We would like to underline once again, that we always told told you since back in 2019, that unlike many other reports where saying, the Fujifilm X-H line is NOT canceled.
It seems that our persistance worked, as slowly I finally see the web trusting us in regard that the Fujifilm X-H2 will come.
Now we have a couple of reviews out there, and they are extremely positive.
Let’s start with opticalllimits (former photozone). Their conclusion from their full review here:
The Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO is a stunning performer with just a few minor weaknesses.
Its biggest value proposition is the excellent resolution. At f/2.8, the center is tack sharp with a hint of softness at the image corners. However, at f/5.6, the quality is as good as it gets! Lateral CAs, as well as distortions, are non-existent. There’s a tad of vignetting at fully open aperture but it’s by no means disturbing and it can be reduced by stopping down.
The quality of the bokeh is good. The foreground blur is very smooth whereas the background blur could be better. Out of focus highlights are nicely rendered at f/2.8 but you can spot that the lens doesn’t feature curved aperture blades at smaller aperture settings.
A big plus in our book is the lack of axial CAs which is already a massive achievement alone but even more so at this price point.
Not all Laowa lenses are excellent but some are and the Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO is certainly among them.
Canon, Fujifilm & the likes have reasons to get a little nervous by now.
As of today, Laowa is still a niche player today but once they’ll be able to source the necessary parts for implementing AF and electronic coupling, they’ll be heading straight for the mainstream.
Also Jonas Rask reviewed the Laowa 65mm f/2.8 here. Among tons of great samples, he writes:
I really shouldn’t be surprised by Laowa offering high quality at a very affordable price. The last couple of lenses that I’ve used from them have all been stellar performers, and the Laowa 65mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO is probably the best of them so far. It’s incredibly versatile. Incredibly sharp. Renders beautiful out of focus areas and focus falloff while keeping it all in a very well-built compact package. This is indeed another hit lens from Laowa if you ask me. And I’m not even into macro!
Fantastic reviews also from Christopher Forst and Micael Widell. You can see their videos below.
Petersburg, VA, USA, Feb 21, 2020: Metabones® and Caldwell Photographic Inc. are pleased to jointly announce the NF – GFX mount Expander 1.26x. It allows Nikon F mount lenses to be mounted on Fujifilm GFX camera bodies without getting dark and / or soft corners. The magnification factor of 1.26x perfectly matches the image circle of the full-frame Nikon lenses to the medium-format sensor of the GFX series cameras, and therefore the diagonal FOV remains exactly the same.
The optical design consists of 5 elements in 3 groups, incorporating ultra-high index Lanthanum based optical glass as well as one element made of fused silica, resulting in extremely good performances with professional-grade f/2.8 zoom lenses. For example, a 24-70mm f/2.8 lens becomes a 30-88mm f/3.5 zoom, and a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens becomes an 88-252mm f/3.5 zoom. Please note that because of the nature of focal extenders, the aperture values decrease by 2/3 of a stop; f/2.8 becomes f/3.5 and f/2 becomes f/2.5. High-speed fixed focal length lenses such as the 50mm f/1.4 will be transformed into a very fast standard lens 63mm f/1.8 for the GFX system.
The GFX mount Expander features Metabones’ unique manual G aperture adjustment mechanism, which has the same angular throw distance as earlier Nikon Ai/AiS lenses, which features a linearized f-stop adjustment as a function of aperture ring adjustment angle. The mechanism is clickless in order to maximize its usefulness to cinematographers.
