Viltrox 25mm 1.7 APS-C lens review

I recently had the opportunity to test a new prime APS-C lens; the Viltrox 25mm 1.7 Z mount. In full frame terms, that means you have something close to a 35m perspective, one of my favorite full frame focal lengths.

This will be my third Viltrox lens, which I’m using on the Nikon Zfc.  I previously wrote a review of the 35mm 1.7 which you can find on 35mmc here. I would expect this same lens to be available in a Sony E or Fuji X mount as well.

For personal context, I prefer full frame cameras and already shoot paid work with everything from the Z6 to the Z9. But when I’m traveling or just shooting casually for fun, I wanted something smaller lighter and frankly, cheaper. I ended up with a Zfc, and began looking for prime lenses to go along with it. When Hamish asked if I wanted to do a review of the new Viltrox 25 1.7, I said “of course”! That would give me a travel kit of the Zfc with the equivalent of 35mm, 50mm and 85mm lens choices. The camera and all three lenses will fit into a child’s lunch box with room left over for a sandwich and juice box.

As I noted in my review of the 35mm (50 mm full frame equivalent) Nikon doesn’t make a lot of prime DX lenses, and this is a gap that Viltrox and other third parties have been filling, both in the nifty fifty focal and short portrait lengths.  This lens adds a 35mm (equivalent) to their “Air” series. Unlike my other two Viltrox primes, Nikon does make a very similar lens; the 24mm 1.7 DX.   The Nikon lens has been on sale recently, and with that sale price the Nikon is not a whole lot more than the expected opening price of the Viltrox.  This would be an opportunity to compare the two.

With that context, let’s go take some pictures.

All my Viltrox lenses arrived beautifully boxed and include a bayonet style lens hood and a cloth lens pouch. With an expected price of somewhere around $175 you would expect, and find, a lot of plastic in the lens. Somewhat surprisingly you also get a metal bayonet mount, a nice touch for a product in this price range. From the outside, there isn’t much else to say. The name of the lens is printed on the barrel, most of which is taken up by a textured manual focus ring. There is no function button or added function ring, but a USB-C port is tucked into the lens mount for future software updates. Testing on some of my other Z cameras confirms that the focus ring can also be set to other functions, including exposure compensation; my favorite for shooting the constantly changing conditions of live music.

My first test of the Viltrox 25 1.7 lens would be a concert at a medium sized Venue featuring Phantogram.  One man band GLU would be the opening act.   Phantogram is notoriously hard to shoot.  There will be times of dark monochrome red, followed by darkness and then interrupted by blinding strobe lighting.  This was a paid gig for me, and I was using the Zfc and Viltrox 25 sparingly, after I was sure I got some keepers.  In looking over the pictures at home I was generally pleased with the results.  Any issues I had shooting were really around the difficult lighting and the slower nature of shooting with the Zfc.  The lens handled things well.  The auto focus was snappy, the coated lens dealt with back lighting well and picked up detail in high contrast situations.  All in all, it the 25mm worked great.   I won’t be recommending the Zfc as the best option for shooting live music, but that’s a story for another day.

GLU opened the show and provided an easier opportunity.  GLU is a side project of Michael Shuman, who on most nights can be found playing bass with the Queens of the Stone Age.  As the opener, these shots were both less critical and a lot easier.  The lighting was “normal” stage lighting and he was by himself, making the entire experience less chaotic.  Even working with the slower Zfc, I had no issues tracking his movements and again the autofocus was snappy.  I was quite happy with the results.

Next on the assignment list was an immigration / deportation protest rally in downtown Dallas.  The lighting could not have been more different.  It was midday, without a cloud in the sky, and even at ISO 100 I was exceeding the Zfc’s 1/4000 shutter speed when trying to shoot at 1.7.  Shooting at higher apertures with that much light returned photos that were clear and sharp, with lots of detail.

So in two very different shooting circumstance, the lens performed admirably.  I like 35mm lenses on full frame cameras a lot and they come with me on almost every job I have.   I’m currently using the Z 35 1.8 with my full frame cameras and lusting hard over the recently announced Nikon 35 1.2.  The Viltrox 25mm 1.7 won’t give you the subject isolation and gentle fall off of that 1.2 monster (especially on a crop frame camera) but it won’t cost an arm and a leg either.

I had a little time before submitting this review, so I decided to take it on one more assignment, to see a couple of young rap artists.  Again, I decided to shoot just the opening act, since we only got two songs for the headliner.  After being disappointed with the performance of the ZFc, I thought I’d try do something a little different and stuck the Viltrox 25mm 1.7 on my Z6iii and shot in DX mode.  With a more capable camera, I felt right at home.  The lighting was mushy and erratic, but the lens kept up just fine.  And now I could use the focus ring for exposure compensation control, my preferred shooting style.  Pictures of Raq Baby:

For those of you not interested in rap shows, here are a couple of shots from the wood shop and around the property.

I do know that the 35mm focal length is one I’ll always want in my bag.  My other two Viltrox lenses have performed well, and at the 35 and 56mm focal length (50 and 85mm equivalent), they also have no direct competition from Nikon’s DX line up.  Adding them to my DX bag was a no brainer.

The new Viltrox 25mm 1.7 will have to go head-to-head with the Nikon 24mm 1.7.  For you 35mm fans out there, it begs the question of which one to get. I now have both but haven’t used either extensively.  Still, the fact that I can’t give you a quick and decisive answer should tell you that I don’t see a lot of difference in the results of using the two.  I might have a better answer in a few months, but for now here are some initial impressions.

• The Nikon isn’t built to S line standards.  Both lenses are made primarily from high tech plastics. The Viltrox 25mm 1.7 has a metal mount, but the bayonet portion of the Nikon is metal as well. Aside from that, build quality seems very similar.
• The Nikon is actually a bit smaller, especially with its inverted style lens hood.  The downside of that feature is the aesthetics of that lens hood, which I personally don’t like.  Especially on the retro Zfc.
• The Viltrox is still expected to be less expensive than the Nikon, although depending on sales and possible tariffs it may not be a material difference.
• The Nikon has an extremely short minimum focus distance of just under 5 inches compared to around 11 inches on the Viltrox.
• The Viltrox is made of 12 elements in 10 groups, while the Nikon is slightly less complicated with 9 elements in 8 groups.
• The Viltrox has 9 aperture blades to Nikon’s 7.
• I mentioned being a fan of 35mm.  The Nikon comes closest at 36mm equivalent, while the Viltrox is just a tad longer at 37.5.
• As far as the photographs produced, I don’t think I can see a discernable difference.   Another plus for Viltrox is they now have 3 primes in this same “air” series, and when it comes to photo processing, I do prefer that the input has the same general characteristics.  It just makes things faster and more consistent.

Two shots.  One with the Nikon 24 1.7, the other with the Viltrox 25mm 1.7  both were shot at f 1.7, with focus on the tape measure.

Although the Nikon and Viltrox seem very similar in many ways, the Nikon feels like kind of a one-off while the Viltrox is obviously part of a rational series of products.  Here is hoping that the next addition to this line up is something a little wider, like a 20mm equivalent.

At the end of the day I’ll just come out and say that I’ve been very happy with all three Viltrox lenses in my current DX bag – including the Viltrox 25mm 1.7. They are small, light, available in the focal lengths I want and have a really high performance to cost ratio.  If you want to take a step up, they also have a number of very interesting, faster (1.4) lenses with stronger more metallic builds.  Is it enough to stop my lust for the new Nikon 35mm 1.2?   Maybe not yet, but I’m keeping an eye on what Viltrox introduces next.

Additional product information for Viltrox lenses can be found here:

You can check out my other pictures on my website or Instagram

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