When planning a trip, I try to select a diverse mix of photographic opportunities combined with typical “tourist” activities as well as keeping to my goal of travelling light.
Italy was the location this past October where I have vacationed several times in the past 10 years. I am always amazed by the beauty of Italy, so it was easy to find many photographic opportunities. Travelling light was another issue as I needed to ensure that I have the right camera gear to capture a wide variety of scenarios.
I shoot with the Fujifilm mirrorless system. My current travel kit contains the Fujifilm X-E3 and X-T20 bodies with the Fujifilm XF 14mm, XF 18-55mm, XF 23mmF:2, XF 55-200mm, and the newly added Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D along with the usual accessories of a tripod and various ND and polariser filters.
My first experience with the Laowa 9mm was when it arrived at the store. The internet buzz was out there, and we were excited to see it in person. Right off the bat, the size is what did it. I had recently switched my Fujifilm f/1.4 lenses to the more compact f/2 versions. After playing around with Laowa’s 9mm at the store, I was sold as were two of my colleagues!
Since this lens is manual focus and has no data connections, it does require you to set up in the camera. First, the camera must be set to “Shoot without lens” on. Also, I set the “Focus Peaking” on and rely on focus magnification to obtain critical focus. The reality is that at f/8, this lens is sharp from about 4 feet to infinity. Although there appears to be fall off at the widest aperture f/2.8, stopping down brings this into control. Should any further tweaking is required, I can do it in post processing, so not an issue for me.
Another feature that drew me to this lens was the fact that it will accept a 49mm filter. I tested this lens with 6 and 10 stop slim ND filters using a 49-62mm step up ring. I use these filters frequently and the Laowa handled them nicely. I also favoured the way this lens looks when set my aspect ratio to 16:9. Because of the extreme wide angle of this lens I find it helpful to have the gridline function also set in the camera viewfinder.
I have always been drawn to wide and ultra-wide lenses so using a lens that has corrected the distortion associated with wide focal lengths is a major plus for me.
Having this lens in my kit has opened a lot of opportunities for me and has allowed me to explore many different areas in my photography. I was pleasantly surprised by the build and quality of this lens. It performed very well for me in all the situations, whether it was in a museum, on the streets or shooting landscapes.
I have several planned adventures over the next year and will be sure to include this little gem as part of my equipment pack.
About the Author
Chris Screech is an avid landscape and travel photographer and is the Floor Manager at Leo’s Camera Supply in Vancouver.
Wooo HOoo …. a great lens being used by a great photographer leads to, as see above, great photos 🙂