Images of the Laowa APO 90mm F2.8 2x Macro *The tests and the photos shown in this review have been taken on my 45 MP Canon EOS R5. As always, this is a completely independent review. Thanks to Laowa for sending me a review loaner of this lens. You can get the full picture by either watching my video review below or reading my text review here…or just enjoy the photos below!įollow Me Patreon | My Newsletter | Instagram | Facebook | DA Merchandise | Flickr | 500px That’s a winning combination, and that price point dramatically undercuts the first party options…so this will definitely be a very tempting option for your Canon RF, Sony FE, Leica L, or Nikon Z mirrorless camera. This isn’t a perfect lens (I miss not having any electronics in the lens), but it allows for an optical performance right up there close to Zeiss Otus range, has a (mostly) excellent build, 2x magnification, and a price tag of around $500 USD. Images from this lens really “pop”!Īnd it is no gimmick, either, as macro performance at the 2:1 ratio remains very high, as you can see. Apochromatic designs allow colors to be focused more accurately/consistently, resulting in much lower levels of chromatic aberrations and thus higher contrast than typical lens designs. Having a stabilized macro lens only adds versatility to this lens, and the Laowa APO 90mm is exceptionally sharp and has very high contrast due to its Apochromatic (APO) design. Finally, the addition of IBIS (In Body Image Stabilization) means even a manual everything lens like this gets decent stabilization (I manually input the focal length to get the best performance). The crisp LCD screen means that high resolution, high contrast images like this lens can produce really just pop off the screen, which made my shooting time out in the field feel very rewarding. I rarely felt like I had to magnify the image at close to medium focus distances, which meant that the focus process was very organic and quick. A really sharp lens like the Laowa means that focus overlays (I use focus peaking in red and set on the “high” level”) show up very crisply in the high resolution viewfinder, and I found that focusing in most situations (more on that in a moment) was really, really easy. There are a variety of reasons, but the first thing that stands out to me is the great viewfinder and LCD screen on the R5 that makes using manual focus lenses so much more fun. Many macro photographers actually prefer manual focus for the great precision it affords, and I can say for the most part really, really enjoyed using the Laowa 90M on my Canon EOS R5. That may immediately turn many of you off, but manual focus on a macro lens is far less of a penalty than most lenses. The Laowa APO 90mm is a fully manual lens without any electronics. No, the focal lengths aren’t identical, but this lens is very similar in performance to the 100mm, but, because it was designed for mounts like Canon RF (tested here), Sony E, Leica L, or Nikon Z, it is significantly smaller and and a bit lighter, as you can see here. Laowa apparently recognized the same thing, as they are back with a new and improved lens specifically designed for mirrorless mounts in the form of the Laowa 90mm F2.8 APO 2x Macro. Lenses purpose designed for mirrorless have the potential to actually be smaller and lighter, but a lens designed for DSLRs has to have some space added (essentially like an adapter without glass) to have focus properly calibrated on mirrorless cameras. Additional length was added to the lens barrel to accommodate the difference in the flange distance (necessary distance from sensor to optical path) as the lens was optically engineered for DSLRs. I had one significant complaint, however, and that was that the lens was much larger than it needed to be. I liked the lens enough on the R5 that I ended up purchasing one. I did a fresh review on the Canon EOS R5, and I found that the experience of using the lens was a lot more fun on mirrorless, and the image quality remains incredible on the high resolution 45Mp sensor of the R5. Earlier in 2022 I revisited the Laowa 100mm F2.8 APO 2:1 Macro because when I had initially reviewed it in 2019, my review was conducted on an EF mount lens on a Canon 5D Mark IV DSLR and was interested in how it performed in the transition to mirrorless.
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