The $2,000 Bokeh Monster | Laowa 200mm f/2

It just gives you a stunning image. Something that a 70 to 200 2.8 cannot give you. [music] [music] [music] So, as you saw from the sample images, the image quality out of this is absolutely spectacular. But there's a saying, good things come to those who wait. And I could have done a video to get it out there and be one of the first ones to talk about this lens, but I didn't feel that was right to do that to LA because they said, "Hey, this is beta." And man, they have really improved this lens. So, that let's talk about what this bad boy looks like and how it performs, which brings us into the image quality. This is going to have more to me like a cinematic look. And what do I mean by that? It's a very sharp lens, but it's not overly sharp. It's got a nice roll off to the background. I mean, they call it the dreamer lens, but it has that kind of vibe. Again, at a 200 f2, you're going to get beautiful bouquet, beautiful separation. This is great for portraiture, great for isolating your subject, as any lens of this magnitude would be, but I found the fall-off to be really gentle and very nice. Chromatic aberration is very well controlled in this for the most part. I mean, I really don't see it that much, and if you do see any of it, it's easily correctable in Lightroom or Capture 1. So, it's nothing that stands out to me as like a red herring of sorts. It's just a really beautiful rendering lens. And that's the thing that I took away with this is like, man, this is gorgeous to shoot with. You can't put a teleconverter on this from what I understand. I mean, LA doesn't make one anyway, and I don't think you can use a third party one that I know of. Correct me if I'm wrong. But I think for a lot of you out there, you will definitely enjoy this. And especially with 45 megapixels, if you want further reach, do an APS-C crop here in the Z8 and you can definitely get a bit further and be about 300 millimeters thereabouts. And you're still going to get some beautiful depth of field. Again, you are going to lose a little bit in terms of that sharpness and resolution, but you will be rewarded with absolutely stunning image quality. So, let's talk about autofocus on this. This is definitely improved over the previous version that I had, and especially with the firmware update that's also applied to this lens, it's sticky. It's fast. Now, when you're at your close focusing about 1.5 m on this lens, which is a bit of distance, and it does throw you off because the lens is so short, you feel like you can get closer, but you can't. But once you understand that distance and you have your focus setting, especially here on the Z8 subject detection, people, animals, or whatever have you, it does lock on and it's sticky. I mean, I tried on my dog, locks under eye, she moves around, no issues at all. It's not hunting. It is very confident, inspiring. Again, moving around for faster action, it's all going to depend on your camera system, how you how you have it set up. And with this, I was walking around Chinatown. I was over at this festival and East Coast Park here in Singapore in the ocean as you're seeing from the sunset shots. and people are moving around. It's low light and it was grabbing focus. It was fine. I had no issues. Again, when you're super close, it will hunt, but when you're enough distance away, it locks on. So, let's talk about the design. This is a very interesting looking lens. I think they call this black, but it's dark blue. The build on this lens though is exceptional. It is really wellmade. The focus ring here is very smooth. The aperture ring is very nice. You can click it and de-click it. Everything feels taut, secure, extremely wellmade. switches, buttons, all that. So, the hood is also really nice in this as well. Not too big, very secure. You can lock it in, and you've got a ton of function buttons around here that just work all the way around the front element here, the side of it. They've done a tremendous job with it. I love the fact there is a drop-in filter here that you can put an ND filter, whatever have you. You can actually get that from LA's website, or you can make your own. And if you want, there's 105mm filter thread on the front of this. So, you can actually, if you have a V&D or system like that, you can actually put that on here as well. And having an ND system definitely does help. And I think what they've done here is great. And it really hasn't added to the overall length of the lens. Now, the weight of this is coming around 1.7 kgs, roughly close to 4 lb. So, it is a heavy lens. It's not going to be a lens that you carry around on you all day long. But, this is a very special lens. The build, the design, the overall aesthetics really nice. So, should you pick up this lens? That's the question, right? Well, depends on the type of photography that you want to get into. If you're a portrait photographer, this is a really good lens to have, but you're going to have to step away from your subject. As you saw from some of the portrait shots that I taken, I was a little bit too close. So, you're really on the face. Some people like that style, some people want more environment. It all depends. And at $2,000, that's not a bad price, as I mentioned, for what you're getting here. It just gives you a stunning image. Something that a 70 to 200 2.8 cannot give you. I don't care what you do, it's not going to give you a look like this. It's Zout native. There's no adapter needed to this. So, you're going to get the best performance versus, you know, using something older, maybe doesn't have the fastest autofocusing motors and an adapter on top of that. I'm a fan of this lens, man. I think LA has done a phenomenal job with this. And, you know, I've tried some of the lenses out there. Some have been hit and misses. This one, this is damn good. Anyway, guys, if you like this video, like, subscribe. Thank you for the support. Greatly appreciate it. And I will chat to you all very, very soon. Bye.

#NikonZ #Laowa #PortraitPhotography #200mmf2 #NikonZ8 #Photography Is this the lens Nikon Z users have been waiting for? The Laowa 200mm f/2 "Dreamer" brings that legendary, creamy prime look specifically to the Z mount—no FTZ adapter required. In this review, I test the final production version of the Laowa 200mm f/2 on the Nikon Z8 to see if it can truly replace the heavy, discontinued Nikkor 200mm f/2. We look at autofocus speed in low light, the unique build quality, and most importantly, why a 70-200mm f/2.8 simply cannot compete with this "cinematic" look. +3 At $2,000, is this the ultimate portrait lens for the Nikon Z system? Let's find out. CHAPTERS: 0:00 - The Look You Can't Fake 0:25 - Production vs. Prototype 1:11 - Design & Build Quality (The "Blue" Look) 1:48 - The Drop-In Filter System 2:24 - Weight & Handling 3:25 - Autofocus Test: Nikon Z8 Tracking 4:05 - Low Light Performance (User Error vs. Gear) 4:42 - Image Quality: The "Cinematic" Dreamer Look 5:46 - Can You Use a Teleconverter? 6:16 - Who is This Lens For? 6:40 - Laowa 200mm f/2 vs. 70-200mm f/2.8 7:04 - Laowa vs. Nikon 200mm f/2 (F-Mount) 7:42 - Final Verdict #NikonZ #Laowa #PortraitPhotography #200mmf2 #NikonZ8 #Photography