# Laowa introduce ultra-wide angle 9mm/f5.6 for mirrorless FF



## dilbert (Aug 28, 2020)

Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL - LAOWA Camera Lenses


Designed for full frame cameras, the Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL is currently the world's widest rectilinear lens. The remarkable 135° angle of view allows you to...




www.venuslens.net





There is also a 11mm/f4.5









Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL - LAOWA Camera Lenses


Laowa 11mm F4.5 FF RL is a super compact and lightweight Rectilinear(RL) wide-angle lens for full-frame (FF) mirrorless cameras. The remarkable 126° angle of...




www.venuslens.net





Not available for Canon.


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## Antono Refa (Aug 28, 2020)

dilbert said:


> Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL - LAOWA Camera Lenses
> 
> 
> Designed for full frame cameras, the Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL is currently the world's widest rectilinear lens. The remarkable 135° angle of view allows you to...
> ...



Canon RF mount has the same flange distance as Leica L mount, and a larger throat diameter, so I would be surprised if Laowa wouldn't make the lenses available in RF mount.


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## Surab (Aug 31, 2020)

Hi, I have also been wondering why they seem not release certain of their lenses for the RF mount. Another example is their 10-18mm:

https://www.venuslens.net/product/laowa-10-18mm-f-4-5-5-6-fe-zoom/

I would be curious to learn why they would not bring these to RF and given


Antono Refa said:


> Canon RF mount has the same flange distance as Leica L mount, and a larger throat diameter, so I would be surprised if Laowa wouldn't make the lenses available in RF mount.


I don't see why they are holding back on some of their gear.


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## SteveC (Aug 31, 2020)

Surab said:


> Hi, I have also been wondering why they seem not release certain of their lenses for the RF mount. Another example is their 10-18mm:
> 
> https://www.venuslens.net/product/laowa-10-18mm-f-4-5-5-6-fe-zoom/
> 
> ...



I imagine it takes time to develop stuff like this, and they can only do so much at once, even if the want to. Now maybe they don't want to for some reason, but the point is you can't tell.


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## Surab (Aug 31, 2020)

SteveC said:


> I imagine it takes time to develop stuff like this, and they can only do so much at once, even if the want to. Now maybe they don't want to for some reason, but the point is you can't tell.



I agree. I wasn't looking for conspiracies, but just curious if someone knew. Laowas lenses are pretty exciting and having them support Z mount for example is a plus for Nikon (also Sony and L mount).

It's also confusing because some of their lenses are available. It could be something with the AE chips, but then why do they work on some of the lenses? It's a curious thing at the very least.


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## Antono Refa (Aug 31, 2020)

Surab said:


> Hi, I have also been wondering why they seem not release certain of their lenses for the RF mount.



Maybe it takes them longer to reverse engineer the RF mount protocol.


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## Nemorino (Aug 31, 2020)

This are full manual lenses without AF or aperture control.


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## SteveC (Aug 31, 2020)

Nemorino said:


> This are full manual lenses without AF or aperture control.



The camera might still refuse to operate if it cannot establish some sort of communications with the lens, even if only to find out the aperture for EXIF and discover that the lens has no autofocus. That would require knowing something about the protocol.


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## Nemorino (Aug 31, 2020)

I own two Laowa lenses, the 60mm macro and 15mm macro.
Both are full manual, but you have to enable "release shutter without lens" to take pictures.
The camera doesn´t know there is a lens fixed.


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## SteveC (Aug 31, 2020)

Nemorino said:


> I own two Laowa lenses, the 60mm macro and 15mm macro.
> Both are full manual, but you have to enable "release shutter without lens" to take pictures.
> The camera doesn´t know there is a lens fixed.



Sounds like the situation with interfacing with the R mount cannot be worse! OK, in my ignorance I can only speculate that they don't see enough demand yet to make it their immediate priority.


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## koenkooi (Aug 31, 2020)

SteveC said:


> Sounds like the situation with interfacing with the R mount cannot be worse! OK, in my ignorance I can only speculate that they don't see enough demand yet to make it their immediate priority.



Their 100mm 2x macro has electronic aperture control on the EF mount, but not in the RF mount. Which is why I'd still pick the EF version over the RF version. Being forced to focus stopped down isn't something I want in this day and age.


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## Nemorino (Aug 31, 2020)

The manual Aperture ist a big problem shooting macros. These are UWA lenses with a lot of DOF and focussing is much easier.
Of course it is not state of the art!


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## Antono Refa (Aug 31, 2020)

Nemorino said:


> This are full manual lenses without AF or aperture control.



Then I find the lack of RF support strange. Maybe its a matter of manufacturing capacity needed to make a slightly larger barrel, or arbitrary selection of which mount to support first.

I plan to upgrade from 5DmkIV to RF, and hoped the 9mm f/5.6 would be available in RF by the time I'll pull the trigger. I naively assumed the lens would report its ID, focal length, and aperture to the camera. As it doesn't, there will be no automatic correction, e.g. of vignetting. That makes the lens a little less attractive.


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## Surab (Aug 31, 2020)

The strangest part is that they have released some of their lenses but not all of them.

Well let's hope for the RF users that they release all their lenses eventually.


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## Nemorino (Aug 31, 2020)

Antono Refa said:


> there will be no automatic correction, e.g. of vignetting


You can choose the lens profile in LR in post. Not convinient but ok.


Antono Refa said:


> and hoped the 9mm f/5.6 would be available in RF by the time I'll pull the trigger.


Have you seen the sample pictures? If you enlarge them the IQ doesn´t look so good.
The extrem angle of view would be imo a challenge for every lens and it is questionable to design a lens just to be the widest.


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## Antono Refa (Sep 1, 2020)

Nemorino said:


> You can choose the lens profile in LR in post. Not convenient but OK.



Not convenient, and AFAIK doesn't allow setting the manually selected aperture value. I doubt it auto-detects it.



Nemorino said:


> Have you seen the sample pictures? If you enlarge them the IQ doesn´t look so good.



I think its acceptable.



Nemorino said:


> The extreme angle of view would be IMO a challenge for every lens and it is questionable to design a lens just to be the widest.



It also accepts 49mm filters. Compare that to filtering solutions for the EF 11-24mm f/4L


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## Nemorino (Sep 7, 2020)

If it fits your needs it is disappointing Laowa neither produce the lens with RF mount nor put electronics inside.



Antono Refa said:


> I think its acceptable.


I would like to see real world examples and hear experiences. Laowa make some strange designs: the steppless aperture control of the 15mm Makro or its useless shift-function. But although i enjoy shooting with this lens.
So it is disappointing for me you cannot tell us about the lens.


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## Antono Refa (Sep 7, 2020)

Nemorino said:


> If it fits your needs it is disappointing Laowa neither produce the lens with RF mount nor put electronics inside.



Yes, I'm a little disappointed. I hope Laowa would make the lens in RF mount with contacts by the time I switch mounts.



Nemorino said:


> Laowa make some strange designs: the steppless aperture control of the 15mm Makro or its useless shift-function.



I assume the stepless aperture is for videographers, and the shift function is for architecture photographers. I do not presume to speak for either audiences, so I'll pass on any further comments.



Nemorino said:


> So it is disappointing for me you cannot tell us about the lens.



Disappointed that I can't tell you about a lens that doesn't mount on the camera I own, or that I don't summarize the reviews you can read just as well as I do? Those are some strange expectations you have there...


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## Nemorino (Sep 9, 2020)

Antono Refa said:


> I assume the stepless aperture is for videographers, and the shift function is for architecture photographers. I do not presume to speak for either audiences, so I'll pass on any further comments.


This is what someone would assume if reading only the specs.
In practice it is different: the range of the aperture control is very small and difficult to adjust. The scale is also very small less then 4mm from f/11 to f/32.
The shift function could only be used with APS-C Cameras (mentioned in the manual). You could only shift vertical and only +/- 6mm. Nothing in between. No scale. No possibility to fix. The disadvantage of the additional moving parts and the possibility dust and humidity getting inside overweights the advantage.
With the Eos R i cannot use it at all, with my former 80d i tried to use the shift but the effect was always to strong.


Antono Refa said:


> the reviews you can read just as well as I do?


The reviews of the 15mm Laowa are good examples why i prefer the experience of owners:

"The shift is said to work best on APS-C.* It can be used on 35mm frame*, but there is likely to be vignetting. "








Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 Macro Lens Review


John Riley reviews this unique ultra wide-angle 15mm lens with 1:1 Macro reproduction and shift feature.




www.ephotozine.com





I tried it again yesterday and the shift turned a straight line into a S-shaped curve. The quoted statement is simply wrong.


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