The Laowa 8-15mm f2.8 FF lens is one the most exciting lenses to be announced by the camera in years. I mean, come on? A fisheye zoom and it’s got an f2.8 aperture? This lens, which I imagined would deliver in so many different ways, left me with milk when I asked for cream. To that end, I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed.
Below are the updates we made in our review. For the full review, please check out this link.
Conclusions
I’ll be very honest, I’ve been waiting for a lens like this to come out for a very long time. The Laowa 8-15mm f2.8 FF lens delivers when it comes to the solid feel of the lens, fairly compact size, and with the image quality. But it lacks in a few very important ways. While I pretty much never have a problem with manual focusing, this lens makes it difficult to use for what I’d really want to use a fisheye lens for: extreme sports like skating. Sure, you can stop down to f8 and probably get something in focus. But then you need a whole lot of power from your flashes.
On top of that, when I took this lens out to Coney Island’s boardwalk, I was truly afraid that sand might get into the gears and probably mess with something to cause a malfunction.
Overall, I yearned for what I could do with the old-school Canon 8-15mm f4 fisheye lens — especially with a camera like the Canon R7.
I’m giving this lens 3 out of 5 stars. If you’re using it, make sure your subjects aren’t moving. Want one? Check it out on Amazon.
Who Should Buy the Laowa 8-15mm f2.8 FF?
With appropriate amounts of time with the lens, we’re confident in saying that this lens is best for photographers who shoot subjects that aren’t moving at all.
More sample images from the lens can also be found in the full review.