Laowa 35mm F0.95 Argus | Definitive Review

[@OccultDemonCassette]

The transition of depth in the out of focus areas are beautiful with this lens.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Agreed.

[@simonprobert8765]

Your reviews always seem unbiased and very thorough! I was very interested in this lens ever since I heard about it and you just answered pretty much all of my questions! Also the lens seems fantastic, obviously it has it's quirks, as you mention. But I think I might be right in the middle of the targeted audience! Thank you!

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Enjoy the lens. It’s a lot of fun.

[@aaronreimer]

Incredible review! Love your work!

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Thank you very much

[@acouragefann]

That huge number of aperture blades is something I love about my laowa 60mm macro (which, even though its f2.8, is quite nice for portraits in its overall rendering) and I'm glad to see it here again. I feel that for fast lenses that have landscape potential, it's acceptable (though perhaps not desirable) to have a bit of softness at wider apertures (allthemore when its as fast as 0.95) In real worlf use, I feel one usually shoots a lens like this to isolate a subject against a strongly blurred background, particularly for people in an environment, and then look at the image globally to get that nice overall rendering where critical sharpness becomes less important. Thank you for your very helpful insights and detailed review on more niche lenses like this Laowa.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

My pleasure.

[@KaarloMedia]

I'm fully expecting a trend from different manufacturers to produce neovintage lens sets in the near future. This Laowa is providing some of that vibe at the wide end. By hitting the tops of MTF charts in pretty much all possible focal lengths, manufacturers will turn back to the past to bring renewed character to their lineup. Maybe even delving into anamorphic lenses in photography... that would definitely intrigue me!

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

There’s truth to that. When you start to have consistently well corrected lenses across the board, something unique is going to create interest.

[@qtben17]

Definitely vintage is the new modern.

[@nat-lj8kt]

​@@DustinAbbottTWI there is a happy medium where you have modern sharp lenses with good coatings, modern designs with too many lens elements, too many aperture blades, with close focus correction that corrects extreme spherical aberration but maybe not 100% wide open. You get very low LOCA due to all that special glass used, low coma due to modern aspheric glass. What you don't get is edge to edge sharpness wide open but a pretty good center zone enough for where one would usually put a subject in a wide open shot. The contrast sarts out lower but sharpness is still high which gives photographer really lots of control over that freedom of expression rather than stopping down to compensate. A lens that is fast, maybe heavy and also beautifully flawed but still modern. A fine line between the APO Voigtlander lenses and the 1.2 primes with more character or even this Laowa lens. Yes the cost would be prohibitive even with manual focus. No I'm not describing a modern mirrorless Otus but maybe it's close.

[@Crazy41ism]

Excellent review! I also love the new outro. Cheers.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Thank you!

[@OrdinaryFilmmaker]

We need one more for Friday. With the R3, there's lots to talk about. Got a window to appear on the Panel?

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Hi there, at the moment I am just ridiculously busy due to our construction project at the church. I might be able to make an appearance over the winter when construction slows down.

[@OrdinaryFilmmaker]

@@DustinAbbottTWI you don’t need more work my friend ;). A nice cup of coffee or tea in one of those scenic views you shoot in for an hour sounds more beneficial. I’ll be here when you just want to sit back and be part of a panel. Stay well my friend.

[@tomapaunovic]

After some reviews of Laowa 35mm 0.95 APO for APS-C, I kind of expected more of this lens. IMHO, by comparing your reviews of this lens and Voigtlander 40mm 1.2, Voigtlander looks like much better option all around. It's not 0.95, but it has superior colors, sharpness, contrast, aberration control, electronic contacts, and it's a much smaller lens. On top of that, cost is almost the same.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

That’s fair enough, though its not an exact comparison.

[@robertsaca3512]

It is a very good comparative product, it's only 7mm less wide, about as expensive and still fast, but usable wide open whereas the Laowa is soft, even stopped down. The CV is better made and optically superior in every way, why would you bother with this junk lens. The Sigma 35 1.2 is the fast AF winner in this category.

[@dominic-ryan]

Great review as always Dustin. What was your feeling around actual light transmission? Will such a dense array of glass result in significant light transmission loss? I'm looking to get an extremely fast 35mm prime for very low light video. Currently looking at this, the Sigma 35mm f/1.2 or Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

It's definitely going to be brighter than those lenses. Every lens has a bit of light loss, but usually a lens like this would be something like T1.1 or so, while those others might be T1.3 or so.

[@dominic-ryan]

@@DustinAbbottTWI Thanks very much.

[@b.walter6646]

Excellent review, very revealing & interesting. I think I'll end up purchasing the Sigma 35mm 1.2, as for a bit more, you'll get a lot more.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

It’s a large lens, but optically excellent

[@gerardferry3958]

-.95 lenses are fun, and if they cost relatively little its fine, the real joy is the modern availability, content is king, inexactitudes are the bleatings of peasants

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

They are fun lenses, though not always the most practical.

[@La-verdad-aunque-duela]

Hey Dustin, thank you so much for this interesting video man. What lens are you using for recording this video in 2:42 seconds? Thanks

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Samyang AF 75mm F1.8

[@lsaideOK]

Fantastic review! Really tailored to the particular nature of this lens. It's definitely not for me. Not up my alley because, like you, I use fast lenses to get close and create that nice blur. Like the Tamron 35 which has great max magnification.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

The Tamron 35mm F1.4 is definitely a very nice lens.

[@Zimtstangerl1989]

How is the lowlight performance of this lens? Is it any good? What about astrophotography? 🤔 Would be nice to know. 😄

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

The low light performance is very good, as it swallows so much light. I didn’t have any opportunity to test Astro during the time I had the lens.

[@Zimtstangerl1989]

Thank you so much for your fast reply, Dustin. This should be an interesting lens for me. 😄

[@6rimR3ap3r]

I hope you get a 45mm Argus to review once it's out :-) Any hint if you know if that's going to happen? ;-)

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

I’m actually not aware of that lens, but Laowa often does reach out to me when they have new lens releases

[@silvere36]

This can probably be a great lens for crop sensor shooters

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Sure, though they do have some dedicated APS-C lenses in the Argus lineup.

[@timreid646]

What are the setting to take a picture , canon Eos r ?? With the 33mn laowa lense ?

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Just enable the "release shutter without lens" setting and you'll be fine.

[@AR-vf7vg]

IF You really feel going for awkwardness over conventionalisme, then you should consider (second hand) Sigma DG DN f/1.2 35mm. You'll have gained in all, +(eye!-)AF. (except it might not be available in all same mounts.)

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

It's a huge lens, but it is really amazing optically.

[@xinyii2515]

I saw the ttartisan have similar focal lengths. And ttartisan's the price reasonable for me. I have no idea buy which one. Can you review the ttartisan 35mm?

[@vazenanamorphiclenses3611]

TT Artisan one is NOT full frame. Its APS-C.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

As noted, that TTArtisan lens is for the smaller APS-C sensor, so not really like this lens at all.

[@robertmont864]

Can you test the Tokina SZX 400mm f/8 Reflex MF Lens for Sony E mount?

[@thatcherfreeman]

I own the tokina lens, it's pretty soft. I'd def recommend the Tamron 500mm f/8 mirror lens from the 80s as that's about as crisp as I could want, and it's cheaper than the tokina.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

I’ve not had any success getting Tokina loaners thus far.

[@nat-lj8kt]

Would make a perfect team with 35mm GM, logical, almost perfect, fast af, small & maybe a bit boring vs extremely shallow depth of field, smooth bokeh with character, spherical aberration, manual focus, heavy with no contacts :)

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

I actually love the 35GM, so that's an easy call for me.

[@S3l3ct1ve]

If you got that much separation, the sharpness issint that important ;)

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

To some people, for sure. People have different expectations and priorities.

[@PavlosPapageorgiou]

19:51 a bird!

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Yep

[@poulouseaweed]

I was excepting a test in lowlight conditions

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

When you manually focus, there really isn't much to test. You can get lower ISO settings, obviously, but the focus process is the exact same as in other lighting conditions.

[@simonp8088]

I don’t understand these kinds of lenses. They’re made to be super max wide aperture, but not very usable at that aperture. If this lens were cheap, I’d say i could forgive the relatively poor wide open performance. But it’s getting moderately pricy for what it is. Makes me wonder why they just didn’t make a lens like this an f1.2 or 1.4 instead and reduce the size/cost.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

I don't disagree, though there are a lot of people who actually really like the look of images that are a little more "dreamy" and artistic.

[@vincenzoduri1693]

Finally a lens that stands out from the crowd of sheep, thanks

[@xe1zlgg]

Excellent...

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Thank you!

[@chingo3625]

Laowa circles aound it optics but fails to add AF to its lenses, that says it is very low tech.

[@gitithadani]

Micro contrast and even colors does not seem of high optical quality - also given that it claims to be an APO lens. Its MFD is very poor - std 35 is abt 30cms and the tamron is abt 15 or 14. And for landscape range it would be useable only stepped down. The older mf samyang lens seem to have better optics and possibily coatings. And the newer lenses have electronic communication and are lighter - more ergonomic. It seems that for Laowa the only selling point in such a crowded 35mm market (atleast for sony) is by providing such a fast aperture but how to optimize its optical character - its artistic rendering etc does not seem to be the case.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

Hi Giti, I don’t think there’s actually a claim that this is an APO lens. The 33mm F0.95 APS-C lens is Apochromatic.

[@gitithadani]

@@DustinAbbottTWI Got it - apsc lens is advertised as APO; The underlying issue however is color frequencies and their management. The faster one makes a lens the more the color - highlight management & also to make the lens good at different distances the design may possibly need floating elements.

[@rivergate950]

3:35 f 0.95 which is basicall f/1 to f 1.4 is 1 stop not 1.25 stop.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

It’s technically one and one sixth. You can’t just automatically round up and call it F1.

[@rivergate950]

@@DustinAbbottTWI LOL. you do realize f stops are based on the square root of 2 which is an irrational number that goes on forever?!? so f/1.4 actually is f 1.41 and f 5.6 is actually 5.66 F/11 is 11.31, are you beginning to see how silly an f/0.95 lens sounds?

[@rivergate950]

9:48 A stop and a sixth of light more than 1.4?!! Sorry no. it's one stop. This whole 0.95 thing is ridiculous, if something costs $9.95, it actually costs $10. Does anyone really think all f/2.8 lenses are actually exactly 2.8? no, they might be 2.75 or 2.85, same thing with focal length. Many 19mm zooms are actually 20mm at the wide end.

[@DustinAbbottTWI]

I understand your argument, but that doesn’t change the fact that technically it is a stop and a sixth different. I would get crucified if I didn’t state something like that accurately.