Laowa Argus 33mm F0.95 review by Marc Alhadeff: “the best 33-35mm F0.95 for Sony APSC camera “

Lens at BHphoto and Venuslens.net (worldwide shipment).

Here is Marc Alhadeffs take on this lens:

Build quality is top notch , weight (580g) & price (500$) are quite high for an APSC lens

The sharpness is already good wide open with a good contrast. Corners are weaker than the centre as expected but their behavior is but much better than on the 7 Artisans 35mm F0.95 or the Mitakon 35mm F0.95 Mark II, which make the Laowa more versatile than its alternatives

The Laowa 33mm F0.95 will be excellent for portraits and objects details, with a beautiful rendering for skin tones, good sharpness wide open and creamy background blur, nice bokeh balls; at F2.8 the lens is tack sharp.

It will be also ideal for street photography when you want to isolate your subject and have the rest of the street in the blur (very nice 3D effect). For photography in dark situation it’s F0.95 will help not to increase too much ISO, but pay attention to direct light sources has the resistance to flare at f0.95 is weak with big halo effect.

Alternatives

• The 7 Artisans 35mm F0.95 : 250$ is a budget lens providing similar sharpness in the centre, same creamy background blur and excellent color rendition at half the price and a much lesser weight. But this lens exhibit much more color fringing at F0.95 and has much weaker corners
• The Mitakon 35mm F0.95 Mark II (600$) is not a bad lens : it has similar sharpness in the centre and nice background blur, but its show its age with weak corners, some color shift and much less good color rendition

Globally the Laowa is the best 33-35mm F0.95 for Sony APSC camera