Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/2.8 ZERO-D review - Coma, astigmatism and bokeh

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Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/2.8 ZERO-D

20 April 2018

Arkadiusz Olech

7. Coma, astigmatism and bokeh

Such a big angle of view and the f/2.8 aperture mean coma correction is not easy. Still the Laowa managed that task decently well. Coma is noticeable but far from high levels of that aberration.

X-T2, f/2.8, center	X-T2, f/2.8, corner

X-T2, f/4.0, center	X-T2, f/4.0, corner

Similar images we obtained while photographing a diode in our studio and also taking shots of starry sky. Even though you can notice a certain influence of that aberration coma is not especially bothersome and the images of stars are not strongly deformed.

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Fujifim X-E1, JPEG, f/2.8, corner of the frame 1:1

Venus Optics LAOWA 9 mm f/2.8 ZERO-D - Coma, astigmatism and bokeh

Astigmatism, understood as an average difference between horizontal and vertical MTF50 values, reached 6%. It’s a result considered by us as low. It’s worth noticing that aberration’s level is bothersome mainly by f/2.8; from f/4.0 onwards it becomes practically negligible.

With such parameters as those of the Laowa 2.8/9 it would be difficult to get wide out-of-focus areas in your photos. I suppose, prospective buyers of this lens don’t consider nice, smooth blur as an important feature. It’s for the best – circles of light we got didn’t look nice. You can notice a lot of brightness gradients and deformations; apart from that the shape of the 7-blade aperture is hardly circular.