Photography News Issue 64

Photography News | Issue 64 | photographynews.co.uk

First tests

Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 FE £899

Specs

The choice of lenses facing Sony full- frame users is growing all the time. Indeed, we are even seeing lenses coming out for Sony E users that aren’t available for Canikon owners. The Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 is one such lens. This manual focus optic is the widest zoom lens currently available for Sony E-mount full-frame cameras. Its closest Sony rival is the 12-24mm f/4 G, which is close to twice the Laowa’s price. I tried this ultra-wide zoom on a Sony A7R II. The lens is compact and combines well with this camera, giving a nice balance. The manual focusing barrel covers the lens’s infinity to 15cm focusing distance in about one third of a rotation. But focusing from infinity down to 1m is covered in less than 1cm of movement. This does mean focusing is critical. You might think with such a wide lens you can just set the focus barrel at a point somewhere between at 1m and infinity and shoot away. Well, at f/11 and smaller you probably can, but at wider apertures you need to take a little care. The lack of a depth-of-field scale doesn’t help and nor does the dark viewing image thanks to the lens’s modest maximum aperture. I did try the camera’s focus peaking feature, but it didn’t help because I just got outlines around everything, making the viewing image a mess and adding a distraction from composing.

Price

£899

Format Full-frame, APS-C (15-27mm focal length equivalent) Mount Sony E/FE Autofocus Manual only Construction

14 elements in 10 groups Special lens elements 2 x aspherical glass, 1 x ED glass Coatings Frog Eye coating Filter size Rear-mounted 37mm screw thread Aperture range

F/4.5-5.6 to f/22. Selectable click-stopped or clickless Diaphragm Five blades Internal focus Yes Minimum focus 15cm Focus limiter No Maximummagnification 0.25x Distance scale Yes Depth-of-field scale No Image stabiliser No Tripod collar No Lens hood Built-in hood Weather-sealed No Dimensions (dxl) 70x90.9mm Weight 496g Contact ukdigital.co.uk

So, it is worth taking your time with focus – assuming you have that luxury – by using the focus magnifier when possible. Ultra-wide lenses suit filter use less well but, with this lens, filter users are catered for in two ways. There is a 37mm rear screw thread – there is a plainglass filter inplace so just remove this. If you want to try a polariser, that means working out the required filter

At £899, the Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5- 5.6 is a good value lens and is the widest full-frame zoom currently available in Sony E-mount. Focusing isn’t easy: its slow variable maximum aperture and the slightly tight zoom barrel are handling negatives, but the lens, on the whole, is great fun to use. Its ultra-wide view offers the chance for dramatic compositions with bold foreground and powerful lead-in lines. It’s compact, too, so you can have it in the bag just in case you want to get all creative. Pros Lens with character, extreme wide view so great for shots with drama, decent optical performer Cons Manual focusing tricky, no EXIF data, slowmaximum aperture alignment before remounting the lens. Laowa’s other solution is a magnetic filter holder system. Optically, this lens is a decent performer. The centre is impressively sharp at the three tested focal lengths, but dig into the corners and you’ll see fringing and a noticeable sharpness drop-off. Stopping down to f/11 or f/16 improves the corners significantlyand helps the central area too. Overall, performance was very slightly better at 10mm than 18mm, although at the shorter settings the stretched wide-angle look with closer subjects is more apparent. This isn’t a negativething.Onthecontrary,Ireally like the pictorial effect you get with this lens. With the slight vignetting and softer corners at wider apertures combined with the ‘wide-angle’ look, you have images with character. Speaking of character, if you shoot scenes with pinpoint light sources, you get the chance to capture interesting ten-point highlights. Laowa has installed a five straight- blade diaphragm iris in this lens, so that is worth exploring – especially wide open at the 10mm setting. WC Verdict

I really like the pictorial effect you get with this lens – it has character

10mm

14mm

18mm

F/4.5

F/5

F/5.6

F/8

F/11

F/16

F/22

Images Shot on Sony A7R II mounted on a Gitzo Systematic Series 4 tripod with self-timer. Raws processed in Lightroom CC

F/22