Laowa AF 12mm F2.8 Zero D Lite Review | New Wide Angle King?

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[Music]
0:10
Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today
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to give you a review of the new LAA
0:14
autofocusing 12mm f/2.8 zerod light
0:19
lens. It was nearly a decade ago that I
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reviewed the first LA 12mm f/2.80D
0:25
lens. It was actually one of the first
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LAA lenses that I reviewed and at that
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point it was an intriguing lens because
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it went wider than what just about
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anything else was going at that point
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and did so fairly confidently. I
0:37
actually ended up buying one at a later
0:39
date to use adapted on Sony E-mount,
0:42
particularly using their magic shift
0:43
converter to also give me a shifting
0:46
lens option. Fast forward to 2025 and we
0:49
have got a lens that manages to not only
0:52
have autofocus, but it's also smaller.
0:55
It's lighter. It's cheaper. It has
0:58
weather sealing. This has the ability to
1:01
use traditional filters up front. This
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is a lens that has a lot going for it
1:06
for a price tag of about $699.
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And to make things even more
1:11
interesting, I asked for my loner to
1:13
come in a Nikon Zmount because I've
1:15
never tested a LAA lens on Nikon before.
1:19
And while on Nikon Zmount, it does
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exacerbate one of LA's typical problems.
1:24
Overall, this has been a really
1:26
intriguing lens. And we'll break down
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why this could possibly be an option for
1:31
you if you're looking for a wide-angle
1:33
lens for Sony E-mount, Nikon Zmount, and
1:36
as we'll detail, even a few other
1:38
options if you don't mind manual focus.
1:41
So, we're going to dive in. We're going
1:42
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and use code dustin20 for 20% off. So,
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this copy of the LAA 12mm f/2.80D
2:44
was loan to me by LAA. As always, they
2:47
have had no input on this review and
2:49
will not see it before you do. My
2:52
thoughts and conclusions are my own. So,
2:54
let's take a closer look at the build
2:56
and handling here. As I mentioned in the
2:58
intro, I'm testing the Nikon Zmount
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version, which is autofocus. There's
3:03
also an autofocus version for Sony
3:05
E-mount. In addition, however, there are
3:07
manual focus options for Zmount,
3:10
E-mount, RF mount, and L-mount. And
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apparently, uh, LA obviously feels that
3:16
there is a market for manual focus
3:17
options of the lens, even in the mounts
3:20
where the autofocus version is
3:21
available. For me, I'd prefer autofocus,
3:23
but obviously some of you, your mileage
3:25
is going to vary. This is an extremely
3:28
wide lens. It has 122° angle of view,
3:32
which is noticeably very wide. You're
3:33
going to have to make sure you don't get
3:35
your feet in the frame. And if you aim
3:36
at your feet, it's a long way down. Zero
3:40
D stands for zero distortion. And in
3:43
this case, you can see that lines look
3:45
really great, even uncorrected. So, a
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great lens for shooting interior so long
3:49
as you're keeping the sensor level and
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you're not tilting up and down. We're
3:53
going to get some of that key stoning
3:54
effect as you would with any lens. There
3:57
are also a couple of versions of the
3:59
lens when it comes to the amount of
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aperture blades. So, you can either get
4:02
five or 14 blades. This version is the
4:05
fivebladed version. And frankly, I don't
4:07
see any reason to have anything but
4:09
that. I think that the five blades is
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great because it it quickly creates
4:13
greatl looking sun stars. And frankly,
4:15
you're far more likely to get nice sun
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stars with an wide-angle lens like this
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than you are to get round circular bokeh
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balls. And so, I would stick with the
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five bladed version myself. Again, your
4:27
mileage may vary. I do love the new LAA
4:30
design language. It is a kind of a very
4:33
light cobalt blue overall finish. Looks
4:36
different from any other lens out there.
4:38
The finish and the materials, even the
4:39
textures and designs they've used in the
4:41
manual focus ring, it all looks uniquely
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LA. So, it follows the design language I
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first saw with the 10mm f/2.8 last year.
4:49
And I think it's a great direction for
4:51
them when it comes to their design
4:53
language. the older design language kind
4:55
of looked a bit like maybe a classic
4:58
Zeiss lens and so it it was a nice look
5:01
I think but it was a little bit maybe
5:03
derivative whereas this feels very fresh
5:05
and very unique and so I'm a big fan of
5:09
uh companies developing their own
5:11
identity when it comes to the design
5:12
language of their l of their lenses. Now
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as mentioned before this lens is
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dramatically shrunk from the previous
5:19
version. It is now 77.2 2 mm in
5:23
diameter, right over 3 in. And it's 80.6
5:26
mm in length or 3.09 in. This is the
5:30
largest version, by the way, in the
5:32
Nikon Zmount because Zmount itself, of
5:34
course, is bigger. That is 33 mm shorter
5:38
than the first generation lens. So, that
5:40
is a whole different size and class of
5:43
lens. It also is significantly lighter,
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weighing in at 390 g or about 0.86 lb.
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That's down from right at basically 700
5:53
grams. And so we haven't quite h haveved
5:55
the weight, but we are not far from
5:57
that. And so again, a major
5:59
accomplishment. So hearing all that, you
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might think, well, all they did is just
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go to a plastic. Fantastic. That's
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really not the case here, though. This
6:06
again continues to feel like basically
6:08
almost all metals in the construction,
6:11
right up to including the lens hood,
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which is actually really premium
6:14
feeling. Now the lens hood can itself
6:17
can be removed which I certainly
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appreciate. Their tolerances are just a
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little bit on the tight side. So
6:23
sometimes it can be a little bit kind of
6:25
difficult in popping that free right
6:27
there at the end. But the fact that you
6:29
can remove it is great. And it also
6:31
means that you have much more
6:33
flexibility when it comes to the 72mm
6:36
filter threads up front. And that's a
6:38
huge improvement over the first
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generation lens where you could not use
6:41
standard screw on filters. Now you can
6:43
with that common 72 millimeter size.
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That means that you can just it opens up
6:48
all kinds of new horizons easily when it
6:50
comes to filtering doing long exposures
6:52
for example. You can see the comparison
6:54
here that the shot on the left with no
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filter. It looks quite boring. You add
6:58
in that movement of the water on the
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right side a much more interesting uh
7:03
image. And the difference is is
7:05
literally just quickly screwing on a
7:06
filter. That's all. And so uh really
7:09
really great that you now have that
7:11
flexibility there. Now on the lens
7:13
itself, we do have a gasket at the rear
7:16
mount and then allow it to touts their
7:19
what they call their frog eyee coating
7:20
up front, which is something akin to a
7:22
flooring coating. I'm not aware of any
7:24
other internal seals, but at least we do
7:26
have some degree of weather sealing
7:28
here. The manual focus ring itself moves
7:31
nicely with good damping. It has about a
7:34
100° of focus throw and it does feel
7:38
fairly linear. I tried going fast, I
7:40
tried going slow, and it seems like I
7:42
ended up at roughly the same place. And
7:44
so I do appreciate that minimum focus
7:46
distance here is 14 cm. And so you can
7:49
get very close to your subject because
7:50
remember that's measured from the sensor
7:52
about right here. And you're able to
7:54
achieve a 0.21
7:57
times magnification, which can be
7:59
useful. Just know that you're only going
8:00
to have 3 or 4 cm of working distance.
8:03
You're going to be really close to your
8:04
subject at that point. With a price tag
8:07
of $699,
8:09
this I think represents a pretty good
8:12
value. It feels like a premium lens. And
8:14
the fact that we are operating now at a
8:17
price tag several hundred cheaper than
8:19
one what LA was originally selling their
8:22
lenses for. Uh lenses like this means I
8:25
think we're at a pretty great state of
8:26
value considering all the things that
8:28
have been added here. So let's talk
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autofocus. LA doesn't really detail what
8:34
kind of focus motor is found in these
8:36
lenses. I suspect it is some variation
8:38
of an STM or stepping focus motor. What
8:41
I have found both on the 10mm f2.8 that
8:44
I reviewed last year on Sony E-mount
8:46
which was their first autofocusing lens
8:48
and then on this lens is that LAA they
8:51
waited a long time to do autofocus but
8:53
they seem to have really jumped into it
8:55
feet first. They really have done an
8:57
excellent job of developing good working
9:01
focus motors that are quiet, that are
9:03
quick, and are accurate. And so I have
9:06
no hesitation about that. You can see
9:08
from my formal test that here on Nikon
9:10
that focus zips back and forth, whether
9:12
indoors or outdoors with a good amount
9:14
of speed. It's not perfectly smooth in
9:18
the sense that you can feel it kind of
9:19
jumping back and forth, so it's not
9:21
always damped at the extremes, but focus
9:23
moves quickly, and that's what you want
9:24
above all. In fact, when I uh tried to
9:27
test this by shooting volleyball action,
9:29
you can see over this nearly 200 shots
9:32
in the sequence of different types of
9:34
action that if I looked at all of them,
9:36
I feel like all of them were well
9:38
focused. Now, to be fair, with a very
9:40
wide angle of view like this, you're
9:42
going to get a lot in focus at a time.
9:45
However, you can tell that focus is at
9:47
the right point. And while most of
9:49
what's in the frame is in focus, it is
9:50
to lesser degrees than the actual
9:52
subject. So focus seems to be keeping up
9:55
at least with this degree of action. So
9:57
obviously that adds to the usefulness of
9:59
the lens itself. I was also able to
10:01
focus even when I was up close to a
10:03
subject. You can get very close
10:05
obviously with the minimum focus
10:06
distance. And I was able to get accurate
10:08
focus even at close focus distances. So
10:11
when it comes to stills, I really don't
10:13
have much to complain about here. I
10:15
found that autofocus got the job done
10:17
and all of my images uh throughout the
10:20
sequence of shots that I took. They were
10:22
all well focused. So, great job on that
10:24
front LA.
10:27
On the video side of things, my feelings
10:29
are largely the same. What I found is
10:31
that in doing my autofocus pulls that
10:33
autofocus move back and forth smoothly,
10:36
confidently. I didn't see any pulsing or
10:38
any settling. So, good job on that
10:40
front. There is, in my opinion, a
10:43
surprising amount of focus breathing
10:45
that's taking place here. Not that it's
10:46
a massive amount of focus breathing, but
10:48
for such a wide angle of view, I'm
10:50
surprised to really see much of anything
10:52
at all. I don't think it's enough to be
10:53
a dealbreaker, and I didn't notice as as
10:55
much in smaller, less abrupt focus
10:58
changes, but you obviously are going to
11:00
see it in this type of test. When it
11:02
comes to my hand test, I found that
11:04
focus made the transition from hand to
11:06
the eye and back with good confidence.
11:09
So, no issues there. And you can see in
11:11
shots here that when I'm doing kind of
11:13
more ordinary focus transitions where I
11:16
am moving along and allowing the camera
11:19
to move focus as different things come
11:21
kind of into on screen that it seems to
11:24
do that without any kind of rapid or
11:26
jarring type movement. It's fairly
11:28
cinematic in the process. And as I walk
11:30
with the lens, I I found that the focal
11:32
length is very interesting for that.
11:34
When I set up for static shots, I had no
11:36
problem with focus, you know, jumping
11:37
around or doing anything that I didn't
11:39
want it to do. And even when focusing up
11:41
close, while that's a little bit more
11:43
challenging, you can see here with this
11:44
shot of the lily that it is doing the
11:47
job that needs to do of adjusting focus
11:49
down even at really, really close focus
11:51
distances. So once again, while video f
11:54
is maybe isn't perfect because of a
11:57
little bit of focus breathing, overall
11:59
the the effect here I think is very good
12:01
and this could be an extremely useful
12:02
video lens obviously for a lot of
12:04
different applications. That's a great
12:06
focal length and we don't really have a
12:08
lot of options for it to compete
12:10
directly with here on Nikon Zmount. A
12:12
few more on Sony E-mount, but even there
12:15
I think at this price tag and with this
12:16
performance, it should be a welcome
12:18
lens. So how about the image quality
12:20
itself? This is an optical design of 16
12:23
elements in nine groups. For those of
12:25
you that are interested, this is a
12:26
slightly different optical design,
12:28
optical formula, than what was in the
12:30
first generation lens. And if you think
12:32
about it, that only stands to reason.
12:33
You can't have a lens that's 33 mm short
12:36
or longer and have a similar optical
12:38
design. And so things are uh they're in
12:41
different positions. It's it's one less
12:43
group of of elements that are here. This
12:46
design now includes four uh extra low
12:49
dispersion elements and then two
12:51
aspherical elements. You can see that
12:52
the MTF it is pretty linear. It is very
12:56
sharp in the center of the frame and
12:57
then just progressively drops across the
12:59
frame until you get to the corners
13:01
there. And I found that that pretty much
13:04
matched what I saw in the real world
13:06
also. Now the strength of this lens is
13:09
obviously the low degree of distortion.
13:10
And while that's harder to test at like
13:12
the test chart distances, uh I did find
13:15
that there is a minimal amount of
13:17
distortion even up close. And when I
13:19
step back, for example, again, taking a
13:21
look at all the interior walls, you can
13:23
see that everything looks nice and
13:25
straight. So that is all great. I also
13:28
found that while the amount of
13:30
distortion is low, the vignette is very
13:32
heavy. And that's always allowable
13:34
weakness anyway. And as I mentioned in
13:36
the intro, I think it's exacerbated by
13:38
the fact that on Nikon Zmount, it being
13:40
the largest diameter mount that is of
13:42
any of the full-frame mounts, it just
13:44
means that vignette is almost always
13:46
worse on any third party lenses. And in
13:49
this case, vignette is extremely heavy.
13:51
Though in both cases, things could be
13:52
worse. I do really like the LK Samyang
13:56
14 to 24mm f2.8, and I have used it
13:59
quite a bit on my uh my Z8 adapted. And
14:02
you can see however though that there is
14:04
massively more distortion at 14 mm and
14:07
massively more vignette at 14 mm on
14:10
Zmount than what there is with this 12
14:12
mm lens. So, you know, everything is
14:14
relative, but I think that that vignette
14:16
is probably going to be the single
14:18
biggest factor in some cases of
14:20
impacting your images. And I will note
14:22
that it doesn't seem like LA is getting
14:25
full in camera support on its lenses
14:28
yet. And so JPEGs look pretty much the
14:29
same as the RAW files that I got back in
14:32
Lightroom.
14:34
I found that again, depth of field not
14:36
being very shallow with a wideangle lens
14:38
like this. Longitudinal style chromatic
14:40
aberration, not a problem. Lateral style
14:42
chromatic aberration near the edges of
14:44
the frame, a bit more of that. But I
14:46
went looking for it in my real world
14:48
shots and I couldn't really find it. So
14:50
I'm not really going to complain about
14:51
that too much there. When it comes to
14:53
the resolution, again, I'm using a 45
14:55
mega megapixel Z8 here, and I show the
14:58
crops at 200% magnification. The center
15:01
looks fantastic as the MTF advertised.
15:03
The midframe is I would only call it
15:06
okay. It looks a little bit jittery to
15:08
my eye. In the corners, it's darker
15:10
obviously and obviously going to be a
15:12
bit softer there as the MTF chart
15:15
suggested. Now, I tried going out at a
15:17
little bit further distance on just a
15:20
wall of barn board that I've got. And
15:22
what I found moving there is that I
15:24
definitely noticed a difference if I was
15:26
focused in the center or at the edge of
15:28
the frame. So, if I focused in the
15:29
center of the frame, center looks great.
15:31
Edge looks quite soft. I focused at the
15:33
edge of the frame, the edge looks
15:35
better. Not great, but better. But the
15:37
center looks significantly softer. So,
15:40
that tells me we've got some field
15:41
curvature that is going on there. The
15:43
good news is that the further you get
15:45
away from your subject, the less likely
15:46
that that becomes an issue because depth
15:48
of field begins to solve that. And in
15:51
fact, I found even at the very close
15:53
distances, probably less than it's
15:54
definitely less than 2 feet when testing
15:56
on my test chart, that at that very
15:59
close focus distance, even by f5.6 depth
16:01
of field, starting to align the corners
16:04
with the center of the frame, by f8, I
16:06
saw what I would consider to be kind of
16:08
the peak sharpness with the most
16:10
consistency across the frame. Now,
16:12
beyond that, at f11, you're going to
16:14
start to run into defraction. Not bad at
16:16
f11. By f-22, a lot more obvious at that
16:20
point. And so, you might want to avoid
16:21
anything beyond f11 unless absolutely
16:24
necessary. The bokeh quality is only
16:27
okay, but frankly, who cares? You're
16:29
going to have very few situations where
16:31
you can create much bokeh from this
16:33
lens. More important is the flare
16:35
resistance, and I found that to be a bit
16:37
of a mixed bag. Contrast always remains
16:39
good. So, the coatings are doing a good
16:41
job there. There's only minimal ghosting
16:43
when shooting at f2.8, and I didn't find
16:45
that disruptive. By the time I stopped
16:47
it down significantly to f11, however,
16:50
that ghosting pattern becomes more
16:52
prominent. And depending upon your
16:54
orientation or your composition, you're
16:57
going to find that that becomes more or
16:59
less destructive depending on how you
17:01
are composing. So, just watch out for
17:03
that. I didn't have a chance to test
17:06
Coma during this review period, but I
17:08
did do on the 10 millimeter last year
17:10
and then the previous 12mm. And I found
17:12
fairly consistent results, which I
17:14
suspect will hold true here. And that is
17:16
that there is minimal coma in the edges.
17:19
I don't think that's a major issue,
17:20
particularly with such a wide angle of
17:22
view. It's going to be so small you
17:23
probably won't notice it. More important
17:25
is the heavy vignette which could create
17:27
some extra noise in those corners when
17:30
you're shooting at higher ISO values
17:32
trying to get astro shots. So that's
17:34
probably a bigger factor than the coma
17:36
itself. Overall, however, there's more
17:39
strengths and weaknesses here. It is
17:41
very hard to do a good job of
17:42
engineering ultra wideangle lenses like
17:44
this. And frankly, particularly when you
17:47
consider that they've managed to
17:48
miniaturaturize the lens, the fact that
17:49
it's improved over the previous
17:51
generation pretty impressive. So my
17:54
conclusion is this. This while this
17:56
isn't a perfect lens as we saw in some
17:58
of our optical breakdown, it is a very
18:00
competent lens, it doesn't really have
18:02
anything that I would consider a fatal
18:04
flaw. The heavy vignette is probably the
18:06
most disconcerting thing. But, you know,
18:08
to offset that, you are getting lower
18:10
rate of distortion that probably you're
18:12
going to get with any kind of
18:13
competition at this particular focal
18:15
length. And so that means it remains, I
18:17
think, an intriguing option on all the
18:20
platforms it's available for, but in
18:22
particular for Nikon Zmount and Sony
18:24
E-mount, we're going to have the
18:26
autofocus option. On those other mounts,
18:28
you're going to have to deal with a
18:29
manual focus lens. And while that's not
18:31
a huge deal on a wide-angle lens, I
18:34
think the versatility of autofocus sets
18:36
this apart. Very welcome, however, is a
18:38
price tag that I think is very
18:40
reasonable for what you're getting here.
18:42
This is a lens with beautiful build,
18:43
good autofocus, and a strong optical
18:45
performance. So, I think that that's a
18:47
pretty great package for about $699.
18:51
Now, if you want more information about
18:52
the lens itself, you can check out
18:54
either my text review that's linked in
18:55
the description down below. There are
18:57
some buying links there as well as a
18:59
link to the image gallery. But if you
19:00
want a deeper dive into the optics, stay
19:02
tuned with me right now. We're going to
19:03
jump into that together. So, as
19:05
mentioned earlier, it's a little bit
19:07
hard to really evaluate distortion at
19:10
such a close focus distance as what I'm
19:12
doing here. It does tend to exaggerate
19:15
any kind of distortion even if it's a
19:17
very slight tilt. And so, you can see
19:20
here, I don't know that this does a full
19:22
comparison. However, what we can see is
19:24
that distortion is very, very low.
19:26
Nonetheless, if we look at some real
19:29
world examples here, you can see there's
19:31
a slight tilt upward here. And so you're
19:32
going to get a little bit of key
19:33
stinging effect, but all of the lines
19:35
are really, really straight. And if I
19:37
here where I'm not adjusted up and down,
19:40
if you look at the various lines as
19:42
throughout this scene, all of them are
19:44
nice and straight, even as we get closer
19:46
to the camera and more importantly
19:48
closer to the edge of the frame. Now,
19:50
that being said, you still don't want to
19:52
compose with people near the edge of the
19:54
frame. Wide-angle lenses are going to
19:56
naturally exaggerate, particularly if an
19:59
arm, for example, in this case, is
20:00
closer to the camera. And so you can see
20:02
it's all out of proportion. You can get
20:04
some uh let's say interesting images
20:06
with lenses like this, but uh most
20:09
people are not going to appreciate if
20:11
you put them near the edge of the frame
20:12
with this lens. Now, as noted, vignette
20:15
is very heavy. And so it's going to be
20:17
very strong in the corners. Probably
20:19
expect to see about a stop less on the
20:21
Sony E-mount version, but here on Nikon,
20:24
very, very heavy vignette. Now, of
20:26
course, there can be moments where
20:27
that's a desirable effect, like in this
20:29
image. I think that the natural vignette
20:31
kind of draws the eye into the center of
20:33
the frame and it adds to the charm of
20:36
this image, but particularly if you're
20:37
shooting on snowy scenes or scenes where
20:40
the sky is really uniform, you're going
20:42
to find that you'll definitely want to
20:44
correct that vignette. Now, depth of
20:46
field is scarcely uh small enough for
20:50
there to be any kind of real issue with
20:52
longitudinal style chromatic aberration.
20:54
And you can see there isn't really any
20:55
fringing to see before and after the
20:57
plane of focus. There is a bit of
21:00
lateral chromatic aberration. You can
21:01
see just a little bit of color fringing
21:03
in what should be black and white
21:05
transitions, but it's not strong. And
21:07
this is at a very high level of
21:09
magnification. At 100% magnification in
21:12
real world images, I just wasn't really
21:14
spotting it. So, it's there, but I don't
21:16
think it's going to be a realworld
21:18
issue. So, taking a look at the test
21:20
chart and testing for resolution and
21:22
contrast. This is a 45 megga megapixel
21:24
Nikon Z8 and we're going to be looking
21:27
at 200% level of magnification. So
21:29
center of the frame looks fantastic.
21:31
That's what the MTF chart suggested. It
21:33
is super sharp, very high contrast in
21:35
the center of the frame. However, you
21:37
can see that quite quickly that begins
21:40
to drop off. And so as we get towards
21:42
the mid-frame, there's still a good
21:44
amount of contrast, but the detail isn't
21:46
as good. And as we kind of poke on down
21:49
towards the corner, you can see the
21:51
corners are darker, but they're also
21:53
softer. Now, in this case, I did find
21:55
that the uh lefthand corner looks a
21:58
little bit better. And again, it because
22:00
I'm at such a close focus distance, any
22:02
kind of little minor variation is going
22:05
to exacerbate that. And so, but the MTF
22:08
chart chart suggests that the corners
22:11
are going to be quite a bit softer than
22:12
what the center of the frame is. That's
22:14
what we find. So because I recognize the
22:16
limitations of my testing setups here, I
22:19
went out to a real world shot just to
22:21
give a little bit more perspective. So
22:23
in the image on the left, I focused
22:25
right here in the center of the frame.
22:26
The image on the right, I focused over
22:29
here on that lock. So first of all, if
22:31
we look towards the center of the frame,
22:33
we can see that the image that's focused
22:35
in the center of the frame, super sharp
22:37
in the center of the frame. the one
22:39
that's focused on the side of the frame
22:41
towards the edge of the frame, you can
22:42
see that in the center of the frame,
22:44
it's a whole lot softer. Now, if we take
22:46
a look over here with the focus on the
22:49
lock, the image that is focused on the
22:51
lock, it definitely looks better. It's
22:53
not as crisp as what the center of the
22:55
frame was, but it is better. Whereas
22:58
here, where it was focused in the center
22:59
of the frame, it is softer. So, there is
23:01
some field curvature at work here. And
23:04
even if you're a bit further back,
23:05
that's going to be a factor. The good
23:07
news is is that in real world landscape
23:09
style images probably never going to be
23:11
a problem. So going back to the test
23:14
chart in the center of the frame at f4
23:17
here on the right you can see the
23:18
contrast is it's even better. It's just
23:21
it's fantastic. The mid-frame is still
23:24
not looking particularly better. It is
23:27
mildly improved but it is not
23:29
significantly improved. And the same is
23:31
true of that lower uh lower right
23:34
corner. upper left corner looks a tiny
23:37
bit better. Now, looking back to the
23:39
mid-frame by f5.6, starting to look good
23:42
there. And in the upper uh left corner
23:45
where it is the strongest, it's looking
23:46
quite good there. We'll take a look at a
23:48
couple of other spots. This midframe is
23:51
looking improved. Better contrast at a
23:53
5.6. Over on this side by a 5.6, it's
23:57
looking good, but not great. Stopping on
24:00
down to f8, however, does allow that
24:03
what I would call the greatness to
24:05
extend right to the corners. And now we
24:07
can see if we look at a variety of
24:09
places that we are getting quite a
24:11
consistently good performance all across
24:13
the frame in this upper left corner
24:15
where it's the strongest, it's now
24:16
fantastic by f8. And so if you're
24:19
shooting at smaller landscape apertures,
24:21
you're going to get sharp results. Now
24:23
you can see by f11, defraction is
24:25
starting to soften that image somewhat
24:27
again. And then by the time you get to
24:29
f22, which is the minimum aperture,
24:31
defraction is really, really softening
24:34
the image. So I would say use f11.
24:36
You're going to get tons of depth of
24:37
field. I don't see any reason to shoot
24:39
any smaller than f11 with this
24:41
particular lens. That's where you're
24:42
going to get your best performance. Now,
24:44
we can see because you can get so close
24:46
to your subject, you can get a very good
24:49
degree of magnification and the uplose
24:51
performance, particularly if you're near
24:53
the sweet spot in the center of the
24:54
frame. You can see it really looks quite
24:56
good. the bokeh quality is only going to
24:59
be so so I mean you're never going to
25:01
really strongly blur out a background
25:03
but you can see you can get a decent
25:05
result here it's still a little busy in
25:08
the background here once again our
25:10
subject is here that looks fine but you
25:12
can see that the background is not
25:14
strongly defocused so don't buy this
25:16
lens to try to create bokeh with it I do
25:20
want to take a moment to highlight and
25:22
praise how great it is to uh be able to
25:24
use filters easily with this lens
25:26
Obviously the one on the left without a
25:28
filter is much less interesting than the
25:31
image on the right with the water uh
25:33
filtered and giving you you know that
25:35
kind of painterly effect to it. Likewise
25:37
in this image here obviously the image
25:40
on the right is much more visually
25:41
interesting. Now I have played with the
25:43
color balance just to give it a more
25:44
interesting effect there and put a
25:46
preset on there. We can also see that it
25:49
is doing a good job of maintaining, I
25:52
would say, similar levels of sharpness
25:55
and detail even when being filtered. And
25:57
so, I mean, it's great that we've got a
26:00
lens that, you know, is going to give us
26:02
a pretty consistent performance. I love
26:05
the sun stars from this lens. I think
26:07
they look fantastic. I would have see no
26:09
reason to go for the 14-bladed version.
26:11
I think the fivebladed is great. You can
26:14
see here that you know composed here
26:17
there is a little bit of a ghosting
26:18
artifact that's hitting here not really
26:20
impacting the image too much and
26:22
contrast is held up in this image
26:24
however a different kind of composition
26:26
that's a much more negative effect and
26:28
you can see as I toggle between f11 and
26:31
then f2.8 in this case the large
26:34
aperture here is much preferable to the
26:37
smaller aperture here where you're
26:39
getting much more of this kind of
26:41
nonsense of ghosting effects. So just be
26:44
careful with your composition. Overall,
26:46
this lens is very interesting. It is, I
26:48
think, sharp enough to get the job done
26:50
in any kind of situation and it has that
26:53
low distortion. There's a lot of value
26:55
here. So, thanks for sticking around to
26:57
the very end. As always, thanks for
26:59
watching. Have a great day and let the
27:02
light in.
27:03
[Music]

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