My Venus Laowa ARGUS 28mm ƒ 1.2 lens - with its unique "Leica Noctilux"style - especially in black & white portrait photography - gets a bigger brother.

The Venus Laowa ARGUS 35mm ƒ 0.95 lens.

Two unique lenses

While the 28/1.2 was already unique bright among all lenses in its class, so is the Argus 35/0.95 the brightest of all wideangle lens. It too, has that unique "Leica Noctilux" style, which i absolutely love, love, love. And show that further down with images i took in the past years with the Argus 28/1.2 lens.

Now since the new lens is both brighter, but also a bit narrow - the background blur will be even more pronounced. I got the lens for half the price second hand - due to that it has been out for quite some time. SO, it is literally a bargain (all the 5 lenses the company had in stock, where half price, and in excellent condition).

Laowa ARGUS 35/0.95

It is a classic wideangle lens with a focal length of 35mm - with Canon RF mount in my case. It also happens to be the brightest lens i own now, topping the Leica Noctilux 50/1 with a theoretical 12% brighter aperture. In reality, i am sure that the T-stop is actually a notch lower than a Leica Noctilux-M 50/1 from early 80s.

All three lenses - make a "Noctilux" Trio - because i consider them all to share the same rendering DNA - a special type of rendering, with sharp subjects and blurry background, giving it a special kind of look I find rather unique. Plus that the relative imperfections on each one, actually contributes further to that "Noctilux" look-a-like rendering style. I could actually even add the old Canon FD 85/1.2 L to the trio, even if it isn't exactly the same rendering style of a "Noctilux" look. But a bit closer than others (and mainly in black & white)

• Venus Laowa Argus 28 mm ƒ 1.2
• Venus Laowa Argus 35 mm ƒ 0.95
• Leica Noctilux-M 50mm ƒ 1
• (Canon FD 85/1.2 L)

Candle light & Restaurants

I absolutely adore that special rendering style. I can't think of anything better in classic photo style expression, like portraits of people in available light. Like in a café , restaurant and in candle light.

Now the upcoming Laowa Argus 35/0.95 will be perfect for dark Scandinavian Winter evenings and nights. Reportage style in not so great light.

Perfect !!!

Being a second 35mm wide angle lens...

but the Argus 35/0.95 will not kick out my older Canon EF 35/2 IS lens. The difference in aperture brightness quite large (2.12 stops difference). And character of them are really very different; therefore - there no competition between them.

It means the that Argus 35mm ƒ 0.95 will not make the Canon 35mm ƒ 2 IS obsolete. The latter is great for all-around images during travel. If you want to go small, light and cover a lot "on-the-fly" outdoor photography. The 35/2 IS is and has shown to be great for that. I assume a later version would be the RF 35/1.8 IS Macro. I never jumped on that, and do not intend to.

Let's look at the rendering style of the Argus 28/1.2 lens

Shall we ? The one I bought back in year 2023. In those photos you get a feeling of the rendering style i call "Leica Noctilux" style. In particularly the image of Martina and Benedict - really nails that perfectly (in my opinion). So, you get a hunch of what the upcoming Argus 35/0.95 will be like (with greater bokeh blur and slightly less wide focal length).

Oh, both lenses are manual focus lenses.