The Chinese lens manufacturer Venus Optics made quite a splash back in January by announcing the new Venus 60mm f/2.8, the world's first 2:1 macro lens with infinity focus. The lens has gotten some pretty positive reviews since then.
Now Venus is back with another groundbreaking lens. Today the company unveiled its new Laowa 15mm f/4 lens, the world's widest 1:1 macro lens.
Just months after announcing a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens that has gotten glowing reviews, Chinese gear manufacturer is back with a new product called the KX800. It's a flexible twin light for macro photography that boasts the world's highest guide number.
Last month, a Chinese company called Venus Optics unveiled a 60mm f/2.8 lens, the first 2:1 magnification lens with infinity focus. Thomas Shahan, the "Bob Ross of macro photography", was sent a copy from the company and reviewed it in the 4.5-minute video above.
A new Chinese lens manufacturer called Venus Optics has unveiled a new 60mm f/2.8 ultra macro lens that it claims is the world's first 2:1 magnification lens with infinity focus.
While most of the attention in the photography world is focused on full-frame and APS-C products -- hardly surprising since those are what most companies focus on -- Micro Four Thirds is still one of the best systems on the market.
Venus Optics, maker of Laowa photo and cinema lenses, has announced two new anamorphic zoom lenses, the Laowa Nanomorph 1.5X Anamorphic 28-55mm T2.9 and 50-100mm T2.9.
Venus Optics has announced its first autofocus lens ever, the Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF. The full-frame lens weighs just 0.93 pounds (420 grams) and is available for multiple mirrorless camera systems, including Canon RF, L-Mount, Nikon Z, and Sony E-mount.
7Artisans announced a new 9mm f/5.6 full-frame ultra-wide prime lens for the most popular mirrorless mounts that promises a relatively close focusing distance and a 132-degree viewing angle.
Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 8-16mm f/3.5-5 Zoom CF lens for APS-C cameras.
Venus Optics announced the Laowa Aurogon 10-50x Supermicro APO lens set this summer, although details were extremely scarce at the time. Now Venus Optics has completely revealed the lens, including full specs and many incredible sample images.
Cinema lens maker DZOFilm announced its Pavo 2x Anamorphic Prime Series of lenses earlier this year at NAB 2023. At last week's IBC 2023 in Amsterdam, the company released more information about them including details on pricing and availability.
Venus Optics and Keslow Camera have jointly announced an interchangeable flare version of the Laowa Proteus 2X Anamorphic Lens series, the Proteus Flex.
Venus Optics has launched a pair of new compact Laowa Nanomorph anamorphic lenses on Indiegogo.
Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 24mm T8 2x Pro2be lens set designed for distinct cinematic and photographic applications. It takes the weird look of tube lenses and goes even further into the unusual.
Venus Optics will launch a crowdfunding campaign for a set of Laowa Nanomorph anamorphic lenses alongside a 1.33x anamorphic adapter at the end of August.
In an Ecuadorian cloud forest, mycologists Danny Newman and Roo Vandergrift have spent more than a decade studying, cataloging, and photographing the diverse fungi of the region.
Venus Optics had a big hit with the original Laowa 24mm f/14 probe lens. What first garnered snickers and jokes, proved to be a unique video lens and the peri-probe lens with a 90-degree rotating end soon followed. Now Laowa has some serious competition from a company with a name I struggle to pronounce.
Venus Optics has announced the Laowa Ranger Series of compact, full-frame cinema zoom lenses. The series currently includes the 28-75mm and 75-280mm T2.9 lenses, with the promise of a 16-30mm T2.9 coming next.
Venus Optics launched its new line of high-end Laowa Proteus 2x Anamorphic lenses in January with 35mm, 45mm, 60mm, and 85mm T2 primes. The company has now announced another quartet of Proteus 2X lenses, adding 20mm, 28mm, 100mm, and 135mm focal lengths to its cinema lens series.
Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D LM lens for Leica M mount users. The manual focus lens includes rangefinder coupling and promises excellent results for landscape, architecture, interior, street, and astrophotography.
Venus Optics has announced a new Laowa Argus 28mm f/1.2 prime lens for full-frame cameras. Billed as the fastest 28mm for full-frame on the market, the new lens is available for Leica L, Nikon Z, Sony E, and Canon RF mounts.
Lenses are big business: while we have seen the value of camera shipments nose-dive year-on-year, lens value has slowly increased and is now equal to about a third of the camera market. It's for this reason that third-party manufacturers have increased their stake in this market and particularly at the low-cost end where Chinese manufacturers proliferate. Who are these companies and what does their appearance presage in terms of the camera market as a whole?
Venus Optics is aiming at professional filmmaking production with the launch of the Proteus line of anamorphic lenses, what it is calling the most accessible professional anamorphic lenses with a constant 2x squeeze ratio for Super35 sensors.
Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 6mm f/2 Zero-D MFT rectilinear lens, the "Photo Version" of the previously released 6mm T2.1 Cine Lens that offers the same image quality as the cine version but finally adds electronic components for in-camera controls and proper EXIF information recording.
Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 19mm f/2.8 Zero-D GFX, a manual-focus prime lens for Fujifilm's medium format camera system that promises a 110-degree field of view with close to no distortion.
The $379 Yongnuo 85mm f/1.8 Z DF DSM lens is among the first third-party prime lenses available for the Nikon Z system that not only has an impressive autofocus system, but also boasts a customizable Lens Function button (L-Fn) and control ring.
There are many types of camera lenses out there, and it can be a bit confusing and even frustrating trying to sort it out because not every lens will be right for the type of photo you are trying to capture in a particular situation.
AstrHori has announced a new 28mm f/13 2X macro probe lens that sure looks a lot like the Laowa-branded one Venus Optics originally released in 2018.
Venus Optics has announced two new macro cinema lenses, the Laowa 65mm T2.9 2X Macro APO Cine and Laowa 100mm T2.9 2X Macro APO Cine, which it claims are the first cinema lenses with 2x magnification.
Hot off of the heels of the 90mm f/2.8 2x Macro APO lens, Venus Optics has released another Laowa macro lens for mirrorless cameras in the 58mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO, which is arguably more versatile and therefore more appealing to general shooters.