Sunset filter test
GFX100 - Laowa 17mm with a Singh Ray 92mm thin mount and 86-92 step up ring
f/4 1/125 ISO 1000
I’ve used a GF23mm for several years and still like it; however there have
been times I wished I had a slightly wider lens. That wish has been granted by
the Laowa 17mm GFX.
Laowa 17mm on left with GF 23 on Right
The GF23 f/4 is a 35mm equivalent of 18mm whereas the Laowa 17mm is an
equivalent of 13mm; just enough to make a difference to me. There are subtle differences
between the lenses; the GF has autofocus and a 82mm filter size whereas the
Laowa is manual focus with a 86mm filter size. The optical design of both
lenses is different with the GF23 having 15 elements in 12 groups and
the Laowa 21 elements in 14 groups. Neither lens offer image stabilization. The
Laowa is about one half the cost of the GF.
Filter test
H&Y filter system using a 100mm sq filter; notice the vignette in upper corners
f/8 1/160 ISO 50
sunset filter test
92 mm thin mount Singh Ray filter
Filters – there isn’t much to say about the GF23 and filters as I haven’t
had any issues. The Laowa is slightly different. I’ve tried my normal
filters on the Laowa using the H&Y filter system and 100mm filters and
sadly got what I felt was too much vigneting. I could correct the vignette only
so much using Capture One and decided to explore other avenues. I’ve been using
a Singh Ray thin mount 92mm filter on a 86-92 step up ring. This has worked the
best for me reducing the vignette to less than 5% before processing the image
in C1 and getting near 100% correction. That’s the “bad news” if you will.
I stopped testing filters shortly after the 92mm thin mount filter. I would
have preferred using an 86-mm thin mount however one wasn’t available at
the time. I believe the combination of the step-up ring and thin mount filter
is less thick than a normal size filter and less as thick as adding a filter
system such as either a Wine Country or H&Y. Having stopped the filter testing I went
instead to pure image quality attempting to answer a question of what this lens
is capable of without any filter.
Testing outside is one thing, how does the lens hold up inside in a narrow
space. The mission at Tumacacori worked well as a test bed.
Shooting inside the mission
f/4 1/60 ISO 800
I had not planned it however I quickly decided to shoot the rest of the day
in black and white using a custom setting in camera. The remaining images were all captured in
camera as black and white and processed in Capture One.
f/4 1/10 ISO 800
f/4 1/10 ISO 800
100% cop from the image above
Image quality of the Laowa is on par with any of my GF lenses. I’ve been using the GFX100, 100-megapixel camera for several months now and any defects are
readily noticeable. In the short period I’ve had the Laowa 17mm GF I’ve found
the build quality excellent as are the image files. The lens is a tad heavy but
not to the extreme.
Shot handheld
f/8 1/160 ISO 50
Shot handheld
f/8 1/160 ISO 50
I thought the shadows were too dark in this and was surprised when I open the file in C1.
f/5.6 1/200 ISO 200
Shot handheld
f/8 1/160 ISO 200
I plan on testing the Laowa on capturing the milky way later this year and
I’ve already made plans to pack the lens when I visit Jordan early next year.
So in the end I guess a couple of questions should be asked – “Is it worth it?”
“Is the lens capable of 100-megapixels?” The answer is yes to both.
And last one. I had originally set this up as a layered shot shooting one file for the shadows the other for the light. This is not the result of that idea; instead it is one capture. Processed in C1 it shows the amount of detail in the shadows that one can achieve using a GFX100.
More to come
