Venus Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D Review

Venus Optics is a rather new name in the camera world, but it has quickly garnered the attention of enthusiast photographers with its line of high-quality, affordable manual focus lenses.

The Venus Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D ($499) is one of its unique offerings, covering a wider angle than any first-party option, and doing so without introducing a ton of barrel distortion to images.

For some photographers, a lack of autofocus is a non-starter, but if you're willing to dial in focus adjustments yourself, and want a very wide perspective on the world, consider picking this one up.

Small and Light

The 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D is impressively compact.

It measures 2.4 by 2.1 inches (HD) and weighs just 7.6 ounces.

A lens hood is included; it's removable and reversible for storage in your bag, and you have the ability to add front filters to the lens via a standard 49mm thread.

The barrel is finished in black, with a blue accent ring at the front, matching the look of other Venus lenses.

It's offered for Canon, Sony, and Fujifilm mirrorless cameras, and offers coverage for an APS-C image sensor.

I tested the lens with a Fujifilm body, so I can't speak to how it would work with a full-frame Sony camera.

But, given the darkened corners I see in APS-C images, I imagine you'd be greeted by a dark circle around an image.

In full-frame terms it captures a 13.5mm angle of view, which puts the lens squarely in the ultra-wide territory.

There's no autofocus, but you do get a distance scale on the lens itself, which shows the set focus distance (measured from the image sensor plane) in feet and meters.

It's accompanied by a depth of field scale, with markings from f/2.8 through f/11 in full-stop increments.

I do wish there were a few more marked focal lengths on the barrel itself.

When focusing by scale at f/8, for example, putting the infinity marker on the left f/8 notch gives me confidence that distant subjects are in focus, but I have to guess a bit as to what the close focus distance is.

It's about halfway between 0.66 and 1.64 feet, so probably a foot, but a few extra distance marks would come in handy.

The manual focus ring turns smoothly, with some resistance, for precise adjustments.

It has a long throw, about 170 degrees, so you have a lot of control over the exact focus point when working at close distances.

The lens can lock on as close as 4.8 inches (0.12-meter).

Its not going to deliver macro results—magnification is 1:7.5 at best—but it does deliver the close-up, wide-angle look that many love.

Focusing manually using an EVF is typically easier than using the optical viewfinders in modern SLRs.

It's easy to zoom in on a small portion of the frame to make sure you're focused perfectly, and tools like focus peaking—available on many models—and split image (currently exclusive to Fujifilm camera models) allow you to nail focus without magnification.

Focus is also less critical with a wider focal length—there's a lot more depth of field at 9mm f/2.8 than at 50mm f/1.4, for example—so if you haven't tried a manual lens before, you shouldn't discount one out of fear that you'll not be able to capture properly focused images.

The aperture ring is located toward the mount, but far enough ahead to turn comfortably.

It can be adjusted from f/2.8 through f/22 in full-stop increments.

There are no other controls or toggle switches.

The lens doesn't have any sort of electronics—it's purely mechanical, so it doesn't transmit any EXIF data to your camera.

There's also no image stabilization.

Canon has yet to put in-body stabilization into its cameras, but you could pair it with the Fujiflim X-H1 or Sony a6500 to enjoy the benefits of stabilization.

I wouldn't worry about it for stills—it's pretty easy to handhold a sharp shot at 9mm—but if you plan on using the lens for handheld video work, pairing it with a body with a stabilized sensor is recommended.

Image Quality: Very Sharp, A Little Distortion

I tested the Zero-D with the 24MP Fujifilm X-Pro2.

The lens scores well in benchmark tests.

At f/2.8 it manages 2,621 lines on Imatest's center-weighted sharpness test, much better than the 1,800 lines we want to see at a minimum from a 24MP sensor.

Center resolution is outstanding (3,289 lines), but detail is lessened as you move toward the edges of the frame.

The mid parts (between center and edges) show 2,389 lines, which is a very good result, but the edges are soft, at 1,632 lines.

But the periphery gets better at f/4 (2,019 lines), as does the overall average—2,756 lines.

We see about 3,200 lines in the center and 2,704 at the mid parts.

The lens is at its best at f/5.6 (2,828 lines), f/8 (2,943 lines), and f/11 (2,807 lines).

Edge performance hovers around 2,150 lines at all three stops, with the rest of the frame showing better than 3,000 lines.

See How We Test Digital Cameras

Diffraction sets in at f/16, cutting the average score to 1,912 lines.

At f/22 the lens manages just 1,666 lines.

Skip using those settings if possible.

Venus bills the lens as Zero-D—zero distortion—and while barrel distortion is very well controlled for a lens with such a wide field of view, it's not completely absent.

Our distortion analysis is performed at a close focus distance, where you'll see the effect most clearly, and Imatest reports about 2.9 percent barrel distortion.

At longer distances, like the ones you'll use for landscapes and architectural work, barrel distortion is negligible.

That's not to say that you don't need to take care when shooting with such a wide lens.

You absolutely do.

Shooting from a skewed perspective is your enemy—in the image below, you can see how the lily pads stretch unnaturally at the edge of the frame when shot from an angle.

Keeping the camera parallel and level to your subject is key to completely eliminate distorted elements when working wide.

There's also a serious vignette—darkened edges and corners—even when narrowing the f-stop.

It's most prounced at f/2.8, with the corners of the frame falling behind the center by 4.9 stops (-4.9EV).

The deficit closes as you stop down—we see -3.7EV at f/4, -3.2EV at f/5.6, -2.9EV at f/8, and about -2.7EV at smaller settings.

Thankfully you can brighten the edges of the frame fairly easily using software, but since such an extreme push is needed to bring them all the way up in line with the center, the introduction of image noise is a concern.

You should definitely shoot in Raw format if you plan on brightening the vignette, and you'll enjoy better results if you keep your camera's ISO low.

Conclusions: Crisp, Wide, Compact

Venus Optics continues to develop lenses that fill in gaps not covered by first-party manufacturers.

You simply can't buy a Canon, Fujifilm, or Sony lens that's as wide as the Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D, and certainly not one with an f/2.8 aperture.

Canon has an 11-22mm f/4-5.6, Fujiflm a 10-24mm f/4, and Sony a 10-18mm f/4.

The Canon zoom is less expensive than the 9mm Zero-D, but the Fujifilm and Sony options are pricier.

The 9mm f/2.8 doesn't offer as much convenience as zooming alternatives.

There's no autofocus or image stabilization, for example.

But it will make fans of prime lenses happy with crisp results and a bright design, and it's not that difficult to hit your focus with a modern mirrorless camera.

If you like the idea of the lens, you'll like the lens itself.