Wide angle lens ? 7.5mm
- Thread starter fei8820
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Meaning there are no electrical contacts at the back of the lens with a chip inside of it to tell the X5S camera what lens is on it, etc. It's the same as taking an old lens from 30 years ago and putting it on a new camera body where the camera doesn't recognize the old lens and you do everything manually. Some of that data gleaned off the chipped lens is also transferred to the image itself so the editing software knows how much lens distortion correction to apply as with a wide angle lens in Lightroom, DxO Optics Pro (DxO doesn't work with the Inspire anyway. but would be great if it did!), etc.
Won't happen with the Laowa 7.5mm as it's a "dumb" lens. So you do everything including trying to hook it up so the camera will work manually which seems a nightmare. Have to put on a chipped lens first so the camera will work, then take it off without turning off the camera, and then put on the Laowa to avoid some DJI error fault about unrecognized lens or device attached. If it were chipped and had electrical contacts, AND if DJI would include it in the camera's firmware, it would be easier for all. But it is what it is.
At least that's my understanding of it all.
Thank you - so its not just a case on plug in and work focus out manually then - there are issues with it actually working with the Go app (or indeed 3rd party then)?
I don't think it affects GO as it is a dumb lens, but don't know until I play with it. You cannot change anything on it once in the air so it needs to be set manually prior to flight, along with a hot-swap of the lenses to get rid of the error messages about a wrong/unrecognizable device. Much of that may be coming from the X5S camera not recognizing the lens and no so much GO. GO will allow for the ISO and shutter speeds I believe, but f/stops and focus is unobtainable.
Somewhere I was reading a review where the guy said that at f/5.6 everything from about 2 feet to infinity was sharp. Setting the focus might be the easiest part. I'll soon see, but there is someone on this board who has one and worked through its oddities already.
I'm also curious as to its coloration as I'm having issues with the bad magenta tint out of my X5S camera in Manual White Balance which is annoying me to no end where I have to use a green filter to counter it, unless I want to spend hours post editing the color as I primarily shoot fashion and some of that stuff is very color dependent. The older I1 had issues with that magenta mess from two years ago and still is present to this day on the DJI forum which is ridiculous, imho. I may use this lens more as a hand-held on the I2 as a working OSMO due to it being wide since the OSMO for the X5S seems abandoned, but for landscapes it should excel. I may use it on a Olympus Pen-F with a 3rd party gimbal too, but it would have to be used as a dumb (unchipped) lens there too, but the tint color may be easier to control I hope.
I bought it knowing that the thing wasn't a fish-eye given how wide it is compared to anything else in that range. Optics look good too from the charts and review images. If they added the focus and f/stop motors it would have raised the weight over that 158 gram DJI target for the gimbal, and maybe added another $300 to the price along with the weight. Seems I'm also building a Micro 4/3 system too with these X5S primes so the Pen-F body may be next and say good-bye to the full-frame Nikon maybe.
I got rid of my D800 and got the Pen F, just also bought a Canon EOS 6D for ground GPS photos. The Pen F is great for quick shots to match the specs of the X5S
I feel the same, now have a 12, 15, 25, 45 m43 collection, I need a body to pair with on the ground.
For me the Pen F was a lovely looking camera with an excellent build quality. I miss the fact that there are not many accessories for it, but its nice and small and fits in my Peli Case with all the other camera bits!
I was looking at the Panasonic GH8 as it is cheaper than the Pen-F, but the Pen-F is smaller, lighter, and has 5-axis stabilization at the sensor where the Panasonic doesn't do 5-axis. Pen-F has more focus points and active tracking too.
Someone mentioned the GH8 with a non-stabilized telephoto lens is rough to use without a really high-shutter speed, where the Pen-F has the better stabilization and one can use a slower speed with it and a telephoto. The GH8 fares better with a Panasonic lens with stabilization built into it too, but we don't use them on the X5S - or do we?
I'm thinking the Pen-F may get a gimbal (Aerial maybe?) in time too which lighter is better for that too - if I buy one.
The Oly. OM-D E-M1 Mark II and the Pan. Lumix DC-GH5 would be better than both the above, but they are heavier and more like a DSLR camera overall.
I need some clarification on the "hot-swapping" method to get the Laowa 7.5mm to couple to the X5S camera. When I tried it, the gimbal growled loudly about it when the Olympus lens came off to put the Laowa on. I don't know if rotating the lens with the contacts being on or active is a good idea or if it will damage the Oly lens or the camera in doing so.
Just checked the Olympus Pen-F manual and page 15 this appears TWICE:
• Make sure the camera is turned off when attaching or removing the lens.
There is some issue about getting the camera settings in GO 4 to work with the 'dumb' lens (i.e. The Laowa, and no electrical connections to the body.). I've also contacted Laowa to see what they say about this.
Just checked the Olympus Pen-F manual and page 15 this appears TWICE:
• Make sure the camera is turned off when attaching or removing the lens.
There is some issue about getting the camera settings in GO 4 to work with the 'dumb' lens (i.e. The Laowa, and no electrical connections to the body.). I've also contacted Laowa to see what they say about this.
I've returned mine for an exchange to B&H Photo who issued me a RMA (They paid return ground shipping too.). I'll chalk mine up to decentered or tilted optics as mentioned in some other reviews where they also got a replacement and amended their review.
Mine would not reach infinity targets by turning the lens focus ring. It hit the stop prior to getting there by maybe 2mm. The infinity icon was way far to the right of the index mark too, maybe 6-8mm. It should be aligned better than this, imho. There are reports of the lens being soft in the corners along with a strong two-stop vignette at the corners when wide open, and it gets less intrusive stopping down.
I'm hoping the replacement has more latitude at the infinity stop location and the index mark location is better indexed. It was an early model at serial 2950 so we'll see. It is a nice lens otherwise, even with a bit of barrel distortion that can be corrected in post with software. I'd like to see DxO Optics Pro address this lens down the road as they can take care of some corner softness and the strong vignette and barrel distortion as lenses are what they primarily do.
I also contacted Venus Optics and sent them the images as well as questioned them about the hot-swapping matter that Olympus says not to do in their manual - although people do it anyhow and I've done it at times with my DLSR. The X5S gimbal doesn't seem to like doing it by the noise it makes during the switch. They are looking into the infinity and soft focus, but nothing on the hot-swapping was mentioned. GO 4 acts goofy with it at times and I've seen f/1 on the screen along with a very slow (~30 seconds) drift of the exposure while watching the histogram change when you do change the exposure. Less problematic with video than manual settings for me too. It really should have been chipped, imho, for the price which might may it play better with the current version of GO.
Venus Optics offers a 3 year warranty, but not having a USA based repair facility I don't know how they handle it. Shipping to China is very expensive, but not so much them to us.
Added:
I'd like to see how this lens works on an Olympus or Panasonic MFT body as to the still exposures and video too. I may end up buying a Oly. Pen-F body since buying all these MFT lenses for the X5S. I like their smaller size and weight.
Mine would not reach infinity targets by turning the lens focus ring. It hit the stop prior to getting there by maybe 2mm. The infinity icon was way far to the right of the index mark too, maybe 6-8mm. It should be aligned better than this, imho. There are reports of the lens being soft in the corners along with a strong two-stop vignette at the corners when wide open, and it gets less intrusive stopping down.
I'm hoping the replacement has more latitude at the infinity stop location and the index mark location is better indexed. It was an early model at serial 2950 so we'll see. It is a nice lens otherwise, even with a bit of barrel distortion that can be corrected in post with software. I'd like to see DxO Optics Pro address this lens down the road as they can take care of some corner softness and the strong vignette and barrel distortion as lenses are what they primarily do.
I also contacted Venus Optics and sent them the images as well as questioned them about the hot-swapping matter that Olympus says not to do in their manual - although people do it anyhow and I've done it at times with my DLSR. The X5S gimbal doesn't seem to like doing it by the noise it makes during the switch. They are looking into the infinity and soft focus, but nothing on the hot-swapping was mentioned. GO 4 acts goofy with it at times and I've seen f/1 on the screen along with a very slow (~30 seconds) drift of the exposure while watching the histogram change when you do change the exposure. Less problematic with video than manual settings for me too. It really should have been chipped, imho, for the price which might may it play better with the current version of GO.
Venus Optics offers a 3 year warranty, but not having a USA based repair facility I don't know how they handle it. Shipping to China is very expensive, but not so much them to us.
Added:
I'd like to see how this lens works on an Olympus or Panasonic MFT body as to the still exposures and video too. I may end up buying a Oly. Pen-F body since buying all these MFT lenses for the X5S. I like their smaller size and weight.
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Does anyone know where I can buy the Laowa 7.5 ultralight lens?
Every supplier I have tried is out of stock and waiting...
Every supplier I have tried is out of stock and waiting...
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Odd as they haven't updated their website on the black one. I just put one in my cart and it worked. Dunno. They do show they are out of the silver one though, or aren't carrying it yet.
B&H Photo is out of both colors. I returned my black one as it would not hit infinity before stopping the rotation. Don't know when I'll get a replacement though as they are out now.
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Y
You bought one from Adorama? I would check with customer service to make sure you are not back-ordered. Maybe you got lucky - on the phone and on the "chat box" they confirmed that they were out of stock and did not have a delivery date yet.
No, B&H Photo, but it went to backorder land too after I returned the bad copy for a swap. No doubt another month as swaps/backorders go. Hopefully, the wait will allow Venus Optics to address the infinity stop issues I had too after my correspondence with their support.
I have been testing my 7.5 over the past few days on the X5s and a pani GX8.
Great results from both camera bodies.
Night shots requires some attention and skill, but it is a killer lens for the daytime.
I put it on the Inspire 2 and started the bird up.
No trickery for me to get it working. It just worked from the start. Recording raw and prores.
The GX8 has an option to enable to operate without a lens.
I did notice that the infinite marker does go past ending position for focus.
Not sure if this is by design or not.
Great results from both camera bodies.
Night shots requires some attention and skill, but it is a killer lens for the daytime.
I put it on the Inspire 2 and started the bird up.
No trickery for me to get it working. It just worked from the start. Recording raw and prores.
The GX8 has an option to enable to operate without a lens.
I did notice that the infinite marker does go past ending position for focus.
Not sure if this is by design or not.
Yep, the infinity marker was way off on mine too, but when I had the focus peaking on, distant objects like cell towers needed me to turn the lens even further but it stopped turning long before that. Mine should have turned maybe another two millimeters to achieve infinity, so it went back. If I set it to f/8 it wasn't as bad for the distant objects and helped with the very dark corner vignetting too wide open.
Video wasn't too hard to figure out, but stills were an issue. Screen would look okay, but when I hit playback, it was usually blown out by 3-4 stops. Histogram response was very slow in the still mode too, like 20-30 seconds to settle down. Probably being an unchipped lens (Which it should be even being manual!).
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