Among the most popular attractions at the Photokina event held in Cologne, Germany, was the Laowa offering – a 24mm f/14 Relay 2x Macro Lens. It’s a little unusual for the specs, but what’s unique about it isn’t the unusual specs, but how it looks.
The unique design, that’s just as eye-catching for the photos it will take has a long lens barrel that is narrow and is made specifically for one main function – to capture images of subjects, like wild animals, insects, small children, or other shy subjects. Laowa claims that the design makes it possible to not scare the subject out of the photograph when it’s taken, making candid shots a lot more candid. Traditional lenses always get that part wrong. And it’s nice that a new and unusual innovation will be soon available for photographers everywhere this time next year.
The new Laowa 24mm f/14 Replay 2x macro was first spotted at Photokina (credit: Venus Optics)
The lens has a 2:1 maximum macro reproduction ratio and is resistant to extreme temperature and weather conditions. The lens is also full-frame compatible, meaning it will be available for cameras of all ranges, most importantly Nikon and Canon.
For photographers who are used to holding a bulky telephoto lens for those great shots, Laowa’s offering will be an absolute relief. While the traditional lenses look like canons, Laowa’s will look like a sniper rifle.
Laowa is also going to make a 12mm f/2.8 lens and a 15mm lens for Sony compatibility, soon. The fact that it doesn’t need such a bulky casing makes it an appealing option for photographers to try it out. But certain factors like image stabilization, auto-focusing capabilities and output quality are yet to be seen.
Not much details are available on the release. Guess we’ll have to just wait and see how it performs when it is launched.