Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL

£769/$699 A super-small, crazily compact ultra-wide

Small and light for an ultra-wide lens, but how does this all-mechanical optic fare?

The Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL is the latest in Venus Optics’ line of exotic lenses. This ultra wide-angle offers an impressive 126° angle of view for full-frame mirrorless cameras, giving full-frame shooters the kind of extreme focal length that’s typically reserved for crop-sensor systems. It doesn’t boast the manufacturer’s Zero-D designation, however, meaning that distortion isn’t as well-controlled as in something like the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D.

Like all Laowa lenses it’s also fully mechanical, with no electrical contacts to communicate Exif data or facilitate aperture or autofocus control, so this is a completely manual optic.

If you’ve ever used full-frame ultra-wides before, you’ll know that they are typically big, bulky, awkward things. Not so the Laowa 11mm, and this is undoubtedly the biggest selling point: this lens is positively diminutive. The Laowa 11mm literally fits in your pocket, or in the corner of your camera bag, so you can always have an ultra-wide with you.

Performance

We were impressed by how sharp the Laowa 11mm is in the centre. With precise focus, subjects in the middle of the frame can be captured with pin-sharpness, even wide open. Unsurprisingly, though, that sharpness drops off the further you get from the centre, with corners becoming soft and smeary.

Speaking of that f/4.5 aperture, you’re obviously going to have to push either your ISO or your shutter speed. Of course, for tripod shooting – arguably where this lens is designed to be used – this isn’t an issue.

The Laowa 11mm exhibits heavy vignetting at all apertures, and this is amplified if you add filters to the equation. Likewise, there is significant ghosting and fringing, and enough distortion to be noticeable, if not too problematic. James Artaius

1 This isn’t a weathersealed lens, but it does feature an integral lens hood – one that accepts lens filters, enabling you to screw in 62mm filters. 2 While the aperture ring only has six stops, they’re spaced awkwardly apart (with f/16 disguised as a ‘•’ just before f/22), but they’re all clicked, so you know when you’ve stopped up or down. 3 The focus ring is just the right amount of smooth, with about 90° of throw and enough resistance to give you the granular control you need. It also boasts a Leica-like focus tab, which is useful for manual focus.