Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens Review

I primarily evaluate lenses from a select set of manufacturers, but sometimes other brand options garner my attention. This lens, carrying a world's first accomplishment, was one of those exceptions. The Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens is the world's first rectilinear 10mm full-frame lens with an f/2.8 aperture.

While 10mm will not be a most-used focal length for most photographers, this crazy-wide angle of view creates dramatic, stand-out imagery that all of us desire in the portfolio. The f/2.8 aperture avails low-light versatility, including broad night sky views and striking sports captures, and it even creates some subject-isolating background blur at the ultra-close minimum focus distance. The appeal of sharp image quality, aesthetic metal build quality, compact size, light weight, and affordable price generate a desire to put this lens in the kit.

"Zero-D"? Zero distortion. That's a big claim for any ultra-wide-angle lens and an especially big claim for a 10mm lens, and the skepticism meter needle moved.

The Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens is available in Canon RF, Sony E, Nikon Z, and L mounts. The Sony E and Nikon Z mount versions feature autofocus and auto aperture, and the camera records the aperture in the EXIF information. At least initially, the Canon RF and L mount versions avail only manual AF and aperture, and the aperture is not recorded in EXIF. For this review, Venus Optics provided a Canon RF mount lens, selected specifically for a closer comparison to the not long prior introduced Canon RF 10-20mm F4 L IS STM Lens.

Focal Length

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The focal length (or focal length range for a prime lens) is a primary consideration for lens selection. A specific angle of view is required to get a desired subject framing with the optimal perspective (or from within a working distance limitation).

10mm has an insanely wide angle of view.

Let's jump right into a focal length comparison, illustrating the 10-20mm focal length range.

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Consider how wide your widest focal length is in relation to those availed by this lens. The difference between 10mm and 11mm is big, and the difference between 10mm and 12mm is huge.

How does the 15mm fisheye angle of view compare to 10mm rectilinear?

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The subject in the center of a 15mm fisheye image circle is magnified about the same as in a 15mm rectilinear frame. The fisheye lens's magnification decreases dramatically by the periphery, where details are considerably smaller than even those in a 10mm rectilinear lens frame. Note that the fisheye lens does not stretch corner details as the rectilinear options do.

What uses are optimal for a 10mm lens? With the incredible popularity of photography today, it has never been harder to create work that stands out from the crowd, work that sets you apart or above (I said that many years ago). This lens can do that. The 10mm focal length range is useful for creating dramatic, exciting, and powerful imagery that differentiates your work.

A specific use that welcomes the 10mm angle of view is landscape photography, especially for landscape scenarios that provide an interesting foreground rendered prominently in front of the big background. Modestly following that suggestion are the leaping deer tracks in the above image.

Impressive is that this incredibly wide-angle lens accepts the standard threaded front filters commonly needed for landscape photography.

Architecture and real estate photographers will find 10mm useful for outdoor and especially interior work. Here are sample images of the PA State Capitol House of Representatives chamber.

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Note that all the PA State Capitol building photos shared in this review are HDR-processed. Here is the atrium at 10mm.

This intricately designed building offers unique photo opportunities.

The lens is a great choice for capturing the big view of a venue, such as inside an auditorium or sports stadium.

10mm provides a wide nightscape angle of view, with a bright f/2.8 aperture and low 10mm magnification permitting clean exposures without star trails.

A 10mm lens is seldom my first choice for photographing people, but with sufficient subject distance, this lens can create standout environmental portraits.

Perhaps the "outstanding" designation does not apply to this environmental self-portrait, but this 12mm image illustrates the concept.

Utilize the unique look of 10mm at weddings and for videos.

A 10mm lens is a fantastic complement to a more standard ultra-wide-angle zoom lens, such as a 15-35mm lens.

When mounted on an APS-C camera, a 10mm lens provides a significantly less dramatic but still extremely useful angle of view equivalent to a 16mm lens on a full-frame camera (15mm for Sony). See the 16mm view in the focal length examples above.

Max Aperture

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A lens's maximum aperture is usually included in the product name immediately after the focal length range, reflecting this specification's next-most importance. This lens gets an f/2.8 maximum aperture, the ratio of the focal length to the entrance pupil diameter.

The lower the aperture number, the wider the opening, and the more light the lens can deliver to the imaging sensor. Each "stop" in aperture change (full stop examples: f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0) increases or decreases the amount of light by a substantial factor of 2x.

When you buy a prime lens instead of a zoom, you expect at least one strong advantage to offset the loss of zoom range versatility. Common prime lens advantages include smaller size, lighter weight, lower price, better image quality, and/or a wider aperture. The wider aperture box is checked, along with others in this case.

At review time, f/2.8 is the widest aperture available in a rectilinear (not fisheye) lens wider than 14mm. Wider apertures enable freezing subject and camera motion at lower, less noisy ISO settings and enable the creation of a stronger background blur from a shallower DOF (Depth of Field). Often critical is the improved low-light AF performance availed by a wide aperture (applicable only to AF versions of this model).

The typical drawbacks to wide maximum aperture lenses stem from the use of larger, heavier glass elements translating into larger, heavier, and more expensive lenses. Fortunately, this lens is neither large or heavy, and the price tag is reasonable.

This example illustrates the maximum blur this lens can create:

With low magnification, ultra-wide-angle lenses render the background details, along with the background blur, small. Still, this lens set to its super close minimum focus distance can create a significant amount of background blur.

The RF and L mount versions of this lens feature a manual aperture ring with click stops at full aperture stop settings. Selecting fractional stop settings is possible, but specific mid-stop points, such as 1/3 and 1/2 stop positions, are unaided.

Image Quality

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What I was really waiting for: answering the "How does the small, light, affordable Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens perform optically?" question. I'll share the theoretical MTF chart to get us started.

Hands-on testing and field proved that this lens produces sharp center-of-the-frame image quality wide-open at f/2.8, and stopping down produces only slight improvement.

In the periphery of the image circle, where light rays are refracted to a stronger angle than in the center, lenses usually show decreased sharpness, and this one shows a gradual decline from the center to the corner. Peripheral image quality, especially the extreme corners, significantly improves at f/4, and noticeable further improvement is seen at f/5.6, where corner performance is great.

Especially at close distances, astigmatism is apparent, especially in the review lens's lower left mid-periphery.

Notice that the number eight's lines are sharp in certain directions and soft in the opposite? This directional blurriness significantly clears up by f/8, but a slight blur is still seen in narrow aperture corners.

Taking the testing outdoors, we next look at a series of center-of-the-frame 100% resolution crop examples. These images were captured in RAW format by a Canon EOS R5 and processed in Canon's Digital Photo Professional (DPP) using the Standard Picture Style with sharpness set to 1 on a 0-10 scale. Note that images from most cameras require some level of sharpening, but too-high sharpness settings are destructive to image details and hide the deficiencies of a lens.

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I tested through f/8, but even the f/4 results were superfluous and not worth your bandwidth. This lens delivers sharp central image quality.

Next, we'll look at a series of comparisons showing 100% resolution extreme top left corner crops captured and processed identically to the above center-of-the-frame images. The lens was manually focused in the corner of the frame to capture these images.

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Samples taken from the outer extreme of the image circle, full-frame corners, usually show a lens's weakest performance. The f/2.8 results are modestly soft, but the f/5.6 results are excellent.

Corner sharpness does not always matter, but it sometimes does, including when photographing landscapes and architecture. When photographing these subjects, f/8 or f/11 is likely selected for adequate depth of field in the scene, and this lens is a superb choice for these purposes at these apertures. Out-of-focus corners are often desired when shooting at wide apertures, and typical wide-aspect ratio videos avoid using corners.

This lens does not exhibit a noticeable focus shift, the plane of sharp focus moving forward or backward as the aperture is narrowed (residual spherical aberration or RSA).

A lens is expected to show peripheral shading at the widest aperture settings when used on a camera that utilizes its entire image circle, and ultra-wide-angle, wide-aperture lenses tend to show strong peripheral shading wide open. As you may now expect, the Laowa 10mm f/2.8 lens creates a strong, about 4.5 stops of shading at f/2.8. Shading levels improve to about 4 stops at f/4 and 3.5 stops at f/5.6. Little further improvement is seen, and an obvious 3.5 stops of shading still shows at f/16.

APS-C format cameras using lenses projecting a full-frame-sized image circle avoid the worst vignetting problems. In this case, expect about 1.5 stops or slightly less APS-C corner shading over the aperture range.

One-stop of shading is often used as the visibility number, though subject details provide a widely varying amount of vignetting discernibility. Vignetting is correctable during post-processing, with increased noise in the brightened areas the penalty, or it can be embraced, using the effect to draw the viewer's eye to the center of the frame. Study the pattern shown in our vignetting test tool to determine how your images will be affected.

Lateral (or transverse) CA (Chromatic Aberration) refers to the unequal magnification of all colors in the spectrum. Lateral CA shows as color fringing along lines of strong contrast running tangential (meridional, right angles to radii), with the mid and especially the periphery of the image circle showing the most significant amount as this is where the most significant difference in the magnification of wavelengths typically exists.

With the right lens profile and software, lateral CA is often easily correctable (often in the camera) by radially shifting the colors to coincide. However, it is always better to avoid this aberration in the first place.

Color misalignment can be seen in the site's image quality tool, but let's also look at a worst-case example. The image below is a 100% crop from the extreme top left corner of an EOS R5 frame showing diagonal black and white lines.

Only black and white colors should be present in these images, with the additional colors indicating a modest presence of lateral CA.

A relatively common lens aberration is axial (longitudinal, bokeh) CA, which causes non-coinciding focal planes of the various wavelengths of light. More simply, different colors of light are focused to different depths. Spherical aberration, along with spherochromatism, or a change in the amount of spherical aberration with respect to color (looks quite similar to axial chromatic aberration but is hazier) are other common lens aberrations to observe. Axial CA remains somewhat persistent when stopping down, with the color misalignment effect increasing with defocusing. The spherical aberration color halo shows little size change as the lens is defocused, and stopping down one to two stops generally removes this aberration.

In the real world, lens defects do not exist in isolation, with spherical aberration and spherochromatism generally found, at least to some degree, along with axial CA. These combine to create a less sharp, hazy-appearing image quality at the widest apertures.

The example below looks at the defocused specular highlights' fringing colors in the foreground vs. the background. The lens has introduced any fringing color differences from the neutrally colored subjects.

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The color blur difference between these two images is modest.

Bright light reflecting off lens elements' surfaces may cause flare and ghosting, resulting in reduced contrast and sometimes interesting, usually objectionable visual artifacts. The shape, intensity, and position of the flare and ghosting effects in an image are variable, dependent on the position and nature of the light source (or sources), selected aperture, shape of the aperture blades, and quantity and quality of the lens elements and their coatings. Additionally, flare and ghosting can impact AF performance.

It is easy to get the sun in the 10mm angle of view, and that inclusion brings on significant flare and ghosting.

The flare effects can be embraced or avoided, or removal can be attempted, though removal is sometimes challenging.

Two lens aberrations are particularly evident in images of stars, mainly because bright points of light against a dark background make them easier to see. Coma occurs when light rays from a point of light spread out from that point instead of being refocused as a point on the sensor. Coma is absent in the center of the frame, gets worse toward the edges/corners, and generally appears as a comet-like or triangular tail of light that can be oriented either away from the center of the frame (external coma) or toward the center of the frame (internal coma). The coma clears as the aperture is narrowed. Astigmatism is seen as points of light spreading into a line, either sagittal (radiating from the center of the image) or meridional (tangential, perpendicular to sagittal). This aberration can produce stars appearing to have wings. Remember that Lateral CA is another aberration apparent in the corners.

The image below is a 100% crop taken from the top-left corner of an EOS R5 image captured at f/2.8.

This result shows strong stretching of the peripheral stars.

Those of us familiar with ultra-wide-angle lenses have come to expect them to produce strong geometric distortion, barrel distortion to be specific, and straight lines running along the edge of the frame readily expose any geometry issues. Check out the lines running across the top of this uncorrected sample image.

That's an impressive performance. Notice the straight line crossing the bottom of the frame in this also-uncorrected image?

This lens has remarkably low geometric distortion, supporting the "Zero-D" moniker.

As seen earlier in the review, it is easy to illustrate the strongest blur a lens can create, and wide-angle lenses are inherently disadvantaged in this regard. Here are some f/11 (for diaphragm blade interaction) examples.

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The pentagonal shapes and general blur quality from this 5-blade diaphragm are not optimal. However, Venus Optics offers a 14-blade version of this lens that should far outperform these results.

Except for a small number of specialty lenses, the wide aperture bokeh in the frame's corner does not produce round defocused highlights, with these effects taking on a cat's eye shape due to a form of mechanical vignetting. If you look through a tube at an angle, similar to the light reaching the frame's corner, the shape is not round. That is the shape we're looking at here in an upper-left quadrant sample.

Strong stretching shows in the corner of this result. As the aperture narrows, the entrance pupil size is reduced, and as mechanical vignetting diminishes, the corner shapes are expected to become rounder.

A 5-blade count diaphragm will create 10-point sunstars (diffraction spikes) from point light sources captured with a narrow aperture. Generally, the more a lens diaphragm is stopped down, the larger and better shaped the sunstars tend to be, and wide-aperture lenses tend to have an advantage in this regard. Another advantage this lens has is that the small number of aperture blades creates a stronger angle between the blades. This lens can produce powerful, sharp stars, as illustrated below and in a couple of other sample images earlier in this review.

The example above was captured at f/16, and the other referenced samples were f/11 captures.

The design of this lens is illustrated above.

Overall, this lens is a good performer, delivering sharp, distortion-free images with prominent sunstars and strong vignetting and flare effects.

Focusing

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The Sony E and Nikon Z mount versions of this lens feature autofocus, and Venus Optics is excited by the AF system's performance.

However, this review looks only at the Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D RF mount's manual focus performance, which is excellent.

The substantially sized manual focus ring is metal and features stylish angled ribs, along with a pair of branded indentations oriented at 180°. The ring is extremely smooth and lightly damped, and the internal distance adjustment rate is ideal (120°).

Focus distances are marked and repeatable, optimal for pulling focus when recording video, and depth of field marks are provided.

The AF version of this lens features an AF/MF switch.

It is normal for the scene to change size in the frame as the focus is pulled from one extent to the other. This effect is focus breathing, a change in focal length resulting from a change in focus distance. Focus breathing impacts photographers intending to use focus stacking techniques, videographers pulling focus (without movement to camouflage the effect), and anyone critically framing while adjusting focus.

This lens produces a moderate change in subject size through a full-extent (worst-case) focus distance adjustment.

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This lens has a minimum focus distance of 4.7" (120mm), which creates a significant 0.24x maximum magnification spec. That number far exceeds the capabilities of the other lenses in this class.

Model	Min Focus Distance		Max Magnification
Canon RF 10-20mm F4 L IS STM Lens	9.8"	(250mm)	0.12x
Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art Lens	11.0"	(280mm)	0.14x
Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM Lens	11.0"	(280mm)	0.14x
Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art Lens	11.8"	(300mm)	0.08x
Sony FE 14mm F1.8 GM Lens	9.8"	(250mm)	0.10x
Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens	4.7"	(120mm)	0.24x
Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 Milvus Lens	9.8"	(250mm)	0.11x

A 0.24x magnification at 10mm enables dramatic perspectives.

A subject measuring approximately 6 x 4" (152 x 101mm) fills a full-frame imaging sensor at this lens's minimum MF distance.

The USPS love stamps shared above have an image area that measures 1.05 x 0.77" (26.67 x 19.558mm), and the overall individual stamp size is 1.19 x 0.91" (30.226 x 23.114mm).

While this lens produces sharp center-of-the-frame details at minimum focus distance even with a wide-open aperture, expect the image's mid frame and periphery to be soft, primarily due to field curvature. F/11 brings on increased depth of field that provides a significant peripheral image quality improvement.

The minimum focus distance is measured from the imaging sensor plane with the balance of the camera, lens, and lens hood length taking their space out of the number to create the working distance. The plane of sharp focus is only about 0.75" (19mm) in front of the lens hood. Removing the hood adds 0.45" (11.4mm) of working space, but the lens will obstruct subject lighting.

This lens is not compatible with teleconverters.

Design & Features

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The Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens features an aesthetically attractive design, featuring a distinct blue tone, that is bolstered by an all-metal exterior.

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The aperture ring is a frequently used feature of a manual aperture lens. This one is compact in size and smooth rotating, though the small ring's exterior is flush with the lens barrel, making it slightly more difficult to access, especially with gloves.

Why doesn't my Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens work on a Canon camera? This may be a question that you encounter. Likely, the camera's "Release shutter w/o lens" custom function menu option is set to "Off". This setting must be "On" for this lens to function, minimally, on Canon cameras.

This lens has no buttons and no features needing one.

The Laowa 10mm f/2.8 lens design features dust and moisture resistance, minimally via the mount gasket.

The front lens element has a "Frog Eye" coating applied to repel fingerprints, dust, water, oil, and other contaminants and make cleaning considerably easier.

The review lens weighs 16.0 oz (452.8g), just a bit above the 14.8 oz (420g) spec.

Model	Weight oz(g)		Dimensions w/o Hood "(mm)		Filter	Year
Canon RF 10-20mm F4 L IS STM Lens	20.1	(570)	3.3 x 4.4	(83.7 x 112.0)	n/a	2023
Sigma 14-24mm f/2.8 DG DN Art Lens	28.1	(795)	3.3 x 5.2	(85.0 x 131.0)	n/a	2020
Sigma 14mm F1.4 DG DN Art Lens	41.3	(1170)	4.0 x 5.9	(101.4 x 149.9)	n/a	2023
Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM Lens	29.9	(847)	3.8 x 5.4	(97.6 x 137.0)	n/a	2020
Sony FE 14mm F1.8 GM Lens	16.2	(460)	3.3 x 3.9	(83.0 x 99.8)	n/a	2021
Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens	14.8	(420)	3.2 x 2.8	(82.0 x 70.8)	77	2024
Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 Milvus Lens	33.4	(947)	4.0 x 3.9	(102.3 x 100.2)	95	2016

For many more comparisons, review the complete Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens Specifications using the site's lens specifications tool.

Here is a visual comparison:

Positioned above from left to right are the following lenses:

Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens
Canon RF 10-20mm F4 L IS STM Lens
Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM Lens

Use the site's product image comparison tool to visually compare the Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens to other lenses.

Remarkable is that such an extremely wide-angle full-frame lens can use standard threaded filters. The 77mm size is somewhat large but very common. A standard-thickness circular polarizer filter will dramatically increase peripheral shading. Therefore, a slim model such as the Breakthrough Photography X4 is recommended.

Also unusual for a full-frame lens this wide is that the hood is removable. The included short metal hood does not block significant amounts of light, but that small amount may sometimes make a difference, and more often, it will block your fingers from slipping into the picture. The hood is tight and difficult to remove, but with the hood off, filters are easier to use and the lens cap is easier to grasp.

The lens cap has the center pinch feature, but it is not easy to use due to its angles, especially with gloves on.

A lens case is not included.

Price, Value, Compatibility

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This lens fills a valuable niche in both full-frame and APS-C kits, it performs well, and it does not cost a fortune. Those factors make this lens a good value.

The Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens is available in Canon RF, Sony E, Nikon Z, and L mounts, including full-frame and APS-C sensor format models. Venus Optics provides a limited 3-year warranty.

The reviewed Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens was provided by Venus Optics at no charge.

Alternatives

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I recently reviewed the Canon RF 10-20mm F4 L IS STM Lens, the world's first full-frame zoom lens to incorporate 10mm in the focal length range. Neither lens infringes on the world record held by the other, with the Laowa lens having a 2x wider aperture and the RF lens having a zoom range to its advantage.

In the wide-open aperture image quality comparison, the RF lens results are slightly sharper. Equalize the results to f/4, and the difference is harder to discern. The Canon lens is slightly sharper in the center of the frame, and the Laowa lens has a slight advantage in the periphery and a stronger advantage in the extreme corners. The results from neither lens change much at narrower apertures.

The Laowa lens has dramatically less geometric distortion and a higher propensity to show sunstars. The Canon lens has about 1-stop less peripheral shading at narrow apertures and shows less flare.

The Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens vs. Canon RF 10-20mm F4 L IS STM Lens comparison shows the Canon lens's actual weight at 4 oz (115g) higher, and it measures longer. The Laowa lens accepts threaded front filters and focuses much closer, creating a 0.24x maximum magnification vs. 0.12x. The Canon lens has 9 aperture blades vs. 5 (but optionally 14), a lens function button, a control ring, 5-stop (6-stop coordinated) image stabilization, and AF. The Canon lens costs nearly 3x more than the Laowa lens.

Let's compare Sony's closest option, the impressive FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM Lens. 10mm is considerably wider than 12mm, and having a zoom range provides far greater versatility than a single focal length.

With the obvious out of the way, we next look at the image quality comparison, where the Sony lens shows itself as the sharper option, especially in the center of the frame. At f/4, the Sony lens commands a bigger advantage. The Sony lens has considerably less peripheral shading, produces less flare effects, and has modestly more barrel distortion.

The Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens vs. Sony FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM Lens comparison shows the Sony lens is far larger and nearly 2x heavier. The Laowa lens accepts threaded front filters and focuses much closer, creating a 0.24x maximum magnification vs. 0.14x. The Sony lens has 9 aperture blades vs. 5 (but optionally 14), and a custom function button. Both lenses feature AF. The Sony lens costs nearly 4x more than the Laowa lens.

Use the site's tools to create additional comparisons.

Summary

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For those considering the Canon RF or L mount lens options, don't fear using a manual aperture and manual focusing lens. Mirrorless cameras, especially with focus peaking enabled, make manual focusing considerably easier than we experienced with a DSLR camera (or film SLR camera), and with so much depth of field at 10mm, a set-and-forget strategy can often be used for landscape and architecture photography. Set the aperture to f/8 or f/11, set the focus distance to near infinity, and use an appropriate exposure mode on the camera. All but extremely close subjects will be in focus, and the camera's automatic exposure modes (aside from Av), if selected, will take care of image brightness. It's easy.

As I said in the beginning of the review, 10mm will not be a most-used focal length for most photographers, but this crazy-wide angle of view creates dramatic, stand-out imagery that all of us desire in the portfolio. This lens's f/2.8 aperture avails low-light versatility, including broad night sky views and striking sports captures, and it even creates some subject isolating background blur at the ultra-close minimum focus distance.

The appeal of sharp, near-geometric-distortion-free image quality, aesthetic metal build quality, compact size, light weight, and affordable price generate a desire to put this lens in the kit. The Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Lens is an especially good choice to complement a standard ultra-wide-angle lens, such as a 15-35mm option.