Tag: Viltrox

The Viltrox AF 28mm f4.5 ~ anyone for pancakes?

Posted in Gear Talk, PhotographyTagged , , , , 3 Comments

As much as I’d like to buy everything Nikkor, it’s an expensive exercise. Luckily, companies like Viltrox are doing interesting things in the world of camera lenses by providing inexpensive alternatives to Nikon’s offerings for the Z mount. The tiny Viltrox 28mm f4.5 is a lightweight, very flat, and slightly strange lens. Seeing as I’m planning to pack it for the road-trip, I thought I’d take it out for a few rushed test photos.

Catching last colours over the pond – Nikon Z5 and Viltrox AF 28mm f4.5 pancake lens

The lens is sharper than I thought it would be for the price. As with many lenses, the central area is the sharpest, with the corners and edges being less sharp. However, nothing is awfully mushy or unacceptable. There’s no aperture mechanism in the lens, so it’s always operating at f4.5. This can either be liberating or frustrating. I found it a nice change from my usual approach because the lack of aperture control alleviated some of the technical cognitive load. Since it’s a 28mm focal length, f4.5 provides pretty good depth of field for most purposes.

Sunstars and brown reeds

It’s not the greatest photo, but you can see the dramatic sunstar the lens created around the setting sun. Viltrox have included an octagonal mask inside the lens that produces sunstars with long rays. In practice, I found the light needs to be quite strong to produce a visible effect, so it’s not going to be apparent in every photo. Some people won’t like it, but I think it’s a nice point of difference. I also like the accompanying veiling flare across the frame. I imagine this lens is capable of producing some dreamy images in the right light.

Two rust-buckets at Tennant Creek

Posted in Other Thoughts and ReflectionsTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

Two sunsets in my previous post, and now two photos of rusty stuff for this post! Can you detect a theme here?

This old rust-bucket – Tennant Creek, NT – Nikon Z5 with Viltrox 20mm lens

Tennant Creek – Jurnkkurakurr to the Warumungu people who have lived in the area for many thousands of years – is located 1000 kilometres from Darwin. In other words, it’s a long way from any big city! The town features a history of gold mining and some of that equipment and the story of that time can be found in a local museum.

I daresay that many travellers pass through Tennant Creek as quickly as possible, mindful of the stories they’ve heard regarding the residents and crime. Whilst it’s true that a recent history of such social turmoil exists, it’s wise to remember that the land speaks of much older stories and times long before colonialism. As ever, visceral reactions to news stories and statistics obscures the lived experience of local people and ultimately, the real drivers behind social problems.

Another old rust-bucket – Tennant Creek NT – Nikon Z5

Making photos isolates a moment in time. Photos often lack context and tell a story that the photographer wants to tell. The idea that a viewer would have an emotional reaction to a photo drives the work of many photographers. Indeed, street photography is littered with such raw moments and reactions.

Such thoughts enter my mind as I carry the camera and stop at a street corner in Tennant Creek. Rather than lift the viewfinder to my eye, better to think on the people who have lived here for thousands of years and face the cultural whiplash of colonialism and bleak over-representation in the justice system – a system that usually protects the rich and powerful and punishes those who can least endure it.