Over the years I’ve rarely used ultra-wide lenses because they normally produce the fisheye effect. There were definitely times where I could have used a wide field of view, but the image distortions were unacceptable to me. Well, recently I tried the Laowa 9mm lens from Venus Optics, and I’m happy to say that I no longer have to make the trade-off between the field of view and image quality.

Here’s my full review of the lens

Here are the key features of this lens:
• manual, still camera lens, but works for video too
• fast – f/2.8
• very wide field of view, but narrow depth of field can be achieved too
• almost no distortions that are typical of wide-angle lenses (i.e. no fisheye)
• Sony E (APS-C-format), Canon EF-M and Fujifilm X mounts avaialable
• short focusing distance: 4.7″ / 12 cm

You can get the Venus Optics Laowa 9mm f/2.8 lens on B&H, eBay, Amazon

Venus Optics also has two other wide-angle models of the Laowa lens: 12mm f/2.8, and 7.5mm f/2 for MFT.

Considering how good the 9mm lens is, I expect that Venus Optics will release more wide-angle models, including for MFT cameras.

To see all the Laowa lenses currently available, please check out this listing on B&H.

Also, if you want more info on the variable ND filters I use, then please see my post here.

You can get the Aurora-Aperture PowerXND 2000 Variable ND filters on BH Photo Video, eBay, Amazon