Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
We recently released some footage of Laowas 9mm f5.6 Dreamer. This Full-frame rectilinear lens blew us away, but we needed to get more footage to really understand the lens.
It seems like a silly concept to describe how wide 9mm is. However, the first time you open the camera you realize, WOW!… that’s wide. Most of the time, when using the lens you end up looking around to see JUST how wide it is! I found the perfect shot to describe it!
Launched in the summer of 2019, the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO lens turned out to be a pretty impressive piece of gear. It offers 2:1 magnification as well as infinity focus, making it a really versatile lens. And if you shoot a Canon or Nikon mirrorless, rejoice, because this lens is now available in Nikon Z and Canon RF mounts.
Laowa announced back in January that a new series of super-fast f/0.95 “Argus” lenses would be coming at some point, although there were no real clues as to what they might be. At first it was thought that they would be available for different mirrorless and DSLR systems, both full-frame and APS-C.
Fuji Addict suggested that the first might fall somewhere between 20-35mm. We still don’t know what the focal length might be, but now Sony Alpha Rumours reports that there will be six lenses coming for full-frame Sony E mount, although the first probably won’t be available until 2021.
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
Here is some exciting news. A while back Sony Alpha Rumors reported on a new Laowa 15mm f/4.5 full-frame W-Dreamer shift lens. We now have an exclusive look at the image this lens produces.
While the full specs are secretly kept close to Laowa’s chest, we do have some photos of the lens used on a Fuji GFX100.
In the last few years, cine-grade gear is becoming more affordable. When I started shooting video, Cine PL lenses were basically a dream to rent. Let alone own. Laowa has been a key player in bridging that gap as they bring their new line of cinema lenses. They really knocked it out the park with their new Laowa 12mm t/2.9 Zero-D Cine. This video shows exactly just how well the $1500 dollar cine lens stacks up against an ARRI Ultra Prime 12mm T2.0 F Lens $35,000 lens.
Well, this is interesting. Panasonic and Olympus have officially welcomed three new companies into the Micro Four Thirds System Standard Group. Those companies are Venus Optics, Mediaedge and, surprisingly, Yongnuo.
The Micro Four Thirds System standard was established by Olympus and Panasonic back in 2008. They’ve been working together to develop and promote the system ever since. A joint statement was issued by Panasonic and Olympus welcoming the new members to the group.
A little while back, Laowa (A.K.A. Venus optics) announced a very exciting new 9mm f/5.6 full-frame lens. (Laowa already has a 9mm 2.8 lens for crop sensors, but this lens is for full-frame and lower aperture).
One of the exciting features of this lens is that it is a Rectilinear, low distortion lens and does not create any fish-eye distortion. It is not as distortion-free as Laowa’s Zero-D, but still has very (very!) low distortion for a 9mm lens.
We managed to get our hands on a few sample photos for the lens made with various cameras, click on each image for larger resolution.
Laowa is absolutely killing it with new lenses! They already have a 4mmF/2.8 fisheye lens, a rumored F/0.95 ARGUS lens, and a 12mm t2.9 full-frame cine. Now it looks like they are about to add a 9.5mm f/5.6 rectilinear lens (Zero Distortion?).
Just so we are clear, we are actually talking about a rectilinear wide-angle lens, and not a fisheye lens. The Irix 11mm, for comparison, has a staggering 126° field of view, and Laowa 9.5mm will be mindblowing in that regard.
It was recently rumoured that Laowa was getting ready to announce their 4mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens on three new mounts. Specifically, the APS-C formats for Sony E, Canon EF-M and Fuji X. There was no news about when, just that they’d been spotted on Weibo.
The Laowa 4mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens has been out for Micro Four Thirds since August last year, and at a hair under $200, it’s an absolute bargain. The new mounts for Sony, Canon and Fuji retain the same price, and shipping now.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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