Laowa 90mm f/2.8 2x Macro Lens Review using the Sony a6700
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- This is a review of the Venus Optics Laowa 90mm f/2.8 2x Macro Lens. This lens is designed for full frame but I tested it on my APSC Sony a6700. I spend two days making macro images and share the results here. It's a great optical performer. Thanks for watching!
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One of the best macro lenses you can buy, and in terms of value for money it is hard to beat!
It's an honer to see you here, Micael! :)
@@PhilThach I'm checking in from time to time :)
I bought it because of you and I Love it. Thanks @MicaelWidell.
Good to see you testing out my favourite lens hehe. Great job buddy!
Micael got me wanting this lens, too! Lol
Nice review Phil and some great examples from the lens and camera combo.
Thak you, Adrian!
Excellent macros Phil!
Thank you, Bill!
Really helpful, thank you!
Thank you!
That looks like an awesome lens. Great shots as always.
Thank you, Bob! :)
Great skills Phil!
Thank you!
Great photos!
Thank you, Leon!!
New Favorite UA-camr
Thank you!
I bought the Laowa 85mm 5.6 paired with a Canon R6 based on Micael Widell's recommendation. I love it and the photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing Phil.
I think the 85 is a great idea because it is so small and light. I'd never shoot macro at a wider aperture than 5.6.
I recently got that lens and agree there is quite a learning curve on getting correct focus. Looks like the view finder is good enough on that camera as you bagged many good shots. I have been using the RF100-400 for macro type shots because of the working distance and great stabilization.
I enjoy the 100 to 400 mild macro work. It’s a great butterfly lens! Maybe the best! Thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing another wonderful video like always Phil, beautiful photos, I liked the ant shots very much, I had the 100mm version of Laowa about a year ago and I use the Tokina 100mm now because is auto focus so use for other applications very nice 👍🤗
Thank you, Miguel! I had the Tokina 100 for years in Nikon F mount version. That was my first macro lens.
Great video, been missing your macro videos. I have that lens as well and it's really good.
Thank you! I think it may be my new favorite macro lens!
I just received my 65mm laowa, can't wait to get some photos.
I bet you are going to enjoy it!
Phil, your macro videos always inspire me to get out there. I've got extension tubes on order and, once they come in, I'll be getting out to try to catch some middle Tennessee bugs.
That's awesome! Good luck! Don't get discouraged if it seems impossible at first. You'll get the hang of it!
Next to birds macro is my favorite type of photography. Thanks so much for this video. You made some nice shots. I have a couple of macro lenses but this looks like it does a great job. I may have to check this one out. Cheers.
Thank you! It’s a really outstanding lens. Great image quality!
Thanks for your video! I appreciate the effort in sharing more lenses with us. That said, I don't understand, as an international traveler, how fixed lenses, so large, long, and heavy, are promoted, when the camera body of the a6000 series is so small, compact, and made for travelers. these large lenses, fixed only, are simply not practical for travelers. I use the sony a6600, now will be getting the a6700, and have two fantastic portable zooms with great quality, sony 70-350mm and sony 18-135mm, and one tiny fixed lens: Sigma 30mm 1.4 (for night shooting and video with a small crane m3 gimbal. With this system I can travel the world with a small sling back daypack (the amazon basics pack). Again, thanks for your video!!!
Thank you! I agree, this lens and the 200-600 that I like to use are not ideal travel lenses because of their size. I consider this lens to be quite small for what it is but I do see your point.
Phil, I am not into macro photography. But I always enjoy all of your macro photography videos.
Thank you, Cesar! You should try it at some point, it’s a really rewarding genre of photography!
Great review Phil, as a wildlife photographer, and not very well versed on Macro photography that was really helpful. All the best Ricard 👍
Thank you!
Great shots! Love those jumping spiders.
Me too, they are cute and fuzzy! LOL :)
Thanks for the great lens review! I'm really interested in a 2x macro lens. You got some great shots! I went back and listened again to you explain the focus zoom technique. I'm assuming you have programmed a button to magnify the image in the LCD to make sure that you are focused on the eye along with the focus peaking?
Thank you, Stephan! Yes, I programmed a button that would zoom in so I could see better whether or not I have the eye in focus. I find that I don’t trust focus peaking very much in a macro situation, or any other but if you zoom in on the exact point, you want to be perfect, that you can trust.
I was at a flower garden and the bees sure were busy as summer coming to an end and I could have used that lens. My only macro lens is an F mount 55mm which makes me get too close to bees and butterflies and they take off. This 90mm looks interesting though I kinda wanted my next macro lens to be AF to make it easier but you got me considering this lens. Glad you mentioned it’s an FX lens. Pictures look great! Thanks for the video!
Thank you! The Nikon F 200-500 is a good autofocus bee and butterfly lens, the new Z 180-600 might be even better. Those have a magnification of 0.22 and 0.25x and you can be a good distance from those larger macro subjects without spooking them. This lens is more for much smaller subjects with it 2x magnification but I did make some shots of bees with it. The Nikon 105 macro is 1x. Minimum magnification to be considered true macro is 0.5x but for larger bees and butterflies, those telephoto zooms are a great choice.
@@PhilThachthe 2/1 macro also has me interested. My dad had filters for his camera that were basically magnifying glass that made his 50mm lens to a 2/1 macro. To have a macro that strong will be interesting to have.
Great video, btw, did u use an E-mount adapter for the a6700 or it fits without ? Thanks !
Mine is a Sony E version. No adaptor needed.
Thanks for the review Phil. I'm planning to explorer macro photography and planning to get this lens. Are insects sensitive to flash?
Thank you! I don’t think it really bothers them.
@@PhilThach cool. I'm about to order this lens. What's the ideal flash to pair with a6700 + laowa 90mm?
Hello, dear Phil
Were the displayed photos taken with a single shot or did you use the focus stacking method?
Single shot.
That blue rail made a great backdrop! I have several of the Lensbaby lenses that are manual Focus and with Focus peaking…why not?! I wonder if the R7 has that Focus zoom feature? If so, I need to figure that out.
I love that blue rail! I think on the R7 you just hit the magnifying glass button on the back of the camera. The a6700 does not have that button so I programmed a custom button that I wasn't using to perform the zoom function. It really helps for tiny macro subjects like this and to get perfect focus on a star during astrophotography. Astro is a genre I'd love to practice but it happens too late a night for me! LOL :)
I forgot about the magnify button because I have it programmed to do something else! I have to fix that! Thanks for the reminder 😄
I got this lens a month ago, but i just noticed today when i was playing with it that the front part where the hood attachment is( blue ring), got a little room for some wiggle... is it normal?
I'm seeing no wiggle room arround the lens hood / blue ring area on mine.
Wow these shots were spectacular, one question about this lens, is it all manual and no electronic controls? so you have to match the flash to the aperture, shutter speed etc...? I guess once you have the setting it doesn't move much?
Thank you! Yes. All manual. I set the flash manually too. But, I set the flash manually with autofocusing macro lenses too.
@@PhilThach I would like to use it as a normal 90mm lens for portraits for example, would you say it is too challenging for that or it's just a matter of getting used to it?
Hi Phil, can you share the link for the eye piece and L bracket you are using for 6700? i tried couple on amazon that did not work. thanks for the help.
I'm using the stock eye piece that came with my a6700 and so far, I haven't found an L bracket either.
Hello. Amazing photos. Are these single shots or stacking frames?
Thank you! These are all single shots.
@@PhilThachWow, that's cool! I will definitely buy it this summer
Would like to see some macro and landscape with your R7
Thank you! If you look in my landscape and cityscape playlist on the channel and in my macro and flower playlist on the channel, you will definitely find many R7 videos in both of those genres. also, I’m sure I will make some more in the future.
How’s the insect AF mode on the a6700? Awesome photos!
It is very good in the brief time that I experimented with it using the EF 200-600 lens. This Laowa lens is manual focus so the insect detect does not work with this lens.
Would you still go with 90mm (full-frame) or the 65mm laowa (Aps-c). Any benefits for going with lens built for aps-c on aps-c camera.
I would probably go with a full frame lens because you can use that on both but APSC you can usually only use on APSC.
Ha! Ordered this lens last week! Now I will watch your vid to see if I made the right decision 😂
I think you’re going to like it!
I sure enjoyed your video, some great shots 👍
@@PhilThachjust did my first macro shots with the lens - it is amazing indeed!
Hey there, I have the same setup a6700 and meike 320 flash and I was not able to get shutter speed faster than 1/160. I saw your photos have 1/200s, how did you do that? I did not see a HSS mode available for this flash
Interesting I was using mechanical shutter and I was controlling the flash manually. Maybe that will help.
Could I have the answer is the focus stacking worth it, or you prefer to one shot that? Because you could make 90 mm macro with AF focus stacking method with A6700 as it has focus bracketing, so you could later process in helicon or so. Sometimes one shot's are not that much enough :/
I prefer to do single shot for live subjects. But you are right stacking definitely gives you more in focus.
@@PhilThach Could I ask if the flash is consistent with focus stacking? I hear a lot of people don't even use focus bracketing mode at a6700 or there is no video examples if its worthy :| While on the other hand, anyone with OM1 use this mode heavily. And for last, is it really fast? I believe 1/160 should give at least bunch of photos in that short period of time. I don't mean to do like 100 focus stack on live object, especially outdoor when there is wind and so on..
Can you share a link for the flash diffuser?
Unfortunately, Crafty Bells has gone out of business.
I’m in doubt between this one and the 65mm for my A6700, why did u choose this one and did u try the 65mm as well? :)
I didn’t try the 65. I picked this one because it also works on full frame as well as apsc. I’m sure the 65 is great.
Great Stuff . I have the A6000 and the Laowa 90mm f/2.8 2x Macro Lens. I love the lens But please explain on how to do the "Focus Zoom" and can I do it on my A6000 ? Please.
I'm not sure if the a6000 has the feature. I looked through the menus and found a way to press a button and digitally zoom in. This allowed me to make much more certain that the eye was sharp than I could with focus peaking.
Ok thank you. I will have a look.@@PhilThach
What kind of flash are you using on the a6700 Phil?
I used a Meike MK-320 on this but have upgraded to a Godox 350.
What is the focus zoom technique?
With focus zoom, you press a button on your camera and your camera digitally zooms in on the area of the frame you want to be perfectly in focus. With this small area larger in the EVF or real screen, it's much easier to know when you have it perfect. This technique is often used in astrophotography.
Can you do a video of focus stacking with a6700?
' It gives more magnification on crop frame' How can it do that?
Because the crop frame also magnifies.
No it doesn't@@PhilThach
It just crops and makes the image look bigger. The lens function is a constant.@@PhilThach
@@michaelktori5178 agreed.
I never knew the use of the reflector on your lens. Haha. I thought it was for my flash when I first started photography!
At 4:51 you see a tiny farm, the ants are taking care of and protecting the aphid.
That’s what I thought might be going on in that picture!