Venus Optics LAOWA Argus 25 mm f/0.95 MFT review - Summary

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Venus Optics LAOWA Argus 25 mm f/0.95 MFT

30 November 2022

Maciej Latałło

11. Summary

Pros:

solid, metal barrel,
excellent resolution in the frame centre,
negligible longitudinal chromatic aberration,
low lateral chromatic aberration,
moderate distortion,
sensible coma correction,
slight astigmatism,
unique parameters.

Cons:

abysmal performance against bright light,
distinct vignetting,
significant problems with spherical aberration,
image quality on the edge of the frame is weak to near f/2.0,
lack of contacts,
aperture ring is too loose and it has just one working mode.

Photographers can be divided into two categories: professionals and amateurs. Both these groups expect from a lens a pleasant, trouble-free performance. The professionals want it because a lens is the source of their income and the less problems it creates the better they can carry out their order. The amateurs simply want their hobby to be as pleasant as only possible.

Unfortunately the Venus Optics LAOWA Argus 25 mm f/0.95 MFT fails to meet such requirements. Taking photos with this lens is neither problem-free nor pleasant. Lack of contacts means you don't have automatic magnification of images while moving the focus ring. It decreases the usefullness of the lens and its speed. What's more, a loose ring with just one working mode along with the inability to pass information to the camera's body makes setting precise parameters often very tricky.

Add to that a bit too weak image quality on the edge of the frame, high spherical aberration, significant vignetting, and horrible performance against bright light – such flaws cannot be compensated by just excellent image quality on stopping down.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Argus's price is another asset – you have to pay $400 for it, about $350-600 less than the price of its direct rivals, the Voigtlander Nokton 25 mm f/0.95 and the Olympus M.Zuiko 25 mm f/1.2 PRO. If you fancy a bit of play with an instrument that features such an unusually fast aperture without spending a huge sum of money we admit the Argus doesn't have any competitors on the market.

It's a real shame that it has so many production shortcomings and mechanical flaws – if not for these I would recommend it wholeheartedly even though optically it's hardly perfect.