Laowa’s new 65mm f/2.8 is an APS-C 2x macro lens at a very affordable price

Laowa just doesn’t seem to be stopping with new lens announcements lately. This month we’ve had the 4mm f/2.8 Fisheye, 12mm T2.9 cinema lens, a rumoured f/0.95 Argus lens, and just a couple of days ago, a “leaked” 9.5mm ultra-wide rectilinear lens popped up. Now, Laowa has announced the 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO for Sony, Fuji and Canon APS-C mirrorless cameras.

The new lens uses the APO design from the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro lens and incorporates 14 elements into 10 groups, with three extra-low dispersion elements to minimise chromatic aberration. From looking at the sample photos shot using the lens it seems quite impressive for a $400 lens. It looks sharp where it counts, and being based on the popular Laowa 100mm, this could also prove to be rather popular amongst APS-C mirrorless shooters.

Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2X macro APO. It is the first macro lens that Venus Optics specially design for mirrorless cameras with APS-C sensors. Looking at market offerings which can focus up to 1:1 at most, the Laowa macro lens is the only APS-C mirrorless lens in the market that is capable of achieving a 2:1 magnification.

– Laowa press release

Despite the somewhat boastful announcement, Laowa has kept the price of the lens down to $399, which seems pretty low if the sample images I’ve seen shot with the lens are anything to go by. I’ll post a few of them below so you can see for yourself.

© Christopher Frost

© Jonas Rask

© JieGe

The Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO is available to buy now for $399 from the Laowa website in Fuji X, Canon EF-M and Sony E mounts. And we’ll have a review of it coming soon, so keep an eye out for that.