My experience with this Laowa was highlighted by it’s outstanding optical performance with edge to edge sharpness. This lens opens a new visual world of seriously exciting macro photography. At 2x it’s just fantastic and it’s also an apochromat!
In my opinion this lens equals or exceeds the best offerings from Nikon and Leica and during my career I’ve shot tons of images with the Nikons and Leicas. This 100mm is all metal, silky smooth focus, no plastics and no kidding it feels just like my 2.8 Leica Tele-Elmarit. What is very dissimilar is the price… this Laowa is a true bargain at $699 – on sale at $639 until Jun 12!
As a portrait lens it’s in that renowned sweet spot of 100mm. Shallow depth of focus at 2.8 will render your background softly diffused producing a beautiful soft bokeh which I find very pleasing. I should add it balances nicely with a full frame camera.
At my core I’m photojournalist, meaning I photograph people, be it a fashion model or a street person. I trust manual focus. For me the lack of auto focus is not an issue, in fact for me manual focus is fun, and it gets me more involved in making the shot. I should add the lens hood is for real and will protect the lens’s front element and most assuredly you’ll not get contrast destroying flare. Filter size is 67mm and I happen to have a lot of them. A tip, any extra glass added to the image forming light will rob you of some resolution, a little wee bit or a ghastly amount… buy only premium multi-coated filters!!!
My go to lens until now has been the much-revered Nikon 105 2.5. For me it’s time for a Laowa upgrade.
Great shooting to all!
About the Author – Crombie McNeill
Crombie McNeill is a unique artist. He’s a world travelled photographer with numerous awards and has been recognized as one of the best editorial photographers in North America. His credits include Time, Newsweek, ELLE, Life, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Chatelaine, Paris Match, McLean’s, En Route to name but a few.
His Odyssey lead him from the Arctic to high fashion magazine shoots to Olympic Games, World Cup events, the depths of the Great Barrier Reef to the altitude with the Snow Birds, interwoven with civil war in Africa, Royalty, presidents to paupers world wide. Not to mention frozen toes at the North Pole.
His photography has been exhibited in galleries across Canada, the United States and Europe and has three books to his credit.
Not one to leave behind the uniqueness of traditional film he’s evolved a blending of photography with both hand applied and computer processing to produce truly unique images.
“The art of photography for me” says Crombie “is to convey a timeless essence with a hint of mystery”.
The National Archives predicts he will be credited as one of Canada’s most significant photographers and is on the list for The Order of Canada. The National Art Gallery of Canada has some of his fine art b&w prints included in their permanent collection.
Crombie is now happily retired, in that he no longer accepts editorial or commercial assignments He now lives in Aylmer, with his wife Sue. “This retirement”, he’s delighted to says, “allows me the freedom to search for those magical b&w images, and to determine the ideal technique by which it should be captured and presented.
Crombie often returns to the peaceful amber glow of his wet darkroom as a respite from his extensive digital lab and art board.
Please enjoy!
