I was initially excited about this lens, but is it worth getting without the AF capabilities? It looks like it’s mostly being shot stopped down. I could just get a M mount CV10 instead, right?
I personally don't think a super wide like 10mm needs to have AF. Frankly Id rather have a manual focus lens wider than 20mm.
Really the bigger issue to look at this wide is distortion more than anything than have to look at the Vignetting as well. If you buy this wide with distortion the correction would not be the same focal length it will change. So now you're 10 maybe a 12. Just need to watch for that
saxguy wrote:
I was initially excited about this lens, but is it worth getting without the AF capabilities? It looks like it’s mostly being shot stopped down. I could just get a M mount CV10 instead, right?
Which, too, needs to be stopped down a couple of stops for best performance, but in its case that would be f/11.
I think the point of fast lenses is not (necessarily) the large aperture in itself but the fact that you have more leeway to stop down. As in, use the f/1.4 lens mostly at f/2.8 or narrower, but an f/2.8 lens at - say - f/4.5 or less. You got the idea.
I'm saving money to buy this Laowa eventually. Thankfully the Z mount version has AF.
IlyaSnopchenko wrote:
Which, too, needs to be stopped down a couple of stops for best performance, but in its case that would be f/11.
I think the point of fast lenses is not (necessarily) the large aperture in itself but the fact that you have more leeway to stop down. As in, use the f/1.4 lens mostly at f/2.8 or narrower, but an f/2.8 lens at - say - f/4.5 or less. You got the idea.
I'm saving money to buy this Laowa eventually. Thankfully the Z mount version has AF.
Fair point. Most of my other lenses don’t need to be stopped down (Leica APO Summicron-SL 21, 35, 50 and 75) and my 50mm Summilux-SL is pretty much perfect at f/1.4 - so I wasn’t thinking this way.
Well, wideangles mostly benefit a lot from stopping down. I also have a couple lenses that are seemingly as good wide open as they are at any aperture (Canon 16-35/4 IS, Tamron 85/1.8), but others aren't as good. And the Laowa is definitely a lot better behaved at f/5.6 (though the vignetting is still atrocious), if the existing reviews are any indication.
Is this lens even available? I ordered one from Laowa a few days ago but haven't received any shipping notification. It's listed as available for "pre-order" on other sites, and I've seen a few comments on YouTube implying that nothing is shipping out.
The page for the lens says "We will start shipping in mid-March according to the order number. Due to the massive demand, we are not able to ship all the orders at once in mid March. If you order today, expect delivery in May/Jun."
which sounds plausible because the lens is very much hyped all over the web. I can understand people being stoked about it, because it's one of those "milestone" lenses (in E/Z mount anyway) that don't appear every year (would it be an overstatement to compare it to - say - Nikon's legendary 14-24/2.8 15 years ago?)
Well I purchased the lens directly from Laowa two days after it was officially available for preorder on 20th of February and it took just over 4 weeks for it to be delivered. Back then their website claimed shipping will start mid March, in my case lens was shipped on the 22nd of March and delivered on the 29th of March
I must admit the lens has grown on me since, found it to be nice and compact. Using it mostly for landscape vistas and some cityscape/architecture. The front filter 77mm option is super feature to have, although one must use some really thin (ideally) magnetic filters like the ones from Kase to avoid extra vignetting.
Overall very happy with the optical performance and physical appearance of the lens, plan now is to test it for some astro at f/2.8, but expectations are not too high there, no idea what the coma will look like, probably not the best.
ekimvenes wrote:
Well I purchased the lens directly from Laowa two days after it was officially available for preorder on 20th of February and it took just over 4 weeks for it to be delivered. Back then their website claimed shipping will start mid March, in my case lens was shipped on the 22nd of March and delivered on the 29th of March
I must admit the lens has grown on me since, found it to be nice and compact. Using it mostly for landscape vistas and some cityscape/architecture. The front filter 77mm option is super feature to have, although one must use some really thin (ideally) magnetic filters like the ones from Kase to avoid extra vignetting.
Overall very happy with the optical performance and physical appearance of the lens, plan now is to test it for some astro at f/2.8, but expectations are not too high there, no idea what the coma will look like, probably not the best....Show more →
I was looking at the photos of the lens mounted on different cameras, and it seems like it doesn't leave much room between it and grip of the rV, for example. How are you finding that aspect?
I like all the options they give you for the lens. I don't need anything this wide, but I'd probably use my F-mount Laowa 14/4 more at night if the lightstars weren't as ridiculously huge as they get with the five-bladed aperture.
freaklikeme wrote:
I was looking at the photos of the lens mounted on different cameras, and it seems like it doesn't leave much room between it and grip of the rV, for example. How are you finding that aspect?
Truth to be told since the lens is fairly wide when mounted on my A7R IV it creates some tight space between the mount and grip. Now my hands are average sized and there's not much breathing room left for my index and middle finger to fully reach the dip and thus cannot create a 100% contact, only the ring finger and pinky get in. I can imagine someone with large enough hands/big fingers might find this to be uncomfortable if planning to handhold for a longer period of time.
Tbh doesn't bother me as much for landscapes since camera sits on the tripod's ballhead. Handheld is doable too, although feels somewhat limiting.
Another annoying little thing is the 77mm front plastic filter cover, I find it flimsy enough to attach back when finished shooting. I chose to use a magnetic metal front lens cover instead which actually contemplates the metal lens finish nicely and looks really sleek (as it is aluminium made as well).
ekimvenes wrote:
Truth to be told since the lens is fairly wide when mounted on my A7R IV it creates some tight space between the mount and grip. Now my hands are average sized and there's not much breathing room left for my index and middle finger to fully reach the dip and thus cannot create a 100% contact, only the ring finger and pinky get in. I can imagine someone with large enough hands/big fingers might find this to be uncomfortable if planning to handhold for a longer period of time.
Tbh doesn't bother me as much for landscapes since camera sits on the tripod's ballhead. Handheld is doable too, although feels somewhat limiting.
Another annoying little thing is the 77mm front plastic filter cover, I find it flimsy enough to attach back when finished shooting. I chose to use a magnetic metal front lens cover instead which actually contemplates the metal lens finish nicely and looks really sleek (as it is aluminium made as well).
ekimvenes wrote:
Overall very happy with the optical performance and physical appearance of the lens, plan now is to test it for some astro at f/2.8, but expectations are not too high there, no idea what the coma will look like, probably not the best.
Looks interesting to me. I love super wides and with 61mpx crop mode at 26 would be a 15mm. That's nice to have. I might go for the manual focus one. With looking out when they come out
I read the review, indeed. Interestingly enough I owned the Samyang 10mm f/3.5 lens for Nikon Z mount (via FTZ adapter) before I switched to Sony E mount. Used that lens for some night photography and milky way and it was doing fairly OK in terms of coma performance (not excellent, but good enough). But was heavy, had atrocious flare (red ring of death I called it), manual focus ring was way off (not at the infinity mark), greenish tint on sides of the frame. But fairly sharp even at f/3.5
Put it this way: I'd rather take 10mm f/2.8 with most of the frame reasonably sharp and some acceptable coma (nothing of the bat wings crazy realm), lightweight and accepting front circular filters. For landscape genre being used between f8 - f11 a dream come true. A challenge in form of rethinking the frame and composition at 10mm is another story, though. However cropping down to 15mm without losing too much resolution on the likes of Sony A7R IV/V or A1 comes as a welcome option!
Something I should mention as well, after running the decentering test, all corners at f/2.8 were quite uniform and while as expected not the sharpest, they weren't total trash either (at 100% magnification that is). At least I know my copy is definitely not decentered
All in all this Laowa lens is a very welcome addition to ultra wide family. At the price range of good bit under 1000USD this lens can't tick all the boxes, for sure. But for my use it's a winner. Well, unless some other lens manufacturer surprises me with a comparable piece of glass!
Im not a Astro shooter but if corners are good at 5.6 than I would be happy with that for sure. I use this focal length for stock images in NY mostly for shows that I produce so could be useful to me. And a cropped 15mm on a A7CR would be lovely to have at 26mpx
My kit would most likely be 10mm/24-50 and a 85mm. That would also be a nice travel kit
GMPhotography wrote:
Im not a Astro shooter but if corners are good at 5.6 than I would be happy with that for sure. I use this focal length for stock images in NY mostly for shows that I produce so could be useful to me. And a cropped 15mm on a A7CR would be lovely to have at 26mpx
Well it is very capable at f/5.6 in terms of corner sharpness. Cropping down to 26mpx/15mm takes care of any excessive vignetting if thicker 77mm front filters are used, too. It really is a winner
ekimvenes wrote:
Well it is very capable at f/5.6 in terms of corner sharpness. Cropping down to 26mpx/15mm takes care of any excessive vignetting if thicker 77mm front filters are used, too. It really is a winner
Thanks I will look into it more. I always carry a super wide. I just sold the Laowa 9mm for APSC cams but now going back to FF with the A7CR. Maybe a CPL filter would be handy. I think they sell thin ones
GMPhotography wrote:
Thanks I will look into it more. I always carry a super wide. I just sold the Laowa 9mm for APSC cams but now going back to FF with the A7CR. Maybe a CPL filter would be handy. I think they sell thin ones
Just to keep in mind if you decide to use a CPL filter at 10mm certain challenges very likely become visible and you must experiment to achieve results to be happy with. To sum these up, I recommend reading section about polarizing filters from this very useful article from Francesco Gola:
