Laowa 10mm f/2 Zero-D Hybrid Lens for Micro 4/3

I was skeptical of the "Zero-D" designation but not because I doubted an ultra-wide lens could be distortion-free. In the days before digital, all good wide angles were close to distortion-free because there wasn't any way to correct the distortion after the photo was taken.But these days, since Olympus and Panasonic cameras have the capabilty to automatically correct barrel distortion (make straight lines, straight) what's the big deal? A: Corner sharpness. Virtually all lenses are weakest in the corners, and wide angles tend to be especially poor in this regard. When an image has barrel distortion, the corners have to be digitally stretched to render straight lines, straight. This "pixel relocation" is bad news for sharpness, but aside from esoteric approaches like radial sharpening (extra sharpening applied to the corners) there isn't any alternative.However, if a lens can render straight lines properly without digital mischief, the corner pixels can stay where the lens put them. Maybe the Laowa 10mm would be super sharp even without Zero-D. But however they did it, this lens is exceptional for something this wide. Quite useable at f/2 and awesome by f/4. It's a little better than my Panasonic 15, 20 and 8-18, and they're all quite good.On top of this, the lens is fast, fairly priced, sized appropriately for micro 43, and it transfers data to the camera so you'll always know what lens and what f-stop was used. The only thing it doesn't do is auto focus but with focus peaking in cameras, this shouldn't be a big deal. Highly recommended.

The lens performs with stunning definition and the built quality is second to none. There is really nothing to complain and even the vignetting is better than one would expect even beating my Nikon 14-24 F lens. It is a bit of a slep to focus at portrait distances but quite easy for landscapes. Even with cropping a bit still outresolves the Oly 12mm F2 and can easily act as a replacement. The old problem of high ISO is effectively combatted by sharpness helping modern noisereduction software.

I purchased this lens about one year ago. It worked fine, but after using it less than a dozen time for short periods, it failed completely. I sent it to Laowa for repair, which they did quickly and returned the lens to me. Upon return, I tested the lens and found that it did not focus sharply at infinity. The attached photo was taken at infinity, but nothing in the frame is in focus. It is entirely blurry!It's been over 3 weeks since I contacted Laowa support to fix this problem. I've sent numerous emails with photos of the problem, but I have not heard anything from them.I CANNOT RECOMMEND LAOWA LENSES BECAUSE OF THE POOR WARRANTY SUPPORT.

It's a little harder to focus compared to Laowa's 7.5mm but the picture quality is nice.

I truely love the Venus Laowa 10mm f2.0 C&D lens for the micro four thirds Panasonic Lumix cameras. It is very small, compact, and very sharp lens. It is manual focus but that is ok because it is very wide.

One of my favourite lenses. If fast and lightweight are what you need, this lens will help. I mainly use this lens in 2 ways: (1) to copy GoPro video mode - set to F11 and focus at 1 meter. TA DA! - deluxe everything in focus all the time and (2) fun timelapse astrophotography, so on a Lumix G9 that tends to be aperure f/2.0, focus at infinity, ISO1250, 8sec.This lens was one of the reasons I re-evaluated full frame cameras and their huge lenses. The f/2.0 aperture basically gives you the ability to match what you can get with a FF at wide angle at f/2.8. To my eyes the astro image noise differences do not warrant the extra pounds of gear when hiking or biking in the back country. See bakeoff results with this lens on the G9 (left) and a on an S5 nikkor 20mm f/2.8 (right). Zoomed in the full frame is slightly cleaner, but not much.

Wonderful lens, very small. I also have the 7.5mm Laowa, which is okay, but I like this much better!

The lens was making a rattling sound right out of the box. After attaching it to my Gh5, the camera warned that there was no lens attached. Reseating the lens made no difference, as the camera gave the same warning and displayed a black screen. Based on reviews, I must've gotten a lemon. Bummer.