Laowa 100mm F2.8 2:1 Macro APO Review

OpticalLimits got their hands on a pre-release copy of the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2:1 APO Macro and gave it a test.

They were impressed with the lens, especially when you consider the bargain basement price of $449.00 when you preorder from venus directly.

Their conclusions;

The manufacturers of macro lenses tend to have an easy win - macro lenses are pretty much always sharp thanks to a combination of a moderate max aperture and "easy" focal length. Thus it doesn't really come as a surprise that the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Macro APO is capable of delivering very high-quality results straight from f/2.8. However, it has at least two advantages over your average 100mm macro lens - it can focus down to a magnification ratio of 2:1 and it has almost no bokeh fringing. The latter is quite an achievement actually. Lateral CAs are on a very moderate level and image distortions are low. The biggest weakness may be the amount of vignetting at f/2.8. Continuing on the positive side, we'd say that the bokeh is very pleasing overall.

The addition of electronic coupling (finally!) with a camera-controlled aperture as well as EXIF data is certainly a big thing for Laowa because it opens up some market potential. Of course, some users will shy away due to the lack of AF but at least macro enthusiasts may not care too much. The mechanical quality of the lens is pretty good and on par with the mainstream market.

Thus if you can live without AF and appreciate the extreme macro capabilities as well as a moderate price tag, you should have a closer look. Highly recommended!

Technical Specifications: