@@Walkinginthewoods I purchased this lense a few months ago and have just started using it. It was exiting to see the colors of pink and purple flowers come out as their true colours, and not some distortion that was nothing like their real colors. I am enjoying your very calm and peaceful videos.
I use the Laowa 65mm for APSC with a Fuji X-T3. I think the depth of field is better, and as long as I edit with Capture One the images are tack sharp and beautiful. I don't think Lightroom works as well with Fuji raw files. Curiously I don't see very many reviews for the 65mm.
I'm considering getting this after this video. I've seen one for sale with auto aperture for EF mount. I didn't even know they did one. Shame they don't do AF so I could use focus stacking in camera with my R7
I use the laowa 2x 65mm i shoot macro with my m50, to keep it light weight, but owning both lenses they are so incredibly sharp and by far the best macro lenses ive ever used, fully manual becomes normal quickly, as does the minimum focus distance at just 6cm but that just means time of day plays a very important role which then has the added benefit of being able to small stacks too. Nice video by the way, clear and well spoken it was a pleasure to watch.
Really nice overview Martin. That lens is amazing, I had been eyeing the EF version because it has aperture coupling. I envy you because of the focus peaking on the Z6 hehe, it can certainly be quite difficult to nail the focus consistently, especially at higher magnification without enough ambient light or assist light. Nice compilation of images. Loved the jumping spider shot!☺️
Thank you for your video. I use the same lens for canon with the digital aperture and agree with a lot of what you’ve said here. I was curious to see if you had the same challenges with the extremely shallow depth of field. I also use some of the same strategies for the focal plane shooting at a 90 degree angle to the subject. I find that one of biggest learning curves with this lens was the focusing, I usually pull the camera away from my body putting pressure on my neck strap to steady the camera, using the camera display zoom in on a 3rd point and use my body position to bring the eyes into focus.
I use the Canon EF version and an EF to Z adapter. My Z5 is able to correctly get the focal length and control the aperture. I also get the focus confirmation in camera.
Yeah great chat there and very useful for some one who's just got a manual macro lens. I'm particularly interested in even higher apertures and then the way you can use light to create beautiful bokeh, i use the 65mm version of this lens and it really has been incredibly rewarding to experiment with, mainly on still subjects such as fungi. My next idea is to then find woodland butterflies who are at rest either evening or morning and then attempt some interesting angles to then make beautiful bokeh backgrounds. I think this helps to offset the problems with focus, as i'm not yet into focus stacking, and i rather like all the blur and the glow etc... Many thanks for this video.
If you shoot 1:1 macro and especially 1:2 macro don't go anywhere near F11, on 2:1 you can safely go up to f5.6 but any higher than that and deffraction starts to ruin your image, at f11-f16 the lens start to get unusably soft
I have a 90D from canon which supports focus bracketing on few selected lenses only, like one the famous Canon's own 100 mm macro lens. Not sure this one will be supported for that purpose. The EF mount will work but may not be able to utilise that feature
I used to use the 60mm on my D500 But the 100 is far superior with no CA. I find the 100mm is best for me left at f8 as you start to lose sharpness after that. Macro isn't easy, just play with different techniques and diffusers. I just lean to focus with this lens, always handheld too. Enjoy!
I think you are right the only way is to try different techniques and see what works. I am enjoying the lens very much. I tried a focus stack yesterday and got some promising results so might do a bit more in future. Cheers.
Some. Wry nice photos. Why the Laowa over the Nikon 105 micro. I like the AF with back button AF on breezy days for flora & insects. I’m sure you could just adjust your distance while doing a burst shoot which is what I do with AF anyway when shooting hand held most of the time. I’ll probably look for an older Nikon f4 200mm macro eventually for the working distance. Not sure but, it might give more depth of field also. Also thinking of adding extension tubes to the 70-200. Happy shooting.
I have seen good reviews of the Nikon Z micro, looks like a great lens. I may buy it in future because I would like the autofocus. The reason I got the Laowa is because it magnifies to 2x while, as I understand it, the 105 goes to 1x. Cheers
THANK YOU is not enough for this video. My eyes watered with tears because I bought this lens ( almost the same 65mm for my Sony E mount camera) and I don’t know what I am doing wrong all the time. I have shallow depth of field all the time and it is so hard to focus for me. Let me say I am an absolute beginner in Macro photography but I am fascinated by it. Is there someone here or you Martin who could please explain me how to control the manual focus on this lens please? When I use the ring in the lens and turn it slowly I get the focus peaking and I see what is in focus but I have no control to point the focus in the right direction. Why? Most of the time the focus comes on both sides of the gram but not in the center. How can I control or change this? I feel the manual focus is doing whatever it wants and I cannot focus on part of the object I want to focus on. What am I doing wrong? Does the focus have any relation to the “focus area” function in my camera? I set it most of the time to “wide” or “spot focus” but I am not quite sure if this works with a manual focus lens…. I would hugely appreciate your feedback on this. Thank you!
Hello, thank you for your comment. What works best for me when using my macro lens is to not touch the camera but focus by slight movements of my body towards and away from the subject. I do this until I get what I want in focus. I hope this makes sense to you. Let me know how you get on. All the best, Martin
Common issue. Manual focus is usually best. Also, research FOCUS RAILs (Monfrotto rail is great and NOT to popular cheap products.) Use a great tripod Leofoto LS364C), remote shutter release, shoot raw; use very, very good lighting to keep your ISO low. Also, you need a great, diffused light source- learn about Key+Fill (uses two lights off the camera.) Try turning off assist modes even stabilization if the camera is stable and see if it helps.
Erik, the Sigma 105mm looks like a good lens although I have not tried it. On the plus side the Sigma has stabilisation whereas the Laowa does not. If your camera body has IBIS the Laowa might be the best choice if not then the Sigma might make more sense. If you want to go to 2x magnification the Laowa can do this while the Sigma cannot. If you want to use auto focus it is the Sigma. The Laowa is manual only. Both are good lenses but offer different features. I guess it depends on what you want to use it for. Cheers
Thank you for all the info you shared! I'm new to macro photography and would love to try this lens. However I only have a doubt: do you have to stack photos for good focus? The photographs you showed, for example, are all stacked? I'd like to avoid doing that for each photo. Thank you!
Hello Beatreese. Most of the photos were not stacked. If you want e very thing in focus you have to stack but I try to get me camera and subject arranged so that as much as possible is the same distance from the lens. This way it should look more focussed. Hope this makes sense. Good luck with your macro adventures.
Narrow depth of field? No surprise there as it affects all macro lens, and the higher magnification you get, you must expect the FDOF to rapidly reduce. Not something that will affect this lens any ore than any other doing the same thing
Non of your problems have anything to do with this lens in particular. Stop way down to get best depth of field and use flash to get sufficient exposure. Mother nature hasn't singled you out, we all have the same problems with macro.
Camera setup might need tweaking for macro. You might need to pull back a bit. Your to close. Need a ring light LED get rid of the flashlight that’s old school.
The colour and sharpness with this lense is incredible.
Thank you for your feedback jlm. I really like the picture quality of the Laowa lens and Z6 combination.
@@Walkinginthewoods I purchased this lense a few months ago and have just started using it. It was exiting to see the colors of pink and purple flowers come out as their true colours, and not some distortion that was nothing like their real colors. I am enjoying your very calm and peaceful videos.
Decent results from that lens! Relatively new to macro myself with the Nikkor MC 105mm 2.8. Good tips here as well. Cheers, Ray
Hello Raymond,
Finally a realistic view on macro photografy in nature. Txs, Patrick
I use the Laowa 65mm for APSC with a Fuji X-T3. I think the depth of field is better,
and as long as I edit with Capture One the images are tack sharp and beautiful.
I don't think Lightroom works as well with Fuji raw files.
Curiously I don't see very many reviews for the 65mm.
I'm considering getting this after this video. I've seen one for sale with auto aperture for EF mount. I didn't even know they did one. Shame they don't do AF so I could use focus stacking in camera with my R7
I use the laowa 2x 65mm i shoot macro with my m50, to keep it light weight, but owning both lenses they are so incredibly sharp and by far the best macro lenses ive ever used, fully manual becomes normal quickly, as does the minimum focus distance at just 6cm but that just means time of day plays a very important role which then has the added benefit of being able to small stacks too.
Nice video by the way, clear and well spoken it was a pleasure to watch.
Thank you for the feedback. Yes I was tempted by the 65mm. My camera bag is pretty heavy and lightweight gear must be the way to go.
Beautiful macro pictures!
Thank you very much Gracie.
Really nice overview Martin. That lens is amazing, I had been eyeing the EF version because it has aperture coupling. I envy you because of the focus peaking on the Z6 hehe, it can certainly be quite difficult to nail the focus consistently, especially at higher magnification without enough ambient light or assist light. Nice compilation of images. Loved the jumping spider shot!☺️
Thanks for the feedback Peter. I am having a lot of fun with this lens.
I enjoyed your night time macro shoot video. Nice idea for a wildlife vlog.
@@Walkinginthewoods thanks buddy! Have a great week!☺️
Use this lens with a flash and AK diffuser. Great combo.
Thank you for your video. I use the same lens for canon with the digital aperture and agree with a lot of what you’ve said here. I was curious to see if you had the same challenges with the extremely shallow depth of field. I also use some of the same strategies for the focal plane shooting at a 90 degree angle to the subject. I find that one of biggest learning curves with this lens was the focusing, I usually pull the camera away from my body putting pressure on my neck strap to steady the camera, using the camera display zoom in on a 3rd point and use my body position to bring the eyes into focus.
Rocco thanks for the focussing tip using the camera strap and display zoom, I will try it.
I use the Canon EF version and an EF to Z adapter. My Z5 is able to correctly get the focal length and control the aperture. I also get the focus confirmation in camera.
That is good to know. Thank you for your input Shang-Hsien.
Yeah great chat there and very useful for some one who's just got a manual macro lens. I'm particularly interested in even higher apertures and then the way you can use light to create beautiful bokeh, i use the 65mm version of this lens and it really has been incredibly rewarding to experiment with, mainly on still subjects such as fungi. My next idea is to then find woodland butterflies who are at rest either evening or morning and then attempt some interesting angles to then make beautiful bokeh backgrounds. I think this helps to offset the problems with focus, as i'm not yet into focus stacking, and i rather like all the blur and the glow etc... Many thanks for this video.
Sounds like a great project James. Colourful butterflies with nice blur in the background is a great combination.
this was very helpful , thought through, reflected. Like this. thx
Thank you for your kind comment
Thanks for your opinion 😊🍻
If you shoot 1:1 macro and especially 1:2 macro don't go anywhere near F11, on 2:1 you can safely go up to f5.6 but any higher than that and deffraction starts to ruin your image, at f11-f16 the lens start to get unusably soft
To the point!!!! Nice video.
I have a 90D from canon which supports focus bracketing on few selected lenses only, like one the famous Canon's own 100 mm macro lens. Not sure this one will be supported for that purpose. The EF mount will work but may not be able to utilise that feature
I used to use the 60mm on my D500 But the 100 is far superior with no CA. I find the 100mm is best for me left at f8 as you start to lose sharpness after that. Macro isn't easy, just play with different techniques and diffusers. I just lean to focus with this lens, always handheld too. Enjoy!
I think you are right the only way is to try different techniques and see what works. I am enjoying the lens very much. I tried a focus stack yesterday and got some promising results so might do a bit more in future. Cheers.
Some. Wry nice photos. Why the Laowa over the Nikon 105 micro.
I like the AF with back button AF on breezy days for flora & insects. I’m sure you could just
adjust your distance while doing a burst shoot which is what I do with AF anyway when shooting hand held most of the time. I’ll probably look for an older Nikon f4 200mm macro eventually for the working distance. Not sure but, it might give more depth of field also. Also thinking of adding extension tubes to the 70-200. Happy shooting.
I have seen good reviews of the Nikon Z micro, looks like a great lens. I may buy it in future because I would like the autofocus. The reason I got the Laowa is because it magnifies to 2x while, as I understand it, the 105 goes to 1x. Cheers
2:1 is why I like and got this lens .
There is a dual head flexible head flash for like $80 that works pretty well for macro.
Awesome video!!!!!
Thanks Ben
THANK YOU is not enough for this video. My eyes watered with tears because I bought this lens ( almost the same 65mm for my Sony E mount camera) and I don’t know what I am doing wrong all the time. I have shallow depth of field all the time and it is so hard to focus for me. Let me say I am an absolute beginner in Macro photography but I am fascinated by it. Is there someone here or you Martin who could please explain me how to control the manual focus on this lens please? When I use the ring in the lens and turn it slowly I get the focus peaking and I see what is in focus but I have no control to point the focus in the right direction. Why? Most of the time the focus comes on both sides of the gram but not in the center. How can I control or change this? I feel the manual focus is doing whatever it wants and I cannot focus on part of the object I want to focus on. What am I doing wrong? Does the focus have any relation to the “focus area” function in my camera? I set it most of the time to “wide” or “spot focus” but I am not quite sure if this works with a manual focus lens…. I would hugely appreciate your feedback on this. Thank you!
Hello, thank you for your comment. What works best for me when using my macro lens is to not touch the camera but focus by slight movements of my body towards and away from the subject. I do this until I get what I want in focus. I hope this makes sense to you. Let me know how you get on. All the best, Martin
Common issue. Manual focus is usually best. Also, research FOCUS RAILs (Monfrotto rail is great and NOT to popular cheap products.) Use a great tripod Leofoto LS364C), remote shutter release, shoot raw; use very, very good lighting to keep your ISO low. Also, you need a great, diffused light source- learn about Key+Fill (uses two lights off the camera.) Try turning off assist modes even stabilization if the camera is stable and see if it helps.
I can't decide between this or the Sigma 105mm DG DN macro lens.
Erik, the Sigma 105mm looks like a good lens although I have not tried it. On the plus side the Sigma has stabilisation whereas the Laowa does not. If your camera body has IBIS the Laowa might be the best choice if not then the Sigma might make more sense. If you want to go to 2x magnification the Laowa can do this while the Sigma cannot. If you want to use auto focus it is the Sigma. The Laowa is manual only. Both are good lenses but offer different features. I guess it depends on what you want to use it for. Cheers
How about trying the Laowa 15mm F.4 wide angle macro lense for greater depth of field.
Thanks for the suggestion. I will look into the 15mm.
Thank you for all the info you shared! I'm new to macro photography and would love to try this lens. However I only have a doubt: do you have to stack photos for good focus? The photographs you showed, for example, are all stacked? I'd like to avoid doing that for each photo. Thank you!
Hello Beatreese. Most of the photos were not stacked. If you want e very thing in focus you have to stack but I try to get me camera and subject arranged so that as much as possible is the same distance from the lens. This way it should look more focussed. Hope this makes sense. Good luck with your macro adventures.
Me encanta tu voz suave,,
The Canon version has auto aperture.
Narrow depth of field? No surprise there as it affects all macro lens, and the higher magnification you get, you must expect the FDOF to rapidly reduce. Not something that will affect this lens any ore than any other doing the same thing
Thank you for your comment Mike. Cheers
Is that image has beem stacked or still.the original?
Hi, this is the original No stack. Cheers
Non of your problems have anything to do with this lens in particular. Stop way down to get best depth of field and use flash to get sufficient exposure. Mother nature hasn't singled you out, we all have the same problems with macro.
Camera setup might need tweaking for macro. You might need to pull back a bit. Your to close. Need a ring light LED get rid of the flashlight that’s old school.
Thanks for the feedback. I will look at the ringlight as an option.
Why does your video look faded?
very long winded.Could have said the same things in half the time!
I thank you for the feedback Mahesh
But he was very relaxing and easy to listen to.