Introduction
We’ve seen many ultra-wide lenses during the last few years, but there’s probably always room for another one. So, let’s welcome the Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 FE Air. Not all of us require high-speed – and as such, big – prime lenses, so it’s refreshing to see that Viltrox took a different route here. By limiting the max aperture to f/4, the lens is compact – amazingly so, actually. Another amazing aspect is the price tag. “Air” lenses are targeting the “normal” consumer market, and at just $199 USD / 229 EUR / 190 GBP / 289 CAD / 33,000 JPY, this one is clearly at the very affordable end of the market – which is nothing short of baffling for a lens this wide.
However, affordable doesn’t mean cheap. Yes, Air lenses are featherlight, but the plastic quality is actually quite decent, and the focus ring turns smoothly. As usual, you will find a USB-C port on the metal mount for firmware updates. Weather sealing has not been implemented, but the internal focusing should provide some protection at least. A small petal-shaped hood is part of the package.
The AF uses a conventional STM (stepping motor), which is well sufficient for moving the small lens elements in a fast and silent manner. Manual focusing is very precise.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Optical construction | 12 elements in 9 groups, incl. 4x ED, 2x HR, 2x aspherical |
| Number of aperture blades | 7 |
| min. focus distance | 0.13m (max. magnification 0.23x) |
| Dimensions | 65×56.4mm |
| Weight | 170g |
| Filter size | 58mm |
| Hood | petal-shaped (bayonet mount, supplied) |
| Available Mounts | Sony FE, Nikon Z |
| Other features | – |
Distortions
Ultra-wide lenses tend to have heavy image distortions, but this isn’t really the case with the Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 FE Air. RAW images show just a mild degree of barrel distortion. Auto-correction improves this a bit without solving the issue completely.
Vignetting
The vignetting characteristic is rather typical for a lens in this class. The RAW vignetting is rather heavy at about 3 EV (f-stops) at f/4. Stopping down doesn’t do much here, though. Auto-correction does help quite a bit in taming the issue. A remaining light falloff of 1.3-1.5 EV is still noticeable.
MTF (resolution) at 42 megapixels
The Viltrox lens does a surprisingly good job when it comes to sharpness. Peak performance is already reached at f/4 with an excellent center quality and a very good outer image field. Much more expensive lenses rarely achieve this. The lens is diffraction-limited, so stopping down doesn’t improve the technical quality but only the depth of field. You shouldn’t stop down much beyond f/8. At f/11, diffraction has a quite high impact already.
The field curvature of the lens is surprisingly low. The centering of the tested sample was good.
Please note that the MTF results are not directly comparable across the different systems!
Below is a simplified summary of the formal findings. The chart shows line widths per picture height (LW/PH) which can be taken as a measure of sharpness. If you would like to know more about the MTF50 figures, you may check out the corresponding Imatest Explanations.
Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)
Lateral CAs are fairly low, with a peak CA pixel width of ~0.7px or less at the image borders.
Sun Stars
Below is a sequence of 100% cropped images from f/4 all the way up to f/16 – illustrating the sun star behavior. Sun stars are an aperture effect that shows up if a bright light source is part of the scene (usually in night shots).
It seems that the Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 FE Air doesn’t have a fully circular aperture at f/4, because there are already traces of rays visible at this setting – which isn’t a problem, just an observation. As usual stopping down increases the effect, and decent sun stars are already available at f/8, with really good results at f/11 and, of course, f/16.
Competition
Given its price tag, the Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 FE Air doesn’t really have any true competitors, other than some fully manual lenses from more obscure manufacturers. If your budget is a little higher, there are maybe two others to consider. There’s the Sigma 17mm f/4 DC DN Contemporary. It matches the Viltrox lens in size and feels more premium in terms of build quality. In terms of sharpness, it’s basically a tie with a marginal advantage for the Viltrox lens. The Sigma does have a better auto-correction profile, though. The Laowa AF 12mm f/2.8 FE II Zero-D is wider and faster. The border/corner sharpness is a bit down in comparison. It’s also heavier and bigger, but one level up in terms of build quality.
Sample Images
Viltrox keeps on pushing the boundaries of what's possible with affordable lenses, and it shows again with the Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 FE Air. Such ultra-wide lenses used to be really expensive, but who could possibly complain about the pricing of this lens - even if it wasn't as good as it is. It's sharp at f/4, and diffraction is the limiting factor at smaller apertures already. Lateral CAs remain moderate. Just like all ultra-wide lenses, vignetting is an issue in RAW files, but the profile correction tames this issue quite a bit although it never goes fully away. Image distortion is moderate in RAW files. Auto-correction doesn't do much here. If you like your sun stars during night scenes, the lens can give you quite nice ones when stopping down.
Mechanically, the Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 FE stays in the tradition of the other Viltrox "Air" lenses. It is compact and very lightweight and uses good quality, consumer-grade plastics for the lens body. Weather sealing is not provided. The AF is pretty snappy, so no complaints here either.
If you don't require high speed and can live with a few compromises, the Viltrox AF 14mm f/4 FE Air is almost a no-brainer - especially at this price point.
Viltrox lenses are available from shops like Amazon, B&H or the Viltrox Web Store.
The Good
- Surprisingly Sharp
- Super afforadable
- Nice sun stars
- Low RAW distortion
- Very small and light-weight
The Bad
- Distortion correction not overly efficient
- RAW vignetting fairly heavy at medium apertures
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Optical Quality
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Build Quality
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Price / Performance