[Music] Foreign Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my review of the laowa 28 Millimeter F 1.2 Argus lens this is I Believe the third lens from The Argus Series that I have reviewed and it is Laois premium lineup of large aperture Manual focus prime lenses to this point Lawa has been exclusively a manual Focused company and that continues on Here as well I haven't had an opportunity to review a Lot of 28 millimeter lenses it was in Times past a very popular focal length But is less popular in the modern era I've been maybe spoiled by the two 28 Millimeter wide aperture lenses that I've reviewed previously were really Exceptional lenses including the Zeiss Otis 28 millimeter F 1.4 and then also The sigma art series 28 millimeter F 1.4 Both lenses were really really fantastic Also fairly expensive here in this Argus 28 millimeter F 1.2 it is the largest Maximum aperture that I have reviewed at This focal length but of course it is Manual focus only it's also by far the Most compact and discrete of the lenses That I have reviewed this is a lens that In my mind is going to appeal most to Probably those that do street or city Photography in that it is very discreet It gives you that large maximum aperture
And the versatility that comes with that However at a small size and of course it Is for those that don't mind being a Little bit more deliberate in their Photography we're going to break things Down I'm going to give you a quick Overview and then if you want to stick Around for the detailed image quality Breakdown we'll throw that in at the end Of the review here today as noted this Is a discrete lens and it is a compact Lens it is only 68 and a half Millimeters in diameter living leaving Us a six two millimeter front filter Thread more on that in just a moment and The lens is 106.31 millimeters in length and so Obviously it is long and slender by its Profile it is available in a variety of Full frame lens mounts including Sony E Canon RF which I've reviewed here and Nikon ZR Zed also Leica L Mount so four Different mounts that it comes in which Covers basically the you know the range Of the most popular full-frame Mirrorless cameras out there it can of Course also be used on aps-c however It's probably going to be most Interesting on its native full-frame Platform it weighs in at 562 grams and So you know a moderate amount of weight But it you know points to the fact that Lao's build quality is all metal and Glass they build their lenses very very
Nicely now I mentioned that there's a Little bit of a quirk when it comes to The front filter thread and that has to Do with the fact that this is the second Of these lenses in this series that I've Seen with this kind of quirky lens Hood Which almost gives it kind of an Anamorphic look to it and and kind of That rectangular framing it gives you a Really weird front lens cap that has to Clip on on the outside and has kind of a Faux leather texture to it gives it kind Of a retro Vibe but unfortunately it Isn't fully functional because of the Nature of that inconsistent shape it Means that you can't have both the lens Hood on and have access to the filter Threads So a less than fully functional design It also means you cannot reverse it for Storage however because it is so shallow It means that you probably won't have to Worry about that aspect of it it's just I don't really understand what the Upside of this particular design for the Lens hood is maybe your mileage may vary With it as far as the features here There's really only one significant Feature and that is the fact that we do Have a switch that allows you to De-click the aperture so you have a Choice of controlling through the Aperture ring it is fully manual Everything not just manual focus but
Manual aperture there are no electronics In the lens and so you have the option Of actually being able to have clicks There although they're not strongly Pronounced and by the way they're only At full stops outside of f 1.2 and F 1.4 You do get you know additional detent There but after that it's F2 F 2.8 the Full stops and so you can de-click it And so that will be useful for those That would like to use this lens for Video work and be able to do aperture Racking and as you can see you can see The aperture smoothly opening and Closing and it is a beautiful aperture There are 13 blades there and so it Retains a nice circular shape when you Stop it dim so good things on the Aperture front there outside of that you Have just the manual focus ring and Folks fortunately it is a very good Manual focus ring lawa does a beautiful Job of damping these there's a great Feel to it good Precision there not a Huge Focus throw however I think I Estimated at about 125 degrees and part Of the reason for having such a short Focus throw is the fact that this lens Has a very very poor magnification and Minimum Focus distance you can only Focus as closely as 50 centimeters and The magnification level is one of the Lowest that I have ever seen it is 0.073 times magnification that's about
Half of what I consider to be poor Already and so not great at all and as You can see on my testar doesn't even Look like I'm testing for an up close Performance and if for example with a Shot of a guitar that's as close as I Could get in trying to do magnification So not at all my favorite aspect of the Design here Other than that the build quality is Good there is no weather sealing no Electronics as mentioned but if you just Like well-built good operating you know Mechanically tight Um manual focus lenses then this is Going to appeal to you on that front So a quick overview of the image quality Before we break it down the lens is very Good on the Distortion front but it does Have a lot of vignette it has good Sharpness in the center and the mid Frame wide open even at F 1.2 but Contrast is a little bit lower and we Don't start to see a contrast boost Until about F2 and we don't really see The corners get really sharp until about F between F4 and F 5.6 however wind stop Down the lens is extremely sharp it has Low instances of chromatic aberrations Very little of longitudinal chromatic Aberration just a little bit of lateral Chromatic aberration and I also found That flare resistance was fairly poor at Large apertures but got reasonably good
When you stop The Lens down to smaller Apertures if you want a detailed Breakdown of that performance I suggest That you stick around for image quality Breakdown that will come in just a Moment this lens at a price point of 599 US dollars is definitely the much Cheaper than the last full frame Argus Lens that I reviewed which was more like 900 US Dollars the 28 millimeter focal Length is an intriguing one and I think Again I would consider to be very useful For someone that wants to do street or City photography because there's a lot Of interesting things about the focal Length and also the lens for that Application I find that the very low Minimum Focus distance robs me of a lot Of my creative options that I would like For a lens like this so I wouldn't Consider this a lens for me however your Mileage may vary and at that price point There aren't really a lot of 28 Millimeter lenses to choose from and so If you've been looking for a large Aperture 28 millimeter lens this is Definitely the most reasonable price Point that you're likely to find a Premium option like this at now if you Want even more information stick around As we jump into our full image quality Breakdown so first of all in our image Quality breakdown we see when looking at Vignette and Distortion we see both a
Typical laowa strength and also typical Our weakness the strength is the fact That there is basically so little Distortion here that it is basically not Worth correcting now it isn't entirely Linear you can see that there is a Slight bit of Bulge there but just the Nature of it is I really couldn't dial In correction either for pincushion or Barrel Distortion and produce a better Result and so Um you know no issue there when it comes To the Distortion the vignette is Obviously a whole other thing and you Can see extremely dark Corners Um and then you know a pattern moving Out from there where it gets towards the Center it's lighter but quite strong Throughout a good portion of the frame You can see that I had to maximize max Out the vignette sliders to get a good Correction here so that's a plus 100 and Moving the midpoint all the way over That's a very significant amount of Vignette unfortunately it is vignette That lingers for a while now there's two Ways to look at heavy vignette in some Situations it can be a you know a Feature rather than a bug it can as in This shot which kind of works it will Focus the eye in towards the subject and Gives kind of a specific look to an Image in this image however where you Have a more uniform background and a
Lighter background obviously much less Desirable you don't necessarily want to See that vignette and and so you know it Doesn't just focus your eye in towards The subject it actually detract from the Image I did my review during the winter And when you have heavy snowfall it is Kind of worst case scenario for vignette Because it almost never looks good as You can see here one thing I did find That I just wanted to point out in this Image where you have F 1.2 on the left And then about F4 or F 5.6 on the right As you can see that the vignette is Heavy enough that it actually does Affect white balance and so I found that Images wide open with heavy vignette They tend to to balance a little bit Cooler than what images uh that were you Know obviously have less vignette so you Can see that vignette does persist some Even at smaller apertures but not as Severe and what it does is it plays that Impact on the white balance and so you Have a cooler and then a warmer you know Exact same setting exact same time of Day the only difference is is the amount Of vignette that is there at a wide Aperture Now I actually found that longitudinal Chromatic aberrations were pretty well Controlled here so I shot light up Through this glass camera and so you Have a lot of transition areas that you
Know could be places where that fringing Would show also in the background we Have windows with the transition to the Outdoors you can see just very faint Amounts of fringing in any of that so Actually quite a strong performance when It comes to the longitudinal chromatic Aberration there is a bit of lateral Chromatic aberration that you can see Here from my test chart fortunately this Is the kind that's the one click Correction but you can see a little bit Of green and purple fringing that is There so there is some chromatic Aberration I wouldn't call any of it an Extreme amount however now my sharpness And contrast tests are shot on the 45 Megapixel Canon EOS R5 and this is shown At 200 magnification which is the way That I do these tests so you can see That in the center of the frame there's Actually a good amount of detail a lot Of detail that's there but you do see That there's kind of some spherical Aberrations that Rob some of the Contrast from the image and so contrast Not Top Notch likewise here in the mid Frame again there is a good amount of Detail for f 1.2 but contrast is fairly Weak if we pan on down to the corner we Can see that both the contrast is low But also we don't have that same kind of Really high powered resolution that has Been lost there as you get towards a
Frame so essentially we have a sweet Spot here that is in the center of the Frame and moving out here towards the Edge but you can see even from one side To the other that we're starting to lose That resolution as we go over here Towards the edges of the frame it really Starts to drop away So here's a real world image shot at F 1.2 obviously kind of blue hour at night So you can see that basically we see This kind of the same pattern that we Saw on the test chart namely that there Is a lot of detail here in the kind of Sweet spot of resolution on this Frame We can also see the contrast is taking a Bit of hit there's a little bit of Fringing here on some of these really Bright lights but really not bad I think That's actually pretty well controlled For a lens like this and I would say Looking at this kind of a real world Performance I'm not at all disappointed At this for f 1.2 overall there's a lot Of information on the screen considering This was shot on such a high resolution Body now if we compare shooting at F 1.2 To shooting at F 1.4 we can see that First of all they have metered the exact Same if you take a look at the histogram Though as I pan to the from the left to The right you can see that the histogram Shifts a little bit to the right with The F 1.4 so it's not that we are
Getting the exact same exposure value There is a bit of difference but Basically what we're ending up with is Just a little less exposure value on the F 1.4 shot it wasn't enough for it to Actually change the metering it's also Not enough to really shift the Conversation very much when it comes to Resolution or contrast it's a slight bit More contrast here in the center of the Frame if we look at the mid frame However again a slight bit more contrast But nothing is really picking up as far As detail the same is true here in the Corner of the frame a slight bit more Contrast but that's about it Now we have F 1.4 on the left and F2 on The right you can see that there's a Much bigger jump when it comes to Contrast in the center of the frame here At f2 much crisper looking result higher Contrast same is true here in the mid Frame where you can see some of that Haze is dissipating and so it is getting Just more sharply delineated down in the Corner we haven't seen a similar jump Basically what we've seen just just some Vignette lift but not a lot of Additional resolution same is true here There is a small Improvement but as we Can see as we look all across the frame It's still not really a consistent jump Yet in that corner we can see from F2 to F 2.8 again progress in the right
Direction nothing significant yet However we can see in this mid frame you Can see where this Falls here that we're Really starting to see a an improvement That is starting to just kind of travel Further and further out look at the five Pounds compared to on the left side at F2 and so definitely making progress Even if that resolution hasn't fully Impacted the corners yet from F 2.8 to F4 we can just see how that the corner Is starting to improve and getting Stronger and stronger And by F 5.6 we're starting to see Really crisp results there if I dial Down to here we can see a very strong Result very good contrast this bottom Right corner is better it's still not Exceptional however if I look up in the Upper left corner it's looking quite Good and so we can see we're making Serious progress Returning to this same setting a few Hours earlier in the day and we can see At a smaller aperture here at F 5.6 There is lots of detail here I mean just Really crisp resolution you can see all Of each one of those bricks is finally Delineated we can see lots of good Textures on the bridge and down Underneath here you can see the snow That's kind of falling there but just Everywhere that we look across the frame You can see that there's very good
Detail this lens is actually very crisp At landscape apertures Here's another landscape result and so If we look at the area of focus which is Across this ice and the the snow or all Over the Rocks we could see the Rocks Very crisp lots of detail there then if You look in the textures of the snow Right out to the edge of the frame you Can see there is good information good Detail good contrast that is there here In this bare Tree on the right side we Can see again really good delineation in All the branches good contrast just a Strong end result Now as noted earlier we have a really Unexceptional magnification level we Also really don't have all that Fantastic of up close performance like We saw before there is detail there but Contrast I would say is even lower still At this closer Focus distance and and so As a byproduct we have only a sweet spot Of of sharpness there which really Starts to drop off and basically no true Magnification value hardly at all that Really robs me of a lot of kind of Creative outlet with a lens like this is I do like to get up close with a large Maximum aperture lens and blur out Backgrounds standing where I was this Was as close like as I could get I could Even focus on anything up here beyond The neck of the guitar so just this is
The area of focus and you can see the Contrast is is quite low in this setting As a byproduct of it being the close Focus performance This is only at F 1.4 but you can see if I focus at a further distance we've got Much better contrast and resolution here And so this is a lens that prefers well Let's just say does not prefer up close Performance and is much better when you Shoot at a little bit further of a Distance Best application for this lens in my Mind is kind of city and Street work it Suits the laowa color palette quite well It's very small and discreet as you can See it produces a good end result Another shot here you can see that here At a smaller aperture really good detail But of course you have the option of Getting as we've already seen a pretty Decent result if you're shooting at Large apertures as well after dark I Liked the creative option of the 28 Millimeter focal length and so I could Shoot this shot you know to kind of tell The story and then in this next shot I Could actually show off one of those Dresses and use that shallow depth of Field you can see there's good detail Again there's just a little bit of haze On the textures but it looks good and it Allows me to compose here kind of Blurring off and focus focusing or
Blowing off a foreground object and then Focusing in on the subject there so some Good creative options when used in that Application Now flare resistance is not a strength For this lens at least at large Apertures you can see here that we've Definitely lost contrast there's some Pretty pronounced veiling if we move on And we stop down here at f11 we do have This kind of ghosting artifact that is Here but you can see the contrast is Quite a bit better again though with Just window light coming through for This shot at F 1.2 there's a whole lot Going on there you might be able to use That creatively in some ways but there Are just a little too many ghosting Artifacts here which is going to frankly Make it kind of hard to compose without One of those being say on the face of a Of a subject at smaller apertures However not really any kind of big issue Here and so I could for landscape type Photography I think the lens holds up Just fine because you can shoot at Smaller apertures now I've long noted That with a lot of these Lowell lenses The colors are just a little bit flat Coming out of the camera you can always Dial in more color you know saturation If you so desire but it is just Something that is a little bit of a Unique laoa feature there
Depending on your photography style However that may actually be an asset Slightly lower color saturation levels Really does lend itself to some of these What they would call faded type presets That are quite popular right now and so This is one I believe called warm Contrast in Lightroom it just really Kind of Suits the overall image and the Color palette and so again your mileage May vary when it comes to this aspect of Lens design and so as you can see it is A nuanced Optical performance however For the right photographer this lens is Going to be an interesting one though I Suspect for most of you this will be a Lens that you just pass on by and don't End up adding to your own kit if you Want more information you can look in The description down below and there's Linkage to my full text review also to An image gallery there are buying links There links to follow myself for Craig On social media to become a patron or to Get channel merchandise please like And Subscribe if you haven't already thanks For watching have a great day and let The light in [Music]
