Lately, I've been thinking more carefully about my photographic purchases. After binge-buying Godox R1 compatible flashes and accessors, and after my binge buying of fisheye lenses, I've reached the point where I'll purchase something only if it can do something different, or make my workflow in the field more efficient.
I have been interested in this Viltrox 9mm lens since I saw Christopher Frost's review of the lens. I was interested for some practical reasons. The lens is more compact and lighter than my 10-24 Fujifilm Zoom which used to be my go to lens. However, at some point I grew tired of the "stretched face distortion" when my subject wandered too close the corners of the frame. As I used the lens less and less, I began to wonder if I should carry it at all. I reasoned that if I could find a compact 10mm prime lens I could reduce the weight of my field kit.
This is a Viltrox "Air" lens, which simply put, means weight was a definite consideration in its construction. I might add that the lenses in the Air series do not have aperture rings (probably a major expense in manufacture) and no distance or depth of field markings on the barrel. But it will make a satisfactory backup lens, and much lighter in weight than my seldom used 10-24 F 4.0 Fujifilm zoom.
Morning Walk: I mounted the Viltrox on my S10 body and took the combination on two recent morning walks. I was surprised how wonderful it was to not have to worry about properly focusing a lens manually.
This photo surprised me. I'm standing at the edge of the sidewalk curb, and still managed to fit both the garage doors, and then some. There are no signs of pincushion or barrel distortion in this simple shot.
I made this shot inside a laundromat. My back isn't "to the wall", and the 9mm lens takes the whole scene in stride.
This shot combined a hand-held remote flash held just above the flower. The exposure was selected to give me a nice blue mooring sky, and the flash was used to highlight the flower. I could have mounted a second flash on a lightstand to accent the flower in the background.
Naaaah.
This shot reminded me that lens flair is a constant villain, ready to steal contrast away from any poorly framed image. While the Viltrox's accommodation for this extreme lighting was less than exemplary, it was satisfactory. I was very pleased with its relatively closeup focusing distance. This little Buddha stands only ten inches tall.
On Assignment: I was on an assignment and decided I'd replace my Fuji T-2 with its 10-24 Fujifilm lens with a much lighter combination, the new 9mm lens mounted on my Fuji S-10 body. I can't say that I noticed the reduction in weight, but found that if I made my critical exposure adjustments in advance, switching out cameras wasn't as inconvenient as I feared.
Multiple flashes were used to light this photo. The ambient was dialed low enough to allow the speedlights to dictate which areas I wanted to include. I wanted to emphasize the contours of the lid, so I lit the wall behind it. And while it is a bit cluttered, I was happy that it is mostly white.
Performance: This cropped portion of the original photo shows that the lens is perfectly capable in the resolution department, and is more than adequate for the resolution demands of newsprint. However, when these images are viewed in the Journal's online paper, the full depth of the color is on display, and most of the subtle shifts in hue can be easily seen, and appreciated.
For this (indoor) assignment, I went directly to my R1 controlled flashes, and used all four that I had on hand. I had to add a fifth flash, but all I had available were the newer R2 versions. Rather than piggy-back two controllers, I simply set it to S1 (optical trigger) mode and dialed the output manually. Why the indoor limitation? My most powerful portable produces a theoretical 200 watt-seconds of output, the equivalent of three standard speedlights. On this assignment a single speedlight fired through a shoot-through umbrella was adequate when an appropriate ISO value was selected. If I needed more power I could have clamped another speedlight to supplement the output of the single key speedlight, as I did here.
I am really pleased with the performance of this new lens, and was lucky enough to buy it before the price went up. Unfortunately, it became a gateway lens for the rest of the Viltrox Air lenses, so forgive me if I start shopping again.
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