Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO review

The Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO is the world’s first 2x macro lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras

Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO
(Image: © Rod Lawton/Digital Camera World)

Digital Camera World Verdict

This is a well-made, high-powered lens that can offer up to 2x the magnification of Olympus’s own very good M.Zuiko Digital ED 60mm f2.8 Macro lens. The Laowa lens is also a little cheaper, and the lack of autofocus is less of an issue in macro photography. All in all, it’s a very interesting alternative.

Pros

  • +

    2x ultra-macro magnification

  • +

    Microchip camera communication

  • +

    High quality feel

  • +

    Internal focusing

Cons

  • -

    Manual focus only

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The Laowa 50mm f/2.8 2X Ultra Macro APO comes from one of Laowa’s two main product lines – ultra-wide-angle lenses and ultra-macro lenses. This one is designed specifically for Micro Four Thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic, and has a couple of extra tricks up its sleeve.

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Rod Lawton
Contributor

Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com