My 2020 Lens Of The Year: The Laowa 9mm

In a world of giant small steps, this is a small giant one

“At Sunset” With the Laowa 9mm, f/5.6. Photo by Josh S. Rose, 2020.

Remarkably, for such catastrophic times, every major manufacturer put new products out this year. Fujifilm delivered the much-hyped X-T4, pretty much perfecting the cropped sensor camera. Panasonic managed the S1H, offering professional videography in a mirrorless handheld. Canon only launched the EOS R6, effectively perfecting the full-frame hybrid stills/video mirrorless category. The new Nikon Z6 II and Sony A7 III also figured out how to launch full frame mirrorless masters. That’s a lot for one year. But this year wasn’t just about the big guns — we saw the Mavic Air 2 further enable aerial photography and videography, a host of companies offering a suddenly-essential array of anamorphic lenses and action cameras, too. Expectedly, but less discussed, all of these manufacturers have also been busy bringing new lenses to market, too. Sony has probably been most prolific with a large array of new glass, including updates to the heralded G Master edition — new gold standards in the zoom category. The rest are playing catch up as fast as they can, launching new lenses with a whole variety of features — including new levels of weather resistance. And, of course, the reigning champion of prime lenses, the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 came out with their mirrorless equivalent this year, too.

And while each of those announcements comes with giant press releases and a flurry of blogging, vlogging and article-writing, it’s hard sometimes to understand the importance of any of it outside the obvious self-importance. When comparing the X-T4 to the X-T3 or X-H1, for example, the launch seems more like a tip-toe forward. In fact, nearly everything mentioned above falls into a category of hyped incremental change — perhaps, more than anything, the truest reflection of 2020. Maybe an entire generation.

As a working professional in photography, your main purchases aren’t inspired by what camera companies suddenly have, but what you suddenly lack. The day you’re most likely to buy a 24–70mm lens is not the day Sony comes out with one, but the day yours breaks. And nothing spurs the inclusion of a new camera system into your collection like a client suddenly asking you for something your current equipment can’t do. It is, in fact, one of the markers of a professional career to separate one’s own lifecycle from those of products.

As a content creator who does everything from fine art photography to commercial work, I’ve certainly found myself paying attention to all these new releases — I’m all for better equipment that makes my job easier, or product quality better. But my foundation — the Nikon D850 and the Leica M10-P, both of which I procured prior to 2020 — remain my systems of choice. And there’s little among this year’s releases that have moved the needle on that. But there are two significant upgrades to my equipment list this past year that have made a pretty big difference. One is the addition of video equipment that has grown my business as a creator. And the other is a single prime lens that cost under $1,000.

“Out To Sea.” With the Laowa 9mm, f/5.6. Photo by Josh S. Rose, 2020.

The Laowa 9mm, f/5.6

At some point in your photography journey you realize you pretty much understand all the major focal lengths. You get the difference between doing a portrait with a 50mm and doing it with a 105mm — and why and when people do the latter. You come to grips with the subtle differences of f/2 vs f/1.4. You may even start to have opinions on 28mm vs 35mm primes and when and where you take out your super wide angles.

Super wide is a lens category that sits on the fringe of photography. For most, super wide is a range within 14mm to 24mm that is often relegated to a zoom lens that covers it all. We think of this as a territory for landscape, group portraits and little else. In my own shooting experience, I’ve found that people are often surprised to find that my main lens is my 21mm. I’m drawn to it while acknowledging that most are not.

© Hugh Brownstone

Which leads to the racing heart feeling I had when I learned that an upstart lens manufacturer in China had just released a 9mm lens for full frame mirrorless sensors. And aside from being extremely wide, it was also rectilinear. Meaning, that with it’s mind-boggling 135° angle of view, all lines remain straight. This is quite a feat. It is, in fact, the only lens of its kind. But it is not without precedent.

The 9.8mm Kinoptic & The Beauty Paradox

As a lover of Stanley Kubrick films, it’s hard not to notice how often super wide angles are used to great effect in his work: Clockwork Orange and The Shining, most famously, but really somewhere in all of his films there’s a place for a very wide angle.

Still from “A Clockwork Orange.” Stanley Kubrick.

As it turns out, his lens of choice was nearly the same focal length as the Laowa: 9.8mm. This is not just wide, but absurdly wide. So wide as to be weird, even uncomfortable. As he desired.

And maybe therein lies the issue. As a photographer, you’re mostly hired to create something that flatters. This leans us toward longer focal lengths that compress images, making features smaller and more conventionally beautiful. Likewise, we opt for wider apertures that blur backgrounds and isolate subjects in beautiful blends of painterly color fields. A 9mm lens offers the precise opposite of all that — brutally accentuating features and a disturbingly large amount of environment to consider.

It was rumored that Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson begged Kubrick to use a 50mm.

A Lens For Our Time

If you’ve ever owned a 14mm prime lens for your SLR, you’ve seen the large bulbous affair that wide angles inhabit in order to straighten out lines. This lens feels a whole lot more like the legendary, remarkably small Nikkor 16mm fisheye. To occupy the same space as the fisheye but produce the images of a large wide angle prime is quite an accomplishment.

In fact, the Laowa is among the nicer constructions for a lens I’ve ever felt. It’s an all-metal affair with an also-metal bayonet style lens cover. It’s designed by true connoisseurs who I know nothing about, but whose study and appreciation for quality construction is apparent from the moment the thing arrives in your hand and clicks into place. As it’s made for full frame mirrorless cameras, they’ve also already considered all the possible adaptations. Regardless of which system you have, you can buy it. Know that it’s manual focus only.

Scene from “The Shining.” © Warner Bros

But the real reason to consider it is not for its construction , but for it being truly different in a world of small change. Because in a position where your equipment can approximate nearly everything, within a hair’s breadth of quality parity, this offers a new perspective. And as it turns out, extremely wide angled views have uses well beyond landscapes and group portraits. As establishing shots, sure, but even more for the edges of feelings we avoid: disorientation, fear, anxiety and the overwhelming nature of being a human in a big universe. What’s more 2020 than that?

Thanks for reading. More images from Josh S. Rose here. See the Laowa here.