[Music] It's LA's 10th anniversary and to Celebrate they have launched their first Autofocus lens but in typical lawa Fashion is is an extreme instrument a Rectilinear 10 mm f2.8 full-frame lens Which makes it the first of its kind so If you're the kind of photographer that Loves extreme angles of view and the Creative options that you can uh form Through that then you're probably going To love this lens particularly since it Is reasonably priced at $799 so the question is is how well did Lawa make the transition from manual Focus only for their first 10 years to Autofocus here for their anniversary Well we're going to find out right after A word from our sponsor today's episode Is brought to you by Phantom wallet the Minimalist modern wallet that is now Even better better with the new Phantom X that is crafted from aluminum right Here in Canada it is 22% smaller and 35% Lighter while still making it easy to Access your cards and money when you Need them thanks to their unique Fanning Mechanism you could even customize your Wallet due to its modular design with Accessories like a money clip cash Holder ID display and even chipolo and Air tag tracking integration visit Store. fanom wallet.com to check out Their unique sizes Styles and finishes
That span from aluminum to Wood to Carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 for 15% off when you're ready to check Out so the first thing to know about This lens is that this is an extremely Wide angle of view over 130° in fact so You're really going to have to be Careful to make sure that your feet Don't end up in the shot it is allows You to get a whole lot in the frame and Allows you to make very small spaces Look consider bigger takes some creative Work to use it well but it's the kind of Lens that can reward you with some very Unique pictures that really nothing else Can afford now it comes in autofocus Guys in both e-mount which I'm testing Here and it will come in Nikon Z Mount Because Canon RF Mount remains closed And lawa is not a part of the uh Leica L Consortium it means that on RF and L This is going to continue to be a manual Focus only lens to get around those Protocols unfortunately but the good News is that here on Sony and then Coming on Nikon Z it is a full autofocus Lens and as we're going to see it's Actually a very good autofocusing lens Also new here is completely different Design language than what I've seen from Lawa in the past and I actually really Really like it everyone that I've shown The lens to is very they just Immediately like it it's kind of a
Cobalt blue type color and uh has just a Great looking modern finish that looks Very clean on the camera this is a bit Of a squat looking lens it is 82 mm in Diameter or 3.23 in but only right under 71 mm or around 2.8 in in length and so It is quite short and you know wider Than what it is long and so it has a Squat look that frankly often looks Quite good on camera pretty amazing to Me in that they have retained the Ability to use 77 m meter uh thread-on Filters you don't have to use any kind Of filter adapter here you can use Traditional filters which is pretty Incredible considering that it's f2.8 And 10 mm so a big kudos to lawa for Being able to pull that off that's Something that I've not really seen a Lot of Brands be able to accomplish in The past obviously none of them if You're talking about going as wide as 10 Mm now obviously in going to autofocus On mirror list that makes this a focus By wire lens however lawa shows their Expertise in manual focus focus and that While there are a few limitations that Come with focus by wire this really is a Pretty perfect simulation of manual Focus Everything feels just about right And one unique thing is that there is a Beveled portion on the sides each side Of the lens that has the laa brand Imprinted there and what that allows you
To do is that obviously you're never Going to have hard stops on uh focus by Wire lens but what you do have is those Two areas that at least give you uh Something to hold on to to kind of at Least set a distance for and so if You're trying to do manual focus pulls It at least allows you to have a little Bit of flexibility on that so anyway it Is a nice implementation of that the Lens uh weighs only 420 G which is Impressive because you can definitely Tell that it's still Metals in its Construction that's 14.8 o so light Weight and I will note it's a couple Hundred grams lighter than what their 12mm f2.8 lens is so impressive that That lens being manual focus only not Quite as wide that this lens undercuts It so much in weight so that is nicely Accomplished we now have an AF MF switch On the side of the lens that's a first For laa because it's their first Autofocus lens and I'm really glad to See that implemented in their design There is a weather sealing gasket at the Lens mount though I asked laa and there Are no other internal seals still having A gasket is a step forward for laa That's weather sealing is something They've never had in the past now you Have a very shallow lens hood here at The front and while it bayonets on very Tightly with some force it is removable
It can be reversed for storage but Frankly you're only saving a few Millimeters because it's so narrow or Already and so I would just leave it in Place and I think its primary purpose is Less to protect against sun and more to Protect the anything from bumping up Against the front elements anyway I am Glad that it is removable we have a Traditional pinch style cap which is Also nice there now inside the aperture Is now of course electric magnetically Controlled no aperture ring you control Aperture from within the camera again Allowa first and they have chosen to go With five straight uh aperture blades Which on the lens like this worrying About circular bouquet is really kind of A non-issue because you're just not Going to have very few sit almost no Situations where you can create uh Defocus specular highlights and so this Is I think the better choice here Because it allows you to achieve really Beautiful sun stars and also to start to Achieve them quite early on by um about F4.5 to F5 you're already seeing really Nicely defined Sun stars and they look Beautiful so I think that was the right Choice here now you have a minimum Focus Distance of only 12 CM or 4.72 in and Remember that's not from the front of The lens that's from this midline in the Camera body where the sensor lies that
Means as you can see here by the time You get to man minimum Focus distance You are almost on top of your subject And so while technically you can achieve A very high 0.24 times magnification you Have to get so close to your subject to Accomplish that that there's some Question in my mind whether or not in Most real world situations you'll be Able to pull that off I think a more Practical value is is that if you're Doing video work with the lens you Really don't have to worry about getting Inside of the minimum Focus distance if You do that you're basically going to be Hitting the subject which is another Good reason maybe to keep that lens hood On now one interesting thing is that While we have electronic contacts and Full XF communication um the lens Designation shows up in Lightroom all of Those things what isn't here is seems to Be in camera Corrections and you can see Side by side a raw image and a JPEG Image and you can see that the vignette Looks identical on both of them I really Hope that that's something that is Addressed in the future cuz as we're Going to see when we get to our image Quality breakdown that vignette is a Very serious issue for this lens which Unfortunately is a very typical La wide Angle weakness and so it would be great To be able to actually have automatic
Corrections for the first time for that Overall however I am really impressed With the overall build and handling of This lens it is beautifully accomplished Also really really well executed is the Transitioned autofocus I have reviewed Most in the last at least in the last Decade most all of the debut Autofocusing performance for various Various Brands and most of the time you Can tell that it's the first attempt at Autofocus that's really not the case Here this feels like a very seasoned Lens like La has been doing autofocus For a long time now to be fair 10 mm F2.8 means that even at f2.8 if you Focus about a meter out in front of the Camera you're basically have everything In Focus the nature of that very wide Focal length means that a lot is in Focus all the time so no the autofocus System is not being tasked in the way That a you know 135mm f1.8 lens would be Tasking an autofocus system that being Said I've reviewed a lot of wide- angle Lenses before even from seasoned brands That don't autofocus as well as this Lens does the autofocus motor is very Smooth it's quiet as you can see here it Is fast you can see there's not a major Focus change taking place but that Focus Transition happens quickly I think the Highest compliment to lawa is that I Almost immediately forgot that they
Don't typically make autofocusing lenses I didn't really think about the Autofocus because it just works so well And so normally and so a huge uh I mean Plus to them for accomplishing that Likewise when it came to the video side Of things I found that my focus pulls Were smooth and as you can see here Again it's not a major Focus transition But there's no visible steps or any kind Of you know jitteriness also with my Hand test it did fine in that transition You can see in these clips that there is Very very little Focus breathing which Is helped of course because very little Focus change is going to take place There I think the most important thing To me for autofocus is not only that Autofocus was just intuitive and got the Job done but more that in doing shots at Smaller apertures I didn't see pulsing In and out which I sometimes see with Wide- angle lenses likewise when I was Shooting video clips that Focus just Stayed locked in place there was no Hunting or pulsing it just was was Perfect in that regard and so that That's huge because it means that this Is a lens that's actually going to be Usable as an autofocus lens and it's not Autofocus in name only so again I have To give a lot of credit to lawa they Took their time getting here but they Executed it well in this transition and
I'm really interesting interested to see What they're able to do in the future When it's a little bit more of a Challenging Focal length aperture combination in the Lens but as far as this lens goes they Did a great job so how about the image Quality now I will do my detailed image Quality breakdown at the end of my Conclusion and so if you want that uh Deep dive you can either Jump Ahead to That or stay stay tuned for that Following but here's a quick overview For you Optical formula is 15 elements In nine groups there are some special Elements there a couple of aspherical Elements and I believe three extra load Dispersion elements as a part part of The design uh what you're going to find Is both typical laa strengths and laa Weaknesses so if we look at vignette and Distortion even though this is an Extreme wide angle of view there's Almost no Distortion there I only used About a plus three plus4 to correct what Tiny bit of barrel Distortion is there That is incredibly impressive I don't Know how lawa does it but I just know This that is very few other brands are Able to pull that off but it seems like What gives in their Optical designs is Their there is a huge amount of vignette In fact with this lens I maxed out the Sliders in Lightroom and I still I still
Could have corrected a little bit more So that tells me that there are over Four stops of vignette in the corners um So very extreme one thing I did notice Maybe it's something that can be solved Via firmware in the future but on both My A7 R5 and my Alpha 1 particularly on My Alpha One if I made the mistake of Leaving shading peripheral shading Correction on vignette correction on you Can see that there's this little white Patch in the extreme Corners it's not Actually correcting the vgn yet but Unfortunately what it's doing is Creating a kind of a glitch there in the Corner so you're going to want to have Those Corrections at least for now Turned off hopefully a firmware update In the future can solve that now the Nature of a focal length like this means That there is almost no longitudinal Chromatic aberration because there's no Tiny depth of field there is a little Bit of lateral chromatic chromatic Aberration near the edge of the frame Much more common for wide angle lenses But it's mild here and easily corrected Four when they were talking about Resolution um even at a 61 megapixels And add a 200% magnification I saw very Good performance in the center of the Frame and in the mid-frame with the Corners being a little bit softer Corners never sharpen to the level of
The you know middle 2/3 of the frame but They do improve as you stop The Lens Down the most consistent sharpness Across the frame is going to be found at F8 in my test after that fraction will Start to soften the image a bit as Already mentioned there's not much to Talk about in terms of VO here's what it Looks like that's the most that I could Create but you're going to be very Rarely in situations where you can make That happen when it comes to Coma Performance now the vignette is going to Be an issue for shooting night sky but Coma is actually not star points are Nice and crisp in the center of the Frame there's a little bit of stretching Near the edges of the frame a little bit Of a tail on there but not bad at all And so this certainly is a viable option If you want to really wide uh look at The heavens and a lot of stars on frame Then it's going to be interesting for That also pretty impressive is the fact That they pulled off really quite good Flare resistance on this lens there are Minimal artifacts but no loss of Contrast you can see even panning across Either wide open or stop down that Everything really looks quite good There's a very mild flare pattern but It's not disruptive and there's no you Know weird weird kind of glaring or U Burst effect there overall it's really
Well Handled so in conclusion I would say That lawa has had a very impressive Transition to autofocus in my mind I Really love the new design language here It is unique it is something that Doesn't look like every other lens out There but not in a poor taste or garish Way it's really well executed it looks Modern but not overblown in any way so I Really like the design language there Are if you're just looking for a Wideangle Prime there are sharper Wide-angle options out there like the Vro 16mm f1.8 that even cost a little Bit less but none of nothing that is This extreme in terms of focal length That is outperforming this lens Optically this is actually a really Strong performance for such an extreme Focal length and the fact that it is Very usable at f2.8 is impressive when You're talking about something that is Just so incredibly wide it's being Autofocused makes it a more accessible Lens so so I will point out that just The nature of this focal length means That it takes practice and skill and you Have to kind of reorient your Compositional brain when you're viewing Scenes because you're going to have to Get much closer to things than what you Would expect because otherwise it'll Just seem really far away so it takes
Some practice but with that practice you Can create some really really unique Images and I think the price point of $799 is very reasonable when you Consider that's $50 less than the less Extreme 12 mm f2.8 that is a manual Focus lens so Bravo to lawa for giving Us a really cool and unique lens that is At an accessible price point most zooms That will cover this focal length will Run into the thousands of dollars so This is really one of the most Accessible ways to get 10 mm Particularly with an f2.8 aperture I did A search on B&H Photo and there are no Other fullframe Alternatives out there And so that is great so if you want more Information stay tuned here as we do the Deep dive there is more information in The description down below it'll take You to my text review also some buying Links if you'd like to purchase one but If you want more information let's jump Into it [Music] Together all right let's start by taking A look at just the nature of this focal Length so here this is only f2.8 you can See I got down really low knowing was Very early in the morning at the hotel I Was staying at and I was doing some lens Test I was able to get really low here And take a few shots here at these Escalators you can see that you got a
Little bit motion blur here in the Foreground but my actual Focus point is Somewhere here but you can see that Pretty much everything throughout the Frame is mostly in Focus so that's Obviously going to be really useful in Some situations and also you can get a Lot in the frame likewise here in tight Spaces like the stairwell you can see it Really creates the sense of space you Know it's not a huge area and yet it Looks quite vast on camera getting a Shot like this is pretty much impossible With a lens unlike this I mean we're Talking about a horizontal composition I Was shooting through a window and I was Not only able to get the kind of curve Of the conference center portion of the Hotel but then the room block that goes Up 18 stories from that all easily Within the frame so you know an Impressive performance there likewise Here this is the Eternal Flame Monument That's out outside of the Canadian Parliament buildings and so here I was Basically right on top of this you can See that not only is the monument in the In the shot and by the way this flame Might have been four or 5T away from me And it looks like it's triple that but You can also see that there are multiple Buildings that also get included in Frame there so if you want to if you're Working in a tight space and you want a
Lot to be in frame well this is your Lens now as noted earlier you can see That the amount of uh Distortion here is Impressively low there is very little There uh for such a just extremely wide Angle of view and also what a little bit Is there is magnified by the simple fact That I'm have to be almost right on top Of my test chart to do these tests so Very impressive that they managed to Pull off such low Distortion now to take That Distortion out into the real world You can see here in just a typical shot Of a hallway in my home you can see just How straight the lines are how little Distortion is there even though there Are there's a ton that's included in That shot Likewise here you're going to be want to Be careful though because if you're Shooting upwards like towards buildings You get that natural keystoning effect That has nothing to do with Distortion And just kind of the physics of the Thing that everything will feel like It's leaning away from you and so you're Only going to solve that with a with a Shift of shift lens so you can see if You got people composed in the corner as I've got here they're going to get look Really weird it's not that they're Distorted you could see that they're not Stretched but that keystoning effect Does really affect shots like this with
A wide angle lens but as noted the Vignette is a whole other story I maxed Out the sliders here and you could see There's still a little room for Correction and that does make sometimes Metering a little bit of a challenge Because the center is going to be so Much brighter than what the edges are Going to be and so if you've got Something that should be uniform you're Going to really see that vignette and You can see it's really kind of Concentrated towards the corners thus The center looks a lot brighter than What the edges does we're looking at a JPEG here and the Raw on the right you Can see that nothing is happening in Camera in terms of correcting for that Now fringing is not a real concern we've Already talked about how the Longitudinal chromatic aberration just Hardly happens on a lens like this Because depth of field is so large now You will see some lateral chromatic Aberration near the edge of the frame You can see some of that fringing in These transition points fortunately this Is the kind that clears up very easily With one click in your favorite editing Software so here's a look at the overall Test chart and you can see that the Center looks you know looks over bright And of course the corners even after Some correction they look much dimmer
And probably proper exposure is Somewhere like in this Zone here that's Just it's very hard to nail exposure With this because of that extreme Variance from the heavy vignette so We'll just have to plow through it here Now if we Crank That magnification up to 200% and again this is a 61 megapixel Sensor Sony A7 R5 you can see the center Of the frame is very very nice and Impressively sharp very good contrast That is there the mid-frame is not as Crisp but still looks quite good good Detail that's there and as we pan down As we get towards the corner contrast Doesn't look bad here but you can see That it just lacks the fine detail that We saw elsewhere to put that in Perspective however here's an interior Shot shot at ISO 1600 handheld at f2.8 And you can see that throughout a lot of The frame the detail looks really nice And crisp now you can see it's not as Sharp over here in the corners as what It is in this area where um you know It's it's more in the sweet spot but if Even if we're looking here there's some You know natural stretching effect Taking place but it's not like there's No resolution there there's still Resolution remaining now we can see from F2.8 to f4 on the right there's not a Significant Improvement there neither in The mid-frame it doesn't look a whole
Lot better we can look at the the other Side as well you can see that they look Roughly similar with a little bit better Contrast for the F4 but not a Significant Improvement there there's a Much more significant improvement from F4 to f5.6 and you can see now that f5.6 Has very good contrast and detail that's True up here and even as we start to Work into the corners you can tell that There's a lot of contrast and detail Working into the corners now that gets Very slightly better at f8 which I can Considered to be kind of the Pinnacle of Optical performance for the lens in Terms of the consistency across the Frame you can see down here that between F5.6 and f8 there is a significant Improvement at the same time however if You're just looking for a really sharp Wide-angle lens the vro 16 mm is sharper You can see that that's true in the Center of the frame though not by a huge Margin but as we pan over here towards The corners you can see that the vrs is Much more impressive near the edges of The frame that's just kind of the nature Of the Beast here 16 mm is much easier To engineer than what 10 mm is and so You really need to want this extreme Wide angle and if you do want that then This lens is actually performing at a High level now after f8 f11 still looks Fine but as you get towards the minimum
Aperture of F22 you're going to see a Significant drop off in the contrast due To the effects of defraction so as noted Previously this is your minimum Focus Distance obviously you're so close to The subject that you are going to see a Little bit of field curvature here Though I think that LA's done a pretty Impressive job of controlling That at the same time however it's hard To get a enough light on your subject When you're that close to it but in Other kinds of shot I was actually very Very close to these needles here and so You can see that you know it's it's good Detail that's there uh aberration look Fine here and you can see that the Boke Quality is it's fine I mean it's going To be very rare situations where you can Create it but it is fine here's a look Here you can see that there is Definitely going to be some stretching Towards the corners cuz we're even Nowhere near them and you can see them Starting to look like eggs there at the Top of it but I just can't get close Enough to actually have anything if I Got closer to where this filled the Frame nothing would be out of focus any Longer so it's it's kind of the nature Of the Beast now real world shots I Think look nice uh color looks fine uh You can see that detail looks really Really good in the center portions of
The frame and then you know not quite as As crisp in the corners but there's a Lot of information there and frankly Some shots look a little better than Others uh for example in this shot here I felt like the foreground looks pretty Decent really it's stretched but the Detail looks fine there and you can see That there's good you know as we look Towards the area where I'm really Focused detail looks great you can get a Lot in the frame now for coma we'll take Another quick look at this you can see In the center of the frame FR star Points are nice and crisp and then as we Move off towards the corners you can see There is that little bit of stretching Uh but at the same time there's not any Kind of extreme coma so it's perfectly Usable for that just know that if you Want nothing in the the shot like in Terms of trees you're going to need to Be in a really wide open space because There is always a lot in the frame Finally flare resistance uh you can see In this shot there's a few little tiny Ghosting artifacts mostly what you're Seeing here is reflection in the window But here's another shot here that shows You know very minor ghosting artifacts But nothing big and you can see look I Wanted to show you a little closer look At the Sunburst effect that's just a Really really lovely effect I love the
Very crisply defined 10 different blades Coming off that that looks fantastic so Overall outside of that extreme vignette And a little bit of softness in the Corners this really is quite an Impressive lens optically thanks for Hanging around to the end and as always Thanks for watching watching have a Great day and let the light [Music] In
