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Laowa 15mm

Laowa has released six lenses for the Leica/Sigma/Panasonic L mount system

Jul 26, 2020 by John Aldred Add Comment
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Laowa has released six of their popular lenses for the L mount system. The lenses include three wide angles (one zoom and two primes) along with three of their macro lenses. Laowa says that the new L-mount versions of the lenses are compatible with the Sigma fp, the Panasonic S1 series (including the S1R and S1H) as well as the Leica SL/CL cameras.

The lenses are all manual focus and the list includes some of Laowa’s favourites, including the 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 (the widest full-frame rectilinear lens that exists), the 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D, and their 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra-Macro, that we reviewed here.

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Venus Optics announces two new Laowa wide-angle lenses for Nikon Z and Canon RF

Jul 11, 2019 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment
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Full frame mirrorless cameras from Nikon and Canon have just got two new third-party lenses. Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D and the Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6. Both lenses already exist in the company’s line, but now the users of Canon EOS R and Nikon Z cameras can add them to their arsenal, too.[Read More…]

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Laowa 15mm f/2 Sony FE Review

Apr 4, 2018 by Albert Dros 2 Comments
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Most of you have probably heard of the name Laowa by now. They were a rather unknown brand up until recently when they made name for themselves in the landscape photography world with the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 wide angle lens that was well received. Laowa (Venus Optics) is a Chinese brand known for their innovative lenses. Laowa is showing support to the Sony E-mount with releasing their 15mm f/2 that was specifically designed for the E-mount making it possible to make it smaller and lighter than the lenses they make for DSLR mounts. 2 years ago I met the Laowa guys at Photokina and I already briefly tested the prototype of the 15mm there. I was impressed with the sharpness across the frame and was eager to try out the final version. Now that I have this lens for a while I feel confident to write a decent review about it. I used this lens in my own country the Netherlands and took it to Dubai, Norway and Iceland. I have seen a bunch of reviews online but they were mainly technical without a lot of real world examples. In this review I’ll discuss how this lens performs in ‘real world usage’. Most people who are reading my articles know that I am a landscape photographer so you can expect a lot of landscape photography use with this lens.

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Review: The Laowa 15mm f/2 FE lens delivers fine results at a fair price

Aug 10, 2017 by Adrian Murray 2 Comments
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A few weeks ago Laowa sent me a copy of their first lens dedicated to Sony’s full frame e-mount system, the 15mm f/2. This lens is meant for landscape & astrophotographers who want to capture as much of the beautiful night sky as possible; which means wide and fast.

Last year I was able to get a copy of their 12mm f/2.8 for Canon and used it on my Sony A7Rii with a Metabones adaptor. I was quite surprised how much I enjoyed the lens. A lot of what was great about that lens can be translated over to this one as well. First, let’s talk about the physical design and characteristics.

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Nicky Bay’s Review of the Venus Optics 15mm Wide Angle Macro Lens

Jul 9, 2015 by Nicky Bay 1 Comment
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[Editor’s note: we recently covered the announcement of this lens and shared a hands on review, but this one provides a more in-depth look at it. Many of you will remember Nicky from his spectacular UV macros of arthropods]

Venus Optics sent me an early pre-production copy of the Venus Optics LAOWA 15mm f/4 1:1 Wide Angle Macro, the world’s first ultra-wide angle macro lens capable of magnification up to 1:1, and I have been dabbling with it in the past week to publish a first look for this one-of-its-kind lens.

Wide angle macro photography is a rarely explored genre of macro photography, largely due to the lack of readily available equipment or accessories to allow one to focus up close with a wide-angle lens. It is also a difficult beast to tame due to the short working distance. Composition and lighting can be very different from mainstream macro photography but once you get the hang of it, the resulting perspectives can be mind-blowing and very well worth it.

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First Hands On Review of the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm F/4 1:1 Macro Lens

Jun 23, 2015 by Will Chao 8 Comments
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Hey everyone, thanks for visiting! I’m Will Chao, a wedding photographer in Melbourne. When I was first asked to review this lens, I didn’t believe such a lens existed and thought it was a low quality toy lens. I mean, how could I? A lens of this type has been unheard of until now, and suffice to say I was very pleasantly surprised.

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Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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