| sent on November 10, 2025
Pros: An original perspective in macrophotography. High-quality construction. Very little distortion.
Cons: Requires external lighting to take full advantage of its magnification. Excellent sharpness only in the center. Flare.
Opinion: Opinion: I had the opportunity to get my hands on one; otherwise, I wouldn't have spent the money on it. First of all, it represents what I love about macro photography: capturing a small subject within its environmental context. In my opinion, that's its only real appeal.
Its build quality is excellent, which surprised me because the metal lens hood is reassuring. The focus ring is smooth but not too loose, preventing slippage and providing good precision. The lens's weight is well-balanced on a Nikon Z8.
It's very sharp in the center between f/5.6 and f/11. In any case, it's not very useful wide open due to its optical formula, which limits the depth of field (1:2) and produces so much blur when you're close to the subject that you inevitably have to stop down to try and suggest the background. I mostly found myself shooting at f/11 (f/16 isn't sharp enough in my opinion), which further limits its use. However, it's perfectly usable between f/5.6 and f/8. To take advantage of its maximum magnification, you have to get so close to the subject that you inevitably cast a shadow. This means you need to light the foreground. For now, due to a temporary shortage of Godox ring LEDs, I've only used it by lighting the subject with a headlamp. It works very well, but it's not practical...
And what about flare in side lighting situations? Well, it's dreadful. It's completely uncontrolled.
However, if you position yourself correctly, with your back to or facing the sun, there are no problems: no chromatic aberration, no flare, a creamy bokeh, and a rather pretty 10-pointed star (this is subjective).
If you're someone who demands sharpness across the entire frame, this isn't for you.
While not perfect, it's excellent in the center, very good at the edges, average as you move away, and barely acceptable at the margins. That's why I recommend always centering the subject on a camera with a large sensor (e.g., 45 megapixels), then cropping the composition in post-processing if you want to move the subject off-center. Otherwise, positioning the subject to the side when shooting is likely to disappoint you, ESPECIALLY at the minimum focusing distance. Strangely (or perhaps not), the further back the subject is from the lens, the sharpness is much better, even when off-center. I suppose this makes sense given the field curvature...
For wide shots, it's quite convincing. I think the lens can even deliver beautiful architectural shots because it produces very little (if any?) distortion, and the fact that it's entirely manual focus doesn't bother me at all.
My conclusion: Laowa always offers original products, often at reasonable prices, which is a good thing. This lens is a special case because I believe it only does one thing very well: represent a tiny object in its environment, if it's centered in the composition, lit with an external light source, and ideally on a large sensor.
For any other type of use, it's not bad, but there are much better alternatives.
For a few test examples: https://www.juzaphoto.com/galleria.php?l=en&t=5172359 |
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