3rd party Fuji x lenses

[ken1921]

Hi

I am thinking of buying some 3rd party x mount lenses mostly due to cost.  I have been looking at Viltrox lenses so a few questions

1. What are peoples opinion of Viltrox lenses

2. Are there any other 3rd party lenses that are better value

3. How do they compare with Fuji lenses

Many thanks - all options gratefully received!

[itchy shutter finger]

I recently went through this exercise, and had a good time doing it. In the end, I decided my existing lenses are just fine. But I did examine over 5,000 images, and correlate image criteria to specific lenses. I can say lenses of nearly every stripe can produce beautiful images - vintage, adapted, Viltrox, Fuji, manual, very cheap, very expensive. Yes, some lenses yielded exceptional image quality, and they were exceptionally expensive, too.

Viltrox gets very good reviews across the board. One reviewer noted the 33 mm wasn't quite as good as the 23, 56, or 85. There are also manual lenses coming to the market that are insanely cheap. I would say you need to be clear about how fast a lens you need, and whether you need fast autofocus. Any fast Fuji lens is going to cost an order of magnitude more than 3rd party. If you really need f1.4, the Viltrox lenses will certainly do a good job for a third-ish of the Fuji price. If you want to shoot 33 or 35 mm, and can get away with f2, The Fuji XC35 is a ridiculously good lens for $199 USD. I can't help but believe that Fuji lenses have have some design advantages over third parties, given they can integrate the lens to the the camera bodies better than any third party lens designer. The Lens Modulation Optimizer (fixes diffraction), for example, doesn't work on non-Fuji lenses.

As I found out, looking to replace existing lenses, or add to your lens collection for unspecified reasons can get real muddy. If you need to acquire certain focal lengths with decent autofocus, image quality, speed, and build quality at a reasonable price, the Viltrox are a pretty safe place to start. Had I not decided to keep my existing Fuji lenses, I may have given the Viltrox lineup a try. I have a set of Viltrox extension tubes, and the quality far exceeded my expectations.