Last Updated on 02/11/2026 by Chris Gampat
Depending on when you’re reading this, I’m legally blind. In fact, for 14 years, I’ve been so. That means that the Editor in Chief of one of the largest online photography-magazines doesn’t have perfect vision. It’s why I’ve always said that we can’t remove the human experience from photography and why this site was founded to get camera testing out of the labs. No bride wants to see her pores in your photos. But most importantly, our images don’t need to be so incredibly alike. With that in mind, I didn’t have many expectations from the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 lens. But this little thing doesn’t just have character — it has a soul that’s been majorly missing from the optics of so many Japanese lens manufacturers. Like the Contax 35mm f2 lens, it has characteristics that let me make images the way that I see them.
Table of Contents
This Won’t Be a Normal Review
I’m not going to follow our standard review format for this one. A big reason for that is that I don’t think people shooting with the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 should be taking it so seriously. Viltrox hasn’t asked for this lens back, and considering that it’s $99, I don’t think they will. So, I get to keep it, but that will never change my viewpoint here. Our reviews aren’t sponsored, and I’m surely going to critique it where I see fit.
With all this said, my review is very personal—as are all the reviews on this website. But they’re all done by very experienced and good photographers who are versatile and will tell you how it is. We all do photography for money and earn taxable income from it, with invoices and all going to clients.
To that end, I have a condition called Keratoconus. You can think of it as an astigmatism on steroids and that causes deterioration of the cornea. I’m currently writing this article between my first and second surgery to halt the corneas thinning. And later on this year, I’ll be fitting with glass contact lenses that will let me see in 20/20 again. So, for me, believe it or not, I’m savoring the last few days that I get to see the world like this. Some photographers lose hope and belief in themselves when they start to lose their vision. However, through a solid support network of mostly women and people of color, I embraced the way that I saw and applied it to my photography years ago. Our vernacular calls it the vintage look because it’s soft, there are light steaks, the colors are a bit off, etc. My photography, however, is my reality. And by showing it off to people like clients that matter, I deliver to them a dream-like reality. Most of what I made cannot be seen with the human eye, and a lens like this surely aids in that process.
The Viltrox 28mm f4.5 is a small pancake lens with a fixed f4.5 aperture and a switch for a shade that goes over it to protect it when it’s not in use. That shade, if it’s not in the right position, can cause problems for the Sony camera it’s attached to and make it freeze up. To recap, it’s also got a fixed aperture. Thankfully, though, it has autofocus and no way to manually focus. And, of course, it isn’t weather-resistant. These things are annoyances on paper and, in some ways, usability. But most of the time, it won’t matter because of the pure beauty this lens creates.
The Lens of a Legally Blind Editor-in-Chief
I went around the world using the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 for a week and a half or so. First off, I’ll say this with certainty: no lens has made me want to take Sony cameras out this often. I typically feel like Sony’s lenses and cameras are much more of a blank slate to give me room to do tons of post-production. In fact, a photographer I work with very often doesn’t even bother doing post-production unless there’s high enough budget. And I’m often the same — but I use unique lenses to bring out my creative vision.
This lens is lightweight, small, and fun to use. Most importantly, I mounted it on my Sony A7r III, which is so much smaller and lighter than many of the newer camera bodies. The battery life is better, and it’s very capable when it comes to photographing people. If you want to get technical, it’s still rated as one of the top cameras on DXOMark.
But this isn’t a technical review.
Images from the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 tell a story that simply puts a hex on me. The soul of this lens comes through in a way that’s truly special when it makes images. They look like stars in my mind’s sky, and I have to reach out and try to get them. And like dreams, they throw acutance out the window. Dreams are hazy and the details of them, while sometimes vivid, aren’t fully complete. So the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 adds softness, lens flares, blows out highlights, etc. And when you combine it with a nice, warm, white balance you find that the images deliver the feeling of a cool glass off water you didn’t know you needed.
Rarely does the autofocus miss the mark. And it works with both humans and animals easily. Essentially, all you do is screw the lens onto the camera, point, focus, and shoot. It’s truly that simple. I tend to like pivoting and tilting the angle of my camera (not the lens individually) to get more lens flare or see what kind of look I’ll get.
Really, though, it’s hard to take a bad picture with this lens.
Extra Image Samples
The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience since day one. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, many folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So, we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can decide for yourself.
Unedited
Edited
Some of these images were edited using the Phoblographer’s presets, which you can purchase at our online shop.
August 2025 Review Update: Still Worth it?
Viltrox has added new firmware for this lens since its launch. Here are the details:
- AF 28mm F4.5 FE V1.07: Fixed known issues.
- AF 28mm F4.5 FE V1.05(Update via APP)2024-10-24: Fixed some cameras power switch issue. Fixed touch screen AF function issue.
Overall, I never really seemed to encounter problems with this lens — but I surely do remember needing to pull the battery at one point or another. I had no idea that it had to do with this lens and instead had to do with the camera. However, that all checks out. The overall Autofocus performance hasn’t really seemed to change all that much and I’d be shocked if it did.
After I updated the firmware via my computer, I checked to see how the lens performs. When I cleaned the autofocus contacts and I removed the Kolari haze filter I keep over the sensor partially for protection, I got faster performance and better autofocus performance. Remember that this lens isn’t weather sealed, so you have to clean the autofocus contacts with Isopropyl alcohol for sure.
This lens is small, beautiful, and really fun. And Viltrox told us in an interview that they’d be making more lenses like this. That makes us very happy. They’ve also said that they’re working on a camera of some sort — and I wonder if they’d ever make a point and shoot with this lens permanently fixed to the camera. That would be incredible in so many different ways.
Is it odd that there’s only a single aperture? Not really. If you want to make the scene darker, you just change the ISO or shutter speed while the camera is set to manual mode. Sure, the depth of field won’t change. And to me, that’s absolutely fine.
I still enjoy the character that this lens gives me and the life that it breathes into Sony’s cameras, which otherwise have the excitement of a butter knife.
Overall, I still think that the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 is very much worth the buy.
Update February 2026
The firmware was updated via the mac and the firmware update program. It’s really awesome that Viltrox was THIS fast on updating the firmware. But admittedly, we’re behind on updating our reviews because of the holiday season.
In my tests with the Sony a7V, the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 focused really quickly and without any faults. It did so with the setting effect set to on and off both – which has always been a bane for many camera manufacturers. This is truly impressive for many users who use the Live View setting effect. I tend to turn it off because I don’t want my camera doing the thinking for me.
Still, I had problems in the AF-C mode and with scene detection after switching between Sony, Tamron, and Viltrox lenses.
The Big Picture: Viltrox 28mm f4.5 Review Conclusions
The Viltrox 28mm f4.5 lens is a fun little lens for only $99. It’s not weather resistant, you can’t change the aperture, it can sometimes malfunction depending on where the built-in lens cap is, and you have to be careful with it in inclement weather. But if you get past these things, you’ll have a lens that opens your eyes up to a dream that very few photographers have the ability to experience. Embracing this dream means a new creative vision that leads down different paths in the fairy tales your images create.
We’re giving the Viltrox 28mm f4.5 five out of five stars.
