Introduction
There are many macro lenses out there, but somehow the OEMs forgot the 180mm class. Such lenses were readily available during the DSLR era. It seems that Laowa was the first one to notice this, so let’s welcome the Laowa AF 180mm f/4.5 APO Ultra macro. The AF version of the lens is available in E-, Z-, and Canon EF mounts. L- and Canon RF are only supported with fully manual versions. Now, you may have immediately noticed “Canon EF” in this list, so yes, this is a dual DSLR/mirrorless lens. This may not be ideal in terms of lens size (length, to be precise) for mirrorless mounts, but this is probably a compromise related to the market size for such a lens. Laowa decided to go for a comparatively slow speed of f/4.5. While this isn’t an issue for a macro lens, some users may have wished for a little bit more speed flexibility for generic use cases. Having said that, the pricing is very competitive at just $499 USD ($939 AUD).
The build quality is quite excellent, really. The lens body is made of metal with a gunmetal-ish color. This includes the silky smooth focus ring. Apropos focus ring – it has a rather curious implementation. Normal lenses have a dedicated AF/MF switch. Not so on the Laowa lens. Here you actually turn the focus ring “past” infinity into AF mode. This has its pros and cons. On the upside, it’s trivial to switch between modes – you don’t have to “search” for a usually very clicky AF switch somewhere on the lens but just turn the broad focus ring. On the downside, you can’t prefocus using AF and then continue in MF mode. However, for macro scenes, you tend to use manual focusing anyway, and most users tend to use AF for all conventional scenes anyway. Also note that the AF works only from 1.5m to infinity, thus not at macro distances. It is surprisingly fast and accurate, though. A barrel-shaped lens hood is provided, as you can see below.
In terms of macro capabilities, the lens supports a maximum object magnification of 1.5:1 and a working distance of just 14.7cm.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Optical construction | 12 elements in 9 groups, incl. 2x ED, 1x UHR |
| Number of aperture blades | 9 |
| min. focus distance | 0.3m (max. magnification 1.5x), working distance: 0.147m |
| Dimensions | Ø 67.6 x 134.4m (Canon RF: Ø 67.6x 88.4mm) |
| Weight | 521g |
| Filter size | Ø 62mm |
| Hood | barrel-shaped (bayonet mount, supplied) |
| Available Mounts | AF: Sony FE, Nikon Z, Canon EF MF: Canon RF, L-mount |
| Other features | USB-C port for firmware updates Focus stop button |
Distortions
The Nikon Z-mount version doesn’t support distortion auto-correction. However, the image distortion is low at less than 0.5%, so this shouldn’t be an issue for most applications.
Vignetting
RAW images show a moderate light falloff at f/4.5 at just 1 EV (f-stop). Stopping down by a stop reduces this to a negligible degree already. Auto-correct IS available for vignetting, and this will solve the issue at f/4.5 already.
MTF (resolution) at 45 megapixels (infinity)
The Laowa AF 180mm f/4.5 APO Ultra macro delivered solid resolution results in the lab. The quality isn’t tack sharp at f/4.5, but the center quality is very good, with slightly worse results in the outer image field. The contrast is also slightly reduced at this setting. However, the sweet spot is already reached at f/5.6 – including decent contrast. The center quality is excellent here, and the near-center is also boosted. The borders/corners remain good to very good. Diffraction sets in at f/8 which is mostly impacting the image center. f/11 remains pretty good, whereas image quality takes a more noticeable hit at f/16, and, of course, f/22.
The centering quality of the tested sample was good. There was no relevant field curvature.
Please note that the MTF results are not directly comparable across the different systems!
Below is a simplified summary of the formal findings. The chart shows line widths per picture height (LW/PH), which can be taken as a measure of sharpness. If you would like to know more about the MTF50 figures, you may check out the corresponding Imatest Explanations.
Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)
Lateral CAs are comparatively high despite the “APO” designation. They are moderate at large aperture settings but increase gradually to a maximum average pixel width of 2px at the image borders when stopping down all the way to f/22.
Bokeh
Image sharpness is one thing, but you always operate with shallow depth-of-field in macro scenes. And an 180mm f/4.5 is still good enough for some decent background blur in many conventional scenes as well. So let’s check out the bokeh.
Out-of-focus highlights are beautifully rendered with a smooth inner zone and “feathered” edges. This is very rare. It almost feels like an apodization lens here. Stopping down maintains the nice blur. A more edgy aperture shape creeps in at f/8.
When looking at the rendering across the whole image frame, we can spot the usual deterioration to “cat eyes” beyond the midfield. They are mostly gone by f/8.
The background bokeh (shown to the left below) is exceptionally silky in the focus transition zone. The less important foreground blur isn’t quite as superb with a somewhat “shadowy” character.
Competition
As of today, there is no other dedicated long macro AF lens available in Z-mount.
Sample Images
The Laowa AF 180mm f/4.5 APO Ultra Macro is a more unusual lens than the paper specs may suggest. The formal optical parameters are good without standing out. Image sharpness is decent at f/4.5, but you should stop down to f/5.6 to extract the best quality. Image distortions are low, and vignetting isn't something to worry about. Lateral CAs are a bit on the high side. The aspect that impressed us the most was the silky smooth bokeh - at least in the image background.
Mechanically, there are a couple of curiosities. Combining the focus ring with an AF/MF switch is an interesting approach, which you may or may not love. The decision to limit the AF to a minimum of 1.5m is also something that we haven't seen before. Given that most 200mm-ish lenses can't focus much closer anyway, we'd state that this isn't fundamentally wrong, though. The AF itself is surprisingly quick for a third-party manufacturer. In terms of build quality, Laowa continues to impress with a tightly assembled metal body. The flattened part on the focus barrel showing the Laowa logo is pretty stylish and also nicely tactile. Some degree of weather sealing would have been nice, though.
Overall, the Laowa AF 180mm f/4.5 APO Ultra Macro may not be a crowd-pleaser, but we certainly enjoyed our time with this lens. So, maybe you could as well.
The Good
- Silky smooth background bokeh
- AF surprisingly fast
- Very precise manual focing
- Nicely sharp from f/5.6
- 1.5x max object magnification
The Bad
- Hybrid DSLR/mirrorless design
- Contrast a bit low at f/4.5
- AF limited to distances > 1.5m
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Optical Quality
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Build Quality
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Price / Performance