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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you my standard review of the
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Lawa 65 millimeter F2.8. This is an ultra macro in that it is two times rather than a one
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times life size, a two to one ratio macro lens. And so it is extremely useful. It's designed for
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APSC cameras including Sony E, Fuji X, and then Canon M. And
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And I think that it is fairly unique in my experience for an APSC lens
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Now, if you want the kind of the deeper dive into all of the details when it comes to the build
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and a deep dive into the breakdown of the image quality, I recommend that you take a look
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at the definitive review. And that will give you more details, particularly if you want to buy or, you know, considering
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buying the lens, it will help you to make an informed decision about that. Today, however, we're going to be giving you the standard review where we're going to hit the
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highlights and give you a summation as to whether or not you should consider this little bad boy here
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Now, last summer I did a review of lab was 100mm F2.8. It was also a two times macro, but designed for
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full frame. My conclusion coming away from that is it was a fantastic optical performer
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made so in particular because it had an APO or apochromatic optical design. And so that apricomatic
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optical design allows all colors to focus more precisely and virtually eliminates any kind of
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chromatic aberration. That results in really, really high contrast and often high detail
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if it's otherwise good optical formula, which that was. And so it was an incredibly versatile
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high performer for that. This is essentially that lens condensed down for APSC. 65 millimeters
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depending on the crop factor of the camera that you put onto it, is the equivalent of either right under
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or right over 100 millimeters, so right in the sweet spot that is traditional for a lot of macro lenses
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This is also unique in that I not sure that I tested an APSC apochromatic lens before And so the end result of that is that this is actually perhaps one of the most high performing lenses on APSC that I ever reviewed before It really is optically incredible More on that in
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just a moment. What you have got is obviously a long and slender lens here that is all made of metal
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very, very nice construction. And so it is compact in the sense that it only has up front only a 52
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millimeter front filter thread and so that shows you kind of the narrowness of it. It makes it
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very easy to bring along in terms of storage. I find that it's so slim that it's very easy to drop
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into even a smaller bag and doesn't take up a lot of space. You can divide kind of a traditional
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slot and if you're having two such slim lenses you can probably fit two lenses into that same space
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Obviously it's a lot longer than what it is. Let's just say that the length versus diameter is
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a different ratio than usual there. And its weight comes out is, you know, still moderate
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but a little heavier than what expected, simply for the reason that it's all metal here
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But the actual construction is great. We have got a very nice focus throw here with about 240 degrees
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of throw, which is great because it gives you precision, not just in the macro range, but it's actually
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got, which can be rare, an adequate amount of range from macro to, or shoot me, from
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kind of a standard focal length to infinity. So it also helps it to be a little bit easier to get precision focus
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if you're wanting to shoot portraits or something not at a macro level. Now, the greatest downside here is that it lacks any kind of electronics
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which means that you won't get XF information communicated to the camera
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It makes, you know, kind of sorting images later or knowing the settings that you used, at least when it comes to aperture
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a little bit harder to determine. And so I do miss that
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However, when it comes to manual focus, and this is manual focus only, it's less of a liability when it comes to a macro-specific lens
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Most of us that do serious macro prefer to use manual focus at those distances anyway for greater precision
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And also you get away from the idea of having to have an AF point or put on the area that you want to be focused And so it actually a kind of a simplified process So very nice for what you have here What you will miss is probably electronic communication
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which also means that you don't get any of that automatic magnification in the viewfinder
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You've got to do that process manually, which just makes it a little bit more clunky, unfortunately
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Now, of course, the great, great strength here is the optical perform formula
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The apochromatic design gives us incredible optical results. And so from F2 point on, it is sharp all the way across the frame
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It has incredible contrast and is able to render fine details at macro and normal distances
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without any kind of visible chromatic aberrations in a way that very few lenses can match
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And its optical performance is thus fantastic. As I said, it's great at macro distances
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You can see from some photos here. And, of course, the ability to go from, you know, some lenses might be a
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one to two magnification you can see that degree here and then you go to a one to one which is where
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you know kind of the typical macro lens is going from that to two to one shows you just how much
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more magnification is capable at a two to one or two times magnification level so extremely
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versatile and useful for that and at most of these you have a fairly decent working distance
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for example at a one to one level you're working at zero point six two feet or zero point
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1-9 meters, 19 centimeters, which is certainly, you know, still usable. Now at 2 to 1, you are getting
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much closer. But at the same time, it's still a workable distance. And so I found it a great
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lens to use for macro work, period. It also is very, very sharp when used as a portrait
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lens. Though at portrait focus distances, I do miss autofocus a bit. I just found that my
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keeper rate wasn't quite as high. And I find that even when you're using like focus over
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overlays, you often don't get as precise a result as you would with using IAF or something
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equivalent like that. And so just the very nature of fine focus while kind of holding the camera steady and your subject moving a little bit Let just say that the camera can do it better than you you know when it has access to good autofocus And so I do miss that but the results are fantastic Often the only trade for apochromatic lenses is that the bocha can have a little bit more definition in some of the out shapes and what I would like That true to some extent here though frankly the bocale looks pretty good to me in a lot of situations And I don think it going to be a major liability for
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anyone. Frankly, there aren't really hardly any optical liabilities that I can point to
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There's basically no distortion. There is some vignette, but it's not terrible and easy to correct
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for. You'll have to do that manually. There is no correction profile because of that no electronics
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thing. And so at the end of the day, there's not a whole lot, though, that needs correcting. And so
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it is a great optical performance. So at the end of the day, probably one of the most appealing aspects
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of this lens is that it comes in at $399 U.S. dollars, which makes it, I think, a pretty extreme
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bargain. I'm not aware of any true aprochromatic design that is cheaper than that, and the price
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to performance ratio is staggeringly good here. This is, as I've said, one of the very best
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very sharpest APSC-specific lenses that I've ever tested before. And so if you don't have a macro
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lens and you've got a, you know, a Sony, Fuji or Canon APSC mirrorless body, I see no real reason
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to recommend you not to get this lens. It really is fantastic. You'll take a look in the
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description down below. I do have linkage to a full text review if you want to explore things
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a little bit more there. There's also linkage to an image gallery if you want to look at more
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photos and see if you like the look of images from the lens. Beyond that, there is also
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linkage there to purchase one if you would like to and help to support this. channel by doing so. And beyond that, there's linkage to follow me on social media, to become a
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patron, to sign up for my newsletter, even make a donation. And if you haven't already
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please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube. Thanks for watching. Have a great day
