What this lens benefits from the most, is using a focusing light and a diffused speedlite. I rarely go above 3:1 for these spiders and the setup is good enough to crop in moderately, to make up for the bit of missing magnification. Let us move to the most important question: How did the lens perform?įrom the solid build quality to the optical characteristics and its versatility by enabling the photographer to effortlessly change from 1:1 magnification to 2:1, the lens is definitely worth the money and I had a lot of fun using it so far.Įven for tiny specimens, like jumping spiders, the lens was a good tool. Using a crop sensor camera will give you a bit more depth-of-field. With my setup the thin DOF was intensified from the full frame sensor of the Canon 5DII. Most example photos are actually stacked images from up to 15 single photos. Note: The first version of this lens actually had a CPU chip for aperture control on the Canon EF mount.Ī downside from the manual aperture control worth mentioning is, that the viewfinder will be considerably darker with a closed aperture and a good sight hence requires a lot of light or a focusing light as support.Įven at 1:1 the depth-of-field is paper-thin, just a few millimeters at higher apertures – using the lens at 2:1 will result in an even thinner DOF and often requires to focus stack to achieve an image that has a decent area of focus. EXIF data is also not transmitted by the lens. I personally would miss the auto-focus here, to be honest, while for macro work it is absolutely redundant.īeing able to change the aperture on the camera would of course speed up the working process. The updated LAOWA 100mm 2:1 lens only has a manual aperture control but for true macro that is not a problem – though it can also be used for portraits and all kinds of shooting scenarios, being able to focus for infinity as well. Using the LAOWA 100mm 2:1 macro lens in the field The focus and aperture rings move smoothly and are tactile enough to be accurate. Its design integrates perfectly into the range of available LAOWA lenses. The lens feels very valuable and solid with its metal body and is beautifully designed – the blue LAOWA signature ring around the barrel adds the little aesthetic extra to make it special, like the red ring does for the Canon L-series. You will not find any chromatic aberration both in ‘in-focus’ and ‘out-of-focus’ areas thanks to the apochromatic ‘CA-Dreamer’ characteristic. ![]() The updated lens is also intended to be used for filming, benefiting from an improved bokeh due to more (13) aperture blades. It can be used for classic macro work with low working distance but also for portraits. The specifications of this Macro lens almost sound too good to be true: up to 2:1 magnification, optimized for full frame and extra-low dispersion glass. ![]() If you are only interested in how it actually performs, you can skip the technical sections and jump to the section ‘Using the LAOWA 100mm 2:1 macro lens in the field’ directly. There are a lot of technical reviews available already, but for me it was interesting to see how the lens can or cannot keep up with my requirements when I photograph live specimens in difficult lighting situations. It has more aperture blades but less aperture stops.Īs a macro photographer working in the field with live insects & spiders and often photographing above magnifications of 1:1 I have put a focus to test the lens´ abilities in these scenarios. ![]() Note: This is the updated Version version of this lens from November 2020. The updated version of their 100mm 2:1 macro lens is the best example that they also work on their existing range and fine tune and improve on it. Venus Optic has proven repeatedly that they are an innovative manufacturer in the ever-growing field of macro photography. A macro lens that has a variable range of magnification is one of the most practical pieces of gear to invest in.
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