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Fun with the new Venus Laowa EF-M 65mm 2x Macro

Started Mar 5, 2021 | Discussions thread
Dors
Dors Regular Member • Posts: 320
Re: Fun with the new Venus Laowa EF-M 65mm 2x Macro

R2D2 wrote:

After reading some really rave reviews about the Laowa 100mm 2x Macro (available in multiple FF mounts), I thought I'd give it's little EF-M brother a try. And little it is. It's smaller in diameter than most other EF-M lenses, and it's a little bit longer (and slightly heavier) than the EF-M 18-150. IOW a lot less of a handful than my standard macro lens, the EF 100L.

Shooting macros with this lens is a breeze. The small diameter makes it very grip-able, and the heft is perfect to give it a little stability.

This is a fully manual lens, so focus is best done by pre-adjusting the focus ring (basically to a desired composition), and then moving the camera to and fro until your subject is in focus. Aperture is also adjusted manually using a ring on the lens. There are no electrical contacts on the lens, so no EXIF either.

A 2:1 macro ratio is about the highest I'm comfortable with hand-holding, esp without image stabilization to assist. And Canon's Focus Peaking really works well for macros.

Since it's still winter outside around here, I took my new toy down into the shop and grabbed a few things to practice on. All of these were shot at 2:1 (an object 11mm wide fills the frame),

22.2mm (sensor's width) : 11mm is 2:1! At last I got the meaning of macro ratios and 'life size' term.

Thank you!

and aperture was set to f/11 for improved DOF. F/11 is a little beyond DLA (into diffraction) but I've always found that macros can tolerate a large amount of fine detail sharpening.

I used diffused flash for these photos (for convenience), but a good set of photographic LED lights (or even a halogen work light) would work just as well. All but the first image (soda can) were shot at max 2:1, just to see how the lens would do. Files are 2160 high, full frame no cropping (no composing really either). EOS M6 Mark II, handheld. Just for fun.

 Dors's gear list:Dors's gear list
Canon EOS M6 Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Canon EF-M 55-200mm f/4.5-6.3 IS STM
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