Venus Laowa 15mm F/4 Wide Angle 11 Macro Lens With Shift for Sony Fe Mount Review
Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 Macro Field Test
Super broad & super shut: tricky to use but worth the work
by | Posted 07/28/2017
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| Canon 5DS R: 1/60s, ISO 200 |
Introduction
Well, here'southward a lens you don't see everyday: an ultra-wide-bending, total-frame DSLR lens that also lets y'all focus down to a true 1:i macro reproduction ratio for really dramatic shut-upward photography. Though I don't have much experience myself with macro photography, this facet of the photograph world has always intrigued me and plus, macro photos are just stunning to await at. The Laowa 15mm ane:one macro lens isn't the newest lens from Chinese parent visitor Venus Eyes, but later on stumbling across some reviews and videos a twelvemonth or so ago, I was immediately interested it trying this lens. So, when the opportunity arose, I jumped on it.
We've actually published a rather detailed introduction and tutorial on broad-angle macro photography from Paul Harcourt Davies, a photographer who just happens to specialize in this sub-genre of macro photography. Wide-angle macro photography differs from traditional macro shooting, which is generally done with longer focal length lenses, where the idea is to focus solely or more straight on your intended subject. With wide-angle macro photography, the broader field of view lets you include the surrounding environment of your subject, providing more context or more than story around your discipline. At the same fourth dimension, the close-focusing and magnifying capabilities of these types of wide-bending lenses also provide that highly detailed, shut perspective that macro photography is all near.
While there are quite a few wide angle lenses out there that can focus fairly closely, the Laowa 15mm lens is the only such lens (currently) that offers true 1:one maximum magnification. It's a rather unique optic that tin capture some actually interesting photos.
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| Canon 5DS R: ane/50s, ISO 400 | |
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| 1 of the showtime "existent" photos I shot with the Laowa! I was pretty excited to stumble upon (and thankfully, not "into") this golden orb-weaver spider. i managed to get every bit close as possible without touching the spider or its web with the lens...which was a tricky, well-nigh sticky, proffer. Getting proper focus was also rather difficult since I was shooting handheld, but equally you can come across in the crop above, I was pretty close. | |
Shooting with the lens
And then, later on having shot with the lens, what'south information technology similar? Well, it's turned out to be a rather tricky lens to work with, especially for true super close-up piece of work. Plainly, the showtime thing I did when I unboxed the lens and mounted information technology to a camera was to rack the focus to 1:1 focusing distance, and that'south when I immediately noticed a "problem." The working distance at 1:ane is extremely close. Extremely. So close in fact that not only is the object in focus near touching the front lens element at i:1 magnification, but also the lens is basically blocking all the light from hitting your subject. It's even worse when y'all leave the lens hood mounted to the front -- most of the time, I left the lens hood in my photographic camera bag. The specs of the lens indicate the minimum focusing distance is 12.2 cm (four.8 inches). The lens itself a little over iii inches long, and when combined with the ane.5-inch+ distance of the sensor the the lens mountain, things get up close and personal when trying to shoot at the maximum magnification ratio.
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| Here you can run across just how shut your subject needs to be when the lens is gear up to 1:1 magnification! |
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| The resulting photo (with lighting assistance from an iPhone). |
Blocking of lite aside, the super-shut working distance besides poses some trickiness when shooting out in the field. On my beginning outing with the lens, I went to a local hiking trail to run into if I could find some peachy critters to photo. With the super-wide angle and shut-focusing required for macro images with this lens, it forces yous to get really close to your subject field, and the random insects, like spiders, bees or flies that I found were very skittish and difficult to photograph. Ofttimes, I tried to slowly and calmly become shut plenty to a bug only to easily scare it off a moment subsequently.
Going back to the lighting issue again, while on the hiking "bug hunt", not only was I having to deal with the spotty and often dim lighting of the forest, but also coping with thin depth of field that comes with macro photography. At macro distances, depth of field tin be razor-thin, which is often countered by stopping down the aperture significantly. Non having the luxury of an external wink or other lighting during this excursion, I was frequently forced to creepo the ISO dial on the Catechism 5DS R test camera I was using. To really become the most out of this lens, I'd definitely recommend using flash or other macro-specific off-camera lighting.
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| Canon 5DS R: 1/160s, ISO 250 |
| Notice the large shadow creeping onto the leaf in the lesser right...this is from the lens itself. |
Equally for general handling, the Laowa 15mm Macro lens is quite compact and lightweight, though its all-metal structure is decidedly solid, and the lens has an nice quality heft to it. Being a completely manual lens, it has focus and aperture command rings; both of which rotate very smoothly near of the time. Information technology's like shooting fish in a barrel to brand fine focus adjustment at about focusing distances, though at that place'southward a noticeable resistance that would preclude accidental focus changes. I did find at that place some slight "stickiness," or in other words, it took a bit more "oomph" to rotate the focusing ring past the "0.4:i" marking and on downward to 1:1.
The discontinuity ring provides clickless diaphragm adjustments from f/four downward to f/32, so if yous decide to shoot video using this lens, iris command will exist squeamish and quiet. One matter to go along in heed is that this lens is entirely mechanical; in that location'due south no electronic communication between the lens and the camera. As such, aperture values and focal length volition not appear in EXIF data.
Build Quality
Equally mentioned, the Laowa 15mm f/iv macro lens is synthetic nigh entirely out of metal, including the lens mount. The merely disappointing thing near the build quality of the lens is its lens hood, which is made of plastic. The bayonet-mount hood of our lens did not mountain very securely to the front flange. When positioned to the right orientation, the hood was very loose and didn't lock into identify. I resorted to using a bit of gaffer's tape to hold the hood on while out shooting some general wide-bending photos.
The optical structure utilizes 12 total lens elements situated into ten groups, including three "actress refractive alphabetize" elements and a single Low Dispersion chemical element. The lens includes 77mm filter threads and has a whopping 14 aperture blades.
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| Maximum shift upwardly. |
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| Maximum shift down. |
One rather interesting additional feature on the Laowa 15mm is its congenital-in shift functionality. Similar to the "shift" capability of Tilt-Shift lenses, the Laowa 15mm offers a +/-6mm shift adjustment. This can assist correct for vertical distortions due to the extreme wide-angle focal length. Interestingly, even though this lens fits and is designed to piece of work on total-frame DSLRs, the shifting role seems to be reserved more for APS-C cameras. In sure situations, especially when shooting at f/iv and at infinity focus, using the shift functions with a total-frame DSLR volition effect in noticeable "vignetting" at the elevation or bottom of the frame (depending on shift direction). Since the lens extends outwards slightly when focusing towards closer focus distances, the vignetting becomes reduced at closer focusing distances.
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| f/4 -- No Shift |
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| f/4 -- Maximum Shift Upwards |
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| f/4 -- Maximum Shift Down |
Prototype Quality
When you nail focus, the Laowa 15mm f/4 macro lens is capable of producing some squeamish, abrupt images. Shooting with a Canon EF-mount version on the 5DS R made for a rather difficult shooting feel. For starters, the default focusing screen made precision focusing via the optical viewfinder hard, and the lack of focus peaking likewise fabricated live view focusing less than ideal. However, you can magnify the focus area in live view, which really helped, peculiarly if yous're using a tripod. Handheld, however, information technology can still feel a bit cumbersome, particularly if you or your subject field move ever and then slightly. Couple that with the super-thin depth of field at macro distances and the high-res 50MP sensor of the 5DS R, and it's all a big combination of factors that brand getting a "perfect" shot rather demanding.
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| Canon 5DS R: 1/160s, ISO 250 |
| Due to the broad perspective, it appears that I might be fairly far abroad from the small subject field hither, simply in fact, I'm extremely close. Notice, also, in the 100% crop above just how much fine detail the Laowa 15mm + the 50MP Catechism 5DS R lets you capture! |
Nevertheless, I was able to capture abrupt, detailed and unique images that I wouldn't normally brand with any other blazon of lens. Sharpness at the middle is quite skilful, even at f/4, but I establish the optimal sharpness occurred between f/5.6-f/eleven. Chromatic aberration looked very minimal at the eye of the frame, as well, merely outwards toward the corners, I observed both noticeable softness as well as some CA and purple fringing, even when stopped down. The CA, however, isn't too severe and could hands be corrected via software.
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| Canon 5DS R: 1/200s, ISO 800 |
| Focus here isn't quite expressionless-on, but it'due south still very expert, in my stance, and it again showcases the level of fine detail that the Laowa 15mm macro lens tin can resolve. This is one of the difficulties when using an ultra-high-resolution cameras similar the 5DS R -- focus is very critical. |
Corner softness, in my opinion, wasn't much of an issue, specially at macro distances due to the really narrow depth of field. Even when stopping downwards to something like f/8, your subject volition be in-focus, but much of the rest of the prototype, especially the corners, will be very much out of focus, making corner sharpness a moot bespeak.
For traditional wide-angle landscape photos, however, corner sharpness is of import and with the Laowa 15mm, this is lacking until you really stop down the lens. In a comparing test, at f/8 the cardinal area of the frame is really great, with lots of sharp detail. However, the corners are still rather soft. Stopping down further to f/sixteen, I noticed much meliorate corner sharpness, only I could tell the center sharpness dropped slightly due to diffraction -- past f/16 diffraction-related softness is really noticeable.
Vignetting is some other issue to contend with on the Laowa. At all apertures, in that location's some degree of vignetting with this lens, which isn't all that surprising given the ultra-wide focal length -- but it is something be aware of. As expected, corner shading at f/four is the most severe, which then decreases equally you stop down. With a filter attached to the front (even a "slim" style filter), I did observe an increase in vignetting.
| Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 Macro Vignetting Comparing | |
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| f/4 | |
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| f/5.6 | f/eight |
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| f/11 | f/sixteen |
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| f/22 | f/32 |
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| f/four + filter | f/eight + filter |
Laowa 15mm f/four ane:one Macro Field Test - Summary
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| Canon 5DS R: 1/160s, ISO 3200, -0.3EV |
| Here'south another photo where I didn't quite nail focus on my subject, merely I liked the shot nevertheless. When viewing this large 50MP prototype at smaller sizes, the level of detail is quite sufficient. |
Overall, the Laowa 15mm f/4 macro lens is a very unique, interesting lens. Though at times challenging to utilize successfully, it can help you lot create dramatic and really engaging macro photographs -- equally well equally general landscape photos, but I'd say its forte is much more centered around macro work. At $500, the Laowa 15mm f/iv is rather affordable. Like to fisheye lenses, in my opinion, I'k ever rather hesitant to spend big bucks on fairly niche lenses. The Laowa 15mm f/iv is a lens that I'd consider a rather niche lens, but it'due south one that won't totally break your upkeep. If you lot're a macro photography fan already, the Laowa 15mm is worth a look to expand the breadth and experience of your macro photographs.
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| Catechism 5DS R: ane/50s, ISO 100 |
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Laowa 15mm f/iv one:one Macro -- Product Overview
(From Venus Optics / Laowa lens literature) The new Laowa 15mm f/iv 1:1 Macro lens is the first lens in the market which possesses an ultra wide angle of view and one:i Macro ability. This allows photographers from around the earth to start experiencing the rather undeveloped field of "Wide Angle Macro Photography" without using an extension tube. Macro lenses currently in the market tend to have mid to long focal lengths and that limits users to taking very close-up shots of insects or flowers without showing much of the background like its habitat or surroundings.
The new Laowa 15mm f/4 1:ane Macro lens features an ultra wide bending of view of 110 degrees with 1:one maximum magnification. Photographers tin focus very shut to the subject and let the foreground boss in the photo but at the aforementioned time, have the background tell the viewer about where and how the subject area lives. Your picture show volition immediately become very informative and intriguing.
The lens can as well serve every bit an fantabulous ultra-wide angle lenses with infinity focus for cameras with total-frame sensors. A shift mechanism is added at the rear end of the lens with a maximum adjustment of +/- 6mm, which is extremely useful for mural/architecture photography for distortion correction.
The lens houses 12 elements in 9 groups with 3 Loftier Refractive elements and 1 Extra-low dispersion chemical element to deliver crystal clear sharpness both in the middle and the edges. Barrel Distortion is also advisedly controlled. 14 aperture blades form a close-to-circular aperture, capable of creating creamy bokeh. The enclosure of the lens is made of metallic to strengthen its durability. Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony A, Sony Atomic number 26 and Pentax K mounts are bachelor.
Laowa 15mm f/4 1:one Macro
Laowa 15mm f/iv 1:1 Macro User Reviews
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Source: https://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/laowa/15mm-f4-1:1-macro/review/
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