Laowa Announces L-Mount Versions of Macro and Ultra-Wide Lenses

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by Jakub HanJuly 28^th, 2020

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Venus Optics announced they will offer six of their lenses for L-Mount as well. These six new Laowa L-Mount lenses include Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6, Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D, Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D, Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide Angle Macro, Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2X Ultra-Macro, and Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO. Price remains the same as with other lens mounts and shipping starts in August 2020.

The L-Mount Alliance, which was formed roughly two years ago between Leica, Panasonic, and SIGMA, currently includes a few interesting cameras from these companies already. Especially interesting among filmmakers, are the Panasonic LUMIX S1, S1H, and the SIGMA fp.

While the L-Mount alliance companies supply their systems with a fair amount of native lenses, additions are always welcome. The Chinese lens manufacturer Venus Optics, specialized in niche lenses, just announced they will adapt six of their Laowa lenses to L-Mount as well. Let’s take a look at which lenses will get an L-Mount version.

Six New Laowa L-Mount Lenses

Venus Optics focuses on fully manual photo and cinema lenses produced under the Laowa brand. From their lineup, it is quite obvious that the company often tries to fill the gaps in the market left by the competition. One piece of evidence being a large amount of ultra-wide lenses in their portfolio.

In their recent announcement, Venus Optics claims they will be offering six of their lenses as L-Mount versions as well. The six lenses include three ultra-wide-angle options and three macro lenses.

Six Laowa Lenses coming in L-Mount versions as well. Source: Venus Optics

Let’s look at the three ultra-wide-angle lenses adapted to L-Mount first:

• Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 – This lens is, according to Venus Optics, the widest rectilinear zoom lens currently available in the market for full-frame cameras. It offers a rear filter slot – for example for ND filters. You can find more information about the lens in this article.
• Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D – As Venus Optics claims, this lens is currently the widest rectilinear f/2.8 lens in the market for full-frame cameras. Its name implies that it features a close-to-zero distortion. We wrote about this lens back in December 2019 when it was announced – you can read more about it here.
• Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D – Unlike other wide-angle lenses, the 15mm Zero-D offers a 72mm front filter thread. Similar to the 12mm f/2.8, this 15mm can also cover full-frame sensors and has a close-to-zero distortion too. More information can be found here in our article.

Six Laowa Lenses coming in L-Mount versions as well. Source: Venus Optics

Now, let’s take a short look at the three macro lenses which get an L-Mount version:

• Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide Angle Macro – Venus Optics, yet again, claims this lens is currently the widest 1:1 macro lens in the market. It can cover a full-frame sensor and is equipped with a simple +/- 6mm shift mechanism. You can read more about it in our article.
• Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2X Ultra-Macro – Adoption of this lens to the L-Mount is a bit weird to me because Venus Optics designed it for mirrorless APS-C cameras. It does not cover full-frame sensors (and currently there is no APS-C camera with L-Mount). Users will therefore only be able to fully use this lens in a crop mode. For more information about it can be found here.
• Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO – Apart from the 2:1 magnification, the lens is also able to focus till infinity and it covers a full-frame sensor. More on this lens can be found here.

Specs and Prices of the six Laowa L-Mount Lenses. Source: Venus Optics

Pricing and Availability

The new Laowa L-mount lenses are currently available for pre-order. Pricing is the same as with the other available mounts. Shipping is supposed to start in August 2020.

Do you use an L-Mount camera? Would you buy any of the native L-Mount Laowa lens offerings? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below the article.