Kowa Prominar 8.5mm f/2.8 Review

Kowa Prominar 8.5mm f/2.8 Performance

Centrally, sharpness is excellent at f/2.8, pushing into being outstanding at f/4 and f/5.6. It is again excellent at f/8 and f/11 and still very good at f/16. All apertures are fully usable. 

The edges start of with good sharpness at f/2.8, rising to very good from f/4 through to f/8. Results are still good at f/11, but starting to soften at f/16. This is a very satisfactory result with such a wide lens.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very well controlled, being held centrally to under half a pixel through most of the aperture range. At the edges the figure hovers around 1 pixel, but this is also an excellent result for an ultra-wide lens. Any further correction can be made using software, or indeed by switching on corrections in camera.

Interestingly, Kowa provides a distortion figure and they quote -0.12% barrel distortion. The measured figure is -0.22% but in any event, this is a very low amount of distortion and architectural images show no obvious sign of bending at the edges. 

Flare can be induced with the sun just in frame, but there is no real reduction in contrast, just the creation of artefacts in the image. Even this is not a major issue as the position of the lens to the light can be adjusted easily to remove the flare spots.

Bokeh, the quality of the out of focus areas, is not really much of an issue with an ultra-wide lens. Actually getting out of focus areas is more of an issue.

Overall, a very consistent and impressive performance that ensures high-quality results.

Value For Money

The Kowa Prominar 8.5mm f/2.8 lens is priced at £749. An alternative might be the Venus Laowa 7.5mm f/2 lens, priced at £499. These are the only rectilinear ultra-wide prime lens available in MFT fit, so we have to look at zoom lenses to find a similar wide angle experience.

Panasonic Lumix G Vario 7-14mm f/4, £739
Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 8-18mm f/2.8-4 ASPH, £1049
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm f/4-5.6, £469
Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/2.8 PRO, £949

Considering its features and quality, this makes the Kowa lens fair value for money. For more options have a look at the Top 35 Best Micro Four Thirds Lenses.

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