Laowa 7.5mm f/2 Micro Four Thirds Review

Laowa 7.5mm f/2.0 Performance

Looking at central sharpness first, we find that this is outstanding from f/2 to f/5.6, excellent from f/8 to f/11, very good at f/16. It is only at f/22 that diffraction really starts to have an effect and reduce sharpness, although it is still good even so.

The edges are not quite as cuttingly sharp, but they are sharp enough and are at a very good standard from f/2 all the way through to f/11. Sharpness is still good at f/16 and it is only at f/22 where we can describe the image as soft.

For any lens, this is a very creditable performance, for an ultra wide especially so.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very tightly controlled at the centre of the image. Fringing can be seen at the edges, but it's a pretty good result for this type of lens anyway and can be dealt with using software. For test purposes, any in-camera correction is switched off, although some MFT bodies may have an inbuilt correction that even affects the RAW output.

There is -2.87% barrel distortion, again a very reasonable result. This can also be reduced or removed via software, but for many images this may not be necessary. Barrel distortion and ultra-wides tend to be well accepted by our eyes, whereas pincushion with such a lens would definitely look very strange.

Flare is generally well controlled but can be induced in more extreme shots, such as where the sun is actually at the edge of the frame. Even here though the actual contrast is well maintained and it is just the artefacts that show that flare exists. This can be made use of in the composition, although technically a fault, aesthetically is can be used to advantage.

Bokeh is the quality of the out of focus areas in an image. On the face of it, there are fewer possibilities for differential focus with such a wide lens, but with a bright f/2 maximum aperture and close focusing there are possibilities. The bokeh is very relaxed and well gradated in these circumstances and the difficulties of precise manual focusing are worth the effort.

Value For Money

The Laowa C-Dreamer (Compact Dreamer) 7.5mm f/2 lens is available for £499. It is only available in MFT mount.

There are several fisheye lenses of a similar focal length, but looking at rectilinear lenses only there is a very limited choice.

We have the Olympus M.Zuiko 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO Digital ED (£999), the Panasonic Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f/4 (£739) and the Panasonic 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH Vario (£1049). None of these is as bright as the Laowa lens.

For more options have a look at the Top 33 Best Micro Four Thirds Lenses.

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