Review: Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF-RL

Introduction

laowa 9mm 5.6 ultra wide w-dreamer uwa hyper wide heliar 10mm distortion zero-d
Laowa 9mm 5.6 on Sony A7rII

The king is dead, long live the king! After the Voigtlander 10mm 5.6’s field of view has been matched by the Samyang 10mm 3.5 XP and the Laowa 10-18mm 4.5-5.6 it has now been surpassed by this Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF-RL. Can a lens be wider and at the same time better? Let us try to find out!
Lens is being tested on 42mp Sony A7rII and 24mp Leica M10
Last Update: January 2025

Sample Images

laowa 9mm 5.6 ultra wide w-dreamer uwa hyper wide heliar 10mm distortion zero-d
Nikon Zf | Laowa 9mm 5.6 | f/5.6
laowa 9mm 5.6 ultra wide w-dreamer uwa hyper wide heliar 10mm distortion zero-d
Nikon Zf | Laowa 9mm 5.6 | f/5.6
Leica M10 | Laowa 9mm 5.6 | f/5.6
laowa 9mm 5.6 ultra wide w-dreamer uwa hyper wide heliar 10mm distortion zero-d
Sony A7III | Laowa 9mm 5.6 | f/5.6
Leica M10 | Laowa 9mm 5.6 | f/8.0
laowa 9mm 5.6 ultra wide w-dreamer uwa hyper wide heliar 10mm distortion zero-d
Sony A7III | Laowa 9mm 5.6 | f/5.6

Continue reading Review: Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF-RL

Review: Pergear 35mm 1.4 – The cheapest 35mm fullframe lens

Introduction

pergear 35mm 1.4 f/1.4 review sony e fe fullframe e-mount a7riv a7rv a7riii a7rii 42mp 61mp sharpness contrast review coma vignetting bokeh
Pergear 35mm 1.4 on Sony A7rII

According to my statistics this is the 25th 35mm lens I am reviewing here. After so many you may think you have seen it all, but this one has a stand out feature: at $129 new it is definitely the cheapest fast 35mm and not only that: it is also very compact.
Now if you think you can get the quality of a Sony FE 35mm 1.4 GM for a fraction of the price here you can already stop reading, but for everyone else: let’s find out how much lens we can get for 130 bucks.

Sample Images

pergear 35mm 1.4 f/1.4 review sony e fe fullframe e-mount a7riv a7rv a7riii a7rii 42mp 61mp sharpness contrast review coma vignetting bokeh
Sony A7III | Pergear 35mm 1.4 | f/8.0
pergear 35mm 1.4 f/1.4 review sony e fe fullframe e-mount a7riv a7rv a7riii a7rii 42mp 61mp sharpness contrast review coma vignetting bokeh
Sony A7III | Pergear 35mm 1.4 | f/1.4
pergear 35mm 1.4 f/1.4 review sony e fe fullframe e-mount a7riv a7rv a7riii a7rii 42mp 61mp sharpness contrast review coma vignetting bokeh
Sony A7III | Pergear 35mm 1.4 | f/2.8
pergear 35mm 1.4 f/1.4 review sony e fe fullframe e-mount a7riv a7rv a7riii a7rii 42mp 61mp sharpness contrast review coma vignetting bokeh
Sony A7III | Pergear 35mm 1.4 | f/4.0
pergear 35mm 1.4 f/1.4 review sony e fe fullframe e-mount a7riv a7rv a7riii a7rii 42mp 61mp sharpness contrast review coma vignetting bokeh
Sony A7III | Pergear 35mm 1.4 | f/1.4

Continue reading Review: Pergear 35mm 1.4 – The cheapest 35mm fullframe lens

Review: Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D for Sony FE

Introduction

laowa 15mm 2.0 fe venus optics review
Sony A7rII with Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D

When announced in at Photokina in 2016 the Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D was one of the first lenses making actual use of the narrow flange distance of mirrorless cameras, opening up new lens design possibilities needed to create a compact yet fast ultra wideangle lens.
I have been using this lens for years, so let’s have a look together how it fared in this long term review. 
Jan 2023: Alternatives Section updated, new samples added, general update

Sample Images

laowa 15mm 2.0 fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv
Sony A7III | Laowa 15mm 2.0 | f/2.0 | no tripod
laowa 15mm 2.0 fe venus optics review architecture landscape sunstars
Sony A7rII | Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D | f/8.0
laowa 15mm 2.0 fe venus optics review architecture 42mp 61mp sony a7riv a7rv
Sony A7rII | Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D | f/11
laowa 15mm 2.0 fe venus optics review coma astro astrophotography milkyway milky way
Sony A7s | Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D | f/2.0

Continue reading Review: Laowa 15mm 2.0 Zero-D for Sony FE

Survey

Dear readers, I would like to increase the range of this blog and I am currently thinking what would be the best way to do it.

Most of the interaction with you happens through the comment section here or through our Facebook account and I am getting the feeling this is not enough, especially considering you cannot get this high quality, in-depth reviews anywhere else with so little and unobstrusive advertising on the pages.

We do have an Instagram blog account, but honestly I hate the instagram workflow. Posting via phone sucks, the desktop apps suck even more and you cannot properly paste links leading to the reviews, because Instagram wants to keep you in their system at all cost.

Is Instagram the way to go nevertheless?
Is Twitter still a thing?
Youtube videos that go along with the reviews?
A whatsapp group?
Telegram?
Anything else that comes to mind I didn’t think of yet?

It would be greatly appreciated if you could tell us in the comment section what would be your preferred way to communicate with us and where you would like to be informed about new posts first.

Thanks in advance, Bastian

Update:
I am amazed by the sheer amount of feedback from you guys! I may not reply to every comment but be assured I read all of them. So I will comment on some of the more common discussion points in summary here.

2nd Update:
I set up a phillipreeve.net Discord server, so you are invited to try it out with me and see if it is an useful addition.

Continue reading Survey

Analogue Adventures – Part 11: Kodak Tmax 3200

Kodak tmax 3200 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Kodak Tmax 3200

An ISO 3200 black and white film is pretty much the fastest film you can get these days. As I like to shoot in dimly lit environments of course I had to give it a try.
Processing and scanning was done at urbanfilmlab in Germany.

Kodak tmax 3200 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | MS-Optics 35mm 1.4 Apoqualia | f/2.8 | Tmax 3200 | 3-stop ND
Kodak tmax 3200 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | MS-Optics 35mm 1.4 Apoqualia | f/2.0 | Tmax 3200
Kodak tmax 3200 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | MS-Optics 35mm 1.4 Apoqualia | f/8.0 | Tmax 3200 | 3-stop ND
Kodak tmax 3200 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om
Leica M6 | MS-Optics 35mm 1.4 Apoqualia | f/4.0 | Tmax 3200 | 3-stop ND

Continue reading Analogue Adventures – Part 11: Kodak Tmax 3200

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