Laowa Goes Wide With Four New Lenses For E Mount and Micro Four Thirds

by Adam PlowdenOctober 2^nd, 2018

Laowa extends their wide angle lens range with four new models for E-mount and Micro Four Thirds.

We caught up with Kevin from Laowa at Photokina 2018, and discussed their four new wide angle lenses for both E-mount and Micro Four Thirds. As always, Laowa continues to surprise us with innovative lens designs while ensuring a high quality construction and the best possible resulting images. Here is a round up of the four new lenses.

Laowa 10-18mm F/4.5 – 5.6 C-Dreamer for full frame E-mount

This lens is the widest rectilinear lens for full frame E-mount available on the market, and has been designed for landscape image capture. Its angle of view is 130 degrees, at the edge of the frame there is little to no barrel distortion or heavy vignetting, a trait of very wide angle lenses. The 5 blade aperture can create sun stars very easily, and the lens itself is very small and light (500g) in comparison to ultra wide angle lenses from Sony or Sigma.

An additional feature is the click and de-click aperture switch, located on the lens barrel. No screwdriver is needed to make the change between hard stops and de-clicked.

What is very appealing about the Laowa 10-18mm F/4.5 – 5.6 is that it has a screw in 37mm filter at the mounting end of the lens, this allows for ND filters or polarizers to be used without the need for a large filter holder at the front of the lens. Laowa is developing a 100mm filter holder if you wish to use filters at the front of the lens.

Laowa 4mm F/2.8 Circular Fisheye for MFT

This interesting tiny lens creates the iconic circular fisheye effect, with a super wide 210 degree angle of view (that’s wide enough to nearly see your fingers holding the camera)! The wide F/2.8 aperture ensures that bright images can be captured in lower light conditions. It is 8mm full frame equivalent focal length.

Laowa 12mm F/1.8 for MFT

This is one of the widest F/1.8 lenses for Micro Four Thirds, and is also rectilinear with little to no barrel distortion. The 12mm focal length is equivalent to 24mm in full frame, and has a 46mm filter thread for applying screw-in filters.

Laowa 17mm F/1.8 for MFT

The Laowa 17mm F/1.8 matches the popular 35mm full frame equivalent focal length, while achieving a shallow depth of field with the wide F/1.8 aperture. It also includes a 46mm filter thread for any ND or polarizer filters. Both the 12mm and 17mm lenses are very small, light and compact.

At present, there isn’t any concrete pricing for the lenses, but we expect to see the Laowa 10-18mm F/4.5 – 5.6 C-Dreamer lens available around November, with the Laowa 4mm F/1.8, Laowa 12mm F/1.8 and Laowa 17mm F/1.8 becoming available in early 2019. Unlike the snorkel macro lens, all of the above lenses will be available to purchase from retailers rather than crowdfunding campaigns.

Do you love shooting with wide angle lenses but want to achieve even wider shots? What new Laowa lens would you like to try on your next shoot? Let us know in the comments.