Laowa 10mm f/4

Manual-Focus Mirrorless APS-C 109º Ultra-Ultrawide

For Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony, Fuji & LEICA L

Is it a Cookie or a Pancake?

Sample Images   Intro   New   Good   Bad   Missing

Specifications   Performance   Recommendations

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C

Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/4 (also comes in black, 37mm filters, 4.6 oz./130 g, 0.3'/0.1m close focus, 0.15× macro ratio, $299 for Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony, Fuji and LEICA L). bigger. I'd get mine at Adorama or at B&H, or used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.

This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.

 

August 2022   Better Pictures   Canon  Nikon   Sony   Fuji   LEICA   Zeiss   HASSELBLAD   Laowa   all reviews

How to Use Ultrawide Lenses

Why Fixed Lenses Take Better Pictures

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C

Laowa 10mm f/4 on Fuji XT-30. bigger.

 

Sample Images       top

Sample Images   Intro   New   Good   Bad   Missing

Specifications   Performance   Recommendations

More samples throughout this review at Falloff, Macro and Sunstars.

These are just snapshots; my real work is in my Gallery.

These are all shot hand-held as NORMAL JPGs; no tripods, FINE JPGs or RAW files were used or needed.

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

8334, near Cowles Mountain, 10:41 AM, Tuesday, 12 April 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 10mm f/4 at about f/11 at 1/220 at Auto ISO 320, Auto Dynamic Range 200%, Perfectly Clear, perspective correction in Photoshop CS6. bigger or camera-original 26 MP © JPG file (11 MB).

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

NO LOUD MUSIC, Cowles Mountain, 11:09 AM, Tuesday, 12 April 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 10mm f/4 at about f/11 at 1/125 at Auto ISO 320, Auto Dynamic Range 200%, Luminar Aurora HDR, perspective correction in Photoshop CS6. bigger.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

México with my Finger in the Lower Right Corner, 12:08 PM, Tuesday, 12 April 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 10mm f/4 wide-open at f/4 at 1/15 hand-held at Auto ISO 1,600, Perfectly Clear, perspective correction in Photoshop CS6. bigger.

This lens is so tiny and so wide you may get finger self-portraits.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

Soulgrind PB, 2:34 PM, Thursday, 23 June 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 10mm f/4 at about f/11 at 1/105 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, Perfectly Clear. bigger.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

PB Pier, 2:54 PM, Thursday, 23 June 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 10mm f/4 at about f/11 at 1/210 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, perspective correction in Photoshop CS6, Perfectly Clear. bigger.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

Crystal Pier, 2:56 PM, Thursday, 23 June 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 10mm f/4 at f/11 at 1/250 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, perspective correction in Photoshop CS6, Perfectly Clear. bigger.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

Under the PB Pier, 3:00 PM, Thursday, 23 June 2022. Fuji XT-30, cloudy white balance, Laowa 10mm f/4 at about f/8 at 1/30 at Auto ISO 500, perspective correction in Photoshop CS6, Luminar Aurora HDR. bigger.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

Barber Shop, PB, 3:09 PM, Thursday, 23 June 2022. Fuji XT-30, 7700º Kelvin white balance, Laowa 10mm f/4 at f/11 at 1/15 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, Perfectly Clear. bigger.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C Sample Image File

Seven Palms Oasis at 110º F (43º C), 6:55 PM, Wednesday, 13 July 2022. Fuji XT-30 at 7700º Kelvin white balance, Laowa 10mm f/4 at f/8 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, Luminar Aurora HDR. bigger.

 

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Introduction       top

Sample Images   Intro   New   Good   Bad   Missing

Specifications   Performance   Recommendations

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This Laowa 10mm is an ultra-compact ultra-wide lens for mirrorless APS-C cameras. It comes in silver or black and in mounts for Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony, Fuji and LEICA L.

This is a very basic manual-focus, manual diaphragm lens for people who enjoy all the extra work involved with fiddling with adapted manual lenses. For someone like me who just wants to shoot this lens is a pain, requiring much more work to fiddle with the diagram and focus manually take each and every picture.

Not only is focus always manual, one has to open the diaphragm manually for precise manual magnified focus, and then stop it down manually by either looking at the scale on the lens or counting clicks for each and every shot. Worse, the focus scale calibration is off on both samples I tried, so while the easiest way is to focus this ultrawide lens is by guessing the distance and setting it on the distance scale, with this lens you'll have to see where infinity actually falls with your sample, and put a mark on your lens or remember that index point for accurate distance scale setting. On both the silver and black samples I tried the true focus index was halfway between the actual mark and the right f/4 depth-of-field index. This is called scale-focusing and was a big thing back in the 1950s, and still is today for some LEICA shooters.

This lens has such huge depth-of-field at every aperture that you usually can set it to 2 meters (6 feet) and everything will be in focus unless you need to get closer than arm's length.

There is no electronic or mechanical communication of any kind with the camera, so none of the automatic diaphragm, autofocus, automatic lens aberration correction and EXIF data transfer we take for granted with modern lenses is happening with this special-effects lens.

While having modern optics, its mount is straight out of the 1960s. It's all-metal with engraved markings (good), but sadly has no communication of any kind with the camera, mechanical, electrical or electronic. It's just optics in a barrel with a manual iris. There isn't even a preset ring, popular in the 1960s for telephoto lenses, to let us open and close the lens quickly to a preset aperture; it's just one manual iris ring.

While its optics are probably very good, in reality it's unlikely that this lens' rear nodal point will be in the right spot for the flattest field and sharpest corners with your camera. With my Fuji XT-30 the corners are always softer than I'd expect from a camera-brand lens. This is usually because one needs lenses optimized to the sensors used by each maker. Consumers don't realize that every sensor uses a microlens array to optimize sensitivity, noise and high ISOs. Microlenses are tiny lenses for each sensor well (pixel) that lets it collect more light than it would by itself. Each of these millions of microlenses are focused expecting the light to come from the back of a camera lens from a certain point, called the camera lens' rear nodal point.

Microlenses have been around decades longer than digital cameras. They help make cameras as sensitive as they are, however small ultrawide lenses like this that aren't optimized for one brand of camera usually have their rear nodal point closer to the sensor, so off in the far corners the incoming rays are usually more acute than the angles for which the microlenses are optimized, and this leads to the corner softness I see when adapting any great ultrawide, like the LEICA 21mm lenses, to any of today's mirrorless cameras. It's the same with this lens; it never gets completely sharp in the corners. I explore this here where I show that while the extraordinarily sharp, reference-grade LEICA SUPER-ELMAR-M 21mm f/3.4 ASPH looks great when shot on a LEICA M camera optimized for it, it looks awful when adapted to a Sony camera.

If you count pixels don't expect this tiny lens to look as sharp in the corners as a camera brand lens, while it works fine for actual shooting.

I'd get my tiny metal ultrawide 10mm f/4 at Adorama or at B&H, or used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.

 

New       intro       top

blue ball icon © KenRockwell.com Possibly the smallest ultra-ultrawide for mirrorless cameras.

 

Good       intro       top

green ball icon © KenRockwell.com Tiny!

green ball icon © KenRockwell.com Ultra-ultrawide.

green ball icon © KenRockwell.com Low distortion.

green ball icon © KenRockwell.com All-metal construction.

green ball icon © KenRockwell.com All markings are engraved into the metal and filled with paint. These won't ever rub off.

green ball icon © KenRockwell.com Real mechanical manual focus ring with real instant manual-focus override, even if the power is off. Just move the ring and the focus follows.

 

Bad       intro       top

red ball icon © KenRockwell.com Primitive manual ergonomics:

      red ball icon © KenRockwell.com Manual focus.

      red ball icon © KenRockwell.com Manual diaphragm control; won't open for focus by itself.

      red ball icon © KenRockwell.com No automatic aperure control for exposure.

      red ball icon © KenRockwell.com No automatic lens aberration corrections.

      red ball icon © KenRockwell.com No EXIF data to know at what aperture you shot.

red ball icon © KenRockwell.com Sloppy production tolerances lead to inaccurate focus scale calibration. Both samples I tried focus past infinity when set to infinity.

red ball icon © KenRockwell.com Probably not super sharp in the corners, depending on how well the lens integrates with your camera's sensor.

 

Missing       intro       top

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No autofocus.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No focus distance clicks to simplify scale-focussing.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No automatic lens aberration corrections.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No automatic diaphragm control to open the diaphragm for precise focus.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No automatic diaphragm control for exposure.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No EXIF data to know at what aperture you shot.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No Image Stabilization.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No infra-red focus index.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com Curiously no f/22 marks on the depth-of-field scale.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No footage distance scale; meters only.

gray ball icon © KenRockwell.com No communication of any kind with any camera.

 

Specifications       top

Sample Images   Intro   New   Good   Bad   Missing

Specifications   Performance   Recommendations

 

I'd get my tiny metal ultrawide 10mm f/4 at Adorama or at B&H, or used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.

 

Name       specifications       top

Venus Laowa CF 10mm f/4 Cookie.

 

Optics       specifications       top

Laowa 10mm f/4 Internal Optical Construction

Laowa 10mm f/4 Internal Optical Construction. Ultra-High Refractive Index, Glass Aspherical and ED elements.

12 elements in 8 groups.

Retrofocus ultrawide.

4 ED elements: magic Extra-low Dispersion glass for reduced axial secondary chromatic aberration.

2 Glass Aspherical elements.

2 Ultra-High Refractive Index elements to allow such a short focal length and wide angle a tiny lens.

Unit focusing.

Multicoated.

 

Diaphragm       specifications       top

5 straight blades.

Full-stop clicks to f/22.

Totally manual operation. No electronic control, no electronic communication and not even so much as a preset ring to help you.

 

Filters       specifications       top

Metal 37mm filter thread.

 

Coverage       specifications       top

APS-C (16 × 24mm).

 

Focal Length       specifications       top

10 mm.

When used on an APS-C camera, it sees the same angle of view as a 15 mm lens sees when used on a full-frame or 35mm camera.

See also Crop Factor.

 

Angle of View       specifications       top

109º diagonal on APS-C.

 

Focus       specifications       top

Conventional unit focus; the optics ride in and out on a helicoid as you turn the focus ring.

 

Focus Scale       specifications       top

Yes.

 

Infinity Focus Stop       specifications       top

Not really.

It has a stop, but it's past infinity. Samples may vary.

You have to focus somehow to get precise focus at infinity, just like at every other distance.

 

Depth of Field Scale       specifications       top

Yes.

 

Infrared Focus Index       specifications       top

No.

 

Close Focus (distance from subject to image plane)       specifications       top

0.3 feet (0.1 meters).

 

Maximum Reproduction Ratio       specifications       top

1:6.67 (0.15 ×).

 

Image Stabilizer       specifications       top

NONE, but should work with in-camera stabilization.

 

Size       specifications       top

2.35" ø maximum diameter × 0.98" extension from flange.

59.8 mm ø maximum diameter × 25 mm extension from flange.

 

Weight       specifications       top

4.6 oz. (130 g).

 

Quality       specifications       top

Made domestically in China.

 

Announced       specifications       top

Tuesday, 19 July 2022.

 

Price, U. S. A.       specifications       top

July ~ August 2022

$299.

 

Performance       top

Sample Images   Intro   New   Good   Bad   Missing

Specifications   Performance   Recommendations

 

Overall   Focus   Breathing   Bokeh   Distortion

Ergonomics   Falloff   Filters   Flare & Ghosts

Lateral Color Fringes   Lens Corrections   Macro

Mechanics   Sharpness   Stabilization   Sunstars

 

I'd get my tiny metal ultrawide 10mm f/4 at Adorama or at B&H, or used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.

 

Overall       performance       top

This is a little lens with primitive ergonomics that's fun to take along for special ultrawide effects.

 

Focus       performance       top

Focus is manual, only.

 

Focus Breathing       performance       top

Focus breathing is the image changing size as focused in and out. It's important to cinematographers that the image not breathe because it looks funny if the image changes size as focus gets pulled back and forth between actors. If the lens does this, the image "breathes" by growing and contracting slightly as the dialog goes back and forth.

As a unit focus lens the image gets very slightly larger as focused more closely, but I doubt you'd every see it.

 

Bokeh       performance       top

Bokeh, the feel, character or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, doesn't matter with this lens as nothing is ever that far out of focus.

That's not particular to this particular lens; it's what every ultra-short (10mm) and slow (f/4) lens does; these lenses have huge depths of field.

If you want to throw the background as far out of focus as possible, shoot at f/4 and get as close as possible. Good luck.

 

Distortion       performance       top

There is no automatic distortion correction.

This lens has a small to moderate amount of complex barrel distortion. I never saw it outside of the lab.

With a lens this wide it's nearly impossible to keep the camera aligned precisely enough to keep all the angles straight in the first place to be able to see if anything is curving. Pointing the camera just a little up or down or left or right throws all the angles into crazyland fast.

For more critical scientific use, use a correction factor or +2.1 in Photoshop's lens correction filter. After this simple correction there is some minor waviness left.

I didn't correct any of my sample shots. They look fine.

 

Ergonomics       performance       top

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C

Laowa 10mm f/4. bigger.

As I covered in the Introduction, this is a very simple and primitive lens. Therefore it takes lots of manual control and adjustments for each and every shot.

Luckily you can simply set it to f/8 and 2 meters and shoot away and not worry about focus due to its huge depth of field. You can do this even at f/4; it's still all going to be in focus.

 

Falloff       performance       top

There is visible falloff at all apertures, and there is no automatic correction.

That's OK because the falloff accentuates the ultrawide effect; I usually add falloff (vignetting) into most of my work in editing, and with this lens I get it for free.

I've exaggerated the falloff by shooting a gray field and placing these on a gray background; it will not look this bad in actual photos of real things:

 

Falloff on APS-C at infinity, no correction:

f/4
f/5.6
Nikon MMmm f/FF falloff
Nikon MMmm f/FF falloff
Nikon MMmm f/FF falloff
Nikon MMmm f/FF falloff
f/8
f/11

© 2022 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.

 

Filters, use with       performance       top

Don't use more than one filter at a time or you will get vignetting.

Don't use polarizers on ultrawide lenses; the sky's natural polarization will appear as a dark band in the sky.

 

Flare & Ghosts       performance       top

There are no major ghosts, and flare is about normal to maybe a bit more than other lenses.

For a complex ultra-ultrawide, this is pretty good performance.

See examples at Sunstars.

 

Lateral Color Fringes       performance       top

There are some minor red-blue lateral color fringes, but I doubt anyone will notice them.

This is excellent for a lens without the benefit of electronic correction.

 

Lens Corrections       performance       top

There are NO automatic lens corrections.

 

Macro Performance       performance       top

For an ultra-ultrawide, it gets very close. I always warn to watch yourself around airplane propellers! It doesn't seem to get any softer wide-open, bravo!

Laowa 10mm f/4 Macro perfomance

Casio G-Shock Solar Atomic Watch at close-focus distance, Tuesday, 24 May 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 10mm f/4 at f/8 at 1/800 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, +0.3 stop exposure compensation. bigger or camera-original © file.

 

Laowa 10mm f/4 Macro perfomance

1,200 × 900 pixel (5.2× magnification) crop from above. bigger or camera-original © file.

If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 3" (7.5cm) wide on your phone, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 11 × 16" (0.9 × 1.3 feet or 25 × 40 cm).

If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 21 × 31" (1.7 × 2.6 feet or 50 × 80 cm).

If this 1,200 × 900 pixel crop is about 12" (30cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same extreme magnification would be about 42 × 62" (3.5 × 5.2 feet or 1.05 × 1.6 meters).

 

Mechanical Quality       performance       top

Laowa 10mm f/4 APS-C

Laowa 10mm f/4. bigger.

If we overlook the focus miscalibration which is due to sloppy back-focus calibration, this is a well-made all-metal lens. Focus and aperture move smoothly and without play.

It's made in China.

 

Sharpness       performance       top

Lens sharpness has nothing to do with picture sharpness; every lens made in the past 100 years is more than sharp enough to make super-sharp pictures if you know what you're doing. The only limitation to picture sharpness is your skill as a photographer. It's the least talented who spend the most time worrying about lens sharpness and blame crummy pictures on their equipment rather than themselves. Skilled photographers make great images with whatever camera is in their hands; I've made some of my best images of all time with an irreparably broken camera! Most pixels are thrown away before you see them, but camera makers don't want you to know that.

People worry waaaaay too much about lens sharpness. It's not 1968 anymore when lenses often weren't that sharp and there could be significant differences among them; ever since about 2010 all new lenses are all pretty much equally fantastic.

This lens' sharpness will be limited by how well your camera's sensor is optimized to this lens. It will vary by camera brand, but on my Fuji, it's always soft in the corners.

Sharpness stays the same at different apertures, which is weird, but also again is because the sensor interface is the limiting factor to image sharpness, not the sharpness of the lens' own aerial image.

Laowa 10mm f/4 MTF

Laowa's MTF chart at 10 cyc/mm and 30 cyc/mm.

 

Image Stabilization (VR)       performance       top

This lens has no Optical Image Stabilization (OIS, IS or VR (Vibration Reduction)), and should work with in-camera stabilization so long as you remember to set "10mm" in your camera's menus.

Also know that while in-camera sensor-shift stabilization can work wonders in the center of the image; due to geometry with an ultra-ultrawide lens the sensor would have to move twice as far to correct camera shake in the corners, which of course it can't do, so in-camera stabilization will be much less effective on the sides and corners.

 

Sunstars       performance       top

With a 5-bladed straight-edged diaphragm, I get 10-pointed sunstars on brilliant points of light at most apertures.

Click any to enlarge:

Laowa 10mm f/4 Sunstars Sample Image

Laowa 10mm f/4 Sunstars Sample Image

Laowa 10mm f/4 Sunstars Sample Image

Laowa 10mm f/4 Sunstars Sample Image

Laowa 10mm f/4 Sunstars Sample Image

Laowa 10mm f/4 Sunstars Sample Image

Click any to enlarge. 

 

Recommendations       top

Sample Images   Intro   New   Good   Bad   Missing

Specifications   Performance   Recommendations

I use a clear (UV) filter to protect my little lens. I use a clear (UV) protective filter instead of a cap (exactly like an iPhone) so I'm always ready to shoot instantly. I only use a cap when I throw this in a bag with other gear without padding — which is never. The UV filter never gets in the way, and never gets lost, either.

The Hoya 37mm HD2 UV Filter is the best because it's nearly indestructible with hardened glass and magic dirt-, fingerprint- and water-repellent hard coatings. The B+W 39mm MRC 010M and Hoya 37mm NXT Plus UV Filter are also superb if you're not abusing them physically. The least expensive Hoya 37mm HMC UV Filter is as optically superb as the others, just with more delicate coatings.

Filters last a lifetime or more so there's no reason not to buy the best as it will last you for the next 40 years. Filters aren't throwaways like digital cameras which we replace every few years, like it or not. I'm still using filters I bought back in the 1970s!

I'd get my tiny metal ultrawide 10mm f/4 at Adorama or at B&H, or used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.

This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.

Thanks for helping me help you!

Ken.

 

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04 August 2022, 15, 16, 20 July 2022