Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D Review

Laowa C-Dreamer 9mm f/2.8 ZERO-D Performance

Centrally, sharpness is excellent at open aperture, f/2.8. It becomes outstanding at f/4 and f/5.6, excellent at f/8 and f/11, very good at f/16 and still good at f/22.

Edge sharpness is not at the same level, being soft at f/2.8, fair at f/4, but crisping up to being very good from f/5.6 through to f/11. Thereafter, diffraction hits and results are only fair at f/16 and soft at f/22.

Of course, ultra-wide lenses are not intended for shooting flat test charts, and at more normal distances and with more normal subjects images certainly look crisp enough.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very well controlled, especially at the centre, where it is generally held to less than one-third of a pixel. The edges are also well corrected to well under 1 pixel. In normal use, CA will not be a problem, but in any event, it can be further reduced in software if necessary.

The ZERO-D designation of the lens suggests zero distortion and although we can actually measure -0.59% barrel distortion, this is really an excellent result for such a wide lens.

Flare control is brilliant, and even overtly against the light shots with the sun in the frame do nothing to faze the Laowa lens. Maybe in the most extreme circumstances a small amount of haziness can creep into edges, but it's quibbling and for normal subject matter there is no flare.

Bokeh is hardly the raison d'etre of the ultra-wide lens, but in this case, where out of focus backgrounds can be induced, they are very well reproduced, with excellent, smooth gradation of tones.

Value For Money

The Laowa C-Dreamer 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D FE lens is priced at £499. Looking at the tiny optic the first reaction may well be that the price is high for so little, but once we look closely at its features and how they relate to its performance then the VFM equation starts to look more favourable.

So, are there any rectilinear lenses as wide as this for APS-C format? Not that I can see, but there are some lenses that give us 10mm.

Fujifilm Fujinon XF 10-24mm f/4R OIS, £879
Samyang 10mm f/2.8 ED AS NCS CS, £379
Sony E 10-18mm f/4 OSS, £699
Voigtlander Heliar 10mm f/5.6 Hyper-Wide, E-mount, £799

So it's really a matter of whether or not we need the 9mm focal length and the f/2.8 aperture, and if we do then the answer is clear. For more options have a look at the Top 15 Best Sony E / FE Mount Lenses or the Top 28 Wide-angle Landscape Lenses.

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