LAOWA 15mm F2 ZERO-D (Canon RF mount) – Review

I have had a Laowa 15mm F2 Zero-D RF lens on loan from Venus Optics-Laowa over the past few weeks, at the time of writing this lens is the only copy in Australia for the NEW Canon RF mount. Yep Canon RF mount! It’s great to see a few fast wide angles slowly coming out for Canon’s R and RP mirrorless cameras. The Laowa 15mm F2 Zero-D is a fast ultra wide-angle lens designed for full frame mirrorless cameras that is currently available in Sony FE mount but will also soon also be available in Canon RF and Nikon Z mount.

The following review will be based on how I used this lens for my Nightscapes and Astro photography, there will be no charts just my thoughts and images from my own real world experience using this lens over the past few weeks.

Before I get into my thoughts on the lens and the images I’ve been capturing, here is some information direct from Venus Optics – Laowa’s website,

The ultra wide, fast & compact prime for your full frame mirrorless cameras (Sony FE / Canon RF / Nikon Z).

This lens is currently the fastest in its class, offering superior optical quality for full-frame mirrorless cameras. It features close-to-zero distortion with a 110° angle of view. The ultra-fast f/2 aperture enables photographers to capture impressive astro shots very easily. The 72mm filter thread allows quick attachment of filters for creating unique and inspiring landscapes. This lens can easily become an everyday lens for most shooters, given its compact size (82 mm/3.23 in. long) and weight (only 500 g/1.1 lb.).

The Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D is currently the widest f/2 rectilinear lens in the market with a native E mount (it does not require additional adapters). It is an ultra-wide & ultra-fast prime lens which covers both 35mm full-frame & APS-C sensors. The extreme 110° angle of view and ultra-fast f/2 aperture allow photographers to create impressive astro-photography shots with ease. It also gives photographers a fast wide angle option for landscape and low-light photography.

The Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D is the second member of the Close-to-Zero distortion series from Venus Optics, following the launch of the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D last year. Zero-D lenses are specially designed to remove the optical distortion commonly associated with wide angle lenses.

Any straight lines will be retained. Despite the extreme specifications, Laowa has successfully minimized the weight of the lens to only 500 g (~1.1 pounds) and the length to only 82 mm (3.23 in.). This compact, lightweight lens is comprised of 12 elements in 9 groups with 2 aspherical elements and 3 Extra-low dispersion elements. The patented optical design successfully minimizes distortion and chromatic aberrations and delivers superb optical performance from edge to edge.

Ultra-wide & fast lenses in the market tend to be huge and have a dome-shaped front element. This creates a serious problem for landscape photographers who often require filters for creativity and exposure control. Laowa understood this situation and managed to design a flat front lens element that allows them to attach a 72mm filter onto the lens. Unlike other ultra-wide lenses, there is no need to invest in an expensive, bulky filter holder.

Photographers can take advantage of the super close focusing distance (only 15 cm/5.9 in. from the sensor) and the f/2 aperture to create unique wide angle close-up shots with beautiful bokeh.

The new Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D is specially designed with an aperture switch that allows users to quickly switch between click-less and clicked apertures. This added feature is extremely useful for videographers.

SPECIFICATIONS

Name	15mm f/2 FE Zero-D
Focal Length	15mm
Max. Aperture	f/2
Angle of View	110°
Format Compatibility	Full Frame
Lens Structure	12 elements in 9 groups (2pcs of Aspherical Elements + 3pcs of Extra-low Dispersion Elements)
Aperture Blades	7 (Sony FE), 5 (Nikon Z / Canon RF)
Min. Focusing Distance	15cm
Max. Magnification	1:4
Filter Thread	72mm
Dimensions	77.2 x 82 mm
Weight	500g
Mounts	Sony FE, Nikon Z, Canon RF

Laowa 15mm f2 Zero-D mounted on the Canon EOS-R

Initial thoughts

The lens sent to me from Laowa came in a standard plain box, it is a pre production model so I didn’t expect retail packaging.

On opening the box and first handling the lens I was really impressed by the build quality. The Laowa 15mm f2 is a really solid, metal bodied lens, no plastic to be found on the lens body at all, even the supplied lens hood is metal. The focus ring is metal with a pattern for grip, likewise with the aperture ring and of course the lens mount is metal also.

Looking over the lens I noticed the finish was flawless, with etched and painted markings and really clean modern lines, the lens looks fantastic and doesn’t look out of place mounted on the EOS-R.

The lens looks and feels like a quality piece of glass, here’s a few pictures of the lens.

How good does this combo look!

Above – The Laowa 15mm F2 Zero-D (left) next to the Samyang 14mm f2.8 RF lens (right) At the moment I believe these are the only fast ultra wide angle lenses available in Canon RF mount. The Laowa is built specifically for full frame mirrorless cameras and is significantly smaller than the Samyang.

Let’s get into it, what do I like?

The Laowa 15mm f2 Zero-D is a fully manual lens, manual focus, manual aperture with no communication with the camera at all, just how I like it for my night photography. In my opinion and with the way I use my lenses, the only negative with a fully manual lens like this is that you do not get full exif data with your images so it makes it a little hard to see the settings you used afterwards.

But there’s a few pro’s with using a fully manual lens for night photography,

Manual aperture. It’s harder to accidentally bump or change your aperture in the dark when it is fully manual. A fully manual aperture is also great for things like time-lapse as there is no flicker in the final footage from the aperture opening and closing each shot like it does with electronically controlled aperture.
Focus. It is much easier and accurate to manually focus on the stars. I am generally manual focussing at night and using the live view magnified to 10x to get my stars perfectly in focus. The fully manual focus lenses that I have used also seem less likely to have their focus bumped when slightly changing composition at night. Yes you should check focus each time you change the position of your camera but…………sometimes you just get lazy.

The manual focus on the Laowa f2 Zero-D is fantastic to use, it is smooth with enough friction to stop you from accidentally bumping it, the absence of a rubber grip on the focus ring is a good thing, no faded rubber for this lens and the focus ring just feels great to use.

Fully manual lens, note that f2 aperture and the position for infinity that was accurate for focussing on the stars

The copy I loaned, the infinity mark was absolutely bang on and I had the confidence to just set the lens to infinity and get sharp stars, so much so I spent a whole night just focussing in this way. Are all copies off this lens this accurate? I can’t really say, but this one was, I tested it over and over again using live view first and then checking where the focus mark was. I also lined up infinity and then checked the results, stars were sharp every time.

The manual aperture is nice to use with a positive click for each aperture, It would be difficult to bump this in the dark. The lens has a bit of a trick up it’s sleeve here, something I did not use but it has a switch to de-click the aperture for those shooting video

Note the silver switch on the side of the lens, this selects if the lens aperture is “clicked” or “de-clicked”.

At night I just generally like being in full control of my gear so I really like a full manual lens and have been using them, particularly manual focus lenses almost exclusively for my nightscapes, aurora and astro photograph for a few years. The manual focus features on mirrorless are also fantastic so manual focus with wide-angle lenses is a non issue for most subjects.

I haven’t mentioned the f2 aperture. Yes f2, that allows a full stop more light to hit the sensor than your typical f2.8 lens most are using for their Nightscapes and astrophotography, this is pretty desirable in a lens for night photography. It allows us to do things like use lower iso for less noise, capture more light for more details in the milky-way or like I did, use slightly shorter shutter speeds for sharper stars and capture more detail at the same time.

Some other features that are fantastic is the overall size and the 72mm front filter thread. The lens is small and compact for such a wide fast lens, that compliments mirrorless bodies as they are generally smaller than DSLR’S. I found the compactness very handy, I regularly ride a mountain bike, the EOS-R and Laowa 15mm f2 fitted well in my Mindshift trail pack, even leaving space, it is a real squeeze with other lenses I own. This is the fast wide full frame combo you won’t mind carrying into hard to get locations, I carried it in my pack for a four hour training ride, it never felt to heavy. The 72mm front filter thread allows you to fit any 72mm screw in filter, great for that light pollution filter or for landscape photography, you can use “affordable” 100mm filter systems with this lens, no special holder set and expensive 150mm filters needed.

Taking into account I did not test this lens during the day for general photography, landscapes etc I like it’s features, on face value it’s the lens us Canon EOS-R and RP users are missing.

Image quality

In general I found the lens to have good image quality, there was no problem with sharpness or capturing details, although towards the edges there was some softness and stretching and there was also coma present but keep in mind I shot this lens almost exclusively at f2 only stopping down to f2.8 for a comparison and f5.6 for a few close ups.

The lens seemed to do some interesting things with focus I haven’t experienced with other wide angle lenses, there was a real sense of depth to the images, especially when up close to a subject, this is what I liked most about this lens. I honestly feel I’ve taken some of my best milky-way images in the last few weeks because of this. And It’s not just me, the questions I’ve been asked tell me others have also noticed that depth too.

Let’s have a look at a few images starting with an un-edited shot taken at f2 and 100% crops from this image.

Top left corner F2

Top right corner f2

Centre f2

As you can see above there is a little coma in the corners, there is also a bit of vignetting happening which is pretty normal for fast apertures.

Next up an un-edited comparison image at f2.8 and some 100% crops.

f2.8

Top left at f2.8

Top right at f2.8

Centre at f2.8

Looking at these images as far as coma is concerned we are seeing some in the corners. At f2.8 the lens is performing slightly better than at f2 but you have to look very hard to see it, I’m really not sure if you can see this in the review as I had to zoom in in photoshop to really see it properly.

Here is the above f2 image – Settings as follows 15mm, f2, 15seconds, 6400iso

Sample images

Images I have taken with the Laowa 15mm f2 Zero-D and Canon EOS-R over the last couple of weeks. I have been lucky to have very clear skies and even an epic Aurora that is quite rare here in Gippsland, Victoria.

15mm, f2, 15sec, iso 6400

Night sky workshop participants, they had never shot the stars before and borrowed my spare 6d and 1200D kits for the night – 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso 6400

Lighting fun – 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso6400

Aurora Australis – 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso 3200

Twist – 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso6400

This is what I mean about a depth and unique feel to the images. Sure the lighting and angles help but I really like the look – 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso 6400. This image is stacked in starry landscape stacker to reduce noise.

Simple composition and Aurora Australis – 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso3200

Another shot with depth – single frame – 15mm, f2, 15sec, iso 6400

Conclusion

I have really enjoyed using the Laowa 15mm f2 Zero-D, it is going to be hard to give back. I really liked the compactness, build quality and the images I have been capturing with this lens. There is a bit of noticeable coma but personally I can live with that, there really is not much out there as far as fast wide angles in native RF mount, this one is f2, has full mechanical aperture (something I love) and can accept screw in filters so it is potentially also a good landscape lens, not just a lens to shoot the stars with.

Do I recommend the Laowa 15mm f2 Zero-D? Well, I’d like one myself. If you are looking for a fast wide angle for your full frame Canon mirrorless camera this lens is definitely worth a look. At the moment this is the best option for a versatile, wide, fast, native RF mount lens to shoot the stars.

Price here in Australia will be approximately RRP $1359

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Find this review useful and would like to buy the Laowa 15mm f2 Zero-D use the code NSCAPEOZ when purchasing the lens on the Laowa Australia website, it gets you 5% off your purchase and supports Nightscape Photographer, thanks for your support.