Venus Optics launched a new Kickstarter campaign on a somewhat old lens: The Laowa 24mm f/14 macro probe was announced back in 2016 at their Photokina booth. Now, almost two years later, that very lens is the headliner of a Kickstarter campaign. Let’ have a look at this thing and compare it to the 2016 prototype design as there are some significant differences to be found! This “lens” is really something special. It’s a 24mm wide angle lens but at the same time it’s a 2x macro lens. I never encountered a lens with these two characteristics combined. And if you did, here’s yet another feature which proofes the uniqueness of the Laowa 24mm probe even further: It’s 40cm (15.75″) long! Laowa 24mm f/14 Macro Probe Lens When we stumbled over the very weird looking Laowa 24mm f/14 macro lens back in 2016, we simply had to cover it. The design was (and is) so unique you might end up asking yourself: What the hell is it? Well, it’s a macro lens but not an ordianry macro lens, obviously. It offers a focal lens of 24mm, so we’re looking at a wide angle lens here. But this wide angle lens is a 2x macro lens at the same time and it comes in a very odd 40cm housing. That’s also the reason for its strange f/14 aperture, the front element is just too tiny and the lens itself is just too long for allowing a faster f-stop. Check out those videos...
Published By: CineD - Wednesday, 1 August, 2018