How Good Are Viltrox's Budget EVO Lenses for Video?

Viltrox's EVO series offers three matched prime lenses for just over $1,000, about what a single first-party prime can cost. If you shoot video on a gimbal or pack light for travel, a set that shares size, weight, and filter thread can save more time than an extra stop of light.

Curren Sheldon usually reaches for Zeiss glass on documentary and commercial jobs, but he spent the last couple of months shooting with the budget EVO series to see how it holds up. The core set includes the Viltrox 35mm f/1.8 II EVO, the Viltrox 55mm f/1.8 EVO, and the Viltrox AF 85mm f/2 EVO. All three are full frame and cost under $400 each. Each weighs roughly 370 g and takes 58mm filters, so swapping lenses on a DJI Ronin 4D or any gimbal doesn't mean rebalancing. The 85mm stops at f/2, and Sheldon reads that as a deliberate choice to keep it the same size as its siblings. He'd rather have that than a faster 85mm that breaks the set. A small 26mm pancake also carries the EVO name, though he treats it as separate from the filmmaking set because it uses a 43mm filter thread.

The features are where the price starts to look unusual. Every lens has an aperture ring on the barrel. It works electronically, and you can de-click it for smooth exposure changes during a take. There's also an AF/MF switch and a function button you can assign in camera. These are rare under $400. The optical design is apochromatic, which reduces color fringing in high-contrast scenes and usually shows up on far pricier glass. Sheldon notes that the lenses lack the all-metal build of a Zeiss Otus, but they still have real heft and feel sturdy in hand.

Matched sets started as a cine lens idea. Rehoused primes share front diameters and gear positions so the matte box and follow focus stay put between setups. Mirrorless makers have been borrowing that logic for hybrid shooters for several years. Sony did it with the Sony FE 24mm f/2.8 G, Sony FE 40mm f/2.5 G, and Sony FE 50mm f/2.5 G, which share one body size and a 49mm filter thread. The EVO lenses come in Sony E and Nikon Z mounts. Nikon's Nikon ZR is a video-first body developed with RED, and it gives Z-mount shooters one more reason to want compact, consistent primes. Sheldon prefers buying E-mount, since an adapter lets those lenses work on Z bodies too, while Z-mount versions only fit Nikon. A shared filter thread also means one variable ND, one set of diffusion filters, and no step-up rings rattling around your bag. If you're building a kit from scratch, choose your filter size early.

Sheldon's closest comparison is Panasonic's Lumix S f/1.8 line, which runs from 18mm to 85mm with consistent sizes and filter threads. He loves the Lumix lenses' large, well-damped focus ring, especially since he focuses manually so often. The Viltrox ring is smaller but still has good damping and pulls smoothly, and he'd have no problem focusing by hand with it. He considers the Viltrox lenses better built, and the wider Lumix primes run close to $800 to $900 each. He also finds that the focus and aperture rings feel the same from one EVO lens to the next. Cheaper sets don't always manage that, and the difference shows when you're switching lenses quickly with your hands on the barrel. Mixing a rented Sony FX3 B camera with the Ronin 4D on a recent commercial shoot gave him a real production to put the set through. He kept the three EVO lenses on that B camera for the whole job.

Sheldon's wide-open footage from the shoot is in the video above.