Chinese lens specialist Venus Optics is launching the Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie Lens, which it says is one of the world’s widest rectilinear pancake lenses for APS-C cameras.
The new Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie Lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras is certainly a cookie size. A mere 25mm (0.98”) long and weighing only 130g (0.29lbs), it can literally be put in a pocket, leaving Venus Optics to not entirely facetiously claim that it’s a bit like “a body cap with function.”
The company comes out swinging on quality too. “Most of the wide-angle pancake lenses on the market are either fisheye or pinhole; they usually have obvious barrel distortion and inferior image quality,” it says. “However, this new Laowa Cookie Lens is equipped with a high-performance optical design, featuring super-low distortion and optimized image quality to ensure users take full advantage of the mirrorless system.”
The company says that the Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie retains vertical and horizontal lines from corner to corner to minimise distortion, and certainly some of the pics taken from noted professionals (see below) seem to bear that out.
It comes with 12 elements in an 8 group optical structure, with 2 aspherical and 4 extra-low dispersion elements. Built with 5 aperture blades, an impressive 10-point sunstar can be achieved easily when stopping down and it’s equipped with a 37mm thread allowing for direct filter mounting
It’s available in black and silver versions to match with the camera body for multiple mounts including Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony E, L mount, and Fuji X. US pricing is $299, with prices then varying around different countries depending on which part of the world’s financial system is in meltdown that day.