Every photo looks like a panorama, and i love it!

Venus Optics have been releasing some really innovative products lately. I applaud them.

You are hands down, the best lens reviewer on youtube.

Excellent review as always. Greetings from Greece!

I recently took this 10-18 as a 'fun lens' to Chiang Mai and Siem Reap : and ended up using it more than 50% of the time ! I came home with some awesome, unique, images.

Awesome review as usual, this will be one of the next lenses in my personal collection of glass.

As always lovely review, excellent landscape lens 😍

Your photos on this lens is so pleasuring. Lots thank

Congratulations from The Bahamas :) All the Best!

Regarding CPL, heard its useless to use CPLs when wider than 35mm. Coz the Angle of view is too wide, so the light comes from various directions, therefore cant polarize them all at once with the filter. You are one of the most trustworthy & independent reviewers out there. Cheers and thank u very much.Bought several lenses after watching your reviews. Really appreciate your work. 👊👍 - Blessings from Sri Lanka -the Pearl of Indian Ocean. 💖

Thanks for this. I was in the fence and now I'm going to buy it.

Awesome review as always! Keep it up :)

Great review, thanks :D

f/8, the sweet spot. Thanks for the awesome review.

laowa really put thoughts in this lens， so much feature in such a small lens

As usual, well done. Real world perspective.

Thank you. I hoped you’d review this lens at some point.

That internal 37mm filter is genius. I could see a lot of infrared shooters using that.

What a cool little lens. I hope more lenses will get the little internal filter holder. I think Sigma put it on their 14-24/2.8 Art.

Excellent review ....from Thailand.

I love this lens, took it to the carbine and I can not believe the results. wow, I don't need anyother lens, I am in love.

Nice! I hope that Venus Optics will one day produce AF telephoto lenses for Sony!

Crazy good lens

Man Venus optics has some amazing lenses. I love that they don't mind going balls to the walls on the nutty side of things, as it seems the strangest lenses always yield to most attention-grabbing results. Most seem wicked sharp, and I love the features the are adding. Screw in filters in the rear?!? Why has no one done that before. As a youtuber and occasional photographer, on the fly declicking of the aperture is awesome. You're photos were amazing! Like nothing I've ever seen before. Those shots in the corridors especially. I do feel you were a bit unfair on sharpness, especially when compared to something like the 15mm macro which had dreadful corners. I remember a lot of lenses tested on your old 6D looked softer than this and that was only 20MP. I can't imagine web view much over 9MP, so those results should be fine. I'm also suspecting a bit of field curvature. In the test chart at 10mm F/8 the center bulbish area is sharpish while the corners are soft. I would image you'd get sharper results on landscapes. I've hear that for IBIS to work well it has to be set to the exact focal length which would be annoying. It definitely looks like something was strange at 2:11. Can you confirm? Thanks as always for the videos and congrats on the Kid!

I found that matching the camera's SteadyShot focal length setting with the approx focal length of the lens improves the image in a low/cloudy light, moving subject setting (e.g. flowers in a cloudy breeze).

That's one wide lens!

Looks like a great lens! The major drawback is no electronic contact though.

Hmm, the lack of electronic contacts is disappointing though. The lack of EXIF would mean no LR profile for this lens and post-processing would be tedious. Nevertheless, awesome review Chris!

Great review mate! I’m going to get more into underwater photography and am curious to know if you’d choose this over the Sony 12-24mm?

Love the irish accent! and thanx for sharing!!

Perfect lens for Gimbal VLoggers 😍

Whats been putting me off going to the Sony system from Fuji is lens size. I`m liking some of the small lenses starting to pop up, nearly time for a change. Thanks for the review.

Thanks for your reviews. I cant get all important informations I need. Comparsion is quite easy because of their uniform structure. But I´m still missing a simple unboxing video ;-) (sobb)

Manual focus is very easy with ultra wide lenses. The depth of field of a 10mm lens at f/4.5 is very deep. No worries with out of focus photos. Also the focus peaking and focus magnification of e-mount cameras make manual focus easier. I will buy this lens as soon it is available in Europe. I have the Zeiss Loxia 21mm f/2.8 which is very sharp with great optical quality. But it is not wide enough sometimes. The Laowa 10-18mm is ideal. It would be great if it had electronic aperture reporting like the manual focus e-mount voightländer lenses and Zeiss Loxia series. The image sensor stabilization of the latest e-mount lenses needs to be set with the corresponding focal length. Sensor stabilization behaves differently with telephoto or ultra wide lenses. Ultra wide lenses give a special perspective which is very obvious in photos. Compact cameras and smartphones can't have such a wide angle of view. That's is one of the unique benefits of cameras with interchangeable lenses. The Laowa 10-18 is looking small which suits perfectly the small body of mirrorless cameras. I love ultra wide lenses for street photography because I can take photos of people discretely. People can't realize that there are inside the angle of view. Of course the electronic horizon level must be enabled on the screen. The perspective distortion is enormous with every declination. The Sony 12-24mm f/4 is a good choice as a ultra wide zoom lens. However is more expensive and bigger. Also the difference between 10mm and 12mm isn't small. Full frame 10mm has 130° and 12mm has 120°angle of view. The difference isn't insignificant at all. The Sony 12-24mm has strong barrel distortion with raw files but Laowa 10-18 suffers less with geometric distortion. The filter thread on the back element is very important for the use of ND filters. Very useful with very long exposure in the case you want to disappear people from public places.

Awesome review man! I am a bit worried about the blue corners ... do you know if the production model has this flaw too ?

Chris, will the MSC adapter work with this lens to straighten those lines?

Hello Chris. I am looking for an advice which lens to buy. Hope you can help me with the decision. I struggle between laowas 15mm and 12mm, maybe tokina firin 20mm as well. Main use for landscapes and astro photography. Which would you chose and why?

The maximum aperture is a strength, makes a smaller and lighter lens since it'll be used stopped down. A reduced kit weight is very convenient for travelling, which is where this lens would likely be used.

Hi Chris, first thanks a lot for your great content. The test chart you use, is this avaiable anywhere? If not, how did you construct it and how is your light setup for the tests?

*Phenomenal video as usual!* 👌 Too bad the Laowa 10-18 lens can't be uses on other cameras...

Looks like an amazing lens at f11.

Chris, what's your thought in considering this lens versus the 12mm Zero D for 360 images?

If I want to go wider than a Laowa 9mm (or Sigma's 8-16mm, bleh) on an APS-C, would I have to take the full-frame plunge?

Good review as always. What I noticed on the test chart, is that the colours seem to be rather greyish (low saturation) throughout the frame. The orange of the tree leaves is particularly weak (yes, I checked with one of your other reviews: /watch?v=ntelr8NXOUY at about 5:34 vs this video here at about 7:47 ). Is that due to the lens, perhaps the UV filter or did you have strange lighting this time?

irix 11 is an interesting option as zooms in this range worry me and really its being bought for the 10mm

The CPL Filter cannot work because of its design. It has two layers, the first layer filters the light in polarized direction, the second layer diffuses all polarization because SLRs may cause wrong exposure when the sensor gets unidirectional polarized light. As the filter is used in reversed direction on the LAOWA all polarized light is diffused so there is no unidirectional polarized light left for the proper filter layer. In this case the only solution that has got any chance to work is using a linear filter instead of a circular one (advantage: it´s even cheaper :-)

How to adjust the 35mm CPL when the lens is mounted on the camera?

They have an EF-M version of this for pre-order ATM.

Can someone tell me where to buy those extra thin filters? I need an ND 8. I bought so many filters from amazon and ebay but the were too thick and messing with my focus distance.

This is fantastic. Any chance you can do a comparison between this lens and the Laowa 12mm f2.8?

Any chance you will be able to test the big brother laowa 12-28 f5.6?

hi,Christopher..samyang af 14mm or this laowa 10-18mm?

Is the vignetting fully eliminated at apsc cams???

Some serious (architectural) distortion at the wider end :-)) It would have been nice if together with each photo you gave the mm involved.

Hello. I find that you have been a bit of an expert in Samyang lenses since you have reviewed a lot of these and have been in the facilities that are been made. I want to buy a 85mm 1.4 for Nikon mount and I see that there are two versions of it. One with a red ring and another with a golden on. What is the difference? From a search i did, I found out that the red one is newer and a bit sharper. On the other side the golden version gives a creamier boke. Is this this true?

Christopher, you seemed excited/happy with this lens, did you end up getting one for yourself?

Too many cons in my opinion. I think the voigtlander 10mm is the way to go since its super sharp, so you can use crop mode to get 15mm pictures with great quality anyway. If you don't need the 10mm or the 10-18 range, I would chose the Laowa 15mm f2, which for me is the best UWA lens for Sony E mount, and it can also be used for astrophotography, something that the Voigtlander or this one can't (without cranking up the ISO, I mean).

Laowa is mostly focused on ultra wide manual focus lenses that are available for a plethora of mounts for mirrorless cameras. Ultra wide lenses are usually neglected by the the big lens manufacturers because they are not very favorable by common consumers. Ultra wide lenses are not flattering with portraits and are rarely very fast. Ultra wide lens deliver photos with a an avoidable perspective distortion. That distortion can be corrected a little digitally afterwards. The Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D has by far better quality but doesn’t have the zoom advantage and convenience. The 18mm is usable with many situations without strong and unavoidable perspective distortion. The 10mm is very challenging with the perspective distortion and requires specific rules for good photos. The digital horizon function is really needed. I am nearly certain that the 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 is the ONLY manual focus ZOOM lens for e-mount and maybe for all mounts of mirrorless cameras. Recently the 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 is available for full frame Nikon Z mount cameras too. Another very interesting and unique product of Laowa is the affordable Laowa Magic Shift Converter. It converts the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D to a 17mm f/4 lens with +/- 10mm Shift capability without any vignetting.

I bought this lens a few months ago, For my Sony A7R3 . Seems my lens won’t focus on infinity. Images come out very blurry and unsharp unless I move the focus ring to 1m on the top focus ring. Then it’s tack sharp . Is the lens supposed to do that?

i love small and wide angle lens too just that im broke

Will you review the Laowa 9mm f/5.6 and Laowa 12-24mm f/5.6 at some point?

Hi Christopher, if you can get access to the lenses, can you review some of the Voigtlander ultra wides for Sony? I'm particularly interested in how the 12mm performs.

I used my aps-c Sony 10-18mm lens on my Sony a7iii. You can't quite use it at the very wide end because of vignetting, but it works quite well.

Crete! Hope you liked Greece :)

is there any of those for leica m-mount ?

Whata happans if i stayed on f4.5 and zoom in to 18mm ? The ring automatically rotates or what?

Thanks you You're awesome! Are you going to compare the variable Nd Filters? I Still couldn't find the best Variable Nd filter! We need your help Buddy Thanks again

Please test the Sony FE 12-24 , I'm thinking about getting the LAOVA or that SONY lens, and this would help me to decide.

3:40 that zoom ring, is it metal or rubber? why they put a number on it, not on the lens body?

Is this lens good close up? I think this lens focuses real close at .15 m.

Wow Chris! you came to Chania! I hope you like it! If you come next time, text me! I asked you something in Laowa 12mm video. i will be glad if you answer to me. Thank you very much!

9:38 can the distortion be easily corrected on video?

Wow you came to Crete? Wish i knew it

Literally just bought the Sony 12-24 last week. I wonder how it compares

Did you visit Samariá gorge in Crete?

oh and congrats to the father to be！

Could you please review the mitakon 85mm 1.2 and maybe the sony g master 90mm makro lense ?

This or the Voigtländer 10 mm for landscapes?

Test out the Kipon Ibelux 40mm f0.85 Mark 2 :D

hey Christopher, i am using canon 5d mark iv, & i want a best qualitative maximum wide "retainer" lens which supports filters, so plz suggest best one without worrying of price.

at 12mm how does this compare to the laowa 12mm prime lens?

Does it work with the Rollei Filter-Holdersystem?

Hi Christopher; please tell me which group do you prefer for Sony E mount... 1. Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 - Samyang 14mm f2.8 - Sony 85mm f1.8 2. Sony 24-105 f4 - Sigma 14mm and 135mm Or make your group... Thanks

I don’t really see a point comparing the same lens on a 42mp 35mm camera with it on a 24mp apsc camera because the apsc one has even higher pixel density.

Would you recommend this lens over the Sony 10-18mm OSS?

Hubba hubba

was that cardiff castle?!

Talking of small lightweight wide angles... new Tamron 17-35mm OSD?

Chris, a question for you. Why did you choose to upgrade to the A7r2? as opposed to the a73? they seem to be around the same price point but the a7r2 has a larger sensor, but the a73 seems to be slightly ahead in most other aspects? Considering moving from my canon t7i up to the a73, but ive looked at the a7r2 as well.

1:34 "this sample bitches" :O

I'm starting to see why a fixed focus lens is so much better, those corners are terrible.

Congratulations for your good news incoming we can see with the profile of your wife (i don"t know if my english is good, sorry if not).

given the size of it, vignetting is likle so severe that u effectively use crop at 10mm...

EF Mount PLEASE!

Does it make noise in video when focusing?

The ambient piano has always made me pissed off. Could you do parallel releases with and without it?

Спасибо!!!Мне очень понравился Ваш обзор объектива.Если бы президенты могли также обстоятельно рассуждать-небыло-бы кровопролития.Нашим избирательным комиссиям Вашу бы доскональность.

Isn't Sony 10-24 better?

I want a lens like this so bad but I just *can not* justify spending so much on something I would only get out once in a while. There's a grand total of about 5 places I could even come close to using a lens like this, and even then, 24mm is usually plenty wide or even too wide. :(

She is pregnant??? wooow... congratulations!!