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  | sent on 23 Febbraio 2023 Pros: Size, weight, build quality, distortion, usability as a tool to job. Cons: Resolution in the corners with a wide aperture. Poorly front cap. Opinion: I photograph many buildings, five years ago this was the best alternative to the sony with shift converter. It is 17 mm. Good but not great resolution. Good sharpness in the middle, little distortion. A true technical lens. Very good design and build quality. Poorly front cap. No electronic connection, missing EXIF-data. It is a good solution for my work. |
The following opinions have been automatically translated with Google Translate.
 | sent on 23 Maggio 2024 Pros: sharp in the center practically always, robust construction, no distortion, flare resistance, in the Pentax version it transmits exif data Cons: lens hood without locking, expensive filters (100 mm plate), full-aperture vignette, not exactly popular price, not tropicalized Opinion: I bought it last winter with black-friday because I wanted a lens for panoramas, astrophotography or special shots, and I must say I made a good choice. The optics are immediately good. It is of robust construction and you can already see it from the weight that is not exactly "feather", even if the dimensions are all in all small taking into account its angle of view. The Pentax 15-30mm f/2.8 for example is huge in comparison and weighs almost twice as much. It is equipped with its lens hood, which works well but does not have a click that locks it in place once mounted, and although it is well frictioned it can happen to move it accidentally, consequently having the corners of the frame dark is a moment. On the other hand, the front metal cap is of excellent workmanship and remains firmly in place. The optical qualities pleasantly surprised me. The sharpness is very good in the center at practically every aperture, while at the edges at full aperture it is less so, but I think it is quite normal with such an angle of view (I use it on full-frame). Diaphragm the situation improves a lot and the edges are well defined already at f/5.6. Beyond f/11 you begin to notice a slight drop in sharpness, but already at this aperture you have a huge depth of field and it is useless to close it any further. At f/2.8 there is also an evident vignetting, which disappears already at f/4 and in any case can be corrected in PP without difficulty. The lens lives up to its "Zero-D" designation, as distortion is imperceptible. The resistance to flare is also very good, there is only some reflection at full aperture with the light source inside the frame, but just close one stop and everything is solved. My version for Pentax seamlessly transmits exif data to the camera when the aperture ring is on the "A" position. In this regard, I point out that the "A" position is exactly like all the others, that is, it does not have a lock/unlock button to use the ring in manual. I don't consider it a defect, more than anything else it is a detail to keep in mind. The aperture clicks are well defined but in manual you can only select the integer values, the intermediate ones (F/3.5, f/6.3 etc.) are only available through the camera menu. The focus ring is also very pleasant to use, well frictioned but not hard, of which I appreciated the very particular calibration, that is, almost all the rotation to focus with great precision from the minimum distance (18 cm) to about three meters and the rest to get to infinity. The price is quite high and in my opinion a bit exaggerated, and maybe given the cost it could have been tropicalized, but so far this lens has given me great satisfaction and is making me tempted to sell the Pentax 15-30mm, which I will probably keep only because being a zoom it is more versatile, and a round of applause to Venus Laowa who is one of the very rare manufacturers that supplies some of its lenses (not all, alas) with Pentax mount. |
  | sent on 26 Gennaio 2023 Pros: Optical yield from F4, construction, almost zero distortions, possibility of mounting 100 plate filters, angle of view, backlight resistance Cons: Vignetting, soft TA on the edges, lack of exif data, not tropicalized, price a bit 'high. Opinion: Taken to go to Iceland to photograph the Northern Lights. A little soft at TA suffers from like, and astigmatism. It opens new horizons in terms of composition in architecture and landscape photography. It is not an easy lens to know how to enhance at first glance, but that with due care gives great satisfaction. It is a totally manual optics, it forces you to work often on the tripod to a more reasoned type of photography, which I personally appreciate. Diaphragm from F5.6 to F13 is a blade. Another positive side is the possibility of putting dedicated Holders with 100mm plates. The construction is solid in metal too bad it is not tropicalized. The dials are pleasant and with the right friction. For the price for which it is proposed, tropicalization would have made it almost perfect. To be such a wide angle it has an excellent resistance in backlight, always with due care. |
 | sent on 31 Gennaio 2019 Pros: Relatively compact, top construction, really minimal distortion Cons: Painful front cap, no communication with the camera Opinion: The lens is really fantastic, if one knows how to frame at 12mm (because it is often not distortion but PDR) is a really correct lens. The construction is at the highest level, the ring nuts well positioned and above all crummy as it should. At the bottom of the lens is not great if you consider its brightness and focal! One of the most beautiful and creative lenses I've ever tried! The lens hood... At first I thought it was a joke but unfortunately it was not! A "lid" pressure that after 5 times that extract it becomes slow and you lose it continuously. I would have expected better |
user102873
 | sent on 23 Gennaio 2019 Pros: 12mm, construction, no frontal bulb lens, sharpness from F4, distortion, price, Filters slab 100 mm (with caveat) Cons: Metal construction, lack of communication with the camera, sharpness to f2.8, vignetting, flare, coma Opinion: I like this laowa even if it has very specific limits: modest sharpness at f2.8, full-aperture vignetting, coma (but also the Sigma 14 F 1.8 has it, I still have to find a wide angle that has no coma, maybe the Canon EF 16-35 F 2.8 III manages a little to contain it , maybe), the metal construction is a pro but you can easily scratch it and it is cold to the touch when you use it outdoors without gloves, there are no electronic contacts and therefore do not pass the EXIF to the camera, you can use the 100 mm slab filters but to do so you need to co The dedicated filter holder (which is a break, on the site Laowa was not clear, it seemed that it was enough to take an adapter, such as the one for the Canon TSE 17 F4), rather than using filters 150 mm That's fine, the price is altino but to me seems appropriate (acquist Ate on Amazon at about 1,100 euros with Prime). The lens is compact, it has very well controlled distortion as opposed to the laissez-faire of the other wide angles, it does not have the front-bulb lens (which I can't stand), the focus ring is nice to use, once it closes from F4 on it pulls out quite a Detail (I use it on Canon EOS 5DSR, Sony A7RIII and Sony A7III), great at F8 and it's all in focus! I thought 12 mm was too much as a field of view but when I get back to using the 16-35 or the 18 Zeiss Batis on Sony They make me tenderness:) 12mm is a great challenge and opens photographic horizons for me funny, I thought to return it to Amazon (as happened with his little brother 15 F2 for Sony, to say the least outrageous) instead is a nice lens and I'll keep it, the almost total absence of distortion for me is a great plus , sure there are LR profiles to adjust the distortions of other wide angles and the loss of detail is contained but already have a lens without distortion is a great thing, I'd be willing to pay more and to have a slightly larger lens to have more said I will wait for the Laowa 12 mark II to replace it. |
 | sent on 04 Giugno 2018 Pros: Zero distortion, compactness, construction, angle of field, F4 sharpness. Cons: Price a bit ' beyond performance, sharpness at the corners at full aperture, vignetting well-present even if similar to the competition. Opinion: I had for a few months this beautiful piece of optics, taken for nighttime use and astronomical view of the brightness and extreme focal, still unmatched on the market. Impeccable construction, precise and fluid ring nuts, compact and handy body, good flare resistance, and virtually nothing distortion are the features that make it very interesting. For me instead that I wanted to use it at night at full aperture some disappointment, since at F2, 8 on the 5d Mark3 the edges were not good enough, with a bit of coma. To use it in this type of shooting in my opinion should be closed at least to F4, but at this point you lose one of its main qualities that is precisely the brightness at this focal. Given this limit in the end I decided to sell it, a little reluctantly, and take (tentatively) a much cheaper Samyang 14 which I use equally to F4 with similar results (except for the field a little lower). |
 | sent on 10 Novembre 2017 Pros: lack of distortion, satisfactory optical rendering, superb mechanical construction. Cons: manual focus, price. Opinion: I've been buying this lens for months and I use it mainly for 360 ° panoramic and virtual tours. First I used the 15 mm fisheye of the Sigma or the nikon 14-24 but the results were modest due to the poor quality of the fisheye and the deformations that produced the Nikon. I did comparative tests with the Nikon set to 14 and I have to say that this is superior to Laowa with regard to the engraving and the brilliance of the images. The Laowa has a hot dominant unlike the nikon that is cold. If I were to use a landscaping goal, for a generic purpose or for a trip I would recommend zooming Nikon for its versatility and quality. I repeat instead that the 12 has solved my problems for the specific use for which I have purchased it and I usually limit it to this use. |
 | sent on 25 Aprile 2017 Pros: Weight, compactness, angle of field, construction, filterability, minimum distortion Cons: Cost Opinion: I have the objective for about a month and are literally excited about it. I have been practicing landscape photography for about 25 years and have several specialist lenses but no one with such a wide field angle ... a 12mm that does not distort is really an optician you do not expect ... I got to test it in Iceland together to a dedicated filter holder of the Landscape Specialist and I have to say that it has turned out to be a great glass, even in extreme light conditions it kept well, very little if there is no flare in backlight, from f4 up also sharply to the edges. In the past, I have always owned the 15 f4 macro of Laowa and at a constructive level this is really done on another level, it's really solid, the ring is fluid and has no play. I add that Laowa really did a great job by inserting the nodal point on the barrel and matching the infinity exactly with the limestone of the ring ... the nocturnal thank you. After a few months of use I noticed that the white front prints, using filters with the appropriate mounts may reflect on the sky, I've overcome the problem with a special thick ring of just 0.3mm overlapping the writing, if someone wanted more information contact me privately. I forgot I bought it at RCE in Vicenza, which is an official reseller and provides two years warranty. |
 | sent on 04 Novembre 2016 Pros: Compactness, little distortion, Plate filters alone 100mm (with holder), f2.8 aperture, very good sharpness in the center. Cons: Flare in backlit, built in metal improved but not yet to competitive levels, discreet coma defect in the corners at full aperture. No confirmation chip. Opinion: unique on the market allows optical unusual compositions and really wide shots of fullframe, being one retro focus optical design produces flare in backlit that the final production version should solve in part. The prototype I tested was comfortable and light to handle and transport, and the overall yield was not disappointed though perfectible at different points but building better than previous optical laowa without reaching the Zeiss quality for example. also used freehand not disappoint thanks to the opening f2.8, but unfortunately this is the confirmation chip. |
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