Laowa 50mm 2x Macro for mft review

WORD OF CAUTION UPDATE: in 2023 the lens started miscommunicating the aperture and eventually lost all connection to the camera making it unusable (not even wide open, it just shows black unless you don't align the contacts), Laowa support didn't answer my email about this issue and warranty is going to expire this month, I'll update if/when this gets solved.
It's now my sharpest lens wide open, but the best part is getting the ff eq. of 4x magnification without the lens extending and without the need of any attachment, there are other lenses (even from Laowa) doing this but now it's the first time they used electronic contacts on m4/3 and it's also their first macro designed specifically for m4/3 so there's no wasted image circle, it's as small as it can be.
*the pair of beetles at 5:26 aren't Chrysomelidae, but Tenebrionidae
Lens price at launch (2020) is U$399, you can check how it is nowadays on: www.venuslens.net/product/lao...
or through my Amazon affiliate: amzn.to/38SynE0
Written review in case you prefer to read it: blog.primalshutter.com/blog/eq...
My flickr gallery for this lens, in which I'll be uploading more in the coming weeks: www.flickr.com/photos/techuse...
Forest clips were filmed with the Fuji XT2 and Rokinon 12/2
Music is Jarabi played by George Smerin

[@mr_k4tz]

Great review! Thanks for the info

[@rudolfabelin383]

Thanks for a very good video!
I am tempted.

[@TheNormalUniverse]

lovely video. It looks like you do a really good job nailing focus. If you ever make a video sharing your tips and technique I would love to learn about it. Thank you

[@PrimalShutter]

Thanks, I'm starting to take some phone videos of me shooting sometimes to make a technique video one day, generally I'm at ISO400-800 F8-10 and flashes vary a lot, most of the time it's one mounted on a bracket and another handheld on the left

[@knowyouryoga]

Hi I own a g9 and an a7iii would you recommend buying macro for full frame or MFT and which lens would you recommend? Thanks 🙏🏼

[@juankamilo]

Would you say this is a good lens for digitizing 35mm negatives?

[@vinaybysani]

this is outstanding images coming from mft. Do you do image stacking ?

[@PrimalShutter]

Thanks, I do short stacks sometimes but not often, in this video 3 photos are stacked

[@michalsiegel9213]

Thabky you for the review. Just a technical note, you get 2x magnification, not 4x. You have crop factor 2x so 50mm lens appear like 100mm, but you still get 2:1 magnification on your sensor. It is Just 2x smaller than a FF sensor, but crop factor does not affect the magnification at all.

[@theeventguru]

I nearly ordered the laowa, but will probably stick with the olympus 30mm. If you had 1 choice between laowa and olympus 30mm with or without the tubes, which combo would you go with?

[@PrimalShutter]

50mm as I'm basically always at higher magnification than 1:1, but I like the wider perspective of the 30mm for bigger subjects, I'd keep both if budget allows it

[@CallmeBigfat]

Late reply lol

[@allencrider]

You can get an Olympus 60mm macro lens right now for $399. And it has autofocus.

[@philipgriffiths9859]

The Olympus is a good lens but I think the Laowa is sharper and will give two times magnification. Autofocus doesn't seem that useful for macro work. So even though the prices are similar I think you can still make a case for the Laowa.

[@mrmior2051]

@@philipgriffiths9859 I'm thinking to have this lens. I already have M. Zuiko 60mm..
I take burst shots around 20-30 depends on subject and stack it in Zerene with manual focus..
Do you think Laowa 50mm is better option compare to M. Zuiko 60mm?