35mm focal length is my favorite focal length as I found it a super versatile focal length and similar to the human eye vision. So I’m super excited to review the latest lens from Laowa, the Laowa Argus 35mm f/0.95 FF. It is the fastest full-frame 35mm lens in the world and also the world’s widest f/0.95 full frame lens!
Design & Build Quality
Laowa Argus 35mm f/0.95 FF is a fully mechanical, fully manual lens designed for a full-frame mirrorless camera. The lens is available for Sony E, Nikon Z, and Canon R mount. If you are an L mount shooter and wondering why there is no L mount version, I was wondering about that too and asked the Laowa founder, Mr. Li, directly. He told me it’s purely because of the extruded rear design of the lens, there is just not enough space for them to create the L mount version. So unfortunately you won’t see an L mount version of this lens, at least not now. Maybe one day Mr. Li and his team can figure out a solution.
The lens’s body is fully made of metal and it’s quite a large and heavy lens. The weight of this lens is around 755g. Last night, I went out with my Nikon Z 6 with the Argus mounted on it. After a 2 hours walk around the city just holding the camera, I didn’t use any camera strap and my fingers felt sore after that. But we have to remember it is a full-frame f/0.95 lens so the size and weight are quite reasonable. The lens comes with a removable lens hood and the front filter thread is 72mm.
The focus ring is at the front of the lens and it is very well dampened. The focus throw is really quite long at 270 degrees. Unusually I like long focus throw especially for an ultra-fast manual focus lens to get the precise focus control. But I still think 270 degrees may be a bit too long. For example, if I want to change from near focus to 3 meters, I need to do a few turns to complete that focus transition. I feel a bit shorter focus throw, maybe 180 degrees could be a better compromise between speed and accuracy?
Now while I don’t 100% like the manual focus ring design, the aperture ring is a different story. I remember one of the things I didn’t like about the Argus 33mm lens was its de-clicked aperture ring design, which I think is not a good choice for a lens that a lot of photographers would want to buy. I even talked to Laowa about it a few times and they promised they will look into it for their future argus lens. And this time with this argus 35mm, the aperture ring has a switchable aperture ring design! You can choose between having clicks or de-clicked using the switch on the lens. For me, I love having clicks as it’s more satisfying to use and avoid changing the aperture by mistake. But if you prefer to have a smooth de-clicked aperture ring, yeah you can just make the aperture de-clicked easily by flicking the switch.
If you are wondering what does f/0.95 aperture means, here is a set of photos I shot at the different apertures. From maximum aperture f/0.95 to minimum aperture f/16
Not only the depth of field (DOF) changes dramatically as changing the aperture setting, the ISO I shot at was also much lower once I moved to f/0.95. There is almost a one-stop ISO difference just between f/0.95 and f/1.4.
Close Focus / Macro
The minimum focus distance of the Argus 35mm f/0.95 lens is 0.5m and that would give you the maximum magnification ratio of 0.1x. It is not a really high magnification ratio for a 35mm lens but that didn’t stop me from having some fun and did some toy photography using this Laowa lens.
Image Sharpness
The center sharpness at f/0.95 is already pretty good. The maximum center sharpness can be obtained when the lens is stopped down to f/4.
The corner is quite soft at f/0.95. When stopped down to f/2, it becomes a lot sharper and becomes sharp enough for most usage. And just like the center, the maximum sharpness is at around f/4.
Bokeh
When shooting at maximum aperture, there is quite a bit of bokeh clipping and cat’s eye effect near the edge of the frame. It is not super swirly bokeh like a Helios 44 lens but the cat’s eye is quite noticeable especially when taking close-up photos.
If you don’t like that, you need to stop down the lens to around f/2 to get rid of that.
The bokeh balls could also have a bit of halo ring at the edge. It is not very serious, but if you zoom in on the photo you will see it.
When you stop down the lens, the bokeh balls remains very round and smooth thanks to the 15 aperture blade design
Bokeh from this lens definitely has some special character.
Vignetting
There is some strong vignetting at f/0.95, which is pretty normal for an ultra-fast lens. Stopping down to f/1.4 would improve vignetting quite a bit, At f/2.8, vignetting becomes not really noticeable.
Chromatic Aberration
I don’t see much color fringing in most of my real-world photos. But while I do see a bit of color fringing in my high contrast test photo, the amount of color fringing is quite acceptable for an f/0.95 lens.
My Longitude Chromatic Aberration (LOCA) test photo also shows only a small amount of color fringing. So overall, for an f/0.95 lens, I’m quite happy with this lens chromatic aberration control.
Distortion
Look at this brick wall photo, you can see a small amount of distortion. While it’s not a Zero-D lens, i think distortion control is still really good with this Laowa Argus lens.
Lens flare
When shooting into the sun on a sunny day, there is only a small amount of lens flare. When shooting at night, I see a bit more lens flare. Stop down to f/1.2 could get rid of a large amount of lens flare. But overall, it is better than most f/0.95 lenses I’ve tested and also better than the Laowa Argus 33mm f/0.95 lens I’ve reviewed not too long ago.
Sun Stars
Laowa quite often chooses the 5 aperture blade design for a lot of their lenses which creates beautiful 10 points sunstars but that sacrifices the bokeh as the bokeh balls would turn into pentagon shape as soon as you stop down the lens even just slightly.
So this time with this Argus 35mm lens, Laowa chose a 15 aperture blade design, which delivers nice and round bokeh balls.. But what about the sunstars?
Starting from f/5.6, sunstars become quite easy to spot. And when you stop down to the minimum aperture f/16, the 30 points sunstars are very sharp and clean.
Personally, I prefer the 10 points sunstars from the 5 aperture blade Laowa lenses as I like sun stars with a simple pattern, but the sunstars from this Argus lens still look pretty decent.
Astro/Coma
A 35mm f/0.95 could be a dream lens for astrophotography as it can capture a wide-angle view at lower ISO. So let’s have a look at this Argus lens’s coma performance.
This is a photo I shot at the maximum aperture of f/0.95. Because of the ultra-fast aperture, I shot this photo at ISO 3600 at 1sec shutter speed, I could even just shot it at ISO1600 at a slightly longer exposure time. This would allow me to get a much cleaner photo when compared to an f/2 or even f/1.4 lens.
I can see quite a bit of coma at the corner of the photo. But to be fair, for a full-frame f/0.95 lens that is under $1000, it is not bad. If you want to minimize the coma, you can stop down the lens to f/2. While it still doesn’t completely remove all the coma, the amount of coma is now at a very minimal level.
Price:
Canon RF: https://amzn.to/3GiqkOH
Sony E: https://amzn.to/33lUCBR
Nikon Z: https://amzn.to/3tnVdh0
Final Thoughts
I love ultra-fast lenses, I love shooting with them at the maximum aperture. And that’s exactly what I did when reviewing this lens. Most of the photos were shot at f/0.95 as it really brings out the character of this Argus 35mm f/0.95 lens.
I would love to use it as my everyday lens as I love the full-frame 35mm focal length and the 0.95 not only allows me to separate my subject from the background easily, I can also shoot at a really dark area without needing to have a tripod.
However, as an everyday lens, this is not a small or lightweight setup at all. You need to keep that in mind if you are thinking of getting it as your everyday lens.
In terms of image quality, for a full-frame 0.95 lens that is less than US$900, there would be compromises. Quite a lot of compromises. Otherwise, the Nikkor Z 58mm f/0.95 not, which is also a manual focus lens wouldn’t be US$8000. This Argus lens is only 10% the price of the Nikkor. With that in mind, I think Laowa did a very good job as the lens delivers quite decent overall image quality even when shooting at the maximum aperture.
Yes, there are a few limitations, for example, the image is a bit soft when shooting at the minimum focus distance at f/0.95. Or the heavy vignetting at/near f/0.95. But I don’t think any of these are deal-breakers if you are interested in this lens. The thing I don’t like the most is actually the long focus throw of the manual focus ring. Especially when switching between minimum focus distance to 3m, you have to keep turning and turning the focus ring. Again, it’s not a deal-breaker and this is pretty much the only thing I could complain about this lens.
