Laowa 100mm 2.8 on Fuji x mount ?

Hi,

I am looking for a prime telephoto lens longer than my fuji xf90mm and shorter -- and definitively, less expensive -- than the xf 200mm lens. At this time, I am looking at third party offers as I can't find offers in such range from Fuji.

Ideally, I am looking for something about 500-600 gr in weight, not more than than 700-800 us doll, and offering a very high IQ.

I wonder whether the **Laowa 100mm f2.8** (ef version, via a fringer adapter) could be a good candidate in terms of my searching criteria. According to the online reviews, It seems to be optically excellent and it also falls in my price range. With the crop factor, it would translate in about a 150mm focal lenght on APS-c, correct?

By chance, has anyone in the Forum already tried the Laowa 100mm 2.8 / Fuji setup? I highly appreciate any information, photo samples, or pieces of advice.

I am an amateur photographer. I mostly shoot flowers, portraits, and some landscape photography. I am also interested in B&W photography.

Any suggestions or feed back will be highly appreciated.

Thank you for your time.

eladrill2

I haven't tried this, but it should absolutely work.

It would however be quite heavy as well.

Any reason why you would not rather use the Laowa 65mm f/2.8, which is native to the Fuji X-mount?

Working distance?

Electronic aperture support?

The Laowa 65 2.8 exists for Fuji natively and is an excellent lens.

It will work fine as any other EF lens, but you don't need fringer (dump adapter is enough) - as far as I know laowa EF doesn't have any electronics.

If you need longer FL then EF version is better choice, but if 65mm id enough then native x-mount version is lighter and smaller (I'm a happy owner).

Btw if you really need longer macro manual lens, then you may also look at the Irix Dragonfly150/2.8 1:1 for EF - not as good as laowa, but also a bit cheaper.

Cheers,

Artur

Thank you for your messages and suggestions.

I am a big fan of the laowa 65 2.8 lens. I am using it, along with the xf 90 2.0, for my short or short/medium telephoto shots. But sometimes, I just would like just to get  some extra reach available in the arsenal.

Just a note about the weight of the lens.

At 635 gr, the Laowa lens is not really heavy (the fuji xf 90mm weights 540gr).

I would certainly love this lens if its performs as its little brother (the Laowa 65mm) does in the Fuji x mount cameras. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any article or video about how this FF lens performance translates into the real Fuji world.

Some pictures, comments, or hints?

Thank you for reading.

eladrill2

eladrill2 wrote:

I would certainly love this lens if its performs as its little brother (the Laowa 65mm) does in the Fuji x mount cameras. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any article or video about how this FF lens performance translates into the real Fuji world.

Some pictures, comments, or hints?

Thank you for reading.

eladrill2

Hi Eladrill

Both these Laowa lenses, the 65 mm and the 100 mm are great performers. The shorter and smaller one was designed for APS-C, the larger one for FF.

The 100 mm will perform on APS-C as good as with FF bodies. Its image circle will not be fully used, only the center part which is typically the sweet spot. So, all lights on green.

I also have the Laowa 65/2.8 and am very happy with it and its IQ.

Cheers,

Martin

Tim van der Leeuw wrote:

Any reason why you would not rather use the Laowa 65mm f/2.8, which is native to the Fuji X-mount?

OP said a prime with longer reach than his 90mm F2

The_Crow wrote:

Tim van der Leeuw wrote:

Any reason why you would not rather use the Laowa 65mm f/2.8, which is native to the Fuji X-mount?

OP said a prime with longer reach than his 90mm F2

Apologies, I overlooked that.

Surely if you have a 90mm lens a 100mm one is superfluous?  Apologies if I've misunderstood.

a_c_skinner wrote:

Surely if you have a 90mm lens a 100mm one is superfluous? Apologies if I've misunderstood.

My thoughts too.

For macro, flowers, the Canon EF 180 f/3.5 would be different than the OP's current choices. Even though it is not a light lens.

Hi,

The Laowa macro lenses are a sibling set of 50, 65, 85, 90, and 100mm macro lenses for different sensor sizes. They're all optically very good. (I have the 65mm in X-mount.)  The test reports for the 90mm and 100mm, both designed for FF, are both also very good.

You should be able to use the Laowa 100mm with an adapter, but personally I would have thought that the extra reach of a 100mm over a 90mm was rather a small step. You could crop that out of the images from your xf90mm and see little difference in IQ.

You haven't actually said whether its essential for your interests to have a macro lens.....   In looking at the 100mm, are you looking to have the extra reach (extra telephoto capability of normal subjects at a distance) or macro capability (close up magnification of small subjects)?

If you just want telephoto reach, you could also choose and adapt from hundreds of legacy telephoto lenses - eg 100mm, 135mm, 180mm, etc) for significantly less expense. If you want a macro lens, there are also some very good legacy macro lenses available.  Most macro lenses were pretty sharp. Again, you'd just need a model with an aperture ring.

Hope that helps,

Cheers, Rod

Rod McD wrote:

Hi,

[...]

Again, you'd just need a model with an aperture ring.

Or a smart adapter compatible with said lens.

The Laowa 100mm in EF mount has a version with electronic aperture, and a version with manual aperture.

So it will work with a Fringer adapter. Other Canon EF mount lenses will also work with the Fringer adapter, even if they do not have an aperture ring.

I wish you'd not pointed that one out!

- With the crop factor, it would translate in about a 150mm focal lenght on APS-c, correct?

I think the OP with his reference to equivalent 150. may have been thinking this would be a 150 compared to his 90 - this of course, is not the case.

To the OP you are looking at a 100mm lens to replace a 90mm, that is all. As far as equivalence goes, your 90 on APS-C is equivalent to a 135 lens field of view on a full frame camera. In your search for a lens just look at the focal length and max aperture it has, they compare directly to what you now have.

- At 635 gr, the Laowa lens is not really heavy (the fuji xf 90mm weights 540gr).

Regarding weight comparisons - remember to add the weight of the adapter to your thinking, as the this makes a big difference, compared to native fuji X mount lenses, Fringer Pro is 9.6oz 272g

I think this will make the Laowa and a Fringer 900g on a Fuji camera, compared to the Fuji 90's 540g

100mm is so similar in focal length to your 90mm, I wouldn’t have thought it was worth it ….. I would be looking at something at least 135mm ….. I’m not sure what is available but would think you would have to adapt a lens for another mount… maybe a second hand Canon EF 200mm f2.8?

I know you’re keen on a prime, but the Fuji 55-200 and 70-300mm are 580g and have pretty good image quality (ok the 55-200 falls away a bit in sharpness from 150-200mm)

Thank you very much for all your messages and suggestions.

As many of you pointed out, the Laowa 100 2.8 ef is very similar to the Fuji 90mm in terms of reach. I initially thought that the difference would be bigger. So, already owning the fuji 90mm, I will look at something else.

Some more context for my search.

I wold be happy with a fuji xf 135mm prime if this was available, but we know that fuji is not offering primes in that range. Moreover, I am looking for a telephoto to supplement my fuji xf 90, which I find sometimes not long enough for my needs. I am a happy owner of the laowa 65mm, which I use mostly for closeups and portraits, so I am not looking specifically for a macro lens. It's just the range wich is important to me.

Some of the suggestions I received in the thread until now. They can be organized in two main categories.

a) Getting a native fuji zoom telephoto lens (e.g. the 55-200mm or the 70-300mm)

b) Getting a third party FF lens to be used on x mount via adapter.

Some particular lenses suggested are:

- Irix Dragonfly 150 2.8 for EF (suggested by Artur)

- Nikon ai-s 100 2.8E (by Asla) << maybe too similar to the fuji 90mm or

the Laowa 100 2,8 EF in range ? >>

- Canon EF 180 f.3.5 (by biza43)

- One second hand (good and cheap) legacy telephoto lens (by RodMcD).

Thank you all for your suggestions. Now, a couple of additional questions.

In terms only of sharpness,

(1) Is the canon ef 180 3.5 mounted on fuji the sharpest of the listed primes?

(2) comparing categories, overall, are the fuji zoom lenses (xf 50-200 and 70-300) sharper than the above primes (mounted on a fuji camera via adapter)?

Thank you again for your help.

Best regards,

Eladrill2

eladrill2 wrote:

Hi,

I am looking for a prime telephoto lens longer than my fuji xf90mm…

Is 10mm and one stop slower really worth buying when you already have the 90?

Tim van der Leeuw wrote:

Rod McD wrote:

Hi,

[...]

Again, you'd just need a model with an aperture ring.

Or a smart adapter compatible with said lens.

The Laowa 100mm in EF mount has a version with electronic aperture, and a version with manual aperture.

So it will work with a Fringer adapter. Other Canon EF mount lenses will also work with the Fringer adapter, even if they do not have an aperture ring.

It's true that Laowa 100mm in EF has two versions, unfortunately, the one with the electronic aperture cannot work correctly with Fringer adapter. According to the author of Fringer, due to some bug in Laowa's firmware implementation, Fringer doesn't plan to support this lens in its official firmware. Instead, Fringer made a special version of firmware for it. Check the info here:

https://forum.xitek.com/thread-1771177-findpost-84422608.html#p_84422608

The reply is in Chinese, and as I just checked the download links are broken now. At least that special firmware did exist, and if someone wants to try the combination, just contact Fringer.

The Canon 180 is very sharp.  The Fuji 55-200 is very sharp up to about 150mm, then becomes merely very acceptable.  However Andy Mumford sells big prints made with it.  Can't say about the 70-300, like the Canon I've not used it but it reviews well.  Gets farly close up too.  Overall though the biggest determinanat of IQ is user technique and pretty much all Fuji's lenses, in the centre at a reasonable distance and stopped down a little will be very sharp indeed.  If you are getting poor results from any of the Fuji lenses it isn't the lens but the way it is used and what you are expecting from it.

The Canon 180 on APS-C will be a very specialised and rather unwieldy lens.  The only reason to buy it is if you want both a macro lens and long focal length.

For flowers and landscape the 70-300 will probably be your best bet accepting it won't get into the really close range.  Longer than 90mm is a focal length where OIS becomes a huge boon.  As a flower snapper of 45 years a good zoom avoids a lot of crawling around in the dirt.

If you want close and money and weight not object then the 80mm plus the 1.4TC is very good.  That is how I will avoid buying the Canon 180 and an adaptor.