Got the Laowa 10mm f/2 -- Few Notes

KarmaAndLies wrote:

I got the Laowa 10mm f/2 and just wanted to note a few things for other's benefit:

• Ordered from B&H, came with the 0.5 firmware which, I believe, contains the fixes for the newer Panasonic camera incompatibility (previously attached lens corrections not clearing, causing them to distortion the Laowa's output, you had to ship it to Laowa for a firmware update).
• If barrel distortion exists I cannot see it. CA is very well controlled.
• The vignetting is apparent even without peeping at f/2. It is controlled at f/2.8 and gone at f/4.0.
• Filters without step up ring makes vignetting mildly worse, but only at f/2 to my eye (using a B+W 46mm UV Haze MRC 010M). It may be detectable at f/2.8 under test conditions.
• The aperture motor, and lens/focal length identification are a nice quality of life improvement.
• The build quality is fantastic. Focus ring is smooth and hood attaches firmly. Cannot really use focus ring with the hood inverted, but that's a limitation of the lens size.
• I replaced the included Laowa Lens Cap, pinching it is too shallow and obnoxious. Got the Sensei 46mm Center Pinch for $4 from B&H, which is a big improvement.
• With Focus Peaking and Focus Assist on the GX7 focus is a breeze.
• The focus scale printed on the lens is wrong/pointless. Even infinity isn't marked correctly. It looks nice though, so there's that...

SooC JPG. Keep in mind I'm still on the 16 MP sensor. Focused to infinity, mostly going for a CA and distortion test here.

Yes... V0.5 is the latest FW supposed to fix the issues. I have been in correspondence with Laowa and they confirmed that.

They also said that at the moment, only they can update firmware but they are working on providing an online service.

That vignetting concerns me as a major incentive for me to get the lens is to have a compact and fast ultra wide for travelling and astro. I usually spend some time when travelling away from the light pollution I normally live with. Reviews show a really bad hot spot... anything away from a small central image circle is dark... 3 stops in the corners and 2 stops on the edges. I would probably get similar results with astro and my Panaleica 8-18 (which I always travel with anyway) as although the PL is slower, the much lower vignetting will compensate and noise/ detail with astro would be similar. If it were not for my astro exposure concerns, it seems like a great lens.

I wish Laowa had made it a little bigger as that would probably allow better vignetting control. I don't mind some vignetting, up to 2 stops in the corners and 1.5 stops on the edge is acceptable to me. Oly Pro primes tend to go the other extreme with amazingly low vignetting, but at a cost to size... Panaleica primes strike a good balance. Budget OlyPana primes have a bit more vignetting and I wish Laowa had done an Olympus 12mm f2.0 technically, but in 10mm.