Ultra Wide Angle Lens with Zero Distortion, Laowa 12mm f/2.8.Venus Optics brings the World’s Widest f/2.8 lens for Full Frame cameras with Invisible Distortion, Superb Optical Quality & Tiny Size.
LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D is currently the ? World’s Widest f/2.8 Rectilinear Lens for Full Frame cameras. Currently available in Canon EF, Nikon AI, Sony A, Pentax K and Sony E mounts.
? As of July 22, 2016
The Story
Ultra Wide Angle Lens is one of the most important lens that every photographer should have one in his camera bag. There are a lot of wide angle lenses in the market, offering from a few hundred to a a few thousand dollars. However, these UWA lens are not perfect. They are suffering from dramatic barrel distortion (2-5%), poor peripheral sharpness or huge physical size. We therefore spend a lot of time to come up with a design which is truly perfect and overcome the frustration of photographers. That’s where the LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D comes from.
# All below images were shot with our LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D Lens unless otherwise mentioned. Some photos may have been post-processed for our own taste. Please note the quality of the images were compressed by KS. Click to view in higher resolutions.
Why is it the Best?
Ultra Wide Angle lenses in the market tends to suffer a optical distortion rate from 2-5% which causes straight lines to bend. Our LAOWA lens features a *close-to-zero distortion rate that you can barely notice from your eye.
If you are not so sure what distortion is, this article may helps. https://photographylife.com/what-is-distortion
* The aforementioned close-to-zero distortion rate is measured from shooting objects at infinity focus. The distortion rate may vary for shorter object distance. Only Optical Distortion (Barrel/ Pincushion/ Moustache) is covered here.
Our LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 Lens cover a ultra-wide 122° angle of view for you to create an outstanding landscape or architecture shot that no others can compare. Shooting interior shots will also become much easier. Your house will become spacious and impactful in your photo even if you are shooting a small area. Do not forget, this is also the world’s widest rectilinear f/2.8 lens.
Optical performance is what we will never compromise. The optical design features a 16 lens elements in 10 groups with 3pcs of Extra-Low Dispersion Elements and 2pcs of Aspherical Elements. This patented optical design delivers a high resolution from corners to corners, even in wide open (f/2.8) situation. Chromatic Aberration has also been controlled to the minimal.
Weigh merely 609g, our LAOWA Lens is an every-day lens. It is really small compared to other UWA lenses in the market. You finally do not need to bring a hefty piece of glass for work and travel. Also, you can now insert 2pcs of 100mm (not 150mm!!) ND filters & 1pc of 105mm CPL filter into our optional filter holder (+$50 to your pledge) to create your best landscape photo ever.
Our LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D is currently the ?brightest (or fastest) 12mm lens in the market. Astro photographers will truly appreciate our effort to bring the lens to f/2.8. The ultra fast aperture can effectively shorten the exposure time required and help to achieve more details of the night sky. This is proven to be the perfect tool for a nice milky way shot. The fast aperture is also very convenient for low-light / indoor shooting. (? As of July 22, 2016)
Time-lapse footage shot in Alaska with our LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D Lens (Click 1080p for the best experience)
The 122 angle of view + Close-to-zero distortion is too good to be true for panorama shooting.
Find it hard to locate the entrance pupil (nodal point) for panoramic shooting? Let us help you.
Not sure what it is? Check below link for further explanation. http://www.panoramic-photo-guide.com/entrance-pupil.html
Get to Specifics
*Dimensions of Sony E mount lens will be slightly longer due to the flange distance difference.
Resolution
Your may refer to below review by Photozone for a scientific data of our lens resolution. You can also do a quick comparison of its performance against some of your favourite ultra wide angle lenses. Check to view in details.
Our LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D adopts a floating optical design to ensure an exceptional sharpness not only at infinity focus, but also in close focusing distance. Along with 18cm minimal focusing distance and 0.2x Maximum magnification, LAOWA lens is also a fun tool for some mini wide angle macro.
Bokehiiistic
Laowa Water & Dust Repelling ‘Frog Eye’ Coating (FEC)
Every LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D will be coated with the new Laowa ‘Frog Eye’ Coating. It gives your lens an extra layer of shield. See below video to understand its difference versus traditional coating.
Reward Levels
Stretch Goal UNLOCKED!
Add $50 on top of your pledge amount to get a filter holder.
Add $300 on top of your pledge amount to get a Laowa Magic Shift Converter for your Sony E mount camera.
Add $30 on top of your pledge amount to get a Canon EF – Sony E or Nikon F – Sony E adapter.
How to Back this Project
1. Choose a reward level.
Everybody can choose one (and only one) reward level to back this project. You cannot choose more than 1 reward level.
2. If you want to add something, check out the Add-On Menu.
If you want to add something additional to your reward, check out the Add-On Menu below. You can increase your pledge by the amount specified in the menu. You can only add things to your reward that are in the Add-On Menu. You do NOT need to choose which mount at this moment.
If you want to add on another LAOWA product that you don’t see in the Add-On Menu or you wanna pledge more than one piece, don’t worry. We’ll give you a chance to do that after our campaign ends.
3. You are done for now.
All details like shipping information, camera mounts, imprints names, and specifics of your additional pledge will be collected via survey AFTER this campaign has ended.
International Backers
We currently ship the LAOWA 12mm lens worldwide with the exception of selected countries from our Hong Kong warehouse. Please note that you will be responsible for duties, fees and taxes applicable to your region, which may have ranged from 0% to 20% in the US and EU countries, to as much as 200% for certain South American countries. Express shipping (via DHL/TNT/Fedex) quotes is available to provide upon request. Please add the VAT of your corresponding recipient countries on top of your pledge.
Estimated Delivery
Each reward tier may have a different estimated shipment month. While we do not expect these to change, it is still possible that the delivery date may be postponed or advanced. We will provide updates if the estimated shipment date changes.
Warranty
We are very confident with our products and offered 3-year warranty.
About Venus Optics
Anhui ChangGeng Optics Technology Company Limited (Venus Optics) is a new camera lens manufacturer from Anhui, China. We currently design, manufacture, market and distribute camera lenses under the brand name of ‘LAOWA’. Over the past 2 years, we have developed and launched a number of interesting lenses to fill the gaps of the camera lenses market.
We will continue to develop unique, practical and high-quality lenses to the market and look for breakthroughs in the lens development. Your support to this Kickstarter project will be greatly appreciated.
Quality Assurance
Unlike some other manufacturers in China that quality may not be their primary concern, we instead, put Quality as the first and foremost item in our checklist. Designing a good lens is one thing, having it manufactured with the best quality standard is another topic. Our team put a lot of time, effort and resources into the production and quality assurance to ensure every piece of LAOWA lens is up to the market standard. We take this very seriously and will never compromise the quality of our lenses for anything.
Rolling Update – Sample Gallery (Click to view the images in HD)
Take a look at below video and you can see how straight lines are perfectly retained.
“Xidi, Huangshan” – Timelaspe with the Laowa 12mm f/2.8. View in HD!
Mini-timelapse shot with the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D. Check the HD version to see the details.
Impressive Preview by Nicky Bay
Supplementary Information
– Review by Bastian Kratzke @ phillipreeve.net
– Flick Image Gallery by Dierk Topp
– Venus Optics Official Website
– Venus Optics Official Facebook Page
– Comparison versus Voigtlander 10mm/12mm Lens made by Dierk Topp
Special Thanks
Walking along the road, we have had ups and downs, challenges and frustrations. Without the help from below people, we cannot come this far. Please allow us to express our gratitude to every one of you.
??????????????????????????????????????????????????ZH????-?????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????? Photozone, Special Camera Service, K’otologue Photography, Steve Leung , Nicky Bay , John Hancock , Gabriel Wazer , Keith Cooper @ Northlight Images, Jamie Morrison, Dierk Topp, Bastian Kratzke@phillipreeve.net, Brian Lee, James Kwok, Daniel Han, Albert Dros, Steven Wu, Tin Cheung Camera, Dynamic One, Adrian Murray, Pop Photo
In the past few years, Venus Optics has launched a number of extraordinary lenses which has received a very positive feedback from the market.
Venus Optics is composed of a very strong and experienced team of manufacturing, optical design and business professionals. We are already very far along in the development process and are looking for help from the Kickstarter community to expedite the launch of the LAOWA 12mm f/2.8 ZERO-D Lens.
We have already finished all the testings on the prototypes and the results are very encouraging. We are currently working day and night to prepare the lens for mass production and our whole team is extremely confident that this will be the most successful lens ever built under our current product portfolio.
We have carefully evaluated and calculated all foreseeable risks and challenges and come up with the most conservative delivery schedule. However, there is still a slim possibility that we may face unexpected challenges which could potentially delays the shipment. We will put our greatest effort in order to resolve any unexpected challenges and to get the lenses shipped at earliest convenience and with the best quality.