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Laowa 'Argus' 45mm f/0.95 Review

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The Laowa 'Argus' 45mm f/0.95 is a fully manual lens designed for full-frame mirrorless cameras. It has an incredibly bright aperture of f/0.95, allowing for narrow depth of field and fast shutter speeds in low light conditions. The build quality is tough and metallic, but the lens is quite heavy. The image quality is sharp at f/0.95, with some ghosting and low contrast, but improves significantly at higher apertures. The lens has minimal distortion and a smooth bokeh, but it suffers from noticeable chromatic aberration at wider apertures.

The Laowa 'Argus' 45mm f/0.95 boasts an incredibly bright aperture of f/0.95, allowing for a narrow depth of field and fast shutter speeds even in low light situations. However, it does suffer from low contrast and noticeable ghosting at wider apertures.

Pros
  • Incredibly bright aperture of f/0.95
  • Tough and metallic build quality
  • Sharp image quality at higher apertures
  • Minimal distortion and smooth bokeh
Cons
  • Heavy lens
  • Low contrast and noticeable ghosting at wider apertures
  • Suffers from chromatic aberration at wider apertures

The lens is heavy, weighing 835 grams, but it has a tough and metallic build quality. The aperture and focus rings are tactile, but manual focusing at f/0.95 may require some practice.

The Laowa 'Argus' 45mm f/0.95 is a fully manual lens designed for full-frame mirrorless cameras. It boasts an incredibly bright aperture of f/0.95, allowing for a narrow depth of field and fast shutter speeds even in low light situations. However, focusing can be tricky due to the ultra-wide aperture. The lens is heavy, weighing 835 grams, but it has a tough and metallic build quality. The lens features tactile aperture and focus rings, but manual focusing at f/0.95 may require some practice. The image quality at f/0.95 is sharp, but with low contrast and noticeable ghosting. However, stopping down to higher apertures significantly improves the image quality in both the center and corners. The lens has minimal distortion and vignetting, and it can focus to 50cm, with decent image quality at f/0.95. However, it does suffer from noticeable chromatic aberration at wider apertures. Overall, the Laowa 'Argus' 45mm f/0.95 offers a good balance between sharpness and bokeh, making it a suitable choice for creative photography and videography with full-frame mirrorless cameras.

The Laowa 'Argus' 45mm f/0.95 offers a good balance between sharpness and bokeh, making it a suitable choice for creative photography and videography with full-frame mirrorless cameras.

Source

This article is based on the review by

Christopher Frost

Christopher Frost

Christopher Frost is a YouTube channel dedicated to providing in-depth reviews and analyses of photography equipment, particularly lenses. Christopher Frost, the creator and host of the channel, is known for his thorough and detailed evaluations of various lenses from different manufacturers, including Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, and others.  To learn more, please visit the channel here.

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