post processing, check out our custom-made Adobe Lightroom and Capture One presets, which can be purchased in our online store.

Unedited

Declaration of Journalistic Intent

The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:

• At the time of publishing this review, Viltrox is not an advertiser with the Phoblographer.
• Our reviews are constantly updated when new firmware comes out. So, please expect updates from us in the future if significant improvements and updates to this lens are achieved via firmware
• None of the reviews on the Phoblographer are sponsored. That’s against FTC laws, and we adhere to them just the same way that newspapers, magazines, and corporate publications do. Others don’t always make declarations.
• Viltrox knows that it cannot influence the site’s reviews. If we don’t like something or if we have issues with it, we’ll let folks know.
• The Phoblographer’s standards for reviewing products have become much stricter. After having the world’s largest database of real-world lens reviews, we choose not to review anything we don’t find innovative or unique, and in many cases, products that lack weather resistance.
• In recent years, brands have withheld NDA information from us or stopped working with us because they feel they cannot control our coverage. These days, many brands will not give products to the press unless they get favorable coverage. In other situations, we’ve stopped working with several brands for ethical issues. Either way, we report as honestly and rawly as humanity allows.
• At the time of publishing, the Phoblographer is the only photography publication that is a member of Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative. We champion human-made art and are frank with our audience. We are also the only photography publication that labels when an image is edited or not.

More can be found on our Disclaimers page.