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Viltrox has fully announced its "cutting-edge" 35mm F1.2 Lab lens

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Viltrox has fully announced its "cutting-edge" 35mm F1.2 Lab lens


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Image: Viltrox

Viltrox gave us a preview of its AF 35mm F1.2 Lab FE lens back at CP+, but today, it’s making the lens available to purchase and releasing full details about it. As the name implies, it’s a full-frame lens for Sony’s E-mount, and the company says it combines “cutting-edge optical performance” with “professional-grade handling.”

The lens is made up of 15 elements in 10 groups, with five ED elements, three high-refractive-index elements and two aspherical lenses. The company also says it features nano multi-layer coatings to reduce flare and ghosting, as well as a moisture-resistant coating on the front element.

DSC09755
Image: Viltrox

Viltrox says the lens has an “advanced dust and moisture-resistant design.” It features two programmable buttons, a multi-function ring that can be set to have clicks or no clicks, and a display that you can customize via Viltrox’s app to show information such as your aperture setting or focusing distance. The lens also has a USB-C port for firmware upgrades, weighs 920g (32oz) and is 122mm (4.8″) long.

Autofocus is handled by a pair of “HyperVCM” linear motor, which the company says should silently provide fast, accurate tracking for both stills and video. It has a minimum focusing distance of 0.34m (13.4″).

It’s exciting to see a new Lab lens from Viltrox, as the 135mm F1.8 lens with the badge was quite well-received, especially given its price. The AF 35mm F1.2 Lab is available to order today and costs $999.

Press Release:

Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 LAB FE

Brief Introduction to the LAB Exploration Series

Viltrox has always been dedicated to the relentless pursuit of optical excellence, continuously exploring the infinite possibilities of image creation. The LAB series represents the pinnacle of Viltrox’s optical innovation, pushing the boundaries of traditional technology to deliver an unprecedented imaging experience. As the latest masterpiece in the LAB series, the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB continues Viltrox’s commitment to exceptional image quality and outstanding performance, setting a new benchmark for flagship full-frame, large-aperture prime lenses.

Lens Introduction:

The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is the second full-frame, large-aperture autofocus prime lens in Viltrox’s LAB series. It integrates Viltrox’s cutting-edge optical technology, pushing the resolution and bokeh performance of the F1.2 aperture to new heights. Featuring a professional lens control system and custom color display with startup animations, it offers an efficient and personalized shooting experience. Whether for portraits, street photography, or nightscapes, this lens delivers exceptional optical performance, capturing every detail and unleashes limitless creative potential.

Exploring Optical Excellence

AF 35mm F1.2 LAB redefines flagship-level resolution, achieving a groundbreaking leap in optical performance. Designed to fully meet the demands of ultra-high-pixel sensors, it delivers razor-sharp detail from rear to far, capturing even the finest textures of skin, hair, and other intricate subjects.

Even at maximum aperture, it maintains exceptional edge-to-edge sharpness, ensuring consistent image quality across the frame. This guarantees remarkable detail retention for post-cropping flexibility, offering an unparalleled shooting experience and creative freedom.

F1.2 Ultra-Wide Aperture

Pure Clarity in Darkness

The F1.2 aperture excels in creating exceptional bokeh while significantly enhancing light transmission, allowing for sharp, noise-free images even in challenging low-light conditions without the need for additional lighting. The lens adapts seamlessly to complex lighting scenarios, offering unparalleled sharpness and purity in every shot.

Dreamy, Immaculate Bokeh

The F1.2 ultra-large aperture creates an exquisite background blur, with smooth, delicate bokeh and no optical vignetting at the edges, rendering a dreamy visual effect. Whether for portrait photography or nightscapes, the lens easily renders perfect separation between the subject and background, presenting a visually striking composition.

Innovative Aperture Blade Drive Technology

The lens aperture drive adopts the Viltrox HyperVCM motor technology, delivering more precise and efficient aperture control.

Flagship Optical UA Lens (Ultra-Large & Precision Aspherical Lens)

The manufacturing of aspherical lenses poses immense technical challenges. Breaking through traditional craftsmanship constraints and exorbitant cost limitations, Viltrox UA lenses spare no effort in innovative optical design. This breakthrough effectively reduces onion-ring bokeh artifacts while achieving both high resolution and exquisitely smooth bokeh rendering, ultimately delivering refined and exceptional imaging performance.

Viltrox HyperVCM for Fast & Precise AutoFocus

The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB features Quad Viltrox HyperVCM motors, powered by Viltrox’s proprietary core technology, delivering robust focusing power while significantly improving autofocus speed and precision. Whether shooting static subjects or tracking dynamic motion, the lens achieves swift, quiet, and micron-level accurate focusing, capturing every fleeting moment with ease.

Compared to traditional STM motors:

  • 150% faster autofocus speed
  • Micron-level positioning accuracy
  • 100ms switching from closest to farthest focus points

Supports face/eye recognition autofocus and other camera feature, securely locking onto subjects for a top-tier autofocus experience.

Efficient Control for Professional Experience

The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is equipped with a comprehensive professional control system, enabling photographers to adjust settings more efficiently and unlock creative possibilities.

Multi-Functional Ring

Multi-functional control ring supports quick adjustments of parameters such as aperture and focus, adapting to the needs of various shooting scenarios.

Customizable Fn Buttons

The lens is equipped with two customizable Fn buttons, allowing users to assign shortcut functions according to their shooting needs. Additional configurations can be made via the Viltrox Lens APP, thereby enhancing operational efficiency.

AF/MF Switch

Seamlessly switch between autofocus and manual focus modes to adapt to different shooting requirements.

Click/Stepless Aperture Adjustment

Easily switch between stepped and stepless aperture adjustments for the ultimate creative flexibility.

Customizable Color Display for a Personalized Experience

The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is equipped with a custom color display, allowing users to personalize settings through the Viltrox Lens App. Features such as startup animations and parameter previews offer a unique identity to the lens, while providing an entirely new level of control. In specialized shooting environments, the color display can also show real-time information such as the lens aperture and object distance, enhancing shooting precision and creative control in all time.

Built for All Conditions: Dust and Moisture Resistance

The AF 35mm F1.2 LAB features a high-grade dust- and moisture-resistant design, offering reliable durability against harsh conditions like sand, rain, and challenging environments. Built to meet the demands of professional photographers, it ensures dependable performance in any shooting scenario.

  • Ultra-high dustproof and drip-resistant construction – Effectively prevents sand, dust, and water droplets from entering the lens interior, ensuring the delicate internal components remain undamaged.
  • Water- and stain-resistant coating on front lens
  • Aerospace-grade full-metal housing

Get More Immersed in Backlit Shooting

  • 15 elements in 10 groups optical structure: 5 ED lenses, 3 high refractive index lenses, 2 UA lenses.
  • Even in strong light conditions, the lens delivers excellent color reproduction and contrast, resulting in unparalleled image performance.
  • Even in strong light conditions, the lens delivers excellent color reproduction and contrast, resulting in unparalleled image performance.
  • Excellent chromatic aberration control effectively reduces purple or green fringing in high-contrast shooting conditions.
  • High-definition multi-layer nano coating, Effectively suppresses flare and ghosting during backlit shooting, ensuring pure and sharp images.

Outstanding Video Performance, Focused on Creativity

The advanced Viltrox Quad HyperVCM motor eliminates noise from traditional gear-driven motors, delivering quieter focusing and faster autofocus tracking for video shooting.

With excellent focus breathing control, this lens ensures smoother focus transitions, unleashing endless creative potential for video production.

Superior Distortion and Vignetting Control

The advanced optical design of the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB ensures uniform light distribution even at its maximum aperture, significantly reducing vignetting. Additionally, it excels in distortion control, ensuring minimal edge distortion for a more authentic visual experience.

0.34m MOD: Exceptional Details

Dual floating focus design significantly enhances close-up image quality, ensuring excellent close-up resolution while continuously optimizing aberrations across the entire focal range. From close-up to infinity, the sharpness remains consistently balanced throughout.

With a minimum focusing distance of 0.34m, the AF 35mm F1.2 LAB is perfect for close-up photography, effortlessly capturing intricate textures and fine details in any scene.

Details

Material: Magnesium-aluminum alloy die-coating; Aerospace-grade metal material.

OTA (Over-the-Air) Updates: Bluetooth connectivity for firmware upgrades through the Viltrox Lens App.

LAB Signature Design: A unique marking that identifies the lens as part of the exclusive LAB Series.

Inspiring Creative Scenarios

Portrait Photography

With its large F1.2 aperture and exceptional bokeh, it effortlessly captures the delicate textures and emotional expressions of portraits, making It especially ideal for environmental portraits and street portraits.

Street Photography

The 35mm standard focal length is ideal for street photography, offering a natural perspective to capture fleeting street moments. The F1.2 wide aperture ensures bright and sharp images even in challenging lighting conditions.

Night and Low-Light Photography

The ultra-wide F1.2 aperture allows the lens to perform exceptionally in night and low-light environments, without additional light sources, making it easy to achieve high-quality night photography.

Still Life and Detail

With a minimum focusing distance of 0.25m, this lens excels at close-up shots, capturing intricate details in still life photography or fleeting expressions in street photography with precision and clarity.

Viltrox AF 35mm F1.2 Lab Specifications

Principal specifications
Lens type Prime lens
Max Format size 35mm FF
Focal length 35 mm
Lens mount Sony E, Sony FE
Aperture
Maximum aperture F1.2–16
Aperture ring No
Number of diaphragm blades 11
Optics
Elements 15
Groups 10
Special elements / coatings 5 ED, 3 high refractive index, 2 UA
Focus
Minimum focus 0.34 m (13.39)
Autofocus Yes
Motor type Linear Motor
Full time manual Unknown
Distance scale No
DoF scale No
Physical
Weight 920 g (2.03 lb)
Diameter 89 mm (3.5)
Length 122 mm (4.8)
Materials Magnesium-aluminum alloy
Sealing Yes
Filter thread 77 mm



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Firmware Friday: Nikon and Sony headline this week's updates

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Firmware Friday: Nikon and Sony headline this week's updates


Photo: DPReview

This week brought a wave of firmware updates from Sony and Nikon, targeting full-frame and APS-C models. Sony released new software for the a7C, a7 III and ZV-E10, delivering stability improvements and minor tweaks. Nikon released updates for its flagship mirrorless Z9 and the newer Z50II, aiming to refine performance and fix a few lingering bugs. Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new.

Sony

a7C updates for Version 2.01 (Mac) and (Windows)

a7 III updates for Version 4.02 (Mac) and (Windows)

ZV-E10 updates for Version 2.02 (Mac) and (Windows)

  • Allows the camera to display a notification when new software is available
    WPA and WEP functionalities are no longer supported.
  • You can no longer select WPA or WEP when connecting to Wi-Fi. Please use the more secure WPA2 moving forward.
  • Improves the operational stability of the camera.
  • Note: This update is only available for Windows and macOS. A memory card version is not provided.

Please note: the firmware updates are identical across these three camera models.

Nikon

Z9 updates for Version 5.20 (Mac) and (Windows)

  • Added support for “NX Field,” a remote shooting system for corporate users. Note: “NX Field” app for smart devices may not be available in some countries and regions.
  • Renamed d14 [Display on during burst] in [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU].
  • Fixed the following issues:
    • Pressing the playback button after repeatedly shooting bursts would in rare cases corrupt the display of all images.
    • In rare circumstances, optimal exposure could not be achieved during burst shooting after changing the exposure in mode M.
    • In synchronized release, pressing the shutter-release button of the master camera halfway initiated autofocus on the remote camera with the following setting selected. ▸ [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU] > a6 [AF activation] > [AF-ON only]

Z50II updates for Version 1.01 (Mac) and (Windows)

  • Pre-Release Capture is now available using a SmallRig SR-RG2.
  • Added “русский” (Russian) to [Language] in [SETUP MENU] for Z50II cameras sold in the Middle East region.
  • Renamed d13 [Display on during burst] in [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU].
  • Fixed the following issues:
    • In rare cases, the camera would stop responding when it was reconnected to SnapBridge after it was connected to Nikon Imaging Cloud while connecting to SnapBridge.
    • In synchronized release, pressing the shutter-release button of the master camera halfway initiated autofocus on the remote camera with the following setting selected:
      ▸ [CUSTOM SETTINGS MENU] > a6 [AF activation] > [AF-ON only]

That’s it for this week. Make sure to check in every Friday, from here on out, for a round-up of firmware updates on all major camera models. Have a great weekend!



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Photography industry embraces change and innovation, Zenfolio's 2025 report finds

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Photography industry embraces change and innovation, Zenfolio's 2025 report finds


The photography industry has weathered economic uncertainty, technological disruption and rising operational costs. However, according to Zenfolio’s newly released 2025 State of the Photography Industry report, conducted in partnership with other creative businesses including Format, ShootProof and Professional Photographers of America (PPA), it’s also finding strength through adaptability, community and more thoughtful business strategies.

Now in its 6th consecutive year, the report draws on insights from more than 4,500 photographers in 70 countries. North Americans accounted for 79% of the participants, while photographers from Korea and Bolivia chimed in for the first time. The findings reveal an industry in transition but not in retreat.

One of the standout trends is the return to personalized service. Photographers who conduct viewing appointments after a shoot see as much as 20% more revenue than those who rely on online delivery alone. “Clients value the personal touch,” the report notes, adding that face-to-face sessions create opportunities to upsell prints and foster long-term relationships.

Zenfolio State of Photography
A sign of the times? Full-time, self-employed work is on the rise compared to part-time.

Copyright: © Zenfolio

As it turns out, adaptability pays off. Photographers who expanded their service offerings by pivoting to additional genres such as corporate headshots, drone photography, newborn portraits or sporting events were often rewarded with lucrative revenue streams. The report highlights that being open to last-minute gigs and unfamiliar styles that breach one’s comfort zone is now a competitive advantage instead of a compromise.

Nevertheless, the financial pressure is real. Between 65 and 70% of photographers reported increased business costs in 2024, including equipment and insurance. Zenfolio encourages professionals to revisit their pricing strategies and delivery models. Many new photographers still rely on selling digital files, but seasoned pros continue to profit from print sales. Print credits and tiered packages are recommended methods for boosting margins.

Technological change, particularly AI, is also reshaping the industry. Rather than replacing photographers, AI tools are helping them streamline their workflows. From culling and editing to delivering final images, that efficiency frees up more time to focus on the creative vision and client service that can’t be automated.

AI Zenfolio State of Photography Survey
AI tools help with workflow so photographers can focus on other aspects of the business, especially creative vision.

Copyright: © Zenfolio

Drone photography was introduced to the survey for the first time this year. The findings include that it is not only gaining traction but outpacing smartphone use among professional photographers. While the adoption of mirrorless cameras saw a slight dip, traditional cameras remain dominant.

Finally, the report underscores a less tangible but perhaps more critical theme: the value of community. From online forums to local peer groups, photographers who engage with one another are more likely to grow in business, confidence and creativity. State of the Photography Industry 2025 is free to view and includes helpful advice and actionable tips.



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Nikon steps up its tethered shooting game with an update to NX Tether

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Nikon steps up its tethered shooting game with an update to NX Tether


Nikon’s been on a roll this week. Following firmware updates for the Z9 and Z50II, the company released version 2.3.0 of NX Tether, its free tethered shooting software. NX Tether allows photographers and videographers to connect their Nikon camera directly to a computer for real-time control over focus, exposure, white balance and more, all while using a larger screen for improved precision.

Users can download and enhance photos on their computers, as NX Tether is compatible with Nikon’s NX Studio and third-party tools, including Adobe Lightroom and Capture One. This latest update enhances compatibility and introduces new features that streamline studio and on-location workflows. Let’s take a look at some of the updates:

  • Expanded Camera Support: NX Tether 2.3.0 makes tethered shooting available for Nikon Z5II users.
  • Live View Accessibility: Live view functionality is now available when connected to a Nikon Zf.
  • Framing Guide Display: The addition of a framing guide in the live view window helps with precise composition, which is especially beneficial for video shoots and detailed product photography.
  • Power Zoom Position Memory: Users can save and load power zoom positions on compatible models like the Z9, Z8, and Zf, for consistent framing across sessions.
  • Pixel Shift Photography: Enhanced support for pixel shift photography is available on the Z8 and Zf, enabling higher-resolution imagery.
  • Slow-motion Video Recording: The Zf now supports slow-motion video recording.
  • Birds Detection Feature: The Zf now supports the “Birds” detection feature, which improves autofocus performance when photographing avian subjects.

NX Tether’s interface mirrors the controls found on Nikon cameras. The application is compatible with macOS versions Sequoia 15, Sonoma 14, and Ventura 13, as well as Microsoft’s Windows 10 and 11 software. Full details on camera compatibility can be found on Nikon’s website.

Nikon’s NX Tether 2.3.0 offers updates that enhance the tethered shooting experience, especially for users of the Z5II and Zf models. It’s a valuable and free tool for photographers and videographers looking for efficient, real-time control over their cameras.

For a visual overview of NX Tether’s capabilities, you may find this demonstration from Nikon’s YouTube page, recorded last year, helpful:



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