Laowa 14mm f/4
Laowa 14mm f/4 +
Nikon DF
In a market heavily pushing mirrorless cameras and lens designs, Laowa went out and launched a new ultra-wide lens designed for SLR’s - you know, those ancient things with a flappy mirror. They were kind enough to send me one for two weeks, and so, paired with my Nikon DF, I took it out just about everywhere.
As per all lenses produced by Laowa, the 14mm is built very well, with a lovely smooth focus ring and a clicky aperture ring. It is also fully manual, just like the majority of Laowa’s line up. This means that you must control everything - focussing and the aperture. No exif data is transmitted.
The f/4 aperture will put some people off and rightly so, f/4 doesn’t exactly suck in loads of light. But, Laowa have created a very compact and lightweight ultra-wide lens with fantastic optical performance. Thanks to this, it was so easy to carry around with me and there wasn’t a time where I felt the need for an f/2.8 lens. If you want a do everything - daytime landscapes and astro, for example, then be prepared to pay the price, carry the extra weight and buy a dedicated filter system as pretty much all ultra-wide f/2.8’s have a large, bulbous front element. The 67mm thread on this 14mm allows for easy use with my current Haida filter system and 67mm isn’t exactly huge, so filters are generally quite reasonable in price.
Flamborough head with the laowa 14mm f/4, nikon df + haida red diamond filters
Behind the scenes shot of the image captured above
Beautiful sunstars
The lens features a 5 bladed iris, creating wonderfully sharp ten pointed stars.
I really enjoyed shooting with this 14mm lens. It is well built, compact, light, accepts 67mm filters, has a really close focus distance….the list goes on. If you still shoot SLR’s - digital or analogue, then I would certainly consider this as an ultra-wide option. Hope you enjoy the little sample gallery!
