We all like surprises and this Viltrox 16mm 1.8 AF for fullframe was a big one. We previously reviewed the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 AF MKI and II and they were solid performers while being very affordable. But this 16mm 1.8 sounds way more spectacular on paper than an ordinary 85mm 1.8 lens and it even comes with some technology we haven’t seen anywhere else yet. Let’s have a closer look.
The Helios 44 is basically a copy of the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 58mm f/2, optically that is. At the beginning it was even called “БТК” – “БиоТар Красногорский” (BioTar Krasnogorski). At the end of Wold War II the Russians took the Zeiss’ designs and materials back to Russia and copied them. The Soviet Union manufactured millions of this lens in different variants and it shipped as standard lens on many Soviet (Zenit) cameras. KMZ (the same factory that made the Zenit cameras) started manufacturing this lens from 1945. The Helios 44 lenses have built a cult around themselves in modern days and have been very popular for portrait photography and videography, it is the number one vintage lens used for making videos on modern cameras. It is very popular for its image character, its clickless aperture, balanced center sharpness and not least its swirly bokeh. Let’s have a look!
Many of us here at the Phillipreeve team acquire too many lenses (and sometimes also accessories) and with some of the manufacturers it also isn’t easily possible to return the review samples after we reviewed them, therefore a bunch of stuff is for sale now.
Update May 25th 2023: added new items
I will ship to all european countries and all prices are without shipping. If you live in Germany you can add 7€ for shipping, within EU should be around 16€.
Payment is possible via Paypal or Bank Transfer.
I will only ship insured with DHL. If you want to come to Stuttgart you can also check out the lens you are interested in in person and we have a little chat.
All the items come without warranty.
If you are interested leave a comment with your Email address (it will not be visible to the public) and I will get back to you.
Former Review Samples:
7Artisans 15mm 4.0 Asph E (#1) SOLD
The E-mount sample from this review.
Comes in full retail packaging.
239€ + shipping
7Artisans are definitely busy with releasing new fullframe lenses and the latest addition is this 15mm 4.0 ultra wide angle lens. At first sight you may think this is a rebranded NiSi 15mm 4.0, because it shares focal length, maximum aperture and even its size is similar, but I can assure you this is not the case. So let’s find out which one is the better affordable 15mm lens.
Any film is hard to get these days, but the Fuji films are even harder to get than the Kodak ones here in Germay. Therefore I developed the habit of buying any type of color negative film I haven’t used before for this series – even when it means paying 20€ for just this one roll of Fuji Superia X-Tra 400.
Processing (ECN-2) and scanning was done at Silbersalz35 in Germany.
Continue reading Analogue Adventures – Part 19: Fuji Superia X-Tra 400 ECN-2 processed