Rollei 35mm f/1.8 VAF Z - Review and Advice

Taken with the Nikon Z 28mm f/2.8

The lens in the title features the well known and good sounding "Rollei" brand name. If you are old enough, you might remember having seen the famous Rolleiflex dual lens reflex camera. It was a milestone in its days. For another example of excellent products, I inherited from my father in law a Rollei diapositive projector, a very solid and sturdy apparatus that still works after 60 years. Rollei was founded in Brauschweig, Germany, in 10916 but since then experienced a very turbulent history. Today, it is just a brand name which is sold to other companies.

This is a Chinese lens, constructed and computed by Viltrox, and assembled in China. But don't confuse it with the Air or Evo line of Viltrox. The retail price is below 200€. This is a very competitive price which might attract many users. It was previously not possible to make an auto-focus and fast full frame lens at that price tag. 

I don't want to write a detailed review about this lens, because I experienced problems and shortcomings which I did not like. I don't even show pictures of it here. I have none that would make you want this lens.

• This is a very sturdy and heavy lens with solid build quality. The mount is metal and has an USB-C port for charging. The hood is solid plastic and sits tight. The focus ring moves a bit stiff, but not bad. There is an M/F switch and a function button. There is not much to complain here. There is no aperture ring or any configurable second ring.
• The AF works good enough, albeit not top fast. I would not use this lens for speedy indoor sports in low light. But it may depend also on your camera. The AF sometimes goes havoc and produces a strange problem if it can't focus. The screen will go white for seconds until the AF recovers. This issue can possibly be fixed by a firmware update. But who knows? It is from a company that is in court with Nikon.
• The image quality in the center is good to very good. In the corners, you definitely want to close down. This could be due to field curvature, but I did not check. In fact, the corners should not worry you too much. If you want corner to corner sharpness, close the aperture and use a tripod. Better, use a more expensive lens.
• The short focus distance is disappointing. I estimate the highest magnification to 1:9. I.e., you can fill the frame with a 30cm object. And I am pretty sure that the image quality gets worse on close distances.

The heaviness and the bulky format, the AF issues and the lack of close focus capabilities mean that the lens is not for me.

My advice is to use the Nikon Z 28mm f/2.8 instead. It is much lighter and offers the same image quality. You might get it even cheaper than the Rollei offer. If you really need f/1.8, there is the excellent Nikon Z f/1.8 S. The cheapest price I could find for that is 750€, however.