Fast full frame 28 mm lenses usually are Leica M mount variants, that's why our chart features as many as three such instruments. Still, none of them is as fast as the tested Argus and this fact makes it very difficult to draw any binding conclusions; of course you might add the Argus is physically the biggest, the heaviest, and optically the most complex in this group but it shouldn't surprise you at all.
In the photo below the Venus Optics LAOWA Argus 28 mm f/1.2 FF is positioned between the Voigtlander Apo-Lanthar 2/50 and the Sigma A 35 mm f/1.4 DG HSM.
The tested lens starts with a metal mount that surrounds a rear element, 30 mm in diameter. The element is hidden inside a slightly protruding, black, very well matted tube. It also moves with the movement of the manual focus ring but the range of the movement is limited and the tube remains all the time more or less on the same level as the mount. The inner tube with the rear element and the area around it are well blackened and ribbed.
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Unfortunately, they don't feature any contacts; it means your camera won't get any info concerning the settings and EXIF files won't feature such data as focal length and aperture values.
The proper body of the lens starts with an immobile, black, metal ring with a red dot, making an alignment with a camera easier. There is also a CLICK switch that allows you to choose the aperture ring mode: declicked or classic, moving every 1 EV. I am very glad Laowa finally decided to introduce such a functionality.
An aperture ring, 10 mm wide, half of its surface covered by metal ribbing, is another part of the lens. It comes with aperture markings at f/1.2, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6, f/8.0 i f/16. At f/11.0 you get just a dot.
Further on, you see another immobile ring, this time with a DOF scale and focal length markings by f/1.2, f/4.0, f/5.6 i f/11.
A manual focus ring, as wide as 37 mm, is the biggest part of the lens. In its lower part you see a distance scale expressed in feet and meters, and the slightly enlargened upper part is covered by fine ribs, quite comfortable to use. The ring moves evenly, smoothly and is properly damped. Its focus throw amounts to an angle of about 110 degrees, a typical value for these parameters.
Such a value would allow you even more precise settings if only the lens had contacts and was able to communicate with the camera body. Without contacts the camera doesn't 'know' that you move the focus ring and it doesn't enlarge the image automatically. In order to do so you have to press a special button and sometimes you have to take your eye off the viewfinder in order to do so. Without automatic enlargement of images focusing is definitely less comfortable and precise. I suppose adding contacts and ensuring proper communication with the body is not a task above the possibilities of such an optics producer as Laowa; after all, they have been present on the market for some time now. Not so long ago they have proven an appropriate technology is well within their reach – in February 2024 they presented their first autofocus lens. Why in their top-of-the range Argus series they couldn't add at least contacts? Search me.
An immobile ring that gets wider after a while, with a blue stripe, an inscription 'Argus', the parameters of the lens, and its serial number is the last part of the instrument. It ends with a hood mount and a non-rotating filter thread, 62 mm in diameter.
The front element doesn't move, is quite convex, 42 mm in diameter, and hides quite shallowly inside the casing but, at the same time, deep enough for the lens to get a classic front cap. Still the cap is missing. Instead, you get a rectangular cap with truncated corners so it fits the metal hood that is added to the box as a part of an accessory kit. In order to protect the front element well you have to keep the hood with you all the time. I'm not really fond of such a solution; in my opinion there should be two caps in the kit, allowing you a choice.
When it comes to the optical construction you deal here with 13 elements positioned in 7 groups. Producers weren't skimpy with special elements either – in the system you can find two elements with high refraction index, two made of low dispersion ED glass, and one that is apherical. Inside, you can also find a round aperture with as many as thirteen diaphragm blades that can be closed down to a value of f/16 at most.
Buyers get in the box with the lens: a rear cap, and a rectangular profile hood with an appropriate cap. You don't get a cap that would fit the lens without the hood attached, or a case.
