Viltrox 85mm f1.8 Z – FIRST Auto Focusing third party lens for Nikon Z

Until now, for whatever reason there was no third party lenses for Nikon Z cameras. You had an option to adapt Nikon F lenses or use native Nikon S line.
This NEW offering from Viltrox is changing this and this is a first Nikon Z mount auto focusing lens that it isn’t Nikon.

I have reviewed 2 APS-C lenses from Viltrox previously on Fuji XT-4 camera and I was very impressed with their build quality and performance they delivered so when I heard that this is coming out I was very excited to try it on my Nikon Z6.

Before I go into details about this lens, I must say that it was supplied to me by Viltrox for this review, however I wasn’t paid or asked to say anything specific about it by Viltrox or anyone else so this is my honest and 100% unbiased opinion about this lens.

Performance
This lens really doesn’t disappoint. If you never used Viltrox lenses before, it is very easy to make an assumption that they are just a novelty Chinese lenses but in my experience with these and especially this one, they are very good.
First impression is that it feels and looks like any much more expensive lens – in fact in my opinion it’s better build than most of the Nikon S lenses but let’s talk about the most important thing here …. Does it actually deliver?

It really does … it is very quick auto focusing, silent and it delivers nice colours and contrast and eye auto focus works very well without any issues.

The sharpness is very good, I wouldn’t say it is as sharp as Nikon 85mm f1.8 S lens but it is very, very close but just like with other Viltrox lenses I had to add tiny amount of sharpening now and then to finish them off but I wouldn’t say that it produces soft images wide open – it’s just not razor sharp every single time. I also wouldn’t say that it is a problem – especially considering it’s price, but about that a little bit later.

As with all Z cameras you can override auto focus with the manual focus ring and the lens can communicate the focusing distance with the camera when in manual focusing mode.

The thing is that it does not feel like a budget lens at all.
Great focal length for portrait photography but also every day run of the mill lens good for majority of photography and videography styles.

The bokeh is very smooth and creamy but unfortunately, to me, lacks of character.
A lot of really cheap or vintage lenses as well as the expensive premium, top of the range ones deliver more than just a blur – I personally define the character of the bokeh if it changes your perception of what the reality really looks like and when it adds something “special” to the blurred parts of the image and also how the blur defines that specific lens.
This produces really nice bokeh, don’t get me wrong but it just not unique in any way for me – this might be a good thing if that’s what you prefer personally. It looks … safe

There is a very small amount of vignetting wide open and pin cushion distortion, nothing that cannot be fixed easily in post but Viltrox is actually supplying a lens profile correction file for Lightroom/Photoshop to correct it automatically – great service considering that a lot new lenses have to wait months for Adobe to update lens profiles.

I was struggling to see any chromatic aberration – it crept up on a very rare occasion, nowhere as near as it does with many much more expensive lenses than this.

Overall the images this lens produces are very good and definitely worth Nikon Z cameras.

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For video this lens is almost completely silent auto focusing, you’d literally need a microphone on it for it to be a problem.
The auto focusing is very good, smooth and accurate – it doesn’t hunt, the changes are smooth and it is very much on par with Nikon S lenses.
I think that it is focus by wire but the focus ring is very firm and nice to turn. In manual focusing mode, it is the same as with photography the camera can show the distance scale on the camera screen and viewfinder which helps with manual focusing direction and speed when you don’t have focusing markers on the lens itself or hard stops.

The Build
This lens is build very well.
There is no buttons or switches on it. Large and as I mentioned a moment ago, very firm to turn focus ring. Probably not everyone is going to love it but I think it’s ok – the resistance really helps to get smoother focus pulls, especially when filming with it. Maybe not the best if you need to get instant, super quick manual changes but I don’t think this lens was designed for that. It is auto focusing lens after all!
To best describe how it feels, It feels like dampened tripod fluid head when turned, nice and firm.

The whole lens feels very solid, all metal and it weighs 540g, not exactly feather weight – marginally heavier than the Nikon version which weighs 470g.
9 Aperture blades, 72mm filter thread and a minimum focusing distance of 80cm.
There is USB socket for very easy updating the firmware and I heard of a trick to change the Sony version of this lens from f1.8 to f1.6 via USB. I will be trying it out soon with this lens and if it does work, I’ll make a separate video about it soon.
There is no image stabilisation built in or any weather sealing.

Value
Considering how good this lens performs, the price will be decisive factor for a lot of Nikon Z users.
This lens retails for £336 pounds here in UK or $399 dollars in US, that makes it almost half price of the Nikon f1.8 S lens.
Is the Nikon lens twice better, no I don’t think so, this is pretty GOOD and it will give Nikon run for their money.

It isn’t a perfect lens but if you know what you are doing, certainly good enough to shoot professionally with and get away with it.
The very budget friendly price and considering that it literally has got no competition right now from any other third party manufacturer, it’s a great value for money.

Conclusion
This is a great choice of lens for your Nikon Z camera.
It should really not be compared directly with Nikon S version but treated as an alternative.
If you want to save money and get well build, high quality lens capable of delivering very decent results that you should certainly consider this.
It won’t feel or look out of place on any Nikon Z camera and it will deliver images and videos that you can seriously be proud of.
Great piece if kit and I’d definitely buy it myself …

Let’s hope that this is just the beginning and we will soon see not only more focal lengths from Viltrox but also from Tamron and Sigma – it’s about time.