Hello people. Quick clarification that I've just learned about now - apparently the manual focus versions of this lens will have more complex sunstars (from 14 aperture blades). It's only the autofocus versions that will have 10-point sunstars.

10mm full frame at f/2.8 is very very impressive, bravo!

I like this lens for one particular reason, it exposes Canon.

Last year I told my self I have all the lenses I need. Thxs Laowa for showing me I was wrong 😂

Laowa is coming into its own. They'll be a serious competitor for Sigma and Tamron soon.

When you said "Canon RF" my heart skipped a beat (not that I'm interested in the specific lens, but the AF part could open a world)...but few seconds later you broke all my dreams saying that RF will only be manual ahahah

I like the Minolta Maxxum-y spiral grip pattern for the focus ring a lot!

Very exciting to see lens manufacturers pumping out better and crazier lenses

Great review! Can't wait to see your review of Lowa's new anamorphic zoom lens.

Very exciting review

Thank you-buying it immediately!

Excellent review, as alwyas I'd say, but especially so here, as I suppose it must have been more challenging than your reviews of more usual lenses.

This looks like a fun lens! I want it

These lens looks awesome

I'm a bit surprised that there is so much CA with corrections on. You'd think that would be corrected for almost fully. It's usually very easy to fix in "post", after all.

Sony MZ-R909! What a trip down memory lane with that orange minidisc recorder. NICE!

Nice. Tokina used to be the affordable wide angle choice and this looks very tempting.

NOW they finally released a lens i really want I was looking to get the Manual EF 12mm 2.8 Zero D but that needs adaptors etc. But now they released an AF Zero D 10 mm thats insane I was seriously considering the sigma 1.4 heavy AF lens but since this guy has released i think i will get onto the laowa train

Chris, can you do a comparison video with the Laowa 10mm f5.6 FF lens?

Corner performance wider open mean Astro photographers can scratch this off the list immediately. Thank you for the amazing review, as usual🍺

As someone with a Panasonic S5IIx, I'm happy that it will be available for L mount. AF would be nice, but if you're going to go without AF, ultra wide is where it's least useful. edit: Just looked at Laowa's website and the "manual focus" L and RF versions are the same price as the actual AF options. That unfortunately makes this lens much less appealing. My inference is that they are building in the same AF guts, but simply skipping developing compatibility with the L focus system. (As for RF, presumably that's avoiding getting caught in the line of fire of Canon shooting themselves in the foot handing Sony market share.)

One thought on the filter. I might consider using an adaptor ring. A 77 to 82 with an 82 mm filter. I have a 10mm 7artisan fisheye that is a fun lens but the fisheye means it is only good for some extreme uses. I have had good Astrophotography shots from it. However, on something this wide I think a polarizer causes a blue tunnel in the sky since the polarization effect doesn't cover from side to side. I wonder how this wide lens and polarizer would look on a wide view of water.

firmware update? Is there a usb port for firmware update or through the body? Thank you.

Aside from sunstars, would there be an image quality difference between the AF and MF versions of this lens and their aperture blade difference?

I see it has some blurple fringing. Sorry for that, I couldn't resist it. Great review as usual.

A release with AF and MF versions depending on the mount. A sign of the times. Seems Laowa found a workaround for companies that ban 3rd party AF lenses.

The incorrect EXIF relay at 11mm will cause problems with IBIS metadata calibration (and believe me, micro-jitters are still a major concern at 10mm). Laowa needs to update this.

I've definitely become a fan of Laowa and this announcement got me excited, but only temporarily since it's not for Fuji X mount and no AF on Canon RF.

Other than the obvious AF and faster aperture, do you have any overall comments regarding picture quality and build quality vs. the IRIX 11mm f4 lens? Based on your reviews it sounds like the Lawoa is far better?

Very nice review. As the lens has focus breathing we can assume it does not have floating elements that make corrections depending on focusing distance. It may have floating element(s) for focusing, though. Old school lens design would optimise lens optical quality at infinity focus and closer by you would see reduced quality. As we shoot test cards at closer by, it is still interesting to see how the lens does with anything at infinity focus distance. But most things at infinity have insufficient detail that humans can use as reference for judging what's good or bad. I wondered if part of the corner problem may be a curved focusing field in the subject side. As to the Sony a7t iii, it has no OLPF, and because of that, we see what the lens can do without the cons of the OLPF. (But absence of the OLPF means there is a bigger chance of what I call "Bayer noise" - especially in darker, blurry, or low-contrast image zones. If grain happens in there, blame your raw processing.)

Interesting lens. I have to test it in field (or space 🙂)

How does size/weight compare to the 9mm FF version?

I can't justify buying one, not a FL I'd be using. Still, I want it. Cool lens, bravo laowa!

Are the Canon and Sony versions actually different lens (Manual v Auto). For example does the Manual Canon version still have the AF/MF switch?

Looks like a solid used purchase on eBay/Craigslist. 😌

Need to test this lens for astro?

I'd be very tempted, except I have the Sigma F/2.8 14-24mm Art lens. 4mm is a lot more, I know, but probably not worth having to carry both. I use the A7 IV.

Very nice review as usual. Thank you. One thing I don't understand is how in all these tests apsc corners can be softer or as soft as full frame corners. Shouldn't apsc use the best and sharpest part of the lens/image circle? Does this mean that if you crop from full frame in post you get sharper corners than using crop mode in camera? Or does sharpness drop off on full frame, too, where the apsc corners would be? Sorry. I asked this before but never got a convincing answer. E mount is E mount, with the same flange distance, so logic suggests the lens should perform exactly the same way. Could it be because of the microlenses on the sensor being positioned differently?

Yeah man.

Interesting glass. Lumix IS should work well with this lens. For sony global shutter fish-eye better to stabilize in post. Sigma 15f1.4 sounds more interesting. Not sure why but this 10mm doesn't look wide... 😮

Perhaps it's just me, but the out-of-focus areas in this lense (and probably in extremely wide angle lenses in general?) look more like motion/zooming blur to me and make me a bit dizzy. I personally think that the bright aperture should be used to let more light into the sensor in night or astro photography, rather than to produce out-of-focus background. I really like those night sky images... can I download them to use as desktop wallpaper? Heheh.

Ugh. Of course I just bought a Brighten Star 9mm 5.6. In my case I'd trade one mm for AF.

Just wondering, i'm looking for a wide angle lens for sony FE (mainly landscapes and urban/architecture) , which would you recommend, this lens, the viltrox 16mm 1.8 or the tamron 17-28mm(seeing as they are all around the same price around here, albeit the viltrox being the cheapest). (i know these are all three completely different lenses and are all interesing for different reasons)

Focus hunting with a darker aperture would be a limitation of the camera instead of the lens, no?

On L mount, I’m not sure this competes with the beautiful TTArtisans 11mm f/2.8 for a third of the price. Do you want to pay triple for the ability to screw on a select number of filters?

I wonder if the corners of the lens with manual focus focusing can be sharper?

Thanks for the review, especially for the APS-C view as I would use it on FF and APS-C 👍

Didn't know that you speedsolved, what is your pb?

How does image quality compare with Samyang's XP 10mm 3.5?

Too bad about the corners not being so good as that could be noticeable in such a wide angle lens. At least on APS-C the corners looked better. I can understand why there won't be a autofocus version for Canon cameras, but I wonder why L-Mount won't get an autofocus version? Unless you have to be part of the L-Mount alliance to make an autofocus lens?

Hey! Could you please do a review of the Tamron 17-28 f2.8 for sony E and possibly compare it with the Sigma 16-28 f2.8? Love your reviews, youre the best!

RF 10-20MM F/4 lens review. THX.

Unforatunately I could only use it for timelapses on Canon.

Viltrox should launch one pro lens in uwa category. Their 13mm f1.4 is great though.

This or 12-24 F.28 lens?

That coma was a bit of a shame, although one cannot be surprised given their track record of bad coma This is great for landscape photography I guess, you have to stop down for dof anyways

The coma and smearing on the stars are making me think twice. It hasn't bothered me before with my current wide lens, but it seems a lot more noticeable with this lens?

I think the autofocus only has 5 aperture blades instead of the manual 14.

On fullframe @2.8 in the middle it didn't look razor sharp or is that just me? I just watched another reviewer and his 2.8 test image wasn't very sharp either. Kinda disappointed because on a 60MP A7RV it would look even softer.

Go Frog Go!! 🐸

So what is this minimum focus distance?

I'm mostly just surprised you found a Crystal Pepsi somewhere. They still make these? WTF?? 😁😁

2.8 is just a bottom line to get "OK" astro photos , still not really ideal for that imo. Almost Zero Distortion. very hard to find one like this I think. Awesome Thanks for review by the way.

Welp, looks like the 7Artisans 9mm f/5.6 is up for sale.

So L-mount alliance is not that good thing. Looks like 3rd party lenses cannot get AF there :(. I was hoping to get this as AF for my S5IIX :(.

Glad I got my sigma…

WOAH IM EARLY I LOVE THIS

For me all this pictures look pretty distorted ! I cannot imagine that anybody can make nice pictures with this lens !

Seems okay, and I know its not exactly apples to apples, but I got that Viltrox 16mm 1.8 and dang I think its much better than this

I completely disagree on the distortion, this lens has the typical wide lens distortion outside the 1/3rds rule, especially when on angles looking up or down. My view of a lamp shows the lamp shade drastically increasing in size when panning the lamp to the left or right of center. When looking down the lamp shade looks elongated with a tiny base making a 2 ft lamp look 5ft tall. I like the lens, however having already owned a 16mm with absolutely no distortion, I expected more from this lens.

Can't say I've seen pentagon bokeh before

No sale, not auto for L, that sucks..

"Highly recommanded" is surprising given the visual shortcomings. The price for such a lens is also completely unacceptable. I use LAOWA's 7.5 mm manual lens with my MFT cameras and enjoy the sharpness, contrast, speed and bokeh without any vignetting. I am patiently waiting for the AF version. The tested 10 mm is unfortunately not yet available for MFT, but the 7.5 mm lens would be better. MFT users long for a strict wide-angle lens that is not tamed to "normal" by the crop factor 2.

Thank goodness for this review! I almost placed an order for the Laowa 10mm f/2.8 with the blind faith that its image quality will be above average. This test has shown otherwise! I was initially impressed by the small size and weight, yet large f/2.8 of this ultra wide angle prime. Even more impressive is that it doesn't have a bulbous front element that we commonly expect of such a lens. Well, now i know why! 😅 I totally cannot accept the very poor image resolution at the corners. Just horrible is the description. The chromatic aberration looks bad too. Laowa seems to have quietly sacrificed corner-to-corner sharpness in order to design a relatively compact ultra wide angle lens. If I shoot architecture or landscape, I expect to have reasonable sharpness in the corners. This lens cannot deliver that. Who is this lens for then? I don't know! Perhaps it's those on a budget who cannot afford a much higher quality native lens. You must be willing to accept fuzzy corners even when the aperture is stopped down. I am far from an expert in lens design. But I now appreciate why ultra wide angle lenses have a protruding front element and usually weigh quite a bit. You really need all those extra glasses to correct for lens defects. It's a shame that Laowa has blatantly ignored that in their 10mm f/2.8. Thank you, Christopher, for your timely review. This lens is a BIG NO for me! 🚫⛔

There are two lenses with 9mm. Lowa is not the widest. And there seems to exist sample variations. Richard Wongs's reviews reported not so good center and better corners

close up shots with all that bokeh at such a wide angle make the images look ai generated

No auto-focus for Canon? That's a big down side for Canon users.

When taking samples from the industry please double down on how critical you are of the lens.

man... L mount version being manual focus only is so stupid

Love canon but they have to start swallowing their pride. So many people are jumping ship to sony who want to stay with canon due to the 3rd party issues.

Canon didn't allow the auto focusing because they know people would rush to buy this instead of their lenses haha

Third party lens should boycott Canon until they beg for it. I am a Canon user but not in a hurry. Canon really needs a lesson to learn!

Why cant you borrow or rent a more current Sony camera than the A7RII for your tests. Testing on an A7RII is THREE generations older Autofocus performance. It really diminishes the relevance of your reviews IMHO. FYI, I have owned Sony A6500, A7RII, A7RIII, A7III, A9, A7RIV, and currently have A1, A7RV, A9III. The much better AF of the later models makes a HUGE difference in current lens AF speed and performance. BTW, I have ordered this lens after watching reviews from others tested with more current gear. Cheers

Not for fullframe?

Am i the only one that thinks that this lens produces very cheap looking pictures and terrible colors.

Generic comment from random guy.

Another P.O.S. electronic aperture lens.👎