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To be perfectly honest my very first impression when I lifted the Zeiss from it’s box was not entirely positive. Bare in mind that I had instant buyer’s remorse the moment after I put the phone down confirming my order....
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Many macro photographers interested in capturing the fine detail of small subjects are aware of the Canon MP E65mm macro lens, the only standalone lens thus far capable of achieving up to 5x magnification. This has however changed with the release of a new macro lens by Venus Optics, the Laowa 25mm f2.8 2.5 – 5x Ultra Macro lens. The Laowa 25mm is available in mounts for most of the major camera brands and non Canon users are no longer limited to the use of reversed lenses, bellows etc. for high magnification macro shots. As a long time MPE-65mm user, I was interested in the performance of the Laowa 25mm and was fortunate to get the opportunity to test one recently.
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Two years ago I was lent the enormous SIRUI R-5241XL tripod to use in Namibia and subsequently review. I admitted in the conclusion that I had fallen in love with what I had dubbed “The Beast”. If there was one problem with the R-5241XL it was the sheer physical size of it. Every other aspect of the tripod was essentially an upgraded and improved version of the other carbon fibre tripods that are made by SIRUI. Now SIRUI have brought out the significantly smaller R-2214X tripod, which in theory takes all of the goodness that is the R-5214XL and squeezes it into a smaller and lighter package. In terms of competitors it is theoretically most similar to, as Hougaard Malan from landscapegear.co.za claims, compete directly with the more expensive and perennially popular Gitzo GT3543LS.
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As part of any landscape photographers kit, numerous filters are used to create different effects. The most popular of these filters is a circular polariser (used to cut out reflective light), but one filter every landscape photographer should have in their kit is a 10-stop ND Filter. A 10-stop ND helps slow everything down, increasing your exposure by 10 stops. For example, if you have a starting shutter speed of 1 second, adding a 10-stop filter will increase the shutter speed to 16 minutes. This opportunity to slow the world down increases the creative potential for the photographer in-field, adding another dimension to your arsenal.
Emil von Maltitz was one of the first people to take the dive on Laowa’s 12mm Wide Angle lens when they first launched on Kickstarter. We only started distributing Laowa in South Africa recently – his review is thus entirely objective. For the past year and a half he has used the lens all over Africa for a variety of genres including industrial, agricultural and landscape work and has put it through it’s paces. What makes this lens unique is that it is the widest rectilinear f/2.8 lens and also the only full-frame lens wider than 16mm that accepts a 100mm filter system. Not only that, but it’s priced at a fraction of the Nikon and Canon counterparts, yet beats them in almost every image quality criteria.
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