Northlight Images review of the Laowa 2.5-5x ultra macro

Keith over at Northlight Images has posted a new review on the just announced Laowa 2.5-5x ultra macro. This is definately a review to read, with some incredibly nice macro images done by Keith.

Keith's conclusions;

Macro photography at this scale is not a simple operation.

From an image quality point of view, there was little I could fault the lens with. It shows a slight bit of longitudinal chromatic aberration (purple/green tinges to OOF areas), but not excessive. The 8 blade aperture gives better looking OOF highlights than the 6 bladed Canon MP-E65mm.

The only area that may concern some is the lack of stop down, meaning that it’s either a dark viewfinder at smaller apertures or you have to stop down manually before the shot. It’s no problem for my sorts of use.

The magnification setting is firm but I did notice that careless adjustment of the aperture could easily lead to a slight change in the magnification setting, and hence move the plane of focus. This was worse when the lens was pointing downwards [do note though that this was a pre-production lens]

The build quality of the lens feels good and the sample I tested came in a soft neoprene bag.

Ultimately this is a lens you’ll want for fine detail, and it definitely delivers.

Read the entire review here..