Lenses ~ thoughts on Viltrox 28mm f/4.5 FE

On a lark I purchased a ridiculously cheap Viltrox 28mm f/4.5 FE.

 

What I found can be summed up in the following two sections. 

Pros ~

• Very inexpensive (pleasantly low impact on the wine budget)
• Very small
• Very light
• Surprisingly sharp 
• Autofocus... sort of...
• Cute little built-in lens cover that is actuated by a small knob on the front of the lens that helps keep the pocket lint out of the optic 

Cons ~

• Fixed f/4.5 aperture
• Prone to flare in strongly off axis lit scenes 
• Slow/inconsistent startup  
• Dodgy AF 
• Works only on certain Sony cameras depending on firmware version (or so I'm told)
• Periodic AF startup failures on AF cameras 
• Periodic AF failures if camera left on too long
• Regular AF failures in lower (note: not yet low) light
• Firmware updates are an absolute disaster
• Some versions are available through a Viltrox app for cellphones
• Other/newer (?) updates are only available through Microsoft/Apple desktop computers.

Note 1: AF failures require a re-power start.  Failing that, I need to unmount/remount the lens.  Failing that, I need to drop the battery out and reinstall.  There must be something going on with the way the Viltrox is programmed and is trying to interact with the camera.

Note 2: Because I run Linux and the cellphone app appears limited to earlier firmware versions there is no way to update the firmware in my lens to see if AF performance has been improved in more recent versions. 

From this you can easily guess that this is a troublesome lenscap of a lens.  On the one hand it fits in my pocket when mounted on a small APS-C Sony E (in my case - A5000).  On the other, startup time and AF have proven to be a frustration.

None of this prevented me from taking it on holiday this past winter.  Only once did I put a Sigma 19mm EX DN on the A5000.  Everything else, litterally, was shot using this Lens of Frustration.  I suffered through it's faults to enjoy the portability aspects of the setup. 

Is sainthood granted for living under these (well, OK, self imposed) conditions?

There are a couple Flickr albums filled with images made in this way.  

See - Napoli and Rome

The sharp images in those albums are from the Viltrox 28mm.  The soft images are from an A7RII/Steinheil 45mm Cassarit setup I also took along for the adventure.

I wish the Viltrox 28mm f/4.5 FE were a more reliable optic.  It'd never leave one of my cameras if that were the case.  Alas... well... I still enjoy using it... and get to practice breathing slowly when the little lens starts acting goofy... which seems like every 3rd or 4th startup...