Review on 📷 Laowa Venus 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D Lens - Nikon F Mount by Bobby Montoya

I am surprised by the quality of this lens. When I saw this on Kickstarter I was hesitant, but since I've gotten into astrophotography lately and am looking at a much wider angle than before, I decided to give it a try. In fact, I ordered several lenses at once: this one, Irix Blackstone 15mm/2.4, Zeiss Mulvis 15/2.8, Sigma Art 24/1.4 and Zeiss Otus 28/1.4. I was happy with all of them, but the Irix couldn't match the IQ of [unsurprisingly] Mulvis, so I sent the Irix back. FWIW this is a steal for its price, very well made and if I didn't have a Zeiss to compare I would probably keep the Irix. At least on Laowa. It's quite small and light. You can carry it around all day, although the 12mm lens is so extreme you might just want to keep it handy rather than use it as a hiking lens. Manual focus, sure, but with all that depth of field it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what's sharpest. The markings on the lens [focus, hyperfocal and aperture] are fairly legible in all but the lowest light conditions. Having a hyper focus area is very nice. Focus is smooth and comfortable, and the lens stays where you focus it. The aperture ring has good locking levels, but can also be adjusted between each level. I read a review that suggested the Nikon D810 misread a lens's aperture information by one stop. It may have been an early production model, but that wasn't the case with my D810A or D4S. Why 5 stars? Well, it's not a Zeiss, but it's a really amazing lens. There's nothing like FF. He's really straight forward. I have a Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 AF II DG HSM lens for Nikon DSLRs [not the newer Art Lens] which is an autofocus advantage, but it's nowhere near as sharp like this lens and significantly more distorted. For me it's not a competition. It's compact, looks well made and is a pretty attractive price point. I have no idea if there is something similar. Therefore for me 5 stars for performance and price.