Venus Optics announces Laowa 6mm F2 Zero-D for Micro Four Thirds, the widest rectilinear lens for MFT

 

 

Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 6mm F2 Zero-D lens for Micro Four Thirds, the widest rectilinear lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras. The lens is a photo-specific version of the company's existing 6mm T2.1 Cine lens, promising the same optical quality with new electrical contacts. The contacts allow users to control the lens aperture through the camera body and ensure that EXIF data is correctly recorded.

The lens is extremely lightweight, weighing just 188g (0.41 lbs). The lens, which has a 58mm filter thread, is just 52mm (2.04 in.) long. On Micro Four Thirds, the lens is equivalent to a 12mm lens on a full-frame camera, delivering a 121.9-degree ultra-wide field of view, perfect for landscape, interior and architecture photography. Given its compact nature and ultra-wide FOV, the lens is also well-suited to video applications on drones and gimbals.

 

Sample image by Jimmy Chan, courtesy of Venus Optics

With its wide aperture, the lens is also well-suited to night sky photography. Venus Optics doesn't specifically mention performance concerning comatic aberration and vignette at F2, but the company does outline the lens's optical design. It includes 13 elements across 9 groups, which is quite a bit of glass in such a small form factor. Among these elements, the lens incorporates a pair of aspherical lens elements. The manual focus lens has a short minimum focusing distance of just 9cm (3.54 in.), resulting in a 0.18x max magnification ratio. When you get up close and personal with your subject, you can achieve a surprisingly shallow depth of field, given the focal length. The lens includes a five-bladed aperture diaphragm to produce 10-point sunstars.

The Laowa 6mm F2 Zero-D MFT is available now for $499.