Viltrox has gained a reputation for creating high-quality prime lenses for different lens mounts. Allowing for accessibility to everyone due to a very affordable price bracket, these lenses are sharp, robust, and fast and Viltrox is very rapidly establishing itself as a top contender in the 3rd party lens market.
The Pro Series 75mm f/1.2 is currently available for the Fuji X mount and is receiving great reviews, for now only on pre-order are the Sony E mount and Nikon Z mount which as part of the new Pro Series should produce some high-quality images, if their other lenses are anything to go by. We reviewed it to find out.
Build Quality
Measuring 102mm and weighing in at 710g with a pure black all-metal aluminum alloy construction the lens is and feels solid. Housed inside are 16 elements in 11 groups including 4 high refractive index lenses and the lens itself is weather-sealed in 7 points, going by the image on the Viltrox website. The lens has an HD nano multilayer coating with water-resistant and antifouling coating and the filter size for the lens is 87mm.
An MF/AF switch on the barrel and a function button for the focus lock should you need to use it. The focus ring at the front is smooth and dampened enough to make your focusing smooth. The aperture ring ranges from f/1.2 to f/16 and can be de-clicked when filming or if a smooth glide is your preference when adjusting apertures. There's also an A lock button assigning the camera control of your apertures should you wish. The lens also supports eye and face autofocus, animal autofocus, and additional automatic focus modes. 
The STM focus motor is nearly silent and fast to focus even in low light conditions. Although it's an APS-C lens it performed impeccably well on the full-frame Nikon Z7 ii providing a focal range of 112mm. A type-C interface can be found on the mount of the lens for future firmware updates. Included with the lens is a petal-shaped lens hood and a lens pouch for safe storage.
Performance
One of the main selling points of this lens is its fast f/1.2 aperture which allows for excellent background separation and low-light performance. Wide open the lens delivers a lovely creamy bokeh and even when stopped down to f/2.8 the creaminess is still there. I very rarely shot at f/1.2 myself, preferring apertures from f/2.8 - f/5.6. This is no reflection of the performance of the lens as it has impressive center sharpness at f/1.2 making it an excellent choice for portraiture and creative photography. My aperture choice was simply because of the look I was after with the images.
Vignetting as expected occurs at f/1.2, at f/2.8 is barely noticeable and the time you reach f/4 is gone entirely. I was also quite enamored by the neat swirl effect caused by the elliptical bokeh when shooting at f/1.2 for the few images I shot at this aperture, this might come in useful later for some creative images.
The focus is fast and locked onto my subjects without any issues. I cannot say it's noticeably slower than anything else I've tried, or compare it to any of the Nikon Z mount lenses at this focal distance. I would say however that I felt it focused faster than my other Viltrox lenses, and even that being said it would be marginally faster as the focus on them is also very fast. Only at its closest focusing distance of 0.88mm did I have a couple of missed focus, which was down to my misjudgment of the closest subject distance.
I carried the lens with me on a few walks to test it out in varying conditions as I always do with lenses, as I feel it best to test them in everyday scenarios to get a feel for them. I was also asked to do some BTS work and stills on a film set for a couple of days, shortly after receiving the lens so I took the opportunity to it to the test in a working capacity. For this type of work, I would normally use my Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 along with a couple of other lenses. On this occasion, I only took the Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S Lens and the Viltrox 75mm with my X-T5 as a backup. Although the lens weighs 710g I never once felt or noticed the weight coupled with the Nikon z7ii. The focal distance was actually perfect for the BTS of the set allowing me to get a range of shallow depth-of-field shots from varying distances.
Pros
- Fast Focus - works as expected and didn't lose focus.
- Large Aperture - f/1.2 for this price is definitely worth considering.
- Weather Sealing - peace of mind for you.
- Cost - at $549 you just can't go wrong
Cons
There actually was nothing I would consider a con with the lens as it performed impeccably in everything I shot with it.
Conclusion
I do have a few Viltrox lenses for the Nikon system and that's simply down to cost and image results as the Viltrox lenses are sharp and fast. These are affordable high-quality lenses and the new Pro series is no different. It may be slightly more expensive and refined than the standard Viltrox line but it's still less than the native lenses that Nikon produces. Paying these prices for a high-quality prime lens that gets the results is a no-brainer in my opinion.
I thoroughly enjoyed using the 75mm and am really impressed by the quality of the images produced by it, although not surprised as Viltrox produce sharp high-quality lenses. Sure it's a slightly heavy lens but nothing to even write home about. It's well-constructed, weather sealed, sharp, fast to focus, and gets the job done without any issues. The focal length of 112mm on the Nikon z7ii is perfect for a whole host of subjects.
If you are familiar with the Viltrox lens lineup the new Pro line won't disappoint and is well worth the extra few bucks, which is still less than native lenses. Sure it's an APS-C lens used on a full-frame camera but that came with no regrets whatsoever due to the image quality. Interested in the lens? You can pre-order one for yourself here.
Correct me if I am wrong, but a 75mm lens is a 75mm lens no matter what size sensor you put behind it. Now, I do get what you are trying to say with it being equivalent to a 112mm, but you have the math backwards. To get 112, you need to have it on a crop frame camera (or running your full frame in crop mode). If not, putting that lens on a Z7 will get you exactly the same field of view as any other 75mm lens you put on that camera.
Apologies, yes it is running in crop mode when taking these images.
It is an APS-C lens, so user will always get 112mm equivalent even if thier camera has full-frame sensor. Unless they can live by the heavy vigeneting.
Buying a moderate sized FF lens for APSC brings advantages in terms of profiting from only making use of the centre of the imaging circle. The samyang 75 1.8 on the Fuji therefore offers better corner to corner sharpness than when on Sony, for example. But also with other lenses not ported, but using an adapter.
But I really don't see why anyone would buy an apsc lens to put on a FF body. The APSC mode is to allow upgraders to use existing lenses. There's no optical benefit unlike the other way around. You mention the weight isn't really that bad, and the price an advantage. For full frame very true. But that's because you are putting an apsc lens on a FF camera. If weight and price are the primary concerns, then an APSC system is surely the answer... some people I'm convinced buy into FF because they feel they should, when for most it's not necessary. Even M4/3 would do the people well you see taking holiday snapshots with a 5D and 70-200!
I do understand why people get excited about such a lens on APSC. On Fuji cameras (and others hoping for the lens) there's little other options. However, there are AF f1 and f1.2 lenses already that are a bit wider. There are lenses with identical depth of field also with Fuji (90 f2). But the 75 does fill a gap, as it sits between those 50-56 and 90 models. I don't think it's so super unique if adapting for FF either. A lot cheaper for sure.
But as with most early reviews of this lens, some of the weaknesses aren't even properly considered. It has terrible minimum focus distance for example and while the AF is indeed good for its primary purpose - portraits - don't expect it to keep up with action as well as other options. For portraits neither of these weaknesses should be such a big deal. The sometimes very aggressive flaring should be a concern, but you don't mention it at all. See Philip Reece's review. Maybe you actually like this. Or maybe because you stopped down a lot it appeared less often. But it's a bit of a Viltrox trademark.
I think this is a great lens for someone who really loves 75mm, has an apsc camera, and needs f1.2 for their professional outdoor portrait work (wedding photographers basically). But most people will be better off stopping down to f2-2.8 like you did and then the choice of this lens becomes questionable...purely FOMO?
You've made some great points here and thanks for reading. Primarily for full-frame users, I think the cost and quality of the image would be the main draw for this lens, and for myself, I would love the lens on the XT5 due to this.
As for the minimum focusing distance, again it's not too bad considering quality/cost, personally, I think that's where Viltrox aims to market their lenses. Relatively low cost and great quality.
Flaring I had no issues with it whatsoever in the time I have been using it so I really can't comment on that as I mainly shot between f/2.8 and f/5.6 for a lot of the time.
I totally agree it would be great for wedding and portrait photographers at the wide-open aperture and provide some lovely imagery.