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Lenses

Viltrox 35mm f1.2 AF LAB Review Update: It’s Really That Good

Chris Gampat
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Last updated on 10/24/2025
09/23/2025
2 Mins read
A Viltrox camera with a large lens sits on top of a magazine on a wooden table.
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Last Updated on 10/24/2025 by Chris Gampat

Viltrox has one of the best 35mm f1.2 lenses on the market available to Sony E mount. Since launching the lens earlier this year, they’ve added a few firmware updates to make it even better. And today, we’re announcing the news of our updated review. In addition to that, we’re giving this lens our Editor’s choice award. For the full review, you can click here. But if you just want to see the updated text, hop on down below.

Focusing Update August 2025

Viltrox added new firmware to the 35mm f1.2. Here are the details below:

1.0.5:

  1. Fixed known issues. (Upgrade via PC software)

V1.06

  1. Improve the stability of lens focusing.
  2. Fixed the issue of inaccurate AF when magnifying and focusing.
  3. Resolve the abnormal problem when using touchscreen for continuous focusing on the camera.
  4. Add the function of setting the rotation range for MF focuing in the APP.
  5. Add the function of mapping FN keys to set the lock for the multi-function ring and focusing ring in the APP.

V1.07

  1. Fixed the abnormal issue of the camera lens after installing a flash on some cameras.

The autofocus is incredible and pretty much G Master level now. I tried this with and without haze filters and in both situations, it was very fast. I’d gladly use this lens for so many different things and if you shoot Sony, then it’s easy for this to become your favorite. It’s overall quite great to see and feel; so much so to the point where I’d pretty much only want to shoot Sony again. And that’s hard for me to say, as I otherwise find Sony cameras to be very drab.

In fact, I gave away nearly all my Sony primes except for the 55mm f1.8. And honestly, I don’t regret it at all. Viltrox gave theis lens and pretty much all that we review to the Phoblographer and didn’t expect them back. And for that, I’m blessed; but we need to declare this as journalists.

The flash issue persisted with my Profoto light until I switched to Tamron and Sony glass. Then I switched back to Viltrox and it was fine. It’s a weird anomaly, and I’ll surely say that it still persists.

Sony’s hot shoes are also notoriously bad with weather sealing and prone to breaking down after a few years of use. So the issue could instead have to deal with that.

Still, I originally faced autofocus that I’d expect from Sigma lenses. And now it’s leaps ahead of what Sigma offers. Quite frankly, I’d even argue that it might hold its own against Tamron in some very rare situations.

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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