Hands-on Review

https://www.cinema5d.com/laowa-12mm-f2-8-zero-d-hands-on-review-and-comparison/

Review

Review

http://www.popphoto.com/lens-review-venus-optics-laowa-12mm-f-28-zero-d

UK PR

UK Optics are pleased to announce the unique long awaited Laowa 12mm F/2.8 Zero D wide angle lens. Designed for Full Frame cameras and with almost Invisible distortion, superb optical quality & compact in size, a prime manual focus lens with a metal alloy construction all add to the appeal of this lens.

Optical performance is never compromised so the optical design features 16 glass elements in 10 groups with 3 Extra-Low Dispersion elements and 2 Aspherical elements producing superb images. This patented optical design delivers high resolution images from corner to corner, even at wide open (f/2.8) situation. Chromatic Aberration has also been controlled to the minimum.

LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D adopts a floating optical design to ensure an exceptional sharpness not only at infinity focus, but also in close focusing distance. Along with 18cm minimal focusing distance and 0.2x Maximum magnification.

LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D Lens covers a ultra-wide 122° angle of view to create an outstanding landscape or architecture shot that no other competitors can compare. Shooting interior shots will also become much easier without the ugly distortion effects that other ultra wide angle lenses normally produce. Do not forget, this is also the world’s widest rectilinear f/2.8 lens full frame lens.

Ultra Wide Angle Lenses are one of the most important lenses that every photographer should have one in his camera bag. There are a lot of wide angle lenses in the market, offering from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds. However, these UWA lenses are not perfect. They suffer from dramatic barrel distortion (2-5%), poor peripheral sharpness or have a huge physical size. Laowa have therefore spend a lot of time in research and development to come up with a design which is truly perfect to overcome the frustration of photographers. That’s where the LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D truly comes in to it’s own.

The Laowa 12mm F/2.8 ZERO-D lens will be available in Canon EF, Nikon AI, Sony A, Pentax K and Sony E mounts.

The Laowa 12mm F/2.8 ZERO-D lens will be available in Canon EF, Nikon AI, Sony A, Pentax K and Sony E mounts at the end of November 2016

Exciting to read they're bringing out an adapter soon to create a 17mm f4 TS! As that has been one of the holes in Nikon's line up vs Canon, the lack of a Tilt Shift that is wider than 24mm

A unique lens, well made, with extraordinary performance.

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/venus-laowa-12mm-f-2-8-review-29779

Review

Laowa promises zero distortion images. That is stretching things slightly. However, we measured a barrel distortion of just 1.1% which is still minimal for such a lens really.

The center performance is nothing short of outstanding straight from f/2.8 whereas the outer image region is soft at this setting. The corners/borders improve the more you stop down and they reach good to very good levels at medium apertures with a peak at f/8.

http://www.photozone.de/canon_eos_ff/981-laowa105f2stf

More info