[Klaus]

- Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 FE Zoom (Sony FE)
- Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO (DSLR mounts)
- Laowa 17mm f/4 GFX Zero-Dv (Fuji GFX)
- Laowa 4mm f/2.8 Fisheye MFT

http://www.opticallimits.com/all-tests/1040-loawa

Sorry, Joju ... but still no EXIF for you there.

[JJ_SO]

Out of 4 lenses only one has a mount for one of my cameras. None of them has a spring aperture, autofocus, VR - they are rather expensive for what they offer including inconvenient usage.

I don't think, lack of AF is a problem for what they are - however, the 2:1 macro lens cries for focus stacking and here one has no other choice than to get a motor driven rail.

Of course, as they borrow you the lenses for free, they will get at least attention of OL readers. But find for yourself if you really need them. I am very disappointed with build quality of the 15/4 macro shift - and it's an all metal shitty design.

I glady step back and leave the happiness of discovering Laowa to others.

[obican]

10-18 is quite interesting to me.

[Brightcolours]

10mm, that is even wider than the Canon 11-24mm f4 L USM. No wonder it interests you

[obican]

I was looking into Sony's already excellent 12-24/4 and even thought of selling my Batis 25/2 and Sony Zeiss 16-35/4 to finance it, even though I'd rather keep both those lenses as well. If the price is right and the quality is decent, I'll definitely get this 10-18 and keep the other two.

I don't mind the lack of EXIF or AF at all.

Also one can get both Sony's 12-24 and this 10-18 and it'll still be lighter than Canon's wonderful 11-24/4L. That lens is also magnificent and I loved every second of our 2 year (give or take) relationship with it but going lighter means being able to take that wide angle monster out to hiking or street shooting, which gives me a much broader possibility of using it. Also will be much easier to use because my Canon to Sony adapter's tripod mount is simply horrible.

[Rover]

Wow, each of these lenses is unique in its own right.

If only they had AE/AF... even the other Chinese companies have started implementing it. Maybe by the time I switch to the FE cameras they'll be going the way of Samyang.

[toni-a]

Maybe by the time I switch to the FE cameras

 switching FE ????
 I used to think the grass is greener on the other side.... as a 1D series user, I frankly doubt you will be satisfied there at least for the time being, i switched back to 7Dmkii here

[Klaus]

The key question is whether they can provide consistency in production.
Their lens designs are generally fine with the usual one or two weaknesses here and there (primarily flare).
They are actually looking into AF but available parts seem to be the issue.

I reckon the more important issue is the manual aperture/electronic coupling - at least for their DSLR lenses.
In the mirrorless scope, the manual aperture doesn't matter too much - the camera will just amplify the viewfinder image according to the incoming light (which may result in a noisy image, of course) whereas in case of a DSLR the viewfinder gets just darker. That will be an issue regarding the 100mm macro I reckon.

That's all irrelevant for the 4mm Fisheye of course.

[Brightcolours]

You can turn the DSLR into live view mode, Klaus. And when shooting with adapted old lenses, I focus wide open, then count the aperture clicks to where I want it to be and take the photo. That would be the same with a lens like this.

[Rover]

Maybe by the time I switch to the FE cameras

 switching FE ????
 I used to think the grass is greener on the other side.... as a 1D series user, I frankly doubt you will be satisfied there at least for the time being, i switched back to 7Dmkii here

Hey, I know it'd be a pain to ditch the 1D. But when I was trekking in Nepal this month, my body told me I'd rather not try to do this while wearing a 1D Mark IV body and three L lenses (16-35/4, 24/1.4, 100-400) again.