Announced: Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie – Pancake Lens For APS-C MILCs

Laowa 10mm F/4 Cookie
View Post

Venus Optics announced a new lens, the Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie, a pancake lens for mirrorless cameras with APS-C imaging sensors. RF mount version available.

The sells at $299, and is available at the Venus Optics shop, and soon at major resellers like B&H Photo.

At a glance:

  • Extremely Compact and Lightweight
  • World’s Widest Rectilinear Pancakefor APS-C
  • Super-low Distortion
  • High Optical Performance
  • Stunning 10-Point Sunstar
  • Close Minimum Focusing Distance
  • Built-in Filter Thread

Press release:

Anhui China, Jul 19, 2022 –Venus Optics announces the launch of the new Laowa10mm f/4 Cookie Lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras. It is one of the world’s widest rectilinear pancake lenses for APS-C cameras. At a cookie size of 25mm(0.98”)long and weighing only 130g(0.29lbs), it literally can be put in your pocket. Most of the wide-angle pancake lenses on the market are either fisheye or pinhole. They usually have obvious barrel distortion and inferior image quality. However, this new Laowa Cookie Lens is equipped with a high-performance optical design, featuring super-low distortion and optimized image quality to ensure users take full advantage of the mirrorless system –compact and capable. Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie is a fun and mighty option for day-to-day content creators to carry around without burden, ideal for street, urban, landscape photography and everyday snapshots. The Lens has black and silver versions for multiple mounts including Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony E, L mount and Fuji X to match with the camera body.

Extremely Compact and Lightweight

Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie is a pancake-style lens specifically designed for APS-C mirrorless cameras. At just 25mm deep and weighing only 130g, you can use it with gimbals and shoot handheld easily. It’s almost like a body cap with function. With such discreet design and excellent portability, you will carry it anywhere and eventually shoot more.

World’s Widest Rectilinear Pancake

Featuring a remarkable 109.3° angle of view, Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookieis by farthe world’s widest rectilinear pancake lens for APS-C on the market. With the advantages of theultra-wide perspective and pocket-sized weight,this lens brings you a burdenless experience to capture epicmoments in everyday lifeand explore the beauty in our surroundings.

Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie

Super-low Distortion

Most pancake lenses with a wide perspective are fisheye so heavy Barrel distortion would be expected. However, the Laowa Cookie is here to break the norm. The lens has excellent control of optical distortion. The horizontal and vertical straight lines are retained from corner to corner. As an ultra-wide-angle lens, this is essential not only to reduce the post-editing time but also to expand the possibility of genres you can do with this lens, from street and outdoor photography to shape-edged architectures and spectacular landscapes

High Optical Performance

Laowa10mm f/4 Cookie lens comes with 12 elements in 8 groups optical structure with 2 aspherical and 4 extra-low dispersion elements. Despite the light and compact design, the lens managed to deliver the impressive image quality and high contrast. The performance of chromatic aberration, flaring, and ghosting effects are optimized to support your day and night snapshots.

Stunning 10-point Sunstar

Built with 5 aperture blades, stunning10-pointSunstar can be achieved easily when stop down.

Close Minimum Focusing Distance

The minimum focusing distance of Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie is 10cm, allowing you to get super close to the subjects and create interesting wide-angle macro-like shots with nice separation between the object and background.

Built-in Filter Thread

Equipped witha37mm filter thread for you to use screw-in filters directly. It is very convenient and cost-saving as no additional filter holderis required.

Pricing & Availability

Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie is currently available to purchase via Venus Optics official website and authorized resellers.The US price for Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie is USD299 for all mounts. Pricing varies in different countries.

IS A Canon RF 20-40mm f/4 STM Pancake Lens On Its Way?

Nab 2023 Canon Eos R5 Mark Ii Canon Eos R8 CP+ 2024 Mark Ii Canon EOS Rf 24-50mm R6 Mark Ii Rf Mount Eos R6 Mark Ii Rf 300mm Rf 35mm Canon Eos R100 Rf 24mm F/1.8 Rf-s Canon Eos R7 Eos R100 Canon High Resolution Eos R R10 Eos C5 Canon Canon Eos R1 Eos R5c Canon Rf 16mm Rf 35mm F/1.2L EF Lenses Tilt-shift Lenses Rumor
View Post

Canon might soon announce a RF 20-40mm f/4 STM pancake lens for the EOS R system.

The rumor surfaced on Weibo, and not much is revealed. Here the machine translated text:

It is whispered that a Canon RF 20-40mm F4 STM full-frame mirrorless pancake lens that emphasizes portability and convenience when shooting movies is under development (generally credible). RF mount video pancake lenses have also been rumored once before, but there is no new news since then.

Guess it is entirely possible for Canon to release such a lens. Time will tell. Stay tuned.

[via asobinet]

A New Pancake Lens is Coming, the ExperimentalOptics 35mm f/2.7 for FF Cameras

Experimentaloptics 35mm F/2.8
View Post

A new lens got a funding campaign at Kickstarter. The ExperimentalOptics 35mm f/2.7 full frame pancake lens claims to the “Smallest Fastest Pancake Lens in the World”.

About the mount type they say “the lens has a clever combined Leica M and M39 mount to make it universally adaptable to virtually any camera (apart from SLRs), especially any mirrorless present or future“. So not Canon DSLRs, but hopefully it will work with the Canon EOS R.

The ExperimentalOptics 35mm f/2.7 full frame pancake lens, 7mm thin, 40g light, stealth, sturdy and razor sharp. This is not just an engineering achievement, it is truly the perfect lens for photographers: it puts the least amount of glass and kit between you and your world. It’s a joy to handle and operate, a beautifully crafted object in itself, and creates absolutely stunning results. Our careful choice of focal length, aperture, design and handling allow photographers to capture the world exactly as they see it and truly express their creative vision.

This is not a toy lens. It is a special piece of equipment for professionals, aficionados and connoisseurs. We spent more than two years developing and testing it, and now it’s ready. Almost, that is, because it still needs to be produced… To bring this unique, uncompromising project to life, we’ve gone on kickstarter.

It all will be handmade and, as a result, in very limited quantities only. We expect to ship a first batch of 20 lenses in 2018 and a second batch of another 20 lenses in 2019. That should make this not only the tiniest, but also one of the rarest lenses in the world.

[Review] EF 40mm f/2.8 STM Sample Pics And Another Review

Canon’s little pancake, the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM ($199, click here), is getting a lot of attention. That’s no surprise, given the outstanding performance this lens delivers (especially in regard to its price). DPreview published sample pics shot using the EF 40mm f/2.8 STM (click here). The sample pics were shot using an EOS 5D Mark III and an EOS 5D Mark II for full-frame images, and using a Rebel T4i/650D and a Rebel T3i/600D for the APS-C images.

Our friend Carl over at photographic-central posted an exhaustive review of the pancake. Carl used a full-frame (an EOS 5D) and an APS-C camera (an EOS 50D) for his tests. His review confirms the exceptionally good performance of this pancake lens. From the conclusion:

Overall the Canon EF 40mm STM f/2.8 lens is a lot of bang for the buck. Certainly better results can be had with lenses at different focal lengths in the max magnification (macro) and bokeh categories but the 40mm STM does quite well considering its price anyway, especially so on the APS-C format. Sharpness is never an issue at f/4 and beyond on both formats, and sharpness only gets better up to f/8 corner to corner where it seems to reach its peak when all things are considered (center is barely softer at f/8 vs f/5.6). Barrel distortion at least in field conditions, is slightly noticeable but not really a problem.

Vignetting shows up even on APS-C but nearly gone at f4. Any weaknesses this lens exhibits (very few) are more pronounced on a full frame sensor but this lens still performs well over all considering its low price. Color and contrast are just phenomenal at f/4 and beyond on both formats, a highly desirable trait indeed. Flare can show up in extreme circumstances so I recommend a hand/hat/hood to combat it if its a problem for you.

EF 40mm f/2.8 STM availability and price check: [shopcountry 5686]

[Rumor] Latest About Canon’s Mirrorless Camera

Canon Mirrorless Concept by D. Riesenberg

A new rumour about Canon’s eagerly awaited mirrorless camera has surfaced. NI reports that the mirrorless system camera Canon is supposed to work on, will come “with a kit zoom and an adapter for EF lenses such as the new pancake 40mm lens“. There is also a patent for an EF adapter by Canon (see picture below), filed last year (machine translated). An EF adapter for a Canon mirrorless makes sense, especially if you consider the huge amount of excellent Canon lenses that everyone would like to use on a Canon mirrorless camera. There is a nice animation on NI, showing how much the adapter would contribute to the overall thickness (not very much) when used with the new EF 40mm f/2.8 STM ($199, click here).

Canon EF adapter

[via NI]