Laowa 7.5mm F/2 MFT C-Dreamer

Specifications01

MountMICRO 4/3

Focal length8mm

Max aperturef/2

TypeCinema · Macro · Wide · Prime

Weight170 g

Filter size46 mm

Physical length55 mm

Min focus distance0.12 m

Max magnification0.1099

Aperture blades7

Optical elements13

Groups9

Lens hoodpetal-shaped, supplied

Additional Info02

Category["Micro-Four-Thirds"]

Keywords["Laowa","Micro-Four-Thirds","Prime","Ultra-wide"]

Review AuthorKlaus

Review Rating6

Equiv Aperture“f/4” (full format equivalent in terms of depth-of-field)

Review VerdictThe primary value proposition of the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT is certainly its extremely small size and low weight combined with a very large max. aperture. Upon unboxing, we experienced one of the few WOW effects during recent years. The dwarfish size also makes perfect sense on Micro-Four-Thirds cameras. Despite its size, the delivered resolution is actually very respectable. It's usable at f/2 and very good at medium aperture settings. The amount of lateral CAs is decent. The vignetting is very high, yes, but in reality it's not quite as bad as the numbers suggest because of a relatively gradual light falloff. Image distortions can be visible in certain scenes but they are far from being bad really. Ghostings/glarecan be an issue if a strong light source is part of your scene and that can happen often due the immense field-of-view. The build quality is very good thanks to a full-metal body and tight control rings. Fully manual lenses may not be everybody's darling. However, a manual ultra-wide angle lens is really easy to use especially on Micro-Four-Thirds cameras. If you want to shoot an image with an infinite depth-of-field, just set it to ~1.5m and f/5.6 and you are done really. And if you want to explore a shallow depth-of-field scene just use focus magnification - it merely take a few seconds. Honestly, we didn't feel real usability issues during our time with this lens. The most significant annoyance may be the lack of EXIF data. Over the recent years, we were often wondering why no manufacturer dared to release an ultra-wide pancake lens for MTF (or for any other mirrorless system for that matter). Formally the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT is still no pancake lens but it's the next best thing. Let's be honest - most of us enjoy ultra-wide images but it's not as if we are using such lenses all the time. It's probably a safe bet to state that using an ultra-wide lens is more often than not the exception to the rule. If so and if you just don't want to carry lots of stuff, the idea of having such a tiny lens in your bag may have quite some appeal. The official pricing has yet to be confirmed but the preliminary figure that we've heard feels reasonable.

Review Criteria{"Build Quality":8,"Optical Quality":6,"Price / Performance":7}

Review Published2017-02-06T13:24:00+00:00

Equiv Focal Length“15mm” (full format equivalent)

Optical Construction13 elements in 9 groups

Field Notes02

Laowa 7.5mm F/2 C-Dreamer lens for Micro Four Thirds. Ultra-wide prime with a bright f/2 aperture, designed for close, low-light wide-angle video use (cinema-style).

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Catalog note · source: opticallimits

Sources03

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Other Mounts03

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