Viltrox 16mm f/1.8 Z Final(ish) Thoughts

Nikon Z7 Viltrox 16mm f/1.8

f/1.8, 13sec, ISO 1,000

After a few weeks of playing, time and conditions have certainly restricted my opportunity to fully explore the depths of the Viltrox's obvious talent. In saying that, a few things are immediately clear:

As a landscape and general point and shoot lens, the Viltrox certainly hits the mark. This is on the obvious proviso that you use such a wide lens with due care. Having spent a significant amount of time, both home and abroad, with an ultra wide lens on various cameras, a lens as wide as this certainly commands respect.

Used in the right environment, the 16mm focal length can make a photographers dreams come true, but it can just as easily leave a shot looking empty, or poorly composed. It's very easy to become immersed in the field of view, losing focus on completely filling the frame, only to accentuate the distance of the subject.

It's also very easy to get used to such a wide aperture. The Viltrox has an almost supernatural ability to turn night, into day, however this makes it very simple to forget that it also creates a very small depth of view, even with such a wide lens. This, combined with low light, creates an obvious issue. It can often be very difficult to see what is actually in focus, frequently until you see them on a normal size screen.

As far as astro work goes, I am still trying to find the time to shoot it consistently back-to-back with the Nikon 20mm. First glimpses are definitely encouraging, as shown above, but some interesting aberrations have snuck into the picture, seemingly intermittently. At first, I put this down to simply star trailing, by pushing the exposure time a little too far. Now? Having looked at a couple of consecutive photos, I'm left wondering if this is something that requires stepping down, perhaps even to f/2.8, to cure. Is it simply the incessant wind I've been experiencing, on every clear night lately? I know what you're thinking, "surely this bloke can tell the difference between wind movement and an aberration?", and perhaps rightfully so. However what I've seen could simply be a combination of either/or, hence causing the issue determining the exact issue, with a very small sample of images.

I'm not talking about anything drastic here, with what I have seen certainly no worse than even the Nikon 20mm in the past. It would however, be remiss of me to mention something, that I still don't have a clear answer for myself. Here's hoping we have some clear nights, and less wind soon, to allow further investigation.

And as for the little screen and focal recall? Well, I honestly cant remember the last time I even noticed the screen And the focal recall? It certainly makes switching between landscape and astro shooting easy, so much so, that I actually wonder how I'd go back to doing it the old fashioned way. Certainly something fitting for such a versatile lens.

So I promised a final word, and I'll let it be this. Would I recommend this lens? Yes, an emphatic yes. With one very simple catch, and that is, you either have the experience, or are willing to learn, shooting with a lens this wide. I'm certainly no expert myself, but it was a very swift reminder of the different mindset required, in capturing a scene with this field of view. In saying that, isn't that half the fun? Being pushed to approach something from a completely different angle, in order to get the desired result? With a lens as sharp and surprisingly versatile as the Viltrox, you might not be using it every time you shoot, but it's certainly priceless, once you get your head around it's multitude of uses.