Laowa/Venus Optics 7.5mm f2 MFT for X5s

[vertrider1]

Hello all (and a happy new year - still counting ,

Thinking about buying the Laowa/Venus Optics 7.5mm f2 MFT for X5s.

LAOWA - 7,5mm

Any experiences and which balancer ring on the X5s?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers
C

 

[Phil DeVore]

Hello all (and a happy new year - still counting ,

Thinking about buying the Laowa/Venus Optics 7.5mm f2 MFT for X5s.

LAOWA - 7,5mm

Any experiences and which balancer ring on the X5s?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers
C

I have the Laowa 7.5mm for wide angle landscape shots and I really like it. Bought it from Adorama on sale with ND filters for $519 a couple months ago.

 

[Phil DeVore]

And yes I use a balancing ring on my x5s that I bought on Amazon. You’ve gotta use one to balance the gimbal for all your lens. It’s a 46mm balancing ring.
For the Laowa 7.5 you need a 36mm-46mm adapter if you want to use the ND filters

 

[vertrider1]

And yes I use a balancing ring on my x5s that I bought on Amazon. You’ve gotta use one to balance the gimbal for all your lens. It’s a 46mm balancing ring.
For the Laowa 7.5 you need a 36mm-46mm adapter if you want to use the ND filters

great info. exactly what I would use the laowa for as well. thank you. do you happen to have the amazon link to the balancing ring?
or is it the balancing ring for the 46 mm olympus?
as for the adapter, thanks for the info as well.

 

[slim.slamma]

do you happen to have the amazon link to the balancing ring?

https://www.googleadservices.com/pa...wjA69Hi8OvfAhWG5IMKHeKpApYQwg96BAgOEB0&adurl=

A lens hood and Nd filter gets the Job done without the balancing ring.

 

[Phil DeVore]

Exactly

 

[Phil DeVore]

Sorry I meant to say you don’t need a balancing ring. Balancing ring is just for the other lenses (ie 25,45,etc). The adapter is if you use your 46mm ND filters for the Laowa. You can find it at Amazon by typing in the search. I don’t have a link for it, accidentally deleted my order number. Oops

 

[Phil DeVore]

Mine balances just fine without it

 

[Phil DeVore]

And it comes with a lens hood

 

[Phil DeVore]

great info. exactly what I would use the laowa for as well. thank you. do you happen to have the amazon link to the balancing ring?
or is it the balancing ring for the 46 mm olympus?
as for the adapter, thanks for the info as well.

And it’s 37mm-46mm adapter not 36mm like I said before! The Laowa 7.5mm has 37mm threads!! Man I am really screwing up today.

 

[NickU]

The Laowa 7.5 has a 46mm thread so you don't need any adjustment ring Phil, it's only the Oly 45mm that has the smaller 37mm thread!

I've the lightweight Laowa 7.5 designed for aerial use (red ring, not blue ring) and I've found it balances just fine with a slimline & lightweight 46mm filter such as a firecrest (either ND or skylight). It also works fine bare.. i.e. Without any filter or balance ring.

(Also, as there's no click-detente on the Laowa's petal lens hood I tend not to bother with it in case it falls off.)

 

[Phil DeVore]

The Laowa 7.5 has a 46mm thread so you don't need any adjustment ring Phil, it's only the Oly 45mm that has the smaller 37mm thread!

I've the lightweight Laowa 7.5 designed for aerial use (red ring, not blue ring) and I've found it balances just fine with a slimline & lightweight 46mm filter such as a firecrest (either ND or skylight). It also works fine bare.. i.e. Without any filter or balance ring.

(Also, as there's no click-detente on the Laowa's petal lens hood I tend not to bother with it in case it falls off.)

You’re absolutely right and I apologize for my earlier incorrect information. I get my lenses confused because I have several different ones and the different thread counts get me confused at times. Thanks for posting the correct information.

 

[vertrider1]

And it’s 37mm-46mm adapter not 36mm like I said before! The Laowa 7.5mm has 37mm threads!! Man I am really screwing up today.

thanks anyway, I get the info, totally fine.

 

[vertrider1]

The Laowa 7.5 has a 46mm thread so you don't need any adjustment ring Phil, it's only the Oly 45mm that has the smaller 37mm thread!

I've the lightweight Laowa 7.5 designed for aerial use (red ring, not blue ring) and I've found it balances just fine with a slimline & lightweight 46mm filter such as a firecrest (either ND or skylight). It also works fine bare.. i.e. Without any filter or balance ring.

(Also, as there's no click-detente on the Laowa's petal lens hood I tend not to bother with it in case it falls off.)

thank you for the info on red vs blue ring..., about the aerial use version there’s a bit confusion here, the german distributor where I’ll get it says the 150 g version is the lightest one. is this correct?

 

[NickU]

Just checked their specs, yes, 150g is the lightweight aerial version.

And after looking through their various websites, Seems their marketing images now only show a blue ring on the lens, so I don't know if they are still using the red ring to denote the lightweight version!

 

[JCFP]

Has anyone else noticed this lens being very smudg-y and dark in the sides of it's images? I shot at 2.8 and 3.5, and have 75% unusable clips from the flights made with this.

 

[JCFP]

Screenshots! Not sure if I just got a bad version, or just needed to be shooting @4.5 and smaller, but here's these for reference.

 

[Phil DeVore]

I have the same problems with mine. Distortion seems to be something that this particular lens is prone to do.

 

[Jussi]

Screenshots! Not sure if I just got a bad version, or just needed to be shooting @4.5 and smaller, but here's these for reference.

I would think you have a bad copy, the image quality collapses too much on the edges. That kind of edge softness cant be feature of this price range lens.

 

[Phil DeVore]

I have the same problems with mine. Distortion seems to be something that this particular lens is prone to do.

Actually I have found that all wide angle lens have distortion on some level. It’s just part of the way they work.
You have to take the good with the bad.