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VILTROX AF 13/1.4 XF is a super wide-angle large-aperture prime lens for Fujifilm X-mount camera models. It features an STM focusing motor, steppes aperture dialing, and anti-fouling coating, supporting eye/face detection autofocus. The compact and lightweight body makes it the best choice for Vlog creation. Your outstanding video shooting will contribute to the optimized video performance and insignificantly weak focus breathing! Center-sharpness remains excellent even when shooting wide-open and, while corner-sharpness drops off a bit by comparison, that’s no issue in practical terms. In portraiture and still life photography, softening towards the edges of the frame is generally preferable. Vignetting is quite mild, even at f/1.4 and again, a little vignetting can actually be an advantage for portrait and still life images. In-camera correction is generally available if you need it. Center sharpness is great from f/1.4 but contrast is only good but gets better by f/2 and it is perfect at f/2.8
Designed for smooth video capture, the lens effectively eliminates focus breathing when changing focusing distances while shooting video. Within the Fujifilm X-Mount ecosystem, there is a solid selection of primes lenses, except on the extreme ends of the focal range. There is only one super-telephoto lens (XF200mmF2 R LM OIS WR), and the widest prime lens is the XF14mmF2.8 R from 2013. I love the 21mm equivalent field-of-view in 35mm, which works out to 14mm on the X Mount, but there haven’t been many options coming from Fujifilm. It’s either the previously mentioned XF14mmF2.8 R or the WCL-X70 converter on the discontinued X70 to achieve this field-of-view, both at a maximum aperture of f/2.8. I have always wanted a Fujicron version of the XF14mm; a Fujilux version would be the dream but nothing so far from Fujifilm.
I’ve shot many wide lenses in the past but most have been the manual focus – either vintage lenses from the days of film, or modern manual focus lenses. This one, of course, is an autofocus lens, and it’s been a real breath of fresh air. It’s wonderful to have the lens do the work of focusing, no need to use focusing aids like peaking or magnification, just frame the shot and shoot! The autofocus freed me from having to think about focussing and allowed me to focus only on the aesthetic aspects of the shot like line, form, shape, light and colour – as a photographer I found it liberating to let the camera and lens take care of the technical elements, leaving me free to concentrate on the visual components of the shot, and get on with making images! There is no lens stabilization, which means you have to rely on your camera's own IBIS for handheld shots or filming. This is not a bad thing, however, as most cameras nowadays have IBIS. This also keeps the price of the lens down and competitive. Performance
The inclusion of autofocus in the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 allows for easily shooting non-static subjects, which sets it apart from the other three lenses in this article. With all that said, I think Viltrox made a very smart move with this lens, as Fujifilm itself is not offering anything that can closely match the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 in terms of focal length and aperture. The closest competitor at this point is the Samyang 12mm f/2, which is smaller than the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 and also weather sealed (the Viltrox is well built, but not weather resistant). However, the Samyang is also slower and more expensive. In this article I will explain my opinion on and experiences with each of four third-party ultra-wide angle prime lenses for the X-Mount, although these are all available for Sony E-Mount, and some other APS-C camera systems. The four lenses are the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4, Rokinon 12mm f/2, 7Artisans 12mm f/2.8, and Laowa 9mm f/2.8.
Autofocus Performance
Ultra-wide prime lens designed for APS-C-format FUJIFILM X-mount mirrorless cameras where it provides a 20mm equivalent to full-frame 35mm focal length. And in my experience, whenever I use third party lenses on my Fujifilm cameras, the colors simply don’t come out the way I am used to (and love it) from the Fujinon lenses. In fact, this is one of the main reason why my Fujinon XF10-24mm has basically replaced my Samyang 12mm f/2 in my camera bag. Not because the Samyang is bad, not at all (look, I have taken some of my most loved images with it). But sometimes I can be terribly lazy with post processing my images, and I know the XF10-24mm will nail the colors the way I love it more than my Samyang 12mmF2 would, and hence spare me some time in post. Focusing is critical in portraiture, especially when shooting at very wide apertures for a tight depth of field. We found that Eye AF worked very accurately and consistently with our Z-mount test sample mounted on a Nikon Z fc camera.
The unpleasant six-pointed sunstars exhibited by the Rokinon 12mm are, in my opinion, subpar compared to the sunstars produced by the other three lenses, despite its otherwise excellent performance.
The XF 14mm f/2.8 R also delivers slightly warmer results and I made white balance adjustments to match the images below. One final point — and it’s a small thing — there is a red circle to mark lens orientation for attaching to the camera body. This is white on earlier lenses, but strangely I find it much easier to locate! Image Quality and Performance On my copy of the 7Artisans 12mm the center exhibits very good sharpness, and stopping down to f/4-5.6 transforms it into an edge-to-edge performer.
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