The small Chinese company Anhui Changgeng Optical Technology Company Limited, better known as Venus Optics has already announced several niche, highly specialized lenses:
- Laowa 60mm f/2.8 Macro 2:1, a lens for extreme close-ups
- Laowa 15mm f/4 Shift Macro 1:1, a wide angle macro lens with shift capabilities
- Laowa STF 105mm f/2 (T/3.2), a portrait lens with an apodisation element delivering the most pleasing bokeh.
Their lenses are sold in a variety of mounts, including Canon EF, Nikon F, Pentax K, Sony A and Sony E. They are currently working on a rectilinear, almost distortion-free ultra-wide angle lens for 24x36 cameras: the Laowa Zero-D 12mm f/2.8 (Zero-D symbolizing the absence of distortion). The main specifications of the prototype are the following:
- Image circle: 24x36
- Field of view: 121.96°
- Optical formula: 16 elements, including 2 aspherical elements and 3 elements made of glass with anomalous dispersion, in 10 groups
- Number of aperture blades: 7
- Aperture range: f/2.8 - f/22
- Manual focus
- Minimum focusing distance: 0.18m
- Maximum magnification: 0.2x
- Maximum diameter: 74.8mm
- Length: 82.2mm
- Weight: circa 570g.
Sample photos taken with a Laowa Zero-D 12mm f/2.8 mounted on a Sony Alpha 7R camera can be found on Flickr:
Thanks Mistral 75!
