The Laowa Venus Optics 9mm Full-Frame Lens f5.6 Dreamer is just one of Venus Optics’ newest upcoming lenses. At 9mm you’re probably associating it with a fisheye. This lens, however, is rectilinear by design. We got our hands on an early pre-production model and took it for a spin. Turns out 9mm is incredibly wide
Laowa 9mm full frame + Sony A7mkIII + Feiyu tech ak4500
When Laowa said they were sending us a 9mm Lens, the first thing that came into my mind was, Fisheye? As soon as I understood that we were talking about a rectilinear lens, I was blown away. Putting it on the camera for the first time absolutely blew my mind. It’s very hard to grasp how wide 9mm actually is. We don’t have specs yet so we don’t know the actual numbers. But try to envision what “too wide” would be, then dial it down just a tad. To my knowledge, this actually is the widest rectilinear full-frame lens that will be available on the market.
I started with some rudimentary tests at home and next to a park to get a feeling for the lens. It’s a good thing that I did because a lens this wide takes some getting used to. I wish I could explain in better detail what it feels like to use the lens, but it’s so different. We managed to snag some footage from a race track through to hopefully give you some perspective.
This is how the rig (and lens) looked like at the end of the track
The lens was an absolute delight to use and the results are stellar. Even if it got a little dirty along the way. Oops. Sorry! Make sure you stay tuned for our review of the lens coming soon. Price and availability still aren’t known but we’ll be updating as soon as we know.
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