Viltrox AF 16mm F1.8 Full Frame Lens For Nikon Z-Mount

The lens was out of stock and two weeks later. I still have not received it. I did reach out to Viltrox team through email and they did reply back so it wasn’t all bad but they should have contacted me if they didn’t have any stock and reach out to me instead me having to contact them in order to find out the lens wasn’t actually shipped.

I have been using the Viltrox AF 16mm F1.8 Full Frame Lens for Nikon Z-Mount for 14 days and give an initial summary. The lens is predominantly made of metal (plastic sun visor) and is well made. The optical performance at aperture F1.8 is good and in my opinion the best values ​​are achieved at aperture F5.6 or F8. Then the sharpness performance of the Viltrox AF 16mm is very good in the center and at the edge. Everything is okay up to f/16. The F22 aperture is probably unusable due to diffraction. Here the structures are completely blurred and the overall sharpness is not sufficient. I think the features of the lens are very good. There are switches for A/MF (automatic/manual), grid adjustment of the aperture and FN1 and FN2 (A-B Focus or assignable FN1). I love that the Viltrox AF 16 mm has an aperture ring. Personally, I prefer to use this instead of using the aperture setting on the camera. The color fidelity can still be described as good. The lens is unsatisfactory when taking backlit photos. From aperture F11 you can see a beautiful star (9 blades), but there is a yellow halo around the sun. There are also a lot of unsightly reflections in green and red. But I have to say that I didn't buy the lens for this type of photography. The vignette can be clearly seen due to the ultra-wide angle (16mm). But it's not a problem because I can correct this without any problems when editing the images. The distortion, on the other hand, is very well corrected and can hardly be seen in pictures. Viltrox has done a very good job here. The AF works perfectly and the lens focuses quickly. The STM is barely audible (good for video). When taking astrophotographs - the reason for the purchase - I particularly noticed the LCD display on the lens and the wide focus ring. In the dark you can easily read the aperture and the distance (MF mode) on the LCD display and adjust them accordingly. The edge drop in sharpness at aperture F1.8 is not disturbing. Overall, I have no regrets about purchasing the Viltrox AF 16mm F1.8 and can therefore recommend it.

This Z mount is my second 16mm from Viltrox, after the E mount…and my fifth Viltrox lens in total. The lens itself is great, I am so pleased. I cut a star due to the misleading option of 2-5 days delivery. It arrived in almost three weeks. The second reason is the fact that despite focusing sharp on the subject, the distance shown on the lens display is herratic. In most cases double than in reality. My regret is the fact that I don’t received any reply from Viltrox support, to advice me what should I do to fix this. So far there is no firmware update on their site. So the reason I am upset is the Viltrox support, which offered me no support.

If anyone had asked me 5 years ago about the Viltrox brand, surely I would have answered that it was a brand totally unknown to me... and obviously no idea to have a lens of that brand for my Nikon gear. Today I can say that Viltrox is an example of the successful Chinese economy.

Good design, high quality materials (even has a LCD screen!), standard pro 77mm filter thread, and top notch image quality are words that come in mind when talking about this Vitrox 16mm/1.8. As fast lens is not lightweight, but I feel it well balanced coupled to my Nikon Z6. Lens hood doesn't feel too tight, comes loose easily.. Is my primary concern.

Just say I'm very happy with this lens... I hope I can enjoy a lot (and for a long time) with this lens.

And also to greet the restless technical team of Viltrox that in a few years has managed to stand near the big brands in optics. A star is Born.

Recommended lens for any fotography lover! 5 stars

The website says the weight is 550g, but the actual weight is 650g.