Venus Laowa Argus 25mm f/0.95
38mm (eq.) Manual-Focus APS-C
For Canon RF & EOS-M, Nikon Z, Sony & Fuji
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
Venus Optics Laowa Argus 25mm f/0.95 (62mm filters, 20.3 oz./575g, 1.1'/0.34m close focus, 0.1× macro ratio, $549 for Canon RF, for EOS-M, for Nikon Z, for Sony and for Fuji, or eventually 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.
November 2022 Better Pictures Laowa Canon Nikon Sony Fuji LEICA Zeiss HASSELBLAD all reviews
Why Fixed Lenses Take Better Pictures
Sample Images top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
More samples throughout this review at Bokeh, Falloff 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.
Plant, 10:32 AM, Friday, 04 November 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 25mm f/0.95 at f/0.95 at 1/10,500 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, Radiant Photo Software, perspective correction in Photoshop CS6. bigger or camera-original 26 MP © JPG file (6 MB).
Introduction top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
I buy only from these approved sources. I can't vouch for ads below. |
This Laowa 25mm f/0.95 has modern optics in a completely primitive all-manual, zero-electronics and zero-communication all-metal mount.
This is an extremely 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. Ideally all you'd ever do is shoot at f/0.95, in which case it's much simpler: just focus and shoot.
Not only is focus always manual, one has to open the diaphragm manually for precise manual focus, and then stop it down manually by either looking at the scale on the lens or counting clicks for each and every shot.
There is no electronic or mechanical communication of any kind with the camera, so none of the automatic diaphragm, autofocus, automatic lens aberration correction or 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 1950s. 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 before automatic diaphragms were developed tor telephoto, to let us open and close the lens quickly to a preset aperture; it's just one manual iris ring.
While its optics are excellent in the center, it's softer on the sides. It has some slight field curvature making its surface of optimum focus somewhat closer to the camera on the sides of the subject compared to the center, which helps with most interior, portrait and terrestrial photography, but means it is not for astrophotography. It's a special effects bokeh lens, extremely sharp it the center and falling off around that.
I'd get my 25mm f/0.95 at B&H for Canon RF, for EOS-M, for Nikon Z, for Sony and for Fuji, or eventually used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.
New intro top
First f/0.95 lens for APS-C.
Good intro top
Surprisingly sharp and contrasty at f/0.95 in the center.
All-metal construction.
All markings are engraved into the metal and filled with paint. These won't ever rub off.
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
Primitive manual ergonomics:
Manual focus.
Manual diaphragm control; won't open for focus by itself.
No automatic aperture control for exposure (does work with aperture-priority auto exposure).
No automatic lens aberration corrections.
No EXIF data to know at what aperture you shot — or even what lens you shot.
Sloppy production tolerances lead to inaccurate focus scale calibration. My sample indicates 10 meters (30 feet) when it's focused at infinity.
Not that sharp on the side and in the corners.
Missing intro top
Versions for Canon RF, for Nikon Z and for Sony will mount on full-frame cameras, but will vignette on full frame. Set full-frame cameras to APS-C or 1.6x crop for best results.
Only stops down to f/11, but let's be real: if you want to stop down even that far, you'd be much better off just using an ordinary kit lens.
No autofocus.
No automatic lens aberration corrections.
No automatic diaphragm control to open the diaphragm for precise focus.
No automatic diaphragm control for exposure.
No EXIF data to know at what aperture you shot.
No communication of any kind with any camera.
No plastic, nothing to break, no firmware to update and nothing go obsolete, either!
Specifications top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
I'd get my 25mm f/0.95 at B&H for Canon RF, for EOS-M, for Nikon Z, for Sony and for Fuji, or eventually used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.
Diaphragm specifications top
Laowa 25mm f/0.95. bigger.
9 blades.
Full-stop clicks to f/11.
Totally manual operation. No electronic control, no electronic communication and not even so much as a preset ring to help you.
Focal Length specifications top
25 mm.
When used on an APS-C camera, it sees the same angle of view as a 38 mm lens sees when used on a full-frame or 35mm camera.
See also Crop Factor.
Focus specifications top
Rear groups focus.
Front element doesn't move.
Focus Scale specifications top
Yes.
Infinity Focus Stop specifications top
NO.
It has a stop, but it's past infinity.
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
1.1 feet (0.34 meters).
Maximum Reproduction Ratio specifications top
1:10 (0.10 ×).
Hood specifications top
Laowa 25mm f/0.95 hood. bigger.
Solid alloy screw-in metal hood, just like comes with the world's best LEICA SUMMILUX-M 35mm f/1.4 ASPH mit Floating Elements.
Filters specifications top
62mm filters, metal threads.
Only thinner filters, like the 62mm Hoya HD3 and Nikon 62mm NC, will fit under the screw-in metal hood. Thicker filters, like the regular 62mm Tiffen UV filter, won't let the hood attach.
They all work fine without the hood. Filters need to fit inside the hood's cutout for them to fit inside the hood.
Image Stabilizer specifications top
NONE, but should work with in-camera stabilization.
Weight specifications top
20.3 oz. (575 g).
Quality specifications top
Made domestically in China.
Announced specifications top
?
Price, U. S. A. specifications top
November 2022
$549 for Canon RF, for EOS-M, for Nikon Z, for Sony and for Fuji.
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 25mm f/0.95 at B&H for Canon RF, for EOS-M, for Nikon Z, for Sony and for Fuji, or eventually used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.
Overall performance top
This is a chunky, heavy lens with lots of modern glass but primitive ergonomics.
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 mostly unit-focus lens the image gets slightly larger as focused more closely.
Bokeh performance top
Bokeh, the feel, character or quality of out-of-focus areas as opposed to how far out of focus they are, is good.
This is a moderately wide lens so even at f/0.95 things aren't that far out of focus, but what is out of focus is reasonably undistracting:
Made-in-U. S. A. Davis 6250 weather station, 10:24 AM, Friday, 04 November 2022. Fuji XT-30, Laowa 25mm f/0.95 at f/0.95 at 1/25,000 at Auto ISO 160, Auto Dynamic Range 100%, Radiant Photo Software. bigger or camera-original 26 MP © JPG file (5 MB).
If you want to throw the background as far out of focus as possible, shoot at f/0.95 and get as close as possible. Ideally use a longer lens if you want the background really out of focus.
Distortion performance top
This lens has somewhat strong and slightly complex barrel distortion.
There is no automatic distortion correction.
Use a correction factor or +3.0 in Photoshop's lens correction filter, however after this simple correction there is some minor waviness left.
Ergonomics performance top
Laowa 25mm f/0.95. bigger.
As I covered in the Introduction, this is a primitive lens. Therefore it takes lots of manual control and adjustments for each and every shot.
Focus is well damped and easy enough to turn.
The apertures are a pain except wide-open. As you can see the very primitive iris has very nonlinear spacing on the aperture ring. Good luck; counting clicks doesn't work well.
You can turn off the aperture clicks if you like:
Laowa 25mm f/0.95. bigger.
Falloff performance top
There is a bit of falloff wide-open, whihc goes away as stopped down. There is no automatic correction.
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:
© 2022 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved. |
Flare & Ghosts performance top
There are no significant ghosts, and flare isn't a problem, which is quite laudable in an f/0.95 lens.
See examples at Sunstars.
Lateral Color Fringes performance top
There are usually various green-magenta color fringes throughout most of the image if you're looking for them.
There is no automated correction, sadly.
Lens Corrections performance top
There are NO automatic lens corrections.
Macro Performance performance top
It doesn't focus very close. Sorry. Use another lens for close focus.
Mechanical Quality performance top
Laowa 25mm f/0.95. bigger.
This is an all-metal lens. Focus and aperture move smoothly and without play, and everything is engraved, not simply painted.
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.
It's sharp in the center, even at f/0.95 which is very impressive, but it's not as sharp as camera-maker's lenses everywhere else in the field.
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 "25mm" in your camera's menus.
Sunstars performance top
With a 9-bladed straight-edged diaphragm, I get nice 19-pointed sunstars on brilliant points of light at most apertures.
Ignore the vertical smear at large apertures. This is a sensor artifact called interline transfer smear and is a camera, not a lens, defect.
Click any to enlarge:
Click any to enlarge.
Recommendations top
Sample Images Intro New Good Bad Missing
Specifications Performance Recommendations
I'd get my 25mm f/0.95 at B&H for Canon RF, for EOS-M, for Nikon Z, for Sony and for Fuji, or eventually used at eBay if you know How to Win at eBay.
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 very best protective filter is the Hoya multicoated HD3 62mm UV which uses hardened glass and repels dirt and fingerprints.
For less money, the Nikon 62mm NC (No Color) protective filter is an excellent choice, especially if you don't expect to abuse your filter and keep your fingers off the glass. The basic multicoated Hoya filters are also optically superb, but the Hoya HD3 is the toughest and the best.
Filters last a lifetime, so you may as well get the best today. The Hoya HD3 stays cleaner than the others since it repels oil and dirt. I use my classic Nikon 62mm L37c (multicoated 370 nanometer UV) filters because I bought them back in the 1980s when they were the best, and they never wear out.
I'd get my 25mm f/0.95 at B&H for Canon RF, for EOS-M, for Nikon Z, for Sony and for Fuji, or eventually 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.
© Ken Rockwell. All rights reserved. Tous droits réservés. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. Alla rättigheter förbehållna. Toate drepturile rezervate. Ken Rockwell® is a registered trademark.
Help Me Help You top
I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.
The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. These places always have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.
If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.
If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!
If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.
As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!
Thanks for reading!
Ken.