Competition between third-party manufacturers of L-mount lenses is about to heat up following the latest Viltrox announcement that it’ll unveil “several new and unreleased” lenses at the NAB trade show in Las Vegas later this month.
The announcement confirmed that the company is “reinforcing its commitment” to L-mount users, an effort which began earlier this year with the release of Viltrox’s first L-mount lens, the AF 16mm F1.8.
The teaser has an obscured photo of some lenses, but very few details. The early teaser, however, does mention the Evo Series and L-Mount. EVO is Viltrox's budget-end range, and these lenses are touted for their apochromatic optics, which deal well with aberrations.
The teaser also notes a "NexusFocus AF Adapter." VIltrox's existing NexusFocus is an adapter that adds autofocus to vintage manual lenses. But a partially obscured adapter is included in the teaser, which has me wondering if one is launching with new features or perhaps a different mount.
The announcement also stated that Viltrox will unveil new focal lengths for its existing EPIC anamorphic cinema line, which currently boasts a 35mm, 50mm and 75mm prime.
That’s about all the information leaked regarding Viltrox expanding its L-mount offering, but I'd hazard a guess that we’re going to see, among others, 50mm and 85mm primes boasting fast apertures in the f/1.4 region.
Viltrox has rapidly gained status as a leading third-party manufacturer of top-quality, more-affordable primes for other major mount systems over the past couple of years. And to strengthen this among L-mount photographers, it doesn’t need to reinvent the wheel, only look to Sigma for inspiration.
As a founding member of the L-mount Alliance, Sigma is widely regarded as one of the best producers of lenses for Panasonic and Leica cameras, and two of its most popular L-mount models have been the 50mm F1.4 DG DN Art and 85mm f/1.4 DG DN Art.
These are both professional-grade primes capable of capturing stellar-quality images and stand as excellent examples for Viltrox to follow and, hopefully, improve upon.
I think it’s highly possible that we could even see a Viltrox rendition of the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG DN Art too. We won't have to wait too long to find out. NAB is scheduled for April 18-22 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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