In the SLR era some people came up with the term “pancake lens” for very thin 40 to 50mm lenses. Because of the short back focus distance of mirrorless cameras it is very hard to make actually useful lenses for them that are as thin as a pancake though, hence Laowa came up with the term “cookie lens”. This does not only sound more realistic but also pretty cute and the latest addition to this cookie line-up is this Laowa 15mm 5.0. Usually new features are reserved for expensive top-of-the-line products, but this lens already marks a very important point in Laowa’s history. Let’s have a closer look!
The lens was tested on a 42 Mp Sony A7 RII (Sample images with Sony A7 III, Leical M10, and Nikon Zf)
When looking for an affordable AF lens in the ultra wide angle realm my recommendation so far has usually been the Samyang 18mm 2.8 AF – also due to lack of alternatives. But in October 2023 Viltrox released this compact 20mm 2.8 AF lens and now, in February 2024 they released this super low budget lens in Nikon Z and Fuji X mount too. Not as wide as the Samyang, but noticeably cheaper. Is this my new recommendation for a low cost AF lens in the ~20mm range? Let’s find out.
Sample Images
Nikon Z 7II | Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 STM ASPH ED IF Z | f/2.8Sony A7III | Viltrox 20mm 2.8 AF FE | f/8.0Nikon Z 7II | Viltrox AF 20mm f/2.8 STM ASPH ED IF Z | f/2.8Sony A7III | Viltrox 20mm 2.8 AF FE | f/5.6
We always tell you about new gear here, but at the end of the day lenses are just tools needed to take nice pictures. Martin and I went through all the pictures we took in 2023 to choose our 10 favorites. You can find those pictures here with a bit of additional information, for which there is not always a place in the gear reviews.
A photographers kit tells a lot about his interests and preferred subject matter so we thought it might be interesting to give you an overview of the team’s current kit(s).
In the past we wrote several “The Team’s favourite lenses articles which might be interesting to you, if you would like to track the development of our interests.
Breakdown of my three star images taken in 2021 by lens used
Voigtländer 1.2/40 (most used lens by some margin)
It has been my most used lens for years now. It got some competition by the Sigma 2/35 and TTA 1.4/50 but it at least outcompeted the Sigma for me.
In early 2021 my daughter was born and that has of course changed my life and with it my photography. Maybe 50% of the images I take are of her and here the compact Voigtländer again showed its versatility. For portraits the bokeh is almost always very smooth. If I focus very close I sometimes like the softer look caused by much increased SA and when I don’t I stop down to f/1.7 to get rid of it.
Sony a7RII | Voigtländer 1.2/40 | f/1.7
Before my daughter was born and when she was very young and sleeping a lot, I did many photo rides. Most often with the 1.2/40 and the Sigma 100-400 in my sling bag. I would like to bring my Loxia 2.4/25 as well but that doesn’t fit in the bag so I am happy to stitch when the 40mm are too narrow.
With the 70-180mm 2.8 Tamron completed its “Reasonable Trinity” in 2020. Before the announcement I expected a 75-150mm 2.8 but we got an even bigger zoom range instead. Will there be more surprises? Let us find out in this review! Update: a new version of this lens has been released in late 2023, you can find its review here.
Sony α | Leica M | Nikon Z/F New articles every week
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The lens was tested on a 42 Mp Sony A7 RII (Sample images with Sony A7 III, Leical M10, and Nikon Zf)
You can see this review as a YouTube video here
