Laowa 12mm f2.8 zero distortion lens - a Samyang 14mm killer?

Guru_rb wrote in post #18028437
Whatever happened to this lens?? It has vanished from their website as well!

Another cloud funding scam from China?

Normally they don't post their new lenses on their official website until it is released (that's what happened with their 15mm lens). They promised it be available this summer, and it just started, so I wouldn't worry at this point.

Sure, i am not in rush and i can wait long, at the end i won't buy it this year, maybe next year if it is a great performance lens and the budget allowed.

The wait seems to be over:

https://www.facebook.c​om/venuslaowa/?fref=nf
http://www.sonyalpharu​mors.com …nt-lens-alunched-july-30/

The weird part is that the lens will be financed via Kickstarter.

Also strange that Sony is mentionned (2 mounts), but in the reactions on facebook they say also for Canon - Nikon

That's because this is a rumor on Sony forum.

No it's no rumour, checkout Venus Optics official FB page
https://www.facebook.c​om …aowa/?fref=nf&p​nref=story

pulsar123 wrote in post #18076256
That's because this is a rumor on Sony forum.

I know, the link is in my post above. But Venus dis post a link to the Sony rumor site, instead of their own press release, which is kind of weird.

I've just finished a review of a pre-production version of this lens if anyone is curious

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk …nses/laowa_12mm​_f2-8.html

I've still got the lens (a pre-production one) here for a while if anyone has any specific questions not covered in the review.

As to comparisons with the SY 14mm - well, I tested that a while ago and if I was shooting architecture, we're in a different league

Compare some of the shots with straight lines in them with the SY 14 - it's obvious that some very different design choices were made in the optical formula. The Laowa performs much more like my (somewhat more expensive) EF11-24 F4L

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/l​enses/samyang14.html

The Laowa is much heftier build - no plastic feel but is fully manual

Any price leak info on this yet?

$949 ot $649 for the first kickstarter subscribers
See here for the prices and first video review : http://sgmacro.blogspo​t.be/

It will be launched here this sunday 31/7 :
https://www.kickstarte​r.com/profile/laowa

So it's not so cheap like a Samyang, we have to see it more like a Sigma Art or Tokina qualitywise glass, but manual
There is some CA on the left picture of the building I noticed.

FEChariot wrote in post #18076700
Any price leak info on this yet?

CanonYouCan wrote in post #18077494
$949 ot $649 for the first kickstarter subscribers
See here for the prices and first video review : http://sgmacro.blogspo​t.be/

It will be launched here this sunday 31/7 :
https://www.kickstarte​r.com/profile/laowa

So it's not so cheap like a Samyang, we have to see it more like a Sigma Art or Tokina qualitywise glass, but manual
There is some CA on the left picture of the building I noticed.

Thanks for the info - the CA is tiny though - see the examples in the review.
The auto fix in ACR handles it perfectly if there is enough image content

keithcooper wrote in post #18076433
I've just finished a review of a pre-production version of this lens if anyone is curious

http://www.northlight-images.co.uk …nses/laowa_12mm​_f2-8.html

Thanks for the review ! I like the fact you reviewed the lens mostly in the field, with real subjects.

The ruler shots though are misleading, because lenses like this are optimized for infinity and performance at close distance may be quite lower than actual lens performance in the field. This is why most "lens chart" reviews are only useful if one is buying a lens to shoot lens charts at lens chart distance

CheshireCat wrote in post #18077878
Thanks for the review ! I like the fact you reviewed the lens mostly in the field, with real subjects.

The ruler shots though are misleading, because lenses like this are optimized for infinity and performance at close distance may be quite lower than actual lens performance in the field. This is why most "lens chart" reviews are only useful if one is buying a lens to shoot lens charts at lens chart distance

Unfortunately I didn't have a big enough ruler to hold it further away

A comparison with other shots shows that the performance at short distance is broadly similar, but you are right and I should have noted this (I'll add a note to the review - thanks)

I was hoping this lens would be a good transition lens good on both crop and FF. it's wide enough to use as an UWA on crop and even better on FF once I feel like upgrading. However at $950 it makes much less sense. It would be great at $500. For crop the Tokina 11-20 and 14-20 make more sense still.