The Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Super Macro lens offers a 2:1 magnification ratio for extreme close ups

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 Andrew

Want it for MFT as well though I suppose I could use my Canon adapter.
- Paul Menard
  
  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.
Martin Roth

I am truly grateful that this is not a Game Of Thrones post 😊
Tj Ó Seamállaigh

hmm macro and manual focus? that would need lot of practice I guess
- Matthias
  
  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.
- Nostalgia for Infinity
  
  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.
- Richard Wong
  
  Until manufacturer has implemented insect autofocus, you really need to use manual focus for 99% of insect macro work.
- KG
  
  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.
  - Kaouthia
    
    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. 🙂
Richard Wong

my review (nikon version) is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGyFVgnmk_o
Jeffrey Friedl

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.