Today, Viltrox is announcing the new Viltrox 20mm f2.8 lens for Sony E mount. This lens has autofocus — which is a really nice feature. And as we’ve seen with previous Viltrox lenses, their autofocus is truly something to behold. The lenses tend to be quick — and while we haven’t tested the new Viltrox 20mm, we hope that we weren’t too spoiled by its predecessors. The company tends to keep the best features for its flagship lenses. Compared to the Tamron 20mm f2.8, which has won tons of acclaim, the Viltrox 20mm f2.8 lens is lacking a big feature.
Because this isn’t one of the company’s higher-end lenses, it lacks weather resistance. But in makes it up in a smaller size and by being dramatically lighter in terms of numerical statistics. The new Viltrox 20mm f2.8 comes in at 152 grams while Tamron’s is 220 grams. What’s more, it’s only got a 52mm filter thread as opposed to the 67mm filter thread on Tamron’s. Viltrox is also undercutting Tamron by making the price only $158 compared to Tamron’s $299. Still, we’re not expecting the stellar performance that we saw from Tamron in our review, which you can find at this link.
Transparently, we’re theorizing here and making an educated hypothesis based on the fact that we’ve reviewed more lenses than anyone else. We’ve called this new lens in, and we’ll post a full review once we’re done.
Tamron’s lens offers 10 elements in 9 groups whereas Viltrox is only doing 8 groups. We’re curious to see how that might affect the autofocus performance.
Like Tamron, they’re also offering a USB port directly on the lens for firmware updates. However, Viltrox’s port is at the lens mount and not on the side of the lens. This is even further proof of Viltrox’s trying to get around making the lens weather-resistant.
Viltrox’s marketing is really hyping this lens up for landscapes, street photography, vlogging, and travel. With this being a lens for full-frame cameras, it seems like an odd choice. Obviously, Viltrox took an idea and found a way to make it even more affordable — but they also arguably heavily compromised the integrity of the lens. The staff here believe that every product should have weather resistance these days.
That not only applies to going out in the rain or snow; but it also applies to protecting your camera’s sensor from dust. At $158, this lens is bound to stop working after a while. In which case, you’d probably just end up buying a new one. If it doesn’t stop working because of the build quality, it’s bound to happen because of some Sony firmware updates. This has happened to several 3rd party lens manufacturers in the past.
Ultimately, this doesn’t really feel like they’re trying to undercut Tamron — but it surely seems like they took inspiration from it. Undercutting them would involve making the same lens for cheaper. But Viltrox is instead making a lens that doesn’t have weather resistance yet is much smaller. You’re sacrificing build quality, though. And if I had to take a further guess, I’d also guess that the autofocus performance won’t be as good as Tamron’s. Afterall, Tamron is partially owned by Sony. How can you possibly get any better than that?
We’ll see when we give this lens a full review.