Venus Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO : Specifications and Opinions

Reviews

What do you think?

Do you want add your opinion? You do it by joining JuzaPhoto, it is easy and free!

There is more: by registering you can create your personal page, publish photos, receive comments, join discussions and you can use all the features of JuzaPhoto. With more than 259000 members, there is space for everyone, from the beginner to the professional.

Michalr

sent on 26 Maggio 2025

Pros: Picture quality, sharpness, colors, background effects, reproduction scale 2:1, manual lens on Pentax systems

Cons: Focus ring could be more precise.

Opinion: Bought it recently for Pentax camera and I'm amazed how good picture quality this lens gives. Sharpness is top level, the same with colors which are natural and properly saturated. I like the fact that on Pentax it works only in manual mode, no auto-focus, you need to operate the focus ring with your own skills. The reproduction scale is amazing, with this lens you can take photos of very small objects without adding anything else, like extension tubes or Raynox-like additional lenses. It gives the huge scale out of the box which is exactly what i needed. I use this lens for insects macro photography and it totally fills my expectations how such lens should look like.

The following opinions have been automatically translated with Google Translate.

Llnp

sent on 01 Marzo 2023

Pros: Spectacular optical quality, the metal construction that really gives a sense of true solidity, not plastic like other lenses.

Cons: Hood is really crap

Opinion: Optics that I really like, I do not do any kind of mental opinion on the precision of manual focusing. I use this lens both on nisi micrometric slide, even handheld using an external flash specific for macro photography (VENUS OPTICS KX800 FLEXIBLE MACRO TWIN FLASH). For the macro I also use raynox dcr- 250 to achieve magnifications greater than 2: 1, with raynox I reach I think the 3: 1, I do not know what more you could want from a lens like this. Simply spectacular.

MauroAvidano

sent on 25 Maggio 2022

Pros: Very high optical quality.

Cons: Nobody

Opinion: I use it on a Z7 II with native Z mount. It is able to solve the sensor and has a sharpness equal to more noble macros. It is not suitable for manual use, but at 2x the probability of centering a photo without a slide and tripod is still practically nil. All metal and relatively light, gives a sense of security and does not unbalance the machine. You can not perceive aberrations and the blurring is pleasant. The fact that it is completely manual is absolutely not a problem (if you exclude the lack of metadata) working with an ML and focus peaking. Indeed - it is one of the lenses with which I have the most fun.

Ma01417

sent on 09 Maggio 2021

Pros: Optical quality, low weight and footprint, price

Cons: Not exactly precise focus, obliges the use of micrometric sled

Opinion: Taken with the money of a return when I was looking for an Irix DragonFly 150mm that remains on my bucket list; I am satisfied with the yield but absolutely not happy with its focus that forces me to stand and micrometric sled even for single shots otherwise I am wrong too many :) The weight is low and entices you to carry it always with you, but then you have to take the accessory weights of the easel (often I ride with the Sirui AM-223 that is enough for the ground photos) and the sled (I use a NiSi) so the overall weight rises, it does not reach that of the SIGMA 180 f/2.8, but in short.

Pierino64

sent on 15 Agosto 2020

Pros: Solid construction, optical quality, no aberration, beautiful bokeh

Cons: Plastic lampshade with approximate attachment, mandatory front protective lens, inaccurate focus

Opinion: From an optical point of view and more generally of performance, nothing to say. We are facing a top macro lens. I, on similar lengths I use the Sigma 150mm latest version and the Sony 90mm, so it has to play with two giants and comes out great. It has no aberrations whatsoever, it is very sharp even on machines with many MegaPixels and also has a very nice bokeh that manages to make the subject stand out rather well. What is wrong, the lampshade is plastic and has an attack that definitely gives no guarantee of durability. Missing the attack for the stand, which is not very serious, but given the reproduction ratio so pushed, it was there. The front lens, being very inside the tube, must be absolutely protected with a filter and in fact one is given a decent quality. Replaced with a B-W, the images immediately benefited. Last thing, maybe the only real mole of the lens, the focus. It is little demolished and this makes it inaccurate, from a macro manual focus you expect more, so, you have to waste a lot of time to ensure a precision focus and you do not always succeed especially in a more generalist use. The price is very competitive, it costs very little for what it offers from an optical point of view.

Ferorake

sent on 29 Settembre 2019

Pros: Metal construction, E-Mount version with 13 slats, AC equal to 0, RR 2:1, excellent IQ, ridiculous price of about 500 euros

Cons: absurdly inaccurate focus, metal that doesn't return a premium feel, unzigged lampshade, plastic, slack, no easel attachment, availability

Opinion: I've been waiting for this lens a lot, about 4 months, and for now I'm not satisfied with it. Optical side you can not say anything, it is the top you can want for macro. The problems, however, arise as soon as we stop looking at the result, and the reasons are summarized in the cons. Let's start with the focus that is inaccurate, has a rotation angle too small: obscenely short for playback ratios from 1:4 to infinity, and just enough for macro distances. It will be impossible to use this lens as portrait canvases, the focus is absolutely out of the question that it succeeds. Real macro side (so from 1:4 to 2:1 ) we are at the limit, you have nowhere near the precision that you can get with an irix 150mm (of which you find my review ). It's a real shame, because optical side is the best you can wish for macro side: the wording APO is real, and any sensor will not pull out green-purple halos or other chromatic aberrations of sorts. The problem is that in the use you are really castrated, also because the lens is very long in the Sony version, and not having the easel attachment, the whole thing turns out to be ungainly and unstable. I am very disappointed, also because I imagined a lens along the lines of the Laowa 105, which instead apart from a lampshade to forget, has a granite Zeiss-style construction, an eternal focus style Zeiss 100 f2, and a general feeling from prestige lens. We would advise against it, because at this price it will beat any other macro lenses on the market, but I would have preferred it to cost maybe 300 to 400 euros more but did not have all these characteristics visibly necessary to reduce production costs, that would make it the best macro lens in existence.