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Lenses

Review: Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 (Sony E Mount, Full Frame)

Chris Gampat
No Comments
08/21/2017
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 review product images 1

Last Updated on 08/22/2017 by Chris Gampat

The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 lens is promising zero distortion, and when in use it honestly holds itself very well to that promise. This lens appeals a whole lot to the urban geometry and architecture photographer in addition to the interior and real estate photographer. The reason for this obviously has to do with the lack of distortion. In many ways, you can say that it surely is zero distortion but if you run it through some editing programs you’ll see that it isn’t quite totally eliminated but it’s surely close. It isn’t as complicated as something like the company’s lenses with shift abilities built in. But it’s surely quite a great option.

Pros and Cons

 

Pros

 

  • Lightweight
  • Good metal exterior
  • Clicky aperture
  • Not a large lens at all
  • Feels nice in the hand
  • Sharp image quality

 

Cons

 

  • Something about it doesn’t feel completely, perfectly solid. If you shake it about a bit, the lens feels and sounds like something is a bit loose.

 

Gear Used

We tested the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 with the Sony a7.

Tech Specs

Specs table taken from our original news post

Lens

 

15mm f/2

 

7.5mm f/2 

Focal Length

 

15mm

 

7.5mm

 

Maximum Aperture (Fno)

 

F/2.0

 

F/2.0 

Angle of view

 

110°

 

110°

 

Format Compatibility

 

Full Frame

 

Micro Four Thirds 

Minimum Focus distance

 

5.91” (15cm)

 

4.72” (12cm)

 

Maximum Reproduction Ratio

 

0.25x

 

0.11x 

Focusing

 

Manual Focus

 

Manual Focus

 

Filter Thread

 

72mm

 

49mm 

Dimensions(DxL)

 

Φ66×82mm

 

Φ50x55mm

 

Weight

 

1.10 lb (500 g)

 

0.37 pounds (170g) 

Mounts

 

Sony FE

 

MFT

 

 

Ergonomics

Taken from our first impressions blog post.

chris-gampat-the-phoblographer-venus-optics-lauwa-15mm-f2-first-impressions-product-images-6-of-9iso-2001-80-sec-at-f-1-4

The Venus Optics 15mm f2 is a lens much like the company’s previous offerings: it features metal overall and a very traditional layout and design due to its manual focusing feature. The front element is purposely designed to be a bit further back to allow the lens to have an area for a lens filter.

chris-gampat-the-phoblographer-venus-optics-lauwa-15mm-f2-first-impressions-product-images-3-of-9iso-2001-500-sec-at-f-1-4

When you look at the lens, you’ll notice the two controls: one ring for the aperture and the other is for the focusing. Between both of these is the depth of field scale used to get your lens properly in focus when you need to. Of course, you also have Sony’s focus peaking, but for architecture, zone focusing can also work.

Build Quality

The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 lens is made of metal on the outside. The metal itself feels very nice and when you hold the lens, the overall build quality isn’t too bad. However, I genuinely feel like Venus Optics lenses could be a bit more solid. I’m not talking about weather sealing, I’m talking about the fact that if you shake the lens, something about it feels like the exterior is a bit loose. This isn’t the case with the company’s 15mm f4 Macro lens, which I own.

Of course, the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 also doesn’t have weather sealing. If you’re shooting outdoors or inside, I’m sure that that won’t be a problem considering the light.

Ease of Use

The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 lens is pretty simple to use if you’re used to manual focus and manual aperture. So essentially if you use mechanical cameras then you’re all good. There is an effective zone focusing ability and the focus peaking from the Sony system works very well.

Focusing

There is manual focus operation with the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2. You’ve got the option of focusing really closely but most of the time you’re better off just focusing out to infinity anyway.

Image Quality

The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 has some overall pretty great image quality. What folks may care about the most is the distortion but in my personal opinion, we live in a world where we should be beyond that. The color output is fairly neutral and time and time again I found it to rely more on what Sony’s current color profile and white balance are more than anything else. Amazingly, you’d also probably love the fact that it has bokeh.

Bokeh

So why would you use a 15mm f2 lens for the bokeh? Why not? Lots of folks do these days. In this case, the bokeh isn’t creamy or hazy. But isn’t the focus fall off is very smooth. Still though I wouldn’t use this lens for the bokeh.

Chromatic Aberration

 

Original

So here’s the original file up top. As it is, that isn’t bad.

Edited

Now using Capture One 10, this is what the software thinks the image should be. Personally, I like the original better. But that could be just me.

Color Rendition

The Laowa 15mm f2 is very nice color; but to be fair it’s also pretty neutral overall. If you’re using something like the Sony Clear color profile or the landscape profile, you’ll more or less be at the mercy of that color rendition. With that said, you may barely even be able to tell the difference between this and a proper Sony lens.

Sharpness

I’m really a fan of the sharpness from the Laowa 15mm f2. The best sharpness comes out between f8 and f5.6. But that’s standard for so many lenses.

Extra Image Samples

Conclusions

 

Likes

 

  • Small
  • Lightweight
  • Good image quality
  • Low distortion

 

Dislikes

 

  • Could benefit from a bit better build quality

The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 lens is a really fantastic lens option. It isn’t extremely expensive at $849. And for the price point it surely is offering very low distortion. For the photographer that will more or less just focus out to infinity and go on about life this lens is a great option.

The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 receives four out of five stars.

architecture Bokeh colors image quality lens no distortion real estate sony Venus Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f2 Wide Angle
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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