The Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Super Macro lens offers a 2:1 magnification ratio for extreme close ups
May 8, 2019
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 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.
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Initially announced last month along with a couple of other lenses, the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2:1 Super Macro is now official. Today, Laowa has released pricing and availability information for the new lens. Following on from the success of the Laowa 60mm f/2.8 2:1 macro, the new Laowa 100mm f/2.8 goes above and beyond most similar focal length macros by increasing the magnification ratio to double that of its competitors.
- Focal length: 100mm
- Max aperture: f/2.8
- Min aperture: f/22
- Format: Full Frame
- Mounts: Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony FE
- Aperture blades: 9 (Canon), 7 (Nikon), 13 (Sony FE)
- Angle of view: 24.4°
- Optics: 12 elements in 10 groups
- Magnification: 2:1
- Filter thread: 67mm
- Dimensions: 72 x 125mm (Sony version: 72 x 155mm)
- Weight: 638g
Laowa says that the new 100mm f/2.8 2:1 Macro contains zero chromatic aberration, which sounds hard to believe, but is theoretically possible. I’d like to see one in person to be able to test and confirm that claim for myself, but if true, this will be a very exciting lens for macro photographers to use.
The Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2:1 Macro is a manual focus lens and will become available for Canon EF, Nikon F and Sony FE. Surprisingly, the initial announcement also said Pentax K, but there’s no mention of it now. Whether it’s been completely revoked or will be coming in the future is unclear.
The lens will begin to ship in late May for a price of $449 and you can find out more on the Laowa website.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 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.
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11 responses to “The Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Super Macro lens offers a 2:1 magnification ratio for extreme close ups”
Want it for MFT as well though I suppose I could use my Canon adapter.
John Andrew I really wish that companies would do tamron adaptall or m42 for these lenses, then u can go adapt onto a huge amount of cameras.
I am truly grateful that this is not a Game Of Thrones post ?
hmm macro and manual focus? that would need lot of practice I guess
That is something I would indeed be interested in seeing. Apparently some people fare quite well with it, but how to do that with moving insects is beyond me.
I don’t think AF would cut it for 2:1 or even 1:1 macro for moving insects. I zone focus my manual lens and are able to take decent handheld shots of VERY slow moving bugs at 1:1. Great way to check for Parkinson’s.
Until manufacturer has implemented insect autofocus, you really need to use manual focus for 99% of insect macro work.
That is the only way to do proper macro, even with an AF macro lens, they just happen to be more useful for general photography too.
Yup, the only time I ever use autofocus on macro lenses is if I’m shooting portraits with ’em. For actual macro, they’re always in manual focus. :)
my review (nikon version) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGyFVgnmk_o
It appears to have contacts at the mount to communicate with the body what lens it is and what its aperture is. That’s a big step up from the old 60mm version, which didn’t have that, so you had no metadata recording the aperture you actually used.