Every couple of months, it seems that there’s another manual focus lens from a tiny manufacturer that offers an insanely wide maximum aperture. This short video puts two newcomers head to head: the Laowa 35mm f/0.95 versus the TTArtisan 90mm f/1.25.
Venus Optics has produced a number of distinctive lenses over the last couple of years, mostly macro and ultra-wide lenses that have received generally positive reviews. I’m currently testing the Laowa 14mm f/4 FF RL, and while it has a couple of weaknesses, I’m generally impressed both with the build quality and the performance.
The 35mm f/0.95 is something new for the company, however: a far more normal focal length but with a ridiculously large maximum aperture. For TTArtisans, its 90mm f/1.25 is less of a departure as it has now produced a number of fast, manual focus lenses for a wide variety of mounts.
It’s not exactly a scientific test in this video from Kai Wong, but it’s fun to see some of the results that these lenses give. As a fan of the 7artisans 35mm f/1.4 for photographing forests during sunrise, I’d be interested to see how the Venus Optics lens fares in comparison, especially as Wong mentions that chromatic aberrations are surprisingly well controlled.
Will you be ordering either of these lenses? Let us know in the comments below.
