On 12/22/2017 3:54 PM, Mike Gordon via olympus wrote:
Hmmm.
The little Oly WA zoom and Laowa 7.5 were not sufficient?
Ah well, what is sufficient? ;-) Lenses have their weak points, and so do photographers. I bought the Laowa in part for
the combination of size and aperture. It turned out that the speed was not as needed and/or useful as I had anticipated.
There were very few subjects where it was both dim enough to need the speed AND they were flat enough not to need a
smaller aperture for DoF.
OTOH, there are my faults. I tell myself I will remember to manually focus each time. I tell myself I will remember to
note down the aperture, at least most times. And yet, I didn't always focus, and I almost never noted apertures. Moving
too fast, spoiled by years of AF and EXIF, I suppose, but there it is.(Robin loved using the Laowa on E-PL7. On the LCD,
he didn't notice how many were OoF. AF spoiled too.)
OYAH, I got some shots I wouldn't have managed otherwise. UWA is certainly good for small spaces. The only temple altar
we could shoot was in the temple being refurbished. It was very 3D so I likely shot at f5.6, but there was also enough
light. The location of pillars and work tables was such that I would not have been able to step back for the shots I
wanted, so did require an UW. On the DoF front, the Panny will allow auto focus stacking, where the MF Laowa does not.
The 7-14/4 trades the AF and EXIF data that I apparently can't work around reliably for some size and weight. I also
suffer from zoomaholism, and 7-14 mm lets me adjust the frame where I couldn't otherwise.
You didn't notice, but 11 of the 19 individual shots in the "On the Way & At St. Dorothy's" gallery were taken with the
7-14. So there are certainly circumstances where it works for me. <https://photos.app.goo.gl/tECaMOU42eZKrM0U2>
The little Oly 9-18 seems to have become neither fish nor fowl for me. I used to use it for landscape, etc., but have
switched almost entirely to panorama stitching for that. Then, the difference between a theoretical 88º horizontal FoV
for 9 mm and 102º for 7 mm is huge for interiors and tight spaces. Everyone specs diagonal FoV, but it's side to side
that almost always matters.
The Laowa by many reports seems to have a fair amount of copy variation.
I hope/trust you obtained a good one.
Haven't done any careful testing; it's certainly far from as bad as the decentered one in the below review. I haven't
seen any obvious problems. I did look at the lens hood on the Laowa that came loose more than once. It appears they have
set little pieces of silicon in the bayonet to provide some friction, rather than having a click stop. Doesn't work very
well. Could use some modest power glue, I suppose. It's so tiny having it on all the time would be no problem (like the
Panny 7-14.)
BTW, the stated FLs at least agree, with the Laowa FoV between the Panny at 7
and 8 mm settings.
Seems even good enough wide open for astro. Thought you might eventually go
for the PL 8-16 if a deal came along but it is larger for not that much gain in
performance for the $, size.
Doesn't look to me like there is overall any optical performance advantage, but perhaps flare; it's larger, heavier and
not as wide. Can't see the point from here.
The ability to take regular filters is a plus though.
I so seldom use filters that I can't see it matters.
https://mirrorlesscomparison.com/micro-four-thirds-lenses/panasonic-leica-8-18mm-f2-8-4-vs-lumix-7-14mm-f4/
https://mirrorlesscomparison.com/micro-four-thirds-lenses/laowa-7-5mm-mft-wide-angle-zooms/
Wish they checked 10 copies to assess ample variability and Imatest like
lensrentals though there is no perfect lens test either.
Even then, how do you make sure yours is one of the better ones?
That Laowa was very cute, Mike
It is indeed. :-) And I have an old brown leather Topcon case that fits it
perfectly.
Widely Conflicted Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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