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Bomba Ton photo
1 Level
785 Review
64 Karma

Review on Venus Ultra Macro Micro Thirds by Bomba Ton

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Update: Losing communication with GX85, outdated firmware.

Update: I've had this lens for a few weeks now and yesterday I encountered an issue where it loses its electronic connection to the camera which means that I don't No preview of aperture changes in manual mode and the camera seems to slow down. This is very frustrating for videos for a number of reasons: I can't see what the actual video would look like and it also takes up to 7 seconds for the video recording to start. I thought my camera had problems but tried other lenses and the problem went away and I found that quickly removing and reinserting the lens fixed the problem suggesting that the contacts were bad or it was not seated properly. Update 4/12/21: contacted Laowa and they said the firmware was out of date and wanted me to send it to them in China. Apparently they don't have the ability to update the firmware for the user. The return window closed the day before it stopped working. So if you're buying, see if you can do so through an authorized reseller. I guess I'll post it and hope it works as it's pretty useless at the moment to attach it after every shot. Original review: I take a lot of insect photos, but macro lenses made specifically for the M43 format are limited. I like the Olympus 60mm, but I envy the lenses the company makes for other formats. Well, not anymore! From the first shots, this lens seems to be as sharp as the Oly, although I'm shooting at a wider aperture (around f6 instead of f9, which I think was the best combination of sharpness and depth of field on my Olympus). . The lens works great with the Panasonic GX85 and manual focusing isn't a problem as it's not an electronic mechanism like Oly's (i.e. doesn't rotate forever) I can easily feel when I'm in the 2:1 position . The only odd thing is that it focuses beyond infinity, which is indicated by blurring, and the display is behind the infinity symbol. Maybe I don't know about this function? I look forward to spending plenty of time with this lens as the insects begin to emerge from hibernation. Hello Laova! Get started with your ultra-wide MFT macro now! I know you can do it! Note: The images uploaded are raw JPG files straight from the camera, uncropped and unedited with slight brightness adjustments so you can see the zoom.

Pros
  • Aperture range: f/2.8 to f/22
Cons
  • No paint required