‘GETTING WIDE IN NYC’ - Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D Review

I’ve had a long standing affection for shooting wides; whether it’s overlooking a city lit by row upon row of miniature skyscraper windows, an infinite landscape or a building interior which looks like it belongs in a Steven Spielberg movie, there’s something very special about being able shoot a scene close to how the eyes perceives it.

I blame ‘Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul’ creator Vince Gilligan for this obsession with wide angle; I remember seeing countless expansive wide shots of Albuquerque in those shows and just sitting there in awe with how epic they looked. Jump forward a few years and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on the small but mighty Venus Laowa 7.5mm f/2 Ultra-Wide (15mm Full-Frame equivalent) for my Lumix GH5, and it quickly became one of my go to lenses for both video and photos.

Laowa are a relatively new and fresh Chinese lens manufacturer who in recent years have turned a lot of heads. They develop very unique lenses at some very interesting focal lengths, with ingenious design elements. For example they created a 24mm Macro Prob Lens with a built in light and waterproof barrel; great for a range of wildlife and commercial / product applications, this lens can literally reach angles other macros can’t even get near! Another one of their products is a 15mm Wide Angle Macro lens (think about that for a second, a lens with a massive field of view and able to shoot super close-up). That is what I and countless others love about this company, they are producing lenses that offer videographers and photographers a way of truly seeing the world from a completely different perspective, something that goes hand in hand with my shooting style.

Build & handling

I was lucky enough that Jimmy from Laowa was kind enough to send over copy of their 12mm Zero-D f/2.8 just in time for me to test on a trip to New York in March (literally just before COVID hit). DISCLAIMER - This isn’t a paid review or anything like that, they are just a really great bunch of guys who love sharing their passion for photography with fellow creatives!

The copy I was sent was a Pentax K Mount, which was easy to adapt to fit the Lumix S1 L-Mount due to the manual nature of the lens (no electronic contacts here); for this I used the Haoge mount adapter. The adapter did introduce a minuscule amount of play in the lens, something you wouldn’t have if mounting this lens natively onto one of the supported systems; however as someone who is used to adapting and shooting with old vintage full-manual lenses the small amount of play didn’t really phase me.

One of the many reasons I shoot Lumix is because their cameras are so robust, I’ve shot in all weather conditions with them and they’ve never let me down, they feel almost like military grade gear, giving me total peace of mind; which is why it’s great to have companies like Venus Laowa building lenses to match this construction quality (something which can’t be said for a lot of third party lens manufacturers). Like my much loved 7.5mm lens the 12mm is built like an absolute tank, reminiscent of classic Zeiss and Canon FD lenses. Whether you’re shooting in the desert or sub-arctic conditions I would have absolutely no reservations about packing the 12mm or any of Laowa’s other great products, they just feel built to last.

With a full metal body and coming in at roughly 600g this lens has a nice weight to it; I’m not particularly a tripod guy (never take one when I’m shooting abroad) and sometimes, especially with larger cameras (the S1 being one of the largest mirrorless bodies on the market) the lens to body weight ratio can feel completely ‘off’ and unnatural, meaning it simply does not feel comfortable in the hand, not the case with this combo. I shot with the S1 and Laowa 12mm for hours on end in New York, with absolutely no problems at all.

Whilst I love the 7.5mm, I have found that in colder conditions, the smaller design (and my big hands), has lead to the aperture and focus rings being a touch fiddly to operate. That was not an issue with the 12mm at all! I was able to fully operate both rings, with and without gloves, whilst shooting the sunset from Top of the Rockefeller, where as the sun went down the temperature dropped pretty drastically.

Like any wide-angle lens the front element is curved, as part of their rugged design Laowa have built a mini fixed metal hood into the body which helps to protect the element from any bumps and scratches. The lens also comes with a removable lens hood, which is also made from metal and can be reversed to store on the lens when not shooting. With the high quality construction, robust materials and nice little design features, everything about this lens feels premium.

The only negative I’ve found so far with the build, is that the plastic lens cap did not want to stay on at all (but I rarely get on with lens caps when travelling around as it is) and of course the fact that there isn’t a native option for L-Mount, something which I’m sure the geniuses at Laowa are working on 😉.

‘Full-Manual Jacket’

Whilst the lens is certainly versatile in it’s design, it wont be for every shooter; due to it being a full manual lens there are no electronic communication elements, meaning no auto-focus or image stabilisation. As someone who never uses AF and has been shooting with old manual lenses for many years this doesn’t bother me in the slightest; the punch in to focus and focus peaking settings on the S1 have me covered for my shooting needs, along with the cameras in body image stabilisation (IBIS). I’ve seen plenty of fantastic work done with this lens mounted on various handheld gimbals, so don’t let the lack of IS put you off if you’re a video shooter.

Along with nice clear, bold distance markings on the barrel of the lens, the aperture and focus rings are nice and sturdy with the right level of resistance to allow for smooth and accurate operation; with approximately 180 degrees of focus throw and a hard stop at infinity, even when I was shooting some fast paced street action with this lens, I never really missed a shot, as it’s so smooth and precise to handle.

It’s also worth noting that the lens has what Laowa call a ‘frog eye’ coating on the front element, which is supposed to repel dust and moisture; during my time with the lens I only shot in some mild rain, but I have to say, even when shooting blue skies later that day, I had no issues with any watermarks or dust on the lens, which is reassuring.

Who’s this for?

So let’s talk real world uses for a minute, who is this lens for? What are the applications that require such a wide field of view? Whilst you could in theory shoot portraits on this lens, it definitely wouldn’t be your go to lens for the job.

From my own tests and seeing other (far more skilled) photographers and videographers put this beast through it’s paces, it’s safe to say where this lens is really going to excel is in applications such as landscape photography; I wish I had this lens for my visit to the Dolomites last year, it would’ve been perfect to capture the expansive row upon row of mountains in the region. So if you’re shooting vast landscapes, definitely see if you can try out the 12mm and if you shoot with filters, then not to worry, as although you can’t mount filters to it natively straight out of the box, Laowa do offer filter adapters for the 12mm for both circular and square filter systems.

Architecture is something which the field of view of the 12mm absolutely nails; there are perspectives and compositions I would not have been able to get with anything other than the 12mm. This lens with minimal distortion really does help give these architectural monuments the justice they deserve and for those who specialise in architecture Laowa have also developed a Magic Shift Converter, which in essence is a tilt shift adapter that sits on the back of the lens and allows the shooter to make those keystone angle adjustments.

Naturally due to the benefits this lens has with architecture it would be perfect for people who shoot real estate content. But there’s one more application I must admit I had never really thought about and that was street photography. Normally I’d stick to a zoom lens or a longer prime, but to my surprise I actually found there were a lot of possibilities when it came to shooting street scenes with the field of view of the 12mm. Infinite avenues filled with bright yellow taxis and flanked by high-rise buildings, with hundreds of people going about their day to day business made for some interesting and some of my favourite shots.

Unfortunately due to the current pandemic I haven’t had a chance to test out the 12mm with Astrophotography as of yet, but I’ve seen the lens in the hands of some very good Astrophotographers and the results are absolutely breathtaking, if you prefer to look up to the stars then this lens is definitely worth trying out on your chosen camera system!

Image quality

Often with wide angled lenses, whilst the field of view is at first impressive, the list of cons that come along with it, just aren’t worth the fuss. That’s not the case with the Laowa 12mm, whilst there is a tiny bit of distortion and vignetting at the corners under certain conditions, the image remains pin sharp across the frame (and that’s even with the small amount of tolerance introduced by the third party mount adapter). The small amount of vignetting was easy to rectify in Lightroom by going +5 on the vignette slider, however I quite often add a small amount of vignetting to my images in post anyway, and still had to add to get the desired results.

The slight distortion is expected with a lens this wide, and whilst there is a slight elongating effect in the corners in certain shots (normally caused when angling the camera rather than shooting straight on), to me it is much more aesthetically appealing (and easier to counter in post) than the curved fish-eye effects present in many wide angle lenses and what’s also evident is that lines stay vertical and true.

In most cases during my time with the lens I was shooting between f5.6 and f8, which when paired with the Lumix S1’s 24 Megapixel sensor, offered amazing sharpness across the frame (see below for zoom-in comparison). Usually wide lenses suffer with softness issues in the corners, none of that here with the 12mm Zero-D (again don’t forget this lens has also been adapted to fit a different mount) impressive stuff.

On the odd occasion where I was short for light and needed to open the lens up fully to f2.8, the image was still nice and crisp, it just took a touch more precision with nailing focus (thank you Lumix focus peaking!), it’s nice to know that if needed the image is useable when shooting wide open.

Nothing but absolute sharpness across the frame!

Conclusion

If you’re in the market for a wide angle lens that offers super high IQ, rivalling (and often beating) much more expensive wide angle options, then I would recommend taking a look at the 12mm or one of Laowa’s other wide angle options. The build quality and handling feels closer to a cinema line of lenses, which is refreshing when it comes from a relatively new third party lens manufacturer these days.

I’m so grateful for the team over at Laowa, for not only loaning me a copy of the 12mm f2.8 Zero-D, but for also creating such high quality lenses, they are so passionate about what they do, finding new and inventive angles along the way, making it easier (and a lot more fun!) for me to shoot the way I love to shoot. On top of their great and unique products Laowa also have a great social media community of shooters who are more than happy to offer advice to all levels of shooters, along with regular, free live streams and Q&As with top Macro Photographers.

Earlier in the review I mentioned who this lens is good for and there is one more group that I would like to mention, one that I have found myself in on a number of occassions - and that is any photographer or videographer finding themselves in a creative rut. I urge you to try out a Laowa lens (not just the 12mm) have some fun, view unique perspectives and change the way you see the world!

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Specs

Focal length: 12mm
Aperture range: f/2.8 - f/22
Minimum focus distance: 0.18m
16 elements in 10 groups
121.96 degrees field of view
Dimensions: 74.8mm x 82.8mm
Weight: 609g
£899

Available in Canon, Nikon, Sony A, Sony E, and Pentax mount. Includes Lens cap, rear lens cap, lens hood

Optional 95mm Filter Adapter and Magic Shift Converter are also available

Check out the 12mm f/2.8 and Laowa’s other great lenses at www.venuslens.net

Image Gallery

Please see below for some more sample images using the Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero-D mounted on the Lumix S1.

WILL YOU BE ADDING A LAOWA TO YOUR CAMERA GEAR?

Have you tried any of Laowa’s amazing line of lenses yet? Do you have any questions about this lens, any of Laowa’s others awesome products or the Lumix S1? If so drop me a comment in the section below and I’ll get back to you.