Viltrox 20mm f/2.8 for Nikon Z - Review

 

There are now more and more third-party lenses on the market for the Nikon Z system. As far as I know, only Tamron has an official cooperation with Nikon, and the others have to hack the Z mount. I doubt that there will be an official cooperation with a Chinese manufacture in the near future. 

Of course, you can use most older F-mount lens via the FTZ adapter. But the lens we are discussing here is a true Z mount lens.

The 20mm f/2.8 is one of the few AF lenses by a third-party brand for the Nikon Z mount, although it seems that more will follow. It is a small and light lens, made of solid composite material with a metal mount. It comes with a lens hood, also made of solid plastic composite. I'd consider this lens sturdy enough. You won't break it. 

The focusing ring works nicely and I had no problem with manual focus. I'd compare it in size, weight, and build-quality with the Nikon 28mm f/2.8. But this one has a metal mount.

The lens has an USB-C port, by which you can update the firmware if needed. Such a fix could easily be necessary for new Nikon cameras or new firmware on your camera. Viltrox might fix some issues or improve the lens via an update. You should check after purchase.

In summary, the image quality is mediocre to good.

The most obvious problem for me is the wavy distortion. It cannot be fixed in Lightroom. The image above shows an example. The best way to avoid seeing this problem is to use the lens in a more fancy way like in the image below. That is probably what this lens is made for. Compose with casual and interesting perspectives. For architecture with horizontal and vertical lines, it is not a good choice. 

One should also be aware that the lens exhibits a lot of field curvature. You really need to focus on the spot where it should be. Do not expect a flat surface to be sharp all across the frame. Things improve when the lens is stopped down.

The Bokeh is okay. Avoid spurious blurry elements in front of your subject. That will spoil your Bokeh with double lines. See below for an example of the kind of background you can expect.

What lens is a 20mm? What is it good for? It is worth asserting that this is not a lens in the 35-85mm range like the one which some photographers leave on their camera all day. You should not buy it just because it is small, light or cheap.

Those wide angle and fast lenses require special compositions. You want your main subject in the foreground, and get close it. You will get a lot of more or less blurry background, depending on how close you focus and how open you select your f-stop.

There is no point in using this lens for images like the one above. You will be better off with the 24-70 kit lens. Image quality, color rendition and contrast will be better.

In fact, one might argue that the only sensible way to use this 20mm f/2.8 is wide open and very close. If you use it at f/4 or more, you can just as well take the 24mm of the kit lens and get better image quality. If you plan to get everything in focus, but at a wide angle, 17mm and below are the better choice. 20mm is only half baken. Otherwise, you will almost always find, that the 24-70mm f/4 lens would have worked just as well or even better.

E.g., the details in the photo below will look a lot more crispy and sharp in one of the higher-end S-line lenses for the Nikon Z. I think, even the 24-70 kit will look better. Stepping back a tiny bit should also make 20mm unnecessary, and 24mm will suffice.

What is my summary? It is not an unusable lens, but it is also not a really good one. Nowadays, there are way better choices, albeit not for 150€. For that price, it is indeed unbeatable. And we should not forget how light it is. I think, I am going to return it. If anything like this, I would prefer something wider.