{"id":1344,"date":"2021-12-10T10:21:36","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T15:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2021\/12\/10\/laowa-7-5mm-f-2-mft-review\/"},"modified":"2021-12-10T10:21:36","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T15:21:36","slug":"laowa-7-5mm-f-2-mft-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2021\/12\/10\/laowa-7-5mm-f-2-mft-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

What is the Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT?<\/h2>\n

The Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT is a fixed focal length, wide-angle lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras, with entirely manual focusing and aperture setting. It\u2019s available in black or silver finishes for \u00a3499. For more information see\u00a0https:\/\/www.laowalens.co.uk\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Laowa might not be the best-known brand when it comes to third-party lenses, but it\u2019s rapidly establishing a reputation for interesting and innovative optics. Here we\u2019re looking at a compact, large-aperture, ultra-wide-angle prime for Micro Four Thirds mirrorless cameras: the whimsically named \u00a3499 Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2018Compact Dreamer\u2019. With a 110-degree angle of view, it\u2019s the widest-angle fixed focal length optic for Micro Four Thirds that provides a rectilinear perspective (in other words, straight lines towards the edge of the frame are rendered as such). It\u2019s also the widest with an aperture of f\/2 or larger.<\/p>\n

Related: Best cameras<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2013 Features<\/h2>\n

With an angle of view equivalent to 15mm on full frame, the Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 measures 50mm in diameter by 55mm in length, and weighs a mere 170g in its standard version. Venus Optics also makes a lightweight version designed for aerial photography that has a further 20g shaved off the weight, for a \u00a320 premium. Given that every gram saved represents increased endurance for drone users, this looks like a smart move on the firm\u2019s part.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
The lens is made for Micro Four Thirds cameras only<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite its compact size, the lens incorporates 13 elements arranged in nine groups, including two aspherical elements and three made of extra-low-dispersion glass. The front element is treated with the charmingly named Frog Eye Coating, which is presumably designed to be water-repellent. The aperture diaphragm has seven blades, and the minimum focus distance is a mere 12cm.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
The petal-type hood bayonets onto the front of the lens<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both focusing and aperture setting are manual, controlled by traditional analogue rings around the lens barrel. At the front you\u2019ll find a 46mm thread (a size that\u2019s shared with several other small Micro Four Thirds primes), making this the widest Micro Four Thirds lens to accept screw-in filters. It\u2019s joined by a bayonet mount for the supplied petal-type hood, which twists into place with a quarter-turn, and can be stored snugly reversed over the barrel.<\/p>\n

Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2013 Build and handling<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s no disputing that the Laowa is a nicely built little lens, with an attractive cosmetic design and robust-feeling metal barrel. Some of the firm\u2019s previous designs have been decidedly utilitarian, but its quality of fit and finish seems to be going up all the time. Our silver-coloured review sample was a perfect aesthetic match to my silver Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II<\/a>, and a black-barrelled version is also available.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
Our review sample was a perfect match for my silver Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that the lens isn\u2019t described as weatherproof, and there\u2019s no seal around the lens mount. The lens itself has no electronics, so there isn\u2019t much that can go wrong if it gets wet \u2013 but obviously, the same can\u2019t be said of the camera. This is a bit of a shame, since I suspect a lot of landscape photographers might be attracted to such a portable, ultra wide-angle prime.<\/p>\n

A broad manual focus ring covers most of the barrel, and has a finely ridged grip. It offers fairly stiff resistance, meaning it\u2019s unlikely to get knocked out of position, but it\u2019s still smooth enough to allow precise manual focusing. The lens uses a rear-focus system, so doesn\u2019t change length as the focus ring is rotated through its 100-degree travel.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
The manual focus ring falls perfectly to hand, with the aperture ring behind it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The much slimmer aperture ring is positioned close to the camera body, and clicks at the whole-stop positions (there\u2019s no way to disable this for video shooting, presumably due to the barrel\u2019s compact size). Unusually, the gaps between the settings aren\u2019t evenly spaced; instead, ever-smaller rotations are needed between the smaller apertures. This means that while you can easily select intermediate settings to begin with, it\u2019s pretty much impossible from f\/8 onwards.<\/p>\n

The focus ring has a distance scale in both metres and feet, and rotates fractionally beyond the infinity position, which on my review sample was accurately marked. There\u2019s also a depth-of-field scale with markings for f\/2.8, f\/4, f\/5.6 and f\/11. But all of the numbers are painted on, rather than engraved, so there\u2019s some risk they might wear off over time.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
The lens has no electronic contacts for passing data to the camera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since the lens has no electronics, it can\u2019t communicate any information to the camera. So you won\u2019t see any lens data in the EXIF, or the current aperture in the viewfinder while you\u2019re shooting. Instead, you\u2019ll have to refer to the aperture ring, or count clicks as you make changes. On cameras with in-body stabilisation, you\u2019ll also have to set the focal length manually for the IS to work properly. With Panasonic bodies, you\u2019ll also need to enable the \u2018Shoot without lens\u2019 setting.<\/p>\n

Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2013\u00a0Focusing<\/h2>\n

When using a manual focus lens, it\u2019s important to get your focusing technique polished. You\u2019ll always get most accurate focus using magnified view, but since this won\u2019t be engaged automatically when you turn the lens\u2019 focus ring, it\u2019s best to allocate it to an easily reached custom button (on the E-M5 II, I use the top-plate Fn2 button). Alternatively, you can enable focus peaking, but with this type of wide-angle lens you\u2019re likely to get distracting highlighted edges across much of the image.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa<\/a>
This lens brings huge depth of field, but you still need to focus for subjects close to the camera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Naturally, though, with a 7.5mm prime on Micro Four Thirds you\u2019ll get extensive depth of field, so a lot of the time I simply left the lens set to f\/5.6 and the infinity focus position. It\u2019s then only really necessary to adjust focus for subjects a metre away or closer.<\/p>\n

Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2013\u00a0Performance<\/h2>\n

For \u00a3499, the Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 isn\u2019t exactly a cheap and cheerful option. Thankfully, its optical quality goes a long way to justify the price. Images taken on my E-M5 Mark II were dizzyingly sharp in the centre of the frame wide open at f\/2, with barely any visible improvement on stopping down.<\/p>\n

\"Lawoa<\/a>
Even at f\/2, the Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT gives impressively sharp detail in the centre of the frame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not surprisingly, the corners don\u2019t reach the same heights, but they sharpen up quite nicely as the aperture is closed down. There\u2019s a degree of curvature of field, which means that real-world three-dimensional scenes tend to look better than chart tests might suggest \u2013 indeed, in side-by-side tests, I found the Laowa to be consistently sharper than my Olympus 7-14mm f\/2.8 Pro. By f\/5.6. This is an entirely sensible working aperture on Micro Four Thirds; you\u2019ll get pretty crisp detail right across the frame.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa<\/a>
The Laowa 7.5mm d\/2 MFT gives really sharp images when stopped down; this was shot at f\/4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other optical characteristics are typical of wide-angle primes. The lens shows obvious barrel distortion, but it can be fixed by applying a correction value of +10 in Adobe Camera Raw. You\u2019ll also see green and magenta fringing towards the corners due to lateral chromatic aberration, but while this will be visible in out-of-camera JPEGs, it\u2019s a trivial one-click fix in raw processing. Perhaps more vexing to some users will be the vignetting, which is prominent in images at f\/2, and never entirely goes away on stopping down. But, again, it can be compensated for in software when it\u2019s detrimental to the image.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa<\/a>
This image illustrates the lens\u2019 barrel distortion \u2013 look at the girder towards the top of the frame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Laowa<\/a>
Here I fixed the distortion by applying +10 correction in Adobe Camera Raw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One important aspect of ultra wide-angle lenses is flare resistance, as the sun will quite often be either in the frame or impinging on the front element. For the most part I saw little to worry about, but when the sun is placed across narrow range of angles within the frame, an intense red flare pattern can appear diametrically opposite it.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa<\/a>
A bright red flare spot can appear opposite bright light sources in some conditions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As usual, this pattern becomes more delineated at small apertures, but it isn\u2019t necessarily unattractive. Stop down to f\/8 or smaller and you can get nice 14-ray sunstars from the lens\u2019 seven-bladed aperture.<\/p>\n

Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2013 Sharpness<\/h3>\n

Our Image Engineering MTF50 measurements reveal the lens to be staggeringly sharp in the centre of the frame wide open. There\u2019s just a fractional improvement at f\/2.8, with diffraction progressively softening things thereafter. Corners are a very different story, but they give perfectly respectable results from f\/5.6 to f\/11.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa<\/p>\n

Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2013 Shading<\/h3>\n

The lens shows pretty severe vignetting wide open, with 1.5 stops of light fall-off in the corners of the frame. This reduces slowly as the aperture is closed down, but only drops below 1 stop at f\/5.6. At f\/8 it falls to around 0.8 stops, but doesn\u2019t reduce any further at smaller apertures.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT shading at f\/2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT shading at f\/8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT \u2013 Distortion<\/h3>\n

As tends to be the case with wide-angle lenses, the Laowa 7.5mm shows quite obvious barrel distortion. With no electronics onboard to pass lens data to the camera, it isn\u2019t automatically corrected either \u2013 unlike many other Micro Four Thirds lenses. But this being a prime, it\u2019s entirely predictable from shot to shot, making it relatively easy to correct in post-processing.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT Distortion. SMIA TV = -1.9% (barrel-type)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Should I buy the Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT?<\/h2>\n

With the Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT, Venus Optics has made a neat little lens that has a lot to recommend it. It\u2019s small, lightweight, nicely built and handles well. Optically it\u2019s really good too, especially when stopped down to f\/5.6. Some might be deterred by its fully manual operation, but this didn\u2019t bother me at all; a lot of the time I simply left it set to infinity focus and f\/5.6.<\/p>\n

\"Laowa
Laowa\u2019s tiny 7.5mm f\/2 will fit into the palm of your hand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The real question for potential buyers, I suspect, is whether there\u2019s a hole in their kit that can be filled by this kind of ultra wide-angle prime. For the majority of photographers, one of the Olympus or Panasonic autofocus zooms would likely be a more practical wide-angle option, especially since there\u2019s a huge gap in angle between 7.5mm and a 12mm standard zoom.<\/p>\n

But the tiny Laowa would be a great choice for those who prefer shooting with a collection of small primes, and a great complement to classic compact Micro Four Thirds primes such as the Olympus 12mm f\/2, 17mm f\/1.8 and 45mm f\/1.8, or the Panasonic 15mm f\/1.7, 25mm f\/1.4.<\/p>\n

Verdict<\/h2>\n

If you shoot subjects such as landscape or architecture, like to use filters and are happy to post-process raw files, the Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT is a great little lens.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Laowa 7.5mm f\/2 MFT Review<\/a> appeared first on Trusted Reviews<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Author: Andy Westlake
\nThis article comes from Trusted Reviews<\/i> and can be read on the original site.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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