At Photokina, we talked with Mister Dayong Li – chief lens designer of Venus Optics, the company behind Laowa branded lenses. Well known for their unusual unique lenses, they recently introduced their first cinema zoom lens. The company wants to further specialize in deveolping unique lenses for photographers and filmmakers. The company Venus Optics (full name – Anhui Changgeng Optics Technology Co., Ltd) was established in 2013. Their headquarters and manufacturing facility is in Hefei, in the eastern part of China. They are mostly known for their line of lenses called Laowa. We previously reviewed some of their popular lenses. Last year, we took a look at their micro four thirds ultra wide angle 7.5mm f/2 lens (link to our review). This summer, my colleague Nino reviewed the unique 24mm f/14 snorkel macro lens, which took Kickstarter by storm and it should ship this fall (link to our review). The widest full frame zoom lens for E-mount – Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 These two examples are somewhat communicating, that Venus Optics focuses on unique and unusual lenses rather than introducing classic focal lengths. This year’s Photokina was a very important show for the company behind Laowa lenses. They announced many new lenses. We reported about their first cinema zoom lens – The Laowa OOOM 25-100mm T/2.9 and four new lenses for micro four thirds (MFT) and Sony E-mount. We had an interview with Dayong Li – the chief lens designer and engineer from Venus Optics. Mister Li told us about the birth of the company....
Published By: CineD - Friday, 5 October, 2018