New Laowa 7.5mm Lens Help

[droneondemand]

Was wondering if I could get some help from you folks...so I finally got the new Venus Laowa 7.5mm and first video I took looked great! The FOV was amazing for wide shots. Although the I2 did could not detect the lens, I turned it to infinity focus and manually set the aperture and it shot video just fine.
Today I was taking some stills and everything looked just fine on the app. Image was clear, color and white balance were fine...but when I left the site and got home...I see my pics all looked blown out (see below). Any idea as to why they would look perfectly fine on the GO4 screen while flying...and then look like this when I viewed them?
Has anyone else used this lens? I know a lot of users out there were talking about pre-ordering it. Also, has anyone been able to get the i2 to recognize the lens?
Thanks all!

 

[Casey53]

Yes. I've seen that too and seemed to be more related to the stills being washed out rather than the video.

I've watched the histogram change very slowly with this lens when changing the ISO, shutter speeds, or the lens f/stop ring which took about 20-30 seconds for the histogram to settle down which seems odd. If I changed back and forth from video to still photos, it might lock on the still exposure better. It pays to hit the little play arrow while in GO to review the shot before moving on thinking all is well because it might not be.

Too bad it isn't a chipped lens as it might play nicer with the X5S camera, or DJI addresses the camera better for non-chipped lenses. It's sort of a messy area now the way it is with the need to do a hot-swap of a chipped lens leaving the camera on, and then putting on the Laowa. Gimbal doesn't like it either. I couldn't get Venus Optics Support to address the issue as Olympus says to not do it in their Pen-F camera owner's manual. I've done it on the Nikon DSLR, but likely hot-swapping isn't recommended by them either, just I rushed and forgot to turn it off, but it doesn't have a gimbal that growls about doing it either.

I see yours is doing the heavy vignette too in the corners, and maybe more on the right side too. Try stopping it down to f/5.6-8 and it might get a bit better as it really is bad wide open.

I'm in an exchange process with mine as I was hitting the infinity stop on the barrel before it really hit infinity while looking at the Focus peaking scale set to High. Bit too soft for me too and may have been a decentered/tilted optic causing the matter. Hopefully second one I get is better.

Good luck with it, but hit the little playback arrow under the GO4 camera settings menu to play it back in GO before calling it good enough.

 

[Fly Gary]

Did you have any filters on it? I flew mine on the last week with an ND16 and got decent results. Arizona sky with bright with mixed clouds. I was using 5.6 and Infinity for focus.
What were all the other camera settings? Were you on full manual? I see in the EXIF you were on manual white balance ISO 200, exposure 1/120

 

[droneondemand]

Thanks for the help on this guys! I will try both of your recommendations on f/5.6-8 and ISO/EXP as a starting point. As well as the ND.

Gary, I was actually on full auto for all settings. This was just a DroneBase mission and it's all they call for is basic photos from cardinal directions.
the Venus Laowa 7.5mm has such a wide view that it really helps me keep my distance from the POI alot closer than my other lenses. I was also
looking forward to using it on some of my agents lots for sale here in the area...I had been using the Oly 12mm with great results, just thought this
could surpass it...

Casey, what did the hot swapping achieve for you?

It's such a great view on this lens....hate to lose it.

Thanks again guys!

 

[Casey53]

droneondemand,

I believe it was smoak on here (Another thread.) who uses the hot-swap to get the DNG to work, maybe with the high-end video but I don't have that $1,300 license and SSD drive yet (Need another $2,000 to blow later on that once I get through the sundry issues I'm having with mine.). I don't think hot-swapping lenses matters with the stills as I got both the DNG and JPGs both, just that the still exposure was the touchy part and often shockingly overexposed as you found out and much different from what the iPad's screen was showing me that looked good on screen. The iPad Air 2 screen looked okay, but the final images stored were very different (grossly over-exposed) as you found.

I never got to the adding a filter part as I was rather put off by the strong 2+ stops worth of corner vignetting wide open (and sans a hood or filter) and I feared it will get worse with the filter extension. May have to stop it down to f/8 but that will come later for me once I get a decent working one back that hits infinity and doesn't stop prior to getting there trying to focus it. Some of my software would not go far enough to eliminate the vignette either. Lightroom seemed to do okay and even it out in the stills. I plan to use Resolve 14 for the video.

Someone mentioned using some glue-on chip for $25 that might take care of this non-chipped lens, but I gather you may need a normal MFT body to program it as the X5S camera is sort of crippled to do that lens programming and version update stuff. Might pay to check it out: ( http://peleng8.com/af-lens-adapters...ip-dandelion-iv-generation-for-micro-4/3.html ). Maybe once done it might work better on the X5S. Venus Optics really should have added a chip to the back of this lens so it could feed to the camera the EXIF data to help with the post software that needs it to fix the image file, even though it is a fully manual lens, imho. Plus, it might blow your three-year warranty so you better have a good lens copy before you try it (I don't know how Venus Optics will honor their warranty either as I don't think they have a service outfit in the USA as yet.).

Still, it was a neat lens to play with - other than the early growing pains and the user's learning curve. Might be good idea for Venus Optics to publish some "User manual for drones" with this lens too as it is funky in operation with the X5S, imho.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

We have helped someone once with this issue, the difference is they were using the X4S. The problem was corrected in the X4S mechanical shutter setting. Maybe your I2 is seeing this also, it is worth checking. Or it may not be related.

 

[Fly Gary]

The hot swap of the lens was based on initial testing by someone. What I found was that you needed to have raw enabled prior to starting the aircraft up with the Laowa. If that is done, you will not need to hot swap the lens. The idea of 'chipping' the lens was another suggestion to get around the hot swap.

if I recall correctly that if you use the shutter button to take a photo while the video camera is rolling, you will only get jpg. Perhaps jpg/raw stills are only supported in photo mode. But then again if you are capturing in Cinema DNG you have thousands of raw files to pick from for your still.

 

[Florida Drone Supply]

The hot swap of the lens was based on initial testing by someone. What I found was that you needed to have raw enabled prior to starting the aircraft up with the Laowa. If that is done, you will not need to hot swap the lens. The idea of 'chipping' the lens was another suggestion to get around the hot swap.

if I recall correctly that if you use the shutter button to take a photo while the video camera is rolling, you will only get jpg. Perhaps jpg/raw stills are only supported in photo mode. But then again if you are capturing in Cinema DNG you have thousands of raw files to pick from for your still.

The only issue with using the DNG files as jpg's is that they are a much smaller file size than the RAW images.

 

[Casey53]

I got a response from the seller of that 'Dandelion chip' in the link above: "Sorry, it will not work." (for the Laowa 7.5mm f/2.0 to DJI camera.).

So that idea is out.

 

[AJW]

Was wondering if I could get some help from you folks...so I finally got the new Venus Laowa 7.5mm and first video I took looked great! The FOV was amazing for wide shots. Although the I2 did could not detect the lens, I turned it to infinity focus and manually set the aperture and it shot video just fine.
Today I was taking some stills and everything looked just fine on the app. Image was clear, color and white balance were fine...but when I left the site and got home...I see my pics all looked blown out (see below). Any idea as to why they would look perfectly fine on the GO4 screen while flying...and then look like this when I viewed them?
Has anyone else used this lens? I know a lot of users out there were talking about pre-ordering it. Also, has anyone been able to get the i2 to recognize the lens?
Thanks all!
View attachment 15537

you need to use aperture priority mode. the same thing happened to me. set ISO to auto. your shutter and ISO will change automatically but your Aperture is set manually so use the "A" mode.

 

[Mirame Volar Sin Alas]

Was wondering if I could get some help from you folks...so I finally got the new Venus Laowa 7.5mm and first video I took looked great! The FOV was amazing for wide shots. Although the I2 did could not detect the lens, I turned it to infinity focus and manually set the aperture and it shot video just fine.
Today I was taking some stills and everything looked just fine on the app. Image was clear, color and white balance were fine...but when I left the site and got home...I see my pics all looked blown out (see below). Any idea as to why they would look perfectly fine on the GO4 screen while flying...and then look like this when I viewed them?
Has anyone else used this lens? I know a lot of users out there were talking about pre-ordering it. Also, has anyone been able to get the i2 to recognize the lens?
Thanks all!
View attachment 15537

I use this lens and I have not had a problem

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[Mirame Volar Sin Alas]

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[Casey53]

I use this lens and I have not had a problem

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How do your Still photos turn out with the Laowa?

My problems were not so much with the Video side, but the Still camera side much as the OP found. Video side looked fine, but the exposure side for Stills often led to gross overexposure. The X5S camera seems to have some better exposure control for the Video side, but it seems very different on the Still side (Where I use it more often as an aerial crane.). The GO screen looked fine, but the shock came later seeing the Still photo taken - very different!

 

[Mirame Volar Sin Alas]

at some point I had that problem because the ipad does not look very good. I helped with an external monitor for 7 inch outdoor lilliput

 

[Casey53]

at some point I had that problem because the ipad does not look very good. I helped with an external monitor for 7 inch outdoor lilliput

Are you saying the HDMI output is different than what the GO 4 screen shows you in Still photo mode? I haven't tired that yet, but it might be worthwhile if it works.

I know I can hit the Playback button in GO 4 and see the still image overexposed and different than what I saw on the main GO 4 tablet screen. Very odd why it does that as I can change the video exposure and see it change on main screen, but the Still photo side is very problematic on the main screen on the iPad Air 2 tablet.

Fwiw, I'm awaiting a backorder swap on my defective one as it never hit infinity right so I can't try it out now.

 

[Mirame Volar Sin Alas]

on the ipad the image is obscure on the monitor is more real

 

[Casey53]

I got my second copy of this 7.5mm lens. Box was a bit different with a newly designed cardboard wrapper on it so maybe some hope for a better version. However, the infinity mark is still way off the index scale to the right, and it too refuses to focus well at infinity and hits the stop first when I examine it using the GO 4 Peak Focus.

So I guess I am going to have to refer to the dpreview forum suggestion of "Shimming back the rear element" as the guy did there - and others - have also got two bad copies. This post: DIY Focus Calibration Fix for Laowa 7.5mm f/2.0 that Doesn't Reach Infinity Focus: Micro Four Thirds Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/59947237
Cheap Chinese quality is running amok, and at a higher price. Put DJI in that basket too.

 

[niki]

I got a response from the seller of that 'Dandelion chip' in the link above: "Sorry, it will not work." (for the Laowa 7.5mm f/2.0 to DJI camera.).

So that idea is out.

Did you know more about what will not work using Dandelion chip, the programming or at all X5's cameras will not read it correctly?

I want only to avoid the swapping of the lenses for enabling the SSD on Inspire 1 RAW. Any thoughts?

 

[Casey53]

Did you know more about what will not work using Dandelion chip, the programming or at all X5's cameras will not read it correctly?

I want only to avoid the swapping of the lenses for enabling the SSD on Inspire 1 RAW. Any thoughts?

The seller never mentioned why it wouldn't work, but given it needs some programming it could be that the DJI X5S camera will not do that part of the installation as the DJI camera is sort of minimal for any operation compared to normal camera body. I know with the Olympus body you can set in its menu an unknown or unrecognized (non-chipped) lens the focal length and aperture and then use the menu whenever you put that lens on the body so it writes the correct EXIF data for its use.

However, I wonder if one does have an Olympus body if the Laowa with the chip and if it could be programmed using the Olympus body and then maybe the DJI camera would work with the newly programmed chip and lens without the hot swap method currently used? Anyone want to try it? Might be the same for using a Panasonic body if it can program the chip?

Then again, it could be the physical size of the chip once on the Laowa that it just will not fit due to clearance. Dunno.

Fwiw, I did shim the rear element on my second copy and now the infinity mark is correct and it focuses correctly like the dpreview forum suggested. It took about a 0.003" thick piece of brass shim under the rear element to move it back a bit.

 

[jonathan Atkin]

First flight yesterday: Laowa 7.5 Lightweight version. Inspire2 X5s. Hot swap from "authorized lens." Gimbal was angry with my intervention. GOAPP4 naturally thinks lens isnt attached with message. But it is. ISO 100, f.4. Shutter 125th. DNG files. No filters. Gray day. No overexposure issues. Then, shut down bird...removed LAOWA. Re-attached to cold bird and for some reason, LAOWA image was shunted into the FPV view and vice a versa? And in a couple of the still shots, the expected DNG files were jpegs? Not sure why that happened. I had set camera on Manual. Others suggest set on Auto....still testing. Still photo attached. Set focus just on edge of inside Infinity symbol (advice from a colleague).