Viltrox has officially announced a new lens in its compact and lightweight Air series of prime lenses for APS-C cameras. The new AF 23mm F1.7 joins the existing AF 20mm F2.8 Air, AF 35mm F1.7 Air, AF 40mm F2.5 Air and AF 56mm F1.7 Air.
Read more: Viltrox AF 35mm F1.7 Air full review
Despite featuring stepping motor autofocus and a full compliment of electronic contacts for lens-body communication, Viltrox has managed to keep the weight of the AF 23mm down to just 170g, and the lens is also impressively small, measuring 64mm in diameter and 54.4mm long.
[Note: the image we have of the AF 23mm F1.7 seems to show the lens labelled as a 25mm, not 23mm. As the lens doesn't yet appear on Viltrox's website or at any of the usual retailers, we can't be sure whether it is in fact a 23mm, or rather a 25mm]
Inside are 12 elements arranged in 10 groups, including two aspherical elements for controlling distortion, two high refractive index elements to improve image quality while keeping overall weight low, and one extra-low dispersion element to minimize chromatic aberration. The lens also benefits from a multi-layer coating to supress flare and ghosting. 9 blades make up the aperture diaphragm, and the minimum focus distance is listed as 0.3m.
The Viltrox AF 23mm F1.7 Air should go on sale soon for APS-C Sony E, Nikon Z and Fujifilm X cameras. Initial sources suggest it'll be priced at $899, but this is nowhere near consistent with other lenses in the Air range which are all under $200, so we suspect the new AF 23mm Air will actually be priced in line with those.
