52mm filter thread... this might be the nearest thing we ever see to an UWA Loxia. Kind of interesting. Not for me, but I can see how some would like it.
(Not that I'm saying it will be quite the same as a Loxia, in colour character, across-the-frame image quality at landscape apertures, etc. It's just good that there's an option.)
Have adorama or bh opened up orders for this lens yet? I didn’t see it on their site. It’s much easier to return through them than laowa in the event I’m not a fan.
Sep 18, 2020 at 08:48 PM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
motorhead9999 wrote:
Have adorama or bh opened up orders for this lens yet? I didn’t see it on their site. It’s much easier to return through them than laowa in the event I’m not a fan.
B & H and to some extent Adorama close up from sundown on Friday night until sundown Saturday night for the Jewish sabbath. The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah, a major holiday) is also on Monday, so I wouldn't expect either place to get caught up and have this on order until at least Wednesday. They both generally carry Laowa products, so I would expect them to eventually carry the lens, but I am not sure how soon that will be.
I want a light UWA for tight intimate landscapes, but it has to be about as good as the CV 21/3.5. Is this it? We'll see. Ed - this one looks really good. Looking forward to more reports, posts.
I prefer the sunstars of the Voigtlander 15mm. They look more refined. The focal length difference between the two lenses is only 1mm. The lenses are close in weight and both can take filters. The maximum apertures are close as well. The Voigtlander can transmit exif info whereas the Laowa cannot.
Are there any reasons to prefer the Laowa 14mm over the Voigtlander 15mm other than it being cheaper? I know we don't have a lot of detailed reviews yet on the Laowa.
Sep 19, 2020 at 11:10 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
alexands wrote:
I prefer the sunstars of the Voigtlander 15mm. They look more refined. The focal length difference between the two lenses is only 1mm. The lenses are close in weight and both can take filters. The maximum apertures are close as well. The Voigtlander can transmit exif info whereas the Laowa cannot.
Are there any reasons to prefer the Laowa 14mm over the Voigtlander 15mm other than it being cheaper? I know we don't have a lot of detailed reviews yet on the Laowa.
The only reviews I have seen are in the original post for this thread. The lens looks like it performs well with vignetting being its biggest weakness and good sharpness across the frame being one of its biggest strengths. Distortion is fairly low and the reviews suggests it is slightly barrel up close switching to slightly pincushion at infinity. Bokeh, the little bit you can get when you focus up close the reviews suggest is fine. I am not sure how the performance compares to the Voigtlander 15 f/4.5. I suppose in time we will get side by side comparisons which will tell us more. They both have ten pointed sunstars, but the Laowa gets those stars from a 5 bladed aperture (odd number of blades create double the number of points per each blade in sunstars), whereas the Voigtlander gets them from a 10 bladed aperture (even number of blades create the same number of points as the number of blades in sunstars). For now we know the Laowa is smaller and lighter, faster, and cheaper, which are all good but only a little bit so on each of those dimensions. And we know the Voigtlander has EXIF data and the Laowa does not, which is of course an advantage for the Voigtlander that will be a big deal to some and not so much to others.
Both are likely to be good choices, but without side by side comparisons it is hard for me to know with any certainty which I prefer. Perhaps others can make a choice based on just the couple of reviews and specs, but I would like to see more comparisons before I make a final decision. Personally, I am leaning toward the Laowa because it is smaller, wider, and cheaper and I don't really care about EXIF data, but I am trying to keep an open mind.
alexands wrote:
I prefer the sunstars of the Voigtlander 15mm. They look more refined. The focal length difference between the two lenses is only 1mm. The lenses are close in weight and both can take filters. The maximum apertures are close as well. The Voigtlander can transmit exif info whereas the Laowa cannot.
Are there any reasons to prefer the Laowa 14mm over the Voigtlander 15mm other than it being cheaper? I know we don't have a lot of detailed reviews yet on the Laowa.
Same here. Much prefer the sunstars and flare resistance from the CV 15/4.5 III-- If you come across a copy without high astigmatism (smearing) towards the corner.
Same goes for the Laowa 11/4.5 vs Voigtlander 12/5.6 III.
I've tried 5 samples of the Voigtländer 15 in the past and all 5 had severe corner smearing. I know that great samples exists, but it seems to be impossible for me to find them. Therefore I will likely get the Laowa and test the performance. In addition I vastly prefer 52mm filter size over 58mm, since all my Loxia lenses have 52mm.
Yep, too early to compare the CV15 with this lens in any meaningful way.
I’m guessing, the price or the IQ will be better than the CV15. I hope the corner IQ is better, but it might not be. I guess we will know soon.
TakenWild wrote:
Yep, too early to compare the CV15 with this lens in any meaningful way.
I’m guessing, the price or the IQ will be better than the CV15. I hope the corner IQ is better, but it might not be. I guess we will know soon.
The Laowa 11/4.5 does not perform noticeably better than the CV 12/5.6 III but it's faster and the Voigtlander was unfortunately discontinued. I compared them at infinity yesterday and they showed similar resolution/contrast but were not close in flare resistance. (I prefer the CV sunstars as well). Not sure about their new 14/4 though, perhaps it has better flare resistance than the 11/4.5.
Bobu wrote:
I've tried 5 samples of the Voigtländer 15 in the past and all 5 had severe corner smearing. I know that great samples exists, but it seems to be impossible for me to find them. Therefore I will likely get the Laowa and test the performance. In addition I vastly prefer 52mm filter size over 58mm, since all my Loxia lenses have 52mm.
This is true. This lens is plagued by variation. If you come across one that performing optimally, this is what to expect.
It would be great if products like this Laowa proliferate while Cosina is engaged in making the 17th lens at 35-40-50mm focal lengths. They currently list 16 such lenses in VM and E. That officially qualifies as a corporate obsession. They've been treading water in 2020, busy looking in the rear view mirror.
I would not even contemplate the CV 15mm, being allergic to being run around by faulty products.
Imagine having to 'get lucky' buying an $US 800 anything.
Time for v4. Then again, if you can't get there with three versions perhaps it's not in you to get there at all. Maybe just do a wider 21/3.5 at 17/18mm and call it a day. They could even pretend to be filling the gap.
Sep 19, 2020 at 05:20 PM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
Fred Miranda wrote:
The Laowa 11/4.5 does not perform noticeably better than the CV 12/5.6 III but it's faster and the Voigtlander was unfortunately discontinued. I compared them at infinity yesterday and they showed similar resolution/contrast but were not close in flare resistance. (I prefer the CV sunstars as well). Not sure about their new 14/4 though, perhaps it has better flare resistance than the 11/4.5.
The review on Sony in the original post argues the 14 f/4 has better performance than the 11 f/4.5, but I doubt they tested more than on copy of each lens, so we might be seeing sample variation with the Laowa lenses too. Alternatively the 14 f/4 might just be a better preforming lens.
Steve Spencer wrote:
The review on Sony in the original post argues the 14 f/4 has better performance than the 11 f/4.5, but I doubt they tested more than on copy of each lens, so we might be seeing sample variation with the Laowa lenses too. Alternatively the 14 f/4 might just be a better preforming lens.
It's very likely Steve. Just like the CV 15/4.5 performs better than the CV 12/5.6. The former is optimal at f/5.6 across the field while the latter needs f/8.
I will be quite curious to see how this performs. I already have the Laowa 9 - which I love for its unique perspective - but I could see this being an interesting lens if it performs significantly better than the 9 or 11. 14 is a very useful FL - sweet spot in many ways for UWA - and f/4 is a meaningful advantage, but I would want this to be sharp into the corners. Chris Frost's review looks quite positive, will wait to see what Fred and/or Phillip Reeve say about it.
alexands wrote:
I prefer the sunstars of the Voigtlander 15mm. They look more refined. The focal length difference between the two lenses is only 1mm. The lenses are close in weight and both can take filters. The maximum apertures are close as well. The Voigtlander can transmit exif info whereas the Laowa cannot.
Are there any reasons to prefer the Laowa 14mm over the Voigtlander 15mm other than it being cheaper? I know we don't have a lot of detailed reviews yet on the Laowa.
If you compare e-mount to e-mount, assuming excellent copies of both, I'm betting the advantage will go to the CV in nearly everything but price, but it is a significant price difference. Normally a $250 difference, down to $150 while the CV is on sale. Either way, it's a bunch of pennies to be pinched if you can make do with the Laowa.
For M-mount to M-mount, the price difference isn't as great ($50) but there's a couple of usability gains that favor the Laowa, first and foremost being the shorter MFD (.5m versus .27m in live-view) and the Laowa gives you a physical indication when you've focused closer than the RF's .7m capabilities.
For L and Z, it's a tiny, MF UWA they can use without an adapter, something I don't think anyone else is offering to them.
It will be interesting to see what the real world weight differences are for the Laowa 14/4 and the CV 15. I believe CV lists the m-mount weight for the 15, while the FE weight is over 300g (or so I've read, someone can correct me if I am wrong). That said, Laowa could be listing the m-mount weight too.
Sep 20, 2020 at 10:08 AM
imagesfromobjects Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Let me ask this: Do the petals on lenses like this and the Voigtlander actually do anything? I'm certainly not a lens designer, but I can't really see them doing any actual sun blocking worth talking about.
This is also coming from someone who is highly tempted to just machine the petals off so that I can use a 55-52mm adapter ring instead of having to get another range of filter sizes.
