LAOWA 90MM F2.8 2X ULTRA MACRO APO
This lens will have you seeing double
www.venuslens.net £569/$499
Quite compact for a 90mm macro lens, this Laowa is nearly one and a half inches shorter than the brand’s previous 100mm mirrorless lens, but only a fifth of an inch shorter than the DSLR version. As with its predecessor, it has a fixed physical length, so there’s no externally telescoping inner barrel. 2.0x macro magnification is available at the shortest focus distance of 20.5cm, or eight inches; as always, that’s measured from the focal plane of the camera rather than from the front of the lens.
The fact that the lens focuses internally means it avoids cutting down the working distance between the front of the lens and the subject when you’re shooting close-ups. In practice, while the front element remains in place, the inner elements are deeply recessed at the infinity focus setting, and move forward right up to the front end as you focus down to the closest setting.
Performance
As promised for an ‘apochromatic’ lens, lateral and axial chromatic aberrations are minimal, and image quality is further boosted by three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements. The lens also retains sharpness and clarity at narrow apertures, with minimal diffraction, which is good news for macro photography, where you’ll often try to eke out anything more than a wafer-thin depth of field to retain sharpness; after all, shooting flat objects head-on is of limited appeal unless you’re a stamp collector.
The bokeh produced is soft and creamy, and remains very pleasing when stopping down, helped by a particularly well-rounded 13-blade aperture diaphragm. All in all, premium overall performance and image quality make this a highly desirable and relatively affordable macro lens.