Venus Optics (Anhui ChangGeng Optics Technology Co., Ltd.) is a Chinese manufacturer of photographic lenses, specialized in the design of innovative macro, wide angle, shift and f/0.95 lenses. Headquarters and production are in Hefei, while sales and marketing office is located in Hong Kong and the USA. They are currently marketing the lenses using the brand 'Laowa'.
The company develops and produces innovative[5][6] photographic lenses under the brand name Laowa ('old frog').
Laowa's optics designer, Dayong Li, is believed to be the optics designer of Tamron, the reputable camera lens manufacturer from Japan. He was heavily involved in numerous Tamron's project development including the popular 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8. [7]
Lenses
The first lens was the 60 mm f/2.8 2 x Ultra Macro, a full frame lens with a magnification factor of 2:1 that could also be focused to infinity which is unique.[8] In the same year, Venus Optics released the widest angle macro lens to offer a 1:1 magnification ratio, the 15 mm f/4 Wide Angle Macro. The small focal length allows to include the background details (e.g., where and how the subject lives) in the photo. Due to physical reasons, the working distance in the macro range is rather short (at 1:1, focusing distance is 12.2 cm resulting in a working distance of only 4.7 mm).[9][10][11] In the meantime, Venus Optics have released unique lenses mainly in the fields of ultra macro and rectilinear and/or fast ultra wide angle lenses for full frame, APS-C, MFT, and Fujifilm G-Mount (see table).
Most Laowa lenses (an exception is e.g., the 100 mm f/2,8 2x Ultra Macro APO) are purely manual lenses. There is no communication between the camera body and the lens, hence, no transfer of Exif data, no autofocus function, no lens-based image stabilization (OIS), and no automatic aperture control. However, autofocus plays a minor role in macro and wide angle photography. Auto focus bracketing is not possible with manual lenses. The company does not exclude the development of more lenses with electronics in them.[6]
Advertising
Since 2017, Laowa had organised multiple international marketing campaigns bearing its slogan "New Idea, New Fun".[27]
Competitions
Laowa has used competition as an advertising vehicle to encourage its users to share their image. The company first started organising Laowa Photo Competition in 2017. Initially focusing on photos from its own lenses, and later it also allow images taken with other brand's lenses. As of 2021, there are other brands collaborate in the 5th Laowa Photo Competition and sponsored prize for the event.[28]
Laowa Video Marathon
Laowa Video Marathon is an invitation-only program launched by Laowa in 2021.[29] It has gathered 10 videographers and YouTubers, including Motoaki(Aki from Japan), Jason Morris, Helena Gudkova(cameragirlhelena), Yeyoph and more. The program consists of 10 one-minute long short films. Each video's beginning would match the ending shot from the last video.
Laowagrapher
In early 2021, Laowa interviewed multiple up-and-coming photographers and introduced them as "Laowagrapher". It consists group of photographers from all over the world.[30]
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Venus Optics.
^"Venus Lens - Our Story". 17 March 2017. Retrieved October 15, 2019.
^Damien Demolder (October 2, 2018). "Hands-on with the new Laowa lens collection". DPReview, see slide 21. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019.
^Jakub Han (October 5, 2018). "Interview with Dayong Li". Cinema 5D. Archived from the original on October 11, 2019.
^"The Man behind the Lens: Dayong Li". Phillipreeve.net. December 8, 2018. Archived from the original on October 11, 2019.
^Dylan Goldby (March 19, 2018). "Interview with Lens Designer Dayong Li". Fujilove Magazine. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019.
^ a bKeith Cooper (26 April 2018). "Venus Optics interview". Northlight Images. Archived from the original on October 15, 2019.
^"US Patent Application for Large-Aperture Zoom Lens Patent Application (Application #20130050844 issued February 28, 2013) - Justia Patents Search".
^Keith Cooper (April 26, 2018). "Venus Optics interview". Northlight. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Mark Banas (March 13, 2016). "From another planet: Venus LAOWA 15mm F4 Wide Angle Macro quick review". DPRreview. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^ a bVenus Optics website
^Michael Zhang (December 24, 2015). "A Review of the Laowa 15mm f/4 and Its Crazy Close 4.7mm Working Distance". PetaPixel. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Lars Theiss (August 9, 2019). "Kreisrunde Abbildung: Laowa 2,8/4 mm Circular Fisheye für MFT - klein und sehr leicht". fotoMagazin. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Lars Theiss (May 9, 2017). "Superweitwinkel für MFT: Laowa C-Dreamer 2/7,5 mm – auch als "Flugmodell"". fotoMagazin. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Klaus Schroiff (March 2018). "Laowa 9 mm f/2.8 Zero-D - Review/Test Report". OpticalLimits. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^"Laowa-Objektive für Canon und Nikon". Photographie.de. 2019. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^"Lichtstarkes Ultra-Weitwinkel Laowa 12 mm F/2.8 Zero-D im Anmarsch". Photoscala. July 27, 2016. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Jeff Loch (January 16, 2020). "Laowa 12mm T/2.9 Zero-D Cine Lens Now Shipping". CINEMA5D. Archived from the original on January 18, 2020.
^ a bLars Theiss (February 2, 2016). "Laowa-Objektive in Deutschland erhältlich". fotoMagazin. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^"Laowa bringt neue Weitwinkel-Highlights". FOTOWirtschaft. June 27, 2019. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Jakub Han (October 26, 2019). "Laowa 17mm f/1.8 MFT Lens – Very Affordable New Manual Prime". Cinema5D. Archived from the original on November 25, 2019.
^Matthew Saville (August 2019). "Laowa 17mm Ultra-Wide Lens Arriving For Fuji GFX Medium Format – Why This is A Big Deal". SLRLounge. Archived from the original on October 21, 2019.
^Lars Theiss (August 2, 2019). "Superweitwinkel für Fuji G: Laowa 4/17 mm Zero-D". fotoMagazin. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^"Laowa 14/24 mm Probe". Photographie.de. April 2019. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Valentin Gutekunst (June 28, 2018). "Laowa 25 mm-Ultra-Makroobjektiv". Makro-Treff. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^Lars Theiss (May 7, 2019). "Laowa 2,8/100 mm 2:1 Ultra Macro für zweifache Vergrößerung". fotoMagazin. Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^John Riley (May 5, 2016). "Laowa 105mm f/2 T3.2 Smooth Trans Focus Lens Review". Archived from the original on October 20, 2019.
^"LENSOLOGY - LAOWA Camera Lenses". 2021-03-22. Retrieved 2021-11-24.