Characterized by its extremely wide field of view and rectilinear rendering, the Sony E-mount Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL, from Venus Optics, is prime lens offering a uniquely wide perspective that is well-suited for interior, architecture, nature, and landscape subjects. The immense 135° angle of view is complemented by an advanced optical design that uses low dispersion, aspherical, and high refractive index elements to control a variety of aberrations and distortion to achieve high sharpness, clarity, and color accuracy. The lens has a manual focus design and permits working with subjects as close as 4.7" away and its built-in petal-shaped hood helps to block stray light from causing unwanted lens flare. Additionally, the lens is also characterized by its especially compact size, which makes it ideal for walk-around and travel applications.
- E-Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
- Aperture Range: f/5.6 to f/22
- Two Extra-Low Dispersion Elements
- Two Aspherical and Two UHR Elements
Venus Optics Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL Overview
Venus Optics Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL Specs
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Venus Optics Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL Reviews
Work as expected
Vignetting, corner softness wide open, and some distortion are noticeable. But when you factor in the size and weight of this thing, it's an engineering marvel that such a lens is possible, and at such an affordable price. I own the Samyang 10mm f/3.5 XP and that lens has a very annoying green cast in the corners, and I am delighted that this lens suffer way less, and much easier to fix in Lightroom or CameraRAW. However, stopping down the lens doesn't improve vignetting, unlike the Samyang. Strangely, the mid-frame some how isn't as sharp as the extreme corners when you focus using the center. I suspect that the plane of focus isn't a plane not a sphere. It could be mustached, but further investigation is required. This lens works well with the Techart LM-EA9, and can get you very close to your subject as long as you are not blocking all the light. It's a shame that the TTartisan adapter would not correctly read the code of this lens as the Leica 6-bit code cannot represent9mm f/5.6 at all. Let's see what happens in the future. Despite its many non-idealities, I am still inclined to give it a 5/5 for being a pioneer in ultra wide angle non-fisheye.
Widest FF lens for Z-mount
This is fun lens, super-wide and it performs quite well. Not a lens to be used for Milky Way shooting, but great for landscapes or normal night photography, including star trails. Coma is fairly well controlled with its smallest f/5.6 aperture. If you are comfortable using fully manual lenses, this is a nice addition, very compact in the bag!
Not sharp, not clear
Sharp only with F 22, upload of photo not possible!
Unique, but flawed
You can create some really unique images with this lens, but you need to recognize its limitations. I am using this on a Nikon Z 7. First of all, there is significant distortion on the sides. It is a stretching effect. However, you can use this creatively to draw attention to the central part of the image. Second, there is a lot of pincushion distortion. Third, there is a lot of vignetting. The Laowa lens profile for this lens WAY overcorrects the vignetting. It turns the corners almost white. However, it does eliminate the pincushion. What works better is the Adobe ACR/LR profile tor the Laowa 12mm. It corrects the pincushion and evens out the vignette. If you want a non-fisheye wide lens, there are few choices. This one isn't bad, if you know how to work with it's shortcomings.
Great lend for architecture
Perfect lens, wide and free of spherical distortion.
Wow this is the second time I have tried this lens once in a Z72 and now on A7R4a and both copies were very soft.
I so so wanted to love this lens because I love shooting wide but it's just too soft even stopped way down - so disappointed.
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