Laowa 9mm f/5.6 FF RL on A7r3

[e6filmuser]

This lens arrived a couple of days ago.

I have scarcely used the camera (purchased during lockdown) and had taken only a brief look at what it can do indoors. (There is no significant architecture close to home).

These shots at f11 are of the inside of my local pub. The bar area is very small, just enough for small tables and for people to walk last them. The bar has a temporary frame, holding perspex, around it.

My first images were from triple flash bounced of the ceiling. However, the daylight shots were significantly sharper.

The distance markings on the lens has similar spacing between 3 feet & 5 feet and between 5 feet and infinity. So focus peaking is very useful. I could do better with another session.










Crosseye stereo:

[caspert79]

9mm on ff, amazing 😳

[e6filmuser]

I use UWAs for access, where I cannot get the subject in the frame with other lenses, not for creative use.

An occasional use, with its close focus, might be where e.g. a hollow tree has something of interest inside which will allow the camera, or just the lens, to be inserted, together with a flash source. I have already done this, with a slime mould deep inside a compost bin, but the focus was not quite right, as I could not get my eye close to the camera.

[visualopsins]

Nothing is sharp!

[e6filmuser]

[e6filmuser]

I found the problem. It is not focus but RAW conversion which loses the detail. MY PS can't read the files. The alteernative is not good enough so I did some quickies shots at top Quality JPEGs shot at f11 with triple bounced flash from 4-6 feet:



Crop

[e6filmuser]

Here are the two bar images, reprocessed from RAW to Tiff in Sony Imaging Edge and then via the normal Photoshop route.

Sharp and with no ghosts.






Crop:

[e6filmuser]

Here is another reworked version, which shows that I didn't chose the focus quite right. It does show how a huge car park can be framed.

One likely application of the lens hers is with classic car meetings, where i have used the Laowa 12mm (and the 7.5mm for m4/3) to good effect. I kept away from the recent meeting as coping with a new lens and social distancing was a bit too much.

[Sciolist]

I'm just looking at the colours. They're great to my eyes. Particularly the kitchen shot. Do you think that's the lens, or the software?

[e6filmuser]

[e6filmuser]

This is an image, which I had rejected before identifying the problem with RAW image conversion.

This is a slime mould, about a hand span across. It was inside a compost bin, on top of the decaying plant matter, some 45cm /18 inches down. I could just reach to place the camera and lens at working distance, +/- 2"/50mm in place. There was no chance of using the eye-level screen and judging focus of an UWA lens on a distant screen is hopeless. I had previously placed two RC freestanding flash unit at that level.

Due to the issues identified earlier, together with the sloping colony. I rejected the images. I then tried to harvest the substrate bearing the colony, only to flip it over.

A revisit to the RAW images via Sony software found the images to be usable, if not perfect. It was almost certainly f11.

The species is likely to be Badhamia utricularis.

[Sciolist]

[e6filmuser]

[stevemark]

Thanks for sharing these images! When the lens was introduced, I honestly thought it would result in "crazy" images, just like any fisheye lens. Your samples have convinced me that images taken with the 9 mm Laowa are less difficult to "read" than I had thought before!

S

[e6filmuser]

[visualopsins]

[e6filmuser]

This is a 22cm wide view of a flash-lit clock and a crop. I think I used f8.

The RAW file was converted to a TIFF in Sony Viewer and given minimal processing and resizing in Photoshop.

The clock has no glass cover so there is much detail in the dust.