Laowa 58mm F2.8 APO 2x (2:1) Macro Review - Another Winner! | DA

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott, and I'm here today to give you my review of the just announced Lowa 58mm F2.8
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This is a two-time aprochromatic APO or APO macro-Lens. So this follows in a series of excellent apricomatic macro lenses that LOWA has been churning
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out that started with the 100 millimeter F2.8, two times macro I reviewed a few years ago. They followed
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that up with a 65 millimeter for APSC, which is exceptional. And then earlier this year, I reviewed
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the very good 90 millimeter that I ended up buying and selling my 100 millimeter to buy
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and it's an awesome lens. And now they followed it up with a little bit wider a focal length
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and this 58 millimeter lens. So I will say this. All of these lenses have been really exceptional
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optically, particularly the 65, 90, and this 58 millimeter lens. And so in many ways, I think that when
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you're considering the 90 millimeter and the 58 millimeter, it's going to be less about what separates
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the two of them in terms of size, performance, you know, handling, because in many ways, these two
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lenses are extremely similar, as we'll explore just a little bit more in just a moment. But really
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it comes down to what focal length is going to work better for you. And in our conclusion
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we will talk about, you know, what might work better for different persons
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I really do enjoy this lens, and there's a lot of things that I think come highly recommended about it
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Now, I have reviewed it today in a Canon RF mount. You can also get it in a Nikon Z or Z mount, a Sony E mount, and a Lyca L mount
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Basically, the major full-frame mirrorless mounts available at this point. Before I go any further, I do want to express my gratitude to so many of you who were very kind
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and reaching out to me in just sharing your thoughts and prayers as I walk through a difficult period
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after the loss of my dad and some other loss, some heavy things that I'm carrying at this moment
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And this review here is bittersweet because this is the lens that I took along on my trip to Arizona
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to go for my dad's funeral. And I had a chance to get out and do some shooting with it, got some beautiful images
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But, of course, there were some tears along the way in this process
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And thank you for walking this journey with me and for all of your consideration
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And so today, this is going to be looking at breaking this lens down and seeing whether or not this is a macro lens that you're looking for
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And I'll dive into that in detail right after a word from our sponsor. Today's episode is brought to you by Phantom Wallet, the minimalist modern wallet that is now even better with the new Phantom X that is crafted from aluminum right here in Canada
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Now, I love this particular focal length, and as mentioned, I think it's a really versatile one
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I actually own multiple macro lenses at this point, a 65 millimeter Voightlander, which many of you know is a lens that I love
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I've got, as mentioned, the Lawa 90mm. Then I also have the IREX 150 millimeter
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And so, you know, 65 millimeter, 90 millimeter, and 150 millimeter. All of them useful for different things
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But the Voightlander and also similarly, the Zeiss macro planar 50 millimeter F2
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have always stood out to me for being lenses that are very versatile as kind of general purposes
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lenses that also happen to do macro. Though they don't do macro the way that this lens does macro
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Both of those lenses are a 1 to 2 times or 0.50 times, so half-life size
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And so one of the things that I took of my fathers is that he was a photographer back in his day
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He shot a lot of slides, thousands and thousands of slides. And many ways he inspired me
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Well, I got one of his old Pentax cameras, mostly just for sentimental value
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But I took some photos of it. And so here's what it looks like at that half-life size, which is the maximum achievable by the Voigtlander and the Zeiss macro planar
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Now, most macro lenses go to a one-to-one or a one-time's magnification level
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And so that looks like this. These Lawa lenses, including this one, go to a two-to-one ratio or two-time life-size
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which gives you a much higher magnification level like that. And so as a by-product, this is going to be very, very useful as a macro lens for the ability
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that you just have more macro than what you do with your typical macro lens Now as noted this lens is very very similar in design If you just look at the bare lens it near identical
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It's about three millimeters shorter, and as far as the weight goes, it's about 31 grams lighter
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But you'll have a hard time telling them apart visually because they are very similar
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One thing that is different is the shape of the lens hood, more on the lens hood in just a moment
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But that size is 74 millimeters in diameter, which gives you a 67 millimeter front filter
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thread which it shares with some of these other lenses. It is 117 millimeters in length, so as noted
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3 millimeters shorter than the 120 millimeters of the 90 millimeter lens, and it weighs in at 564 grams by
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my weight. And so as noted, that's about 3mm shorter and about 31 grams lighter than the other
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This is a fully manual lens. It is manual focus, manual aperture. There are no electronics, which
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remains, you know, one of the main drawbacks of these Lawa lenses. They are pretty bare bones
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though the actual physical design feels very premium. It just lacks some of the bells and whistles
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that other lenses have. And so this is all metal and glass. The focus ring moves very nice
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has nice damping, moves very smoothly. As you can see, it is internally focusing, though you can see
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through that fixed front element. There is a lot of internal movement as you go throughout the
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roughly 200 degrees of focus throw, which by the way, that is a great amount of focus throw
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gives you enough precision to do both macro and standard length photography without any kind of
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issue. And it's not so ridiculously long as what, say, the Zeis Planar was. And so I definitely
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I like the focus ring and the focus throw there. The manual aperture ring here has very
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light detents at the full stops, F2.8 through F22, though there's plenty of
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room to select a kind of in-between stops. And one thing that is very strong about this particular
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Aptor Iris is that it has 13 rounded blades. And as you can see, it does stay very round as you rack
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it down. And so that's going to help you to have nice symmetrical bouquet, even when the lens is
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stopped down. And by the way, that's one area where the straight blades of my Voigtlander 65
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millimeter are not so great. And very quickly you see the blade shape, which you're not going to here
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And so outside of that, there's not a lot to talk about, except for the lens hood, which remains the weak link
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Now, as you can see, it is more of a tulip-shaped lens hood as opposed to the deeper lens hood for either the 90 or 100 millimeter
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but it feels very cheap in plasticy, which frankly doesn't seem to fit this otherwise very metal, very nice lens
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But my biggest complaint with these Lawa lenses is that they don't bayonet on very well
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And so it doesn't feel very precise. you're never quite sure is it actually locked in place because neither does it lock very good
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nor is there any kind of definite click when you get there i also note that when i have the
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lens cap in place it's even harder to put on and so i just don't love the lens hood and i really wish
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that's an area where they would improve upon in their overall design what is here however is very
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nice very functional and i've owned a number of lao lenses at this point and they have held up
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just fine for me in ongoing use. As far as the manual focus process goes
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I mean, it has helped so much by the fact that we're using mirrorless bodies these days
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And of course, I did my review on the EOS R5. So because there's no electronic communication
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I did have to manually set the embody image stabilization, but I was able to very easily get handheld macro
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with the excellent in body image stabilization in this body. A lot of these modern cameras do have IBIS
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which certainly helps out. But I did find that there was enough precision there
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that I was able to nail focus at a variety of focus distances, up to including portraits
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where I had no problem in achieving accurate focus, though, if you're going to visually confirm
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which I like to do, your portrait process does slow down, particularly in these days of IAF
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But I think that the results that this lens can achieve are probably worth being a little bit more
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deliberate about it. Let's dive in, let's take a look together. So as pretty typical for macro lenses, there isn't much in terms of distortion here
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very, very little distortion. And so that's obviously great. This does make it useful for, you know
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reproducing documents, for example, where you, you know, we need to get a flat plane of focus and, you know
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no distortion. And so all of that is good. And you can see that there certainly is some vignette here in the corner
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I've given you a manual correction here on the right side. And so as far as vignette, distortion I've done nothing
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As far as vignette, I've added a 38 and then slid the midpoint over
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and so really not a bad correction there at all, particularly for a lens that can go to a two to one times of magnification
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That's certainly a very, very mild amount of vignette and distortion. Now, a huge deal for doing macro is the fact that this is an aprochromatic design
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which means that there is very little longitudinal chromatic aberration. That's a big deal because at macro levels, depth of field is incredibly tiny
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as you can see here. And it a byproduct there going to be a lot that is not in focus when shooting macro And so a lot of opportunities to have you know to have chromatic aberrations fringing of various kinds
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This is a lens, the front of a lens at two to one magnification
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And so there's a lot of potential here in these various transitions of the places where it has been, you know, stamped and painted in
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with lenses that struggle, this is something that just destroys them. And so as you can see, it's passing this test with no problem at all
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Likewise, lateral chromatic aberrations are not an issue. You can see here towards the edge of the frame
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We've got no fringing that is taking place. And so chromatic aberrations, a complete non-issue with this lens
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as I have found with all of these Lawa apochromatic lenses. Now, I've been universally impressed with the optical performance
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from all of these apricomatic macro lenses from Lawa, and this is no exception at all
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At 200% magnification on the 45 megapixels of the ESR5, the center is flawless
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The mid frame is, it just really stands out to me to be exceptionally good
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That contrast level is fantastic. You can see here, I mean, that is just popping
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even at that 200% magnification. And right down here and through the corner
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everything looks great with just a very mild drop-off in the extreme corner
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Stopping on down to F4. And you can see, a very mild improvement there in the corner and then on to F5.6 and a little bit more
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You can see even out in this area now that we're exceptionally exceptionally crisp
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We'll pop over to this side. You can see it just, I mean, the contrast is just popping here
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And so very, very strong performance. And in the mid frame, you can just see that contrast is at just an exceptional level
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In the center of the frame, midframe is exceptionally good. So obviously, as a byproduct of this, this lens, even more so than any of the others
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is going to be a really great landscape lens for the simple reason that this focal length
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is just so much more useful for going out and shooting landscapes
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And so you can see here that in the areas where, and obviously I was able to shoot in Arizona with this lens
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and you can just see there's just tons of detail everywhere that you look
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even towards the far distant, the communication towers on the top of the mountain there
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You can see all the swarrow cactus delineated along there. Just really, really beautiful
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A more subtle image here, but, you know, once again, it just, I really liked it also as a landscape lens
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You know, has such crisp detail, no worry about chromatic aberrations, be able to resolve a lot of really fine details
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And nice color rendition just makes it really, really nice. A final one here before we move on, another image that I just really love, great color rendition
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And as you can see, if we pop in here to a pixel level, you can just see that the detail that is captured by the sensor is really exceptionally good
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And it's just, you know, it's fantastic, all the different degrees of light and luminosity that is captured there
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Just a really, really beautiful end result. Now, our minimum aperture here is F22, but as you can see, you really do lose a lot due to diffraction on, you know, modern high resolution sensors
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And so, you know, that amazing contrast is just muffled down by diffraction
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I would try to use F11 as a limit and, you know, F-16 in a pinch if absolutely necessary
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So my standard test of, you know, up close minimum focus distance, obviously in this case
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we're able to get really, really close and at that 2 to 1 level of magnification
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And so as a byproduct here, you know, obviously great detail, a fairly flat plan of focus
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but it's not as flat, maybe as either the 90 or the 100 millimeter
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for the simple reason that at 58 millimeters, you're getting a little bit closer
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and so you just as a byproduct, you get a little less flat, plane of focus
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Now, the downside of aprochromatic lenses tends to be that the bouquet is a little less soft
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And so, you know, in general, I have found that Lawa hasn't done a bad job with this
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I still think that the bouquet is pretty decent. It's not absolute top tier
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but just a few examples. We can see that the geometry, it's not flawless, but you know, you're able to get nicely to focus results here
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This is a Hammond organ. Another shot here. This is of cacti
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And so, you know, up close, obviously, you're going to really be able to blur out backgrounds
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The detail is fabulous from this lens. That's the huge strength. And in this case, when you're up close like that, you're defocusing the background so much that you're not going to have to worry about that
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In this case, a little more layers where you get a little bit more potential for busyness
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Again, frankly, this really isn't too bad. And it was a bright sun
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And so this obviously is handled really well. If this lens was prone towards chromatic aberrations at all, this image would be a mess because it was shot in bright Arizona-type conditions
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And the sun is very bright in Arizona. And so as a byproduct I was actually really pleasantly surprised by how the image turned out under the circumstances This is a little bit more of a medium distance and as you can see I really feel like it still handled fairly well There some potential for busyness I mean
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again, the subject matter, it looks just fantastic. This area here, there's a little bit of busyness
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but as I look at the image at large, I still really like it. Another example here back in Ontario
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and here you can see that the bouquet circles, they look pretty decent, and again, subject matter
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looks fabulous. Obviously, this is a lens that really thrives at doing macro kinds of things
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And so, you know, if we zoom in there to a pixel level, it's just fabulous, you know
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controlling all of that. You know, I think that here there's a little potential to where there's
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a little bit more of a prismatic effect than what I would, you know, say that I loved. But in general
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I still really like the image. So obviously, a lens like this is going to be a nice option for
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Portraiture, F2.8 isn't a huge maximum aperture, but the lens having such amazing contrast
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and detail means that you can shoot at F2.8 all day and just be very thrilled with the results
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I also don't find these lenses hard to focus on a, particularly on a body like the EOS R5, that
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has a great viewfinder and good overlays. And so because the lens is so sharp, it's actually
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quite easy to nail focus using overlays and magnification if necessary. Now, as far as Flair goes, there is obviously some ghosting pattern that you can see here
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I would say that it is because it is so kind of neatly organized, it's really not bad
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This image I just love. It's maybe my favorite that I took on this trip
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And so in this case, Flair is handled just like I would want it to be handled
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Here again, there's a little bit of that ghosting pattern, but it is frankly rather artistic
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and not, as a byproduct, it's not really destructive. It's not just kind of random blobs, but they're ordered and stylish
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And here you can see, again, this is maybe my least favorite of the impact of them
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but still I look at the image and I still think it has aesthetic value
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So, of course, your mileage may vary on what you like or don't like
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Overall, however, this lens delivered essentially exactly what I expected, and that is a nearly flawless optical performance
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So at the end of the day, this is an aprochromatic design, and it shows
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It has a tremendous amount of popped images, a great contrast, great resolution
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Fringing is extremely well controlled. That makes it very effective as a macro lens, where there tends to be a lot of shiny surfaces
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and it also makes it very effective for shooting everything from the landscapes that I shot to portraits to just general purpose trail shots
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And that brings us back in conclusion to talking about the focal length
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I like a wider focal length for its versatility. I like it better for shooting product photography, for example
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where sometimes a longer lens feels just a little bit too narrow. I like it for the versatility as like a trail lens
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where I can shoot a little bit of landscape, I can also get in close and shoot the macro shots or the close focus shots
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What you lose is working distance. In this case, between the 90 millimeter and the 58 millimeter
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it's only three centimeters, but that means you're that much closer at these close shots
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macro distances, which means there's more of a chance of, you know, maybe shading your subject
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scaring your subject if you're working with something live. And so, I mean, that brings its own
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you know, challenges. And so in those situations like with insects, my favorite lens is actually
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the 150 millimeter, where I can shoot from a little bit further away and still get a high degree
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of magnification. The other thing that you lose is the ability to blur out backgrounds as much
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as you will with a longer lens with more compression. At the end of the day, however, it really comes
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down to what kind of lens you're using for and what your major applications are going to be
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And I hope that this review helps you to make that decision. One thing I can say for certain is that while I don't know definitively the final price on this
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they've all been priced at roughly the same point, which is right under $500 US
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And this is an excellent value for that, particularly on platforms like Canon, RF, Nikon, Z, or Z
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where there frankly aren't a lot of lens options and certainly not a lot of very good and expensive lens options
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And that makes this lens extremely appealing. If you'd like more information, you can check out my full text review
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which you can find in the linkage down below. There's also linkage to an image gallery where there's a lot of beautiful
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those bittersweet photos that I invite you to go and to check out there. There's also buying links, though as always, when I'm reviewing something brand new
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it may take a few days, a few weeks for those to populate. But I really appreciate those of you that take the time to come back
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and to buy through those links, as it does help to support this channel. And so thank you so much for that
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There's also linkage there to follow myself or Craig on social media
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Check out our collaborative channel, Let the Lighten TV. You can purchase channel merchandise through linkage there, become a patron
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And of course, if you haven't already, please click that subscribe button right here on YouTube. Thanks for watching
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Have a great day. And let the light in

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Laowa 58mm F2.8 APO 2x (2:1) Macro Review - Another Winner! | DA

Dustin Abbott