Last week I shared my review of the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 lens, which is an impressive ultra-wide angle rectilinear lens for micro four thirds cameras.
Alongside this lens I have also been using the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D lens. Again it's an ultra-wide angle rectilinear lens. It's even better.
Zero-D stand for zero distrotions. (Well 0.2% to be exact.) It's a massively impressive performance for such a wide angle lens - virtually no chromatic aberration or barrel distortion.
Position the camera level with you subject and straight lines are straight. Architecture photographers are very well catered for with the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D lens.
What is more, detail is pin sharp, with only a minimal fall-off in corner detail at f/2.8.
Again, there is no full-frame lens as wide and fast as the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D.
Again, it's manual focus only and does not have weather sealing or image stabilisation.
It’s very difficult to obtain critical focusing without using focus magnification through live view. However, with the focus distance set to infinity when using apertures of f/8 to f/22, one can be sure that virtually everything is in focus. In this regard the user can just point and shoot.
None-the-less, the all-metal lens is solidly made, is well balanced on any full-frame DSLR and handles beautifully.
At £899 it's right up against the Samyang 14mm f/2.4 manual focus lens. I have not compared the two or indeed against lenses like the Sigma 12-24mm f/4 ART.
What I do know though, is that this lens is brilliant and has expanded my astrophotography horizons.
Read my full review here.
All pictures below are taken with the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D lens mounted to a Nikon D800
