Laowa 12mm f2.8 testing

[keithcooper]

I've currently got the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 lens here for testing (on my 5Ds). This is not a production lens so take results as FYI

Initial thoughts are that it compares well to my EF11-24 in terms of distortion and that CA (a few pixels on the 5Ds - fixed with ACR) is less than my EF14 2.8L II

I don't have the kit (or patience) for detailed optical testing, but I'll be writing up some thoughts about using the (fully manual) lens in the coming week.

A few samples showing stars, sun in the shot and straight lines at the edge of the frame.

If you look carefully at the stars one you may find a faint lens flare blob - this is from the full moon low in the south, where I'd not checked to see if it was shining on the front element. Looking towards the milky way in Cygnus/Cassiopeia - Important to note that the almost full moon is low in the SE and in the UK at the moment the sun only gets low enough for astronomical twilight (i.e. not properly dark)

The stairs shots are both @f/5.6

[NancyP]

That's pretty interesting. Thanks. How many stops worth of vignetting do you think it has?

[keithcooper]

That's pretty interesting. Thanks. How many stops worth of vignetting do you think it has?

Easily correctable in ACR, as was the small amount of CA. It's on a par with my EF11-24, but I'll not be working out stuff like that until I do the write-up.
I'm hoping to get something written up for next week.

You'll likely have to wait for the report from the lens sharpness police for full numbers and charts ;-)

[keithcooper]

Here's two shots of a translucent sheet of plastic, lenses set at infinity, as close as you can get to the sheet (lit from another diffuse light source)

EF11-24 and Laowa 12mm at f/4 

and Laowa 12mm @f4 and @f/2.8

[NancyP]

I would really be curious about the level of coma - this would be a killer lens for astro-landscape provided it didn't have huge coma "V"s in the corners at f/2.8. Astro-landscape photographers often use Samyang/Rokinon cheap manual lenses due to the coma-low design. I have the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 - horrid mustache distortion, but that doesn't matter all that much for many landscape uses.

[keithcooper]

I would really be curious about the level of coma - this would be a killer lens for astro-landscape provided it didn't have huge coma "V"s in the corners at f/2.8. Astro-landscape photographers often use Samyang/Rokinon cheap manual lenses due to the coma-low design. I have the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 - horrid mustache distortion, but that doesn't matter all that much for many landscape uses.

See the stars photo above - I've a few others, but the results are similar.

As a daytime architectural photographer, I'll take a well controlled rectilinear lens please ;-)

[keithcooper]

I've now written up the review - hope it's of interest!

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/lenses/laowa_12mm_f2-8.html

I've avoided too much technical analysis, since it's not a production lens - I believe it will be formally announced this week.

It's still here for a while if anyone has any specific questions not covered in the review.

[Paul2660]

Based the stars shot coma is pretty intense at the sides.

How do you like the lens for daytime shots

Corner to corner sharpness and hyper focal range?

Thanks
Paul C

[keithcooper]

Based the stars shot coma is pretty intense at the sides.
How do you like the lens for daytime shots
Corner to corner sharpness and hyper focal range?

Thanks
Paul C

Daytime - see the examples in the review. Works a treat at 5.6/8
I don't think you'd necessarily us it for fast wide astro work.
This is a lens I'd pick for it's overall quality - not up to my 11-24, but that's a rather pricy difference ;-)
Hyperfocal range is something I'd generally ignore (see the mentions and links in the review), but at 12mm focal length there is no shortage of DOF
Corners - see the ruler photos and detail from photos of the print.