Looks pretty good. I'm not much of a UWA shooter, but I think I'm going to try this one. It's going to be available for FE, M, L, and Z, from what I've read.
Looks pretty good. I'm not much of a UWA shooter, but I think I'm going to try this one. It's going to be available for FE, M, L, and Z, from what I've read.
Looks really nice and at 228g and tiny in size, it can just sit in your bag for when you want really wide angle. I will almost certainly be getting one too.
Lack of EXIF transfer really bugs me about these Laowa lenses though.
Does anyone know if there's a noticeable difference in sunstars between a 5-blade aperture like on this one and the 10-blades on the Voigtlanders? They both make 10-pointed stars, but I have the sense from just images I've seen that the Laowa sunstar rays are not consistently an even length.
grahamgibson wrote:
Link to the astro photos in the sample gallery?
Lack of EXIF transfer really bugs me about these Laowa lenses though.
Does anyone know if there's a noticeable difference in sunstars between a 5-blade aperture like on this one and the 10-blades on the Voigtlanders? They both make 10-pointed stars, but I have the sense from just images I've seen that the Laowa sunstar rays are not consistently an even length.
Great! Could be a great lens for hiking. Rather than taking my 14-24 sigma. I could go 14-TSE17-Loxia25-Tamron35-CV50-CV110 All prime kit. With a 16-35/4 Canon as backup. If Voigtlander just made a small APO 90 and an APO 180. The kit would be perfect. All tiny light primes with a 17TSE.
I’m a bit nervous with wide angle Laowa, been stung by them in the past. With bad copies.
grahamgibson wrote:
Link to the astro photos in the sample gallery?
Lack of EXIF transfer really bugs me about these Laowa lenses though.
Does anyone know if there's a noticeable difference in sunstars between a 5-blade aperture like on this one and the 10-blades on the Voigtlanders? They both make 10-pointed stars, but I have the sense from just images I've seen that the Laowa sunstar rays are not consistently an even length.
It's certainly a different look. The last image in this sample gallery https://venuslens.net/product/14mm-f4-ff-rl-zero-d/ shows the stars with foot lights across the image. Not quite CV quality, but I like them.
I am very excited about this. When I first read about the 9mm, 11mm, and 14mm lenses that were coming, the 14mm was the one I was interested in. At 228g it's even lighter than I was hoping for. This is less than half the weight of the Samyang 14/2.8 (of course you give up a stop of light and AF, neither of which I find are terribly important in a lens this wide).
I find 14mm to be an extremely useful UWA focal length, 16-17-18mm are a bit too tight if you want to get really wide, and 12-11-10-9mm are so extremely wide that they're difficult to use without making the subject feel distant and small.
I just wish it had a 58mm filter thread so I could share NDs with my Sam 18/2.8, Sony 35/1.8 and Sam 75/1.8.
TakenWild wrote:
Great! Could be a great lens for hiking. Rather than taking my 14-24 sigma. I could go 14-TSE17-Loxia25-Tamron35-CV50-CV110 All prime kit. With a 16-35/4 Canon as backup. If Voigtlander just made a small APO 90 and an APO 180. The kit would be perfect. All tiny light primes with a 17TSE.
I’m a bit nervous with wide angle Laowa, been stung by them in the past. With bad copies.
Copy variation is problem with all the third-party makers, including Cosina. You have to take your chances. Fortunately, B&H does carry the line. I'll probably order from them when it comes available, which will make any exchanges much easier.
The sunstars are good. The astro example is strange. Doesn't look like coma but streaking in the corners and in the reflection, so maybe some kind of blend. The video showed well controlled coma, but at f4 with vignetting it's not gonna be a primary astro lens.
I don't know how accurate that stacked shot is to true performance, but I guess I don't look at this and think astro. I mean, the Samyang 14/2.8 II finally got a focus lock on it, so that's where my mind would be for that specific application. This looks like a tiny UWA that'll be fun at or close to MFD at wider apertures, and just about perfect at f/8 for landscapes/cityscapes. Just my way of thinking, though.
freaklikeme wrote:
I don't know how accurate that stacked shot is to true performance, but I guess I don't look at this and think astro. I mean, the Samyang 14/2.8 II finally got a focus lock on it, so that's where my mind would be for that specific application. This looks like a tiny UWA that'll be fun at or close to MFD at wider apertures, and just about perfect at f/8 for landscapes/cityscapes. Just my way of thinking, though.
I don't want to carry large lens like that for my purposes.
I don't need this to be a dedicated astro lens, but I've often think it would be lovely to have small relatively well coma corrected primes that are competent--these are the ones I often hike with multiple miles when I do astro, and I would easily carry a 14/4 with me. I love small versatile lenses, and I would rarely shoot at 14mm, but astro would be one such common use for me.
I personally am not concerned if my astro lens has focus lock. Most of the best corrected astro lenses don't include this (though I'd welcome it).
Looks nice and small. I liked their 15mm f2. I'm waiting to see what Sigma offers with these new 14mm F2 and 14mm f2.8 options though. Obviously will be bigger.
nehemiahphoto wrote:
I don't want to large lens like that for my purposes.
I don't need this to be a dedicated astro lens, but I've often think it would be lovely to have small relatively well coma corrected primes that are competent--these are the ones I often hike with multiple miles when I do astro, and I would easily carry a 14/4 with me. I love small versatile lenses, and I would rarely shoot at 14mm, but astro would be one such common use for me.
I personally am not concerned if my astro lens has focus lock. Most of the best corrected astro lenses don't include this (though I'd welcome it).
nhsonyshooter wrote:
Looks nice and small. I liked their 15mm f2. I'm waiting to see what Sigma offers with these new 14mm F2 and 14mm f2.8 options though. Obviously will be bigger.
Assuming they both get made. Patents, unfortunately, don't always materialize in production. If they did, we'd have a 180/2.8 Batis.
freaklikeme wrote:
Assuming they both get made. Patents, unfortunately, don't always materialize in production. If they did, we'd have a 180/2.8 Batis.
I'm not in a hurry. I'm sure one of the two will be made. I rarely go under 20mm anyway. But 14mm gaps well with my current kit. I'll keep an eye on this one as well.
freaklikeme wrote:
Copy variation is problem with all the third-party makers, including Cosina. You have to take your chances. Fortunately, B&H does carry the line. I'll probably order from them when it comes available, which will make any exchanges much easier.
Copy variation plagues the first party makers as well. How many people have complained about decentering on new Sony lenses? All the other makers have their issues as well.
Cosina might actually be the best brand right now for copy variation without excessive pricing.
