I barely use the Canon EOS R6 system these days. So, i kind of re-discover the extraordinary Laowa ARGUS 28 mm ƒ1.2 lens - which is like a wideangle Noctilux. Just so delightful. I consider it to be one of the finest lenses ever made. It is not optically perfect, but so genuine with character - and still sharp enough to make beautiful BW images in particularly. Not to mention that it literally sucks in light due to the bright ƒ1.2 aperture.

So, it is a delight, to use it again. It is like re-discovering the wonderful properties of that lens and its characteristics. A wide angle lens, with that extreme aperture, is extremely useful in low light. There is nothing else on the market like the ARGUS 28mm ƒ1.2 lens.

And it is affordable !!!

Actually Laowa is one of those Chinese companies who just make great lenses, which get better and better. Most likely among one of the best lens brands in terms of optical quality. Perhaps at this stage, the best. Better than 7Artisan and TTArtisan for sure.

They showed what they can pull off, for example with the very latest Tilt-Shift lenses for Fujifilm GFX cameras; the 50mm ƒ2.8 Macro and 100 mm ƒ2.8 Macro - which are astonishing good in their optical quality.

Laowa also has other lenses in the ARGUS series; such as the 35mm ƒ0.95 lens. I don 't have it, so I can't really say anything about it's quality. It surely is an interesting lens as well.

Noctilux Lens Series

Think of the ARGUS lens series like the Chinese Leica Noctilux lens series.

They are that good, which means - at such extreme bright apertures, surely there are optical flaws - but that is part of the deal and character. They are highly special. And using such lenses needs an inherent love for "Noctilux type of BW images" in the photographer. That special sense of utilizing such lenses.

Not just using them and thinking "the magic comes attached".

That's not how it works.

Unusual small

for being a ƒ1.2 lens, it is actually unusual small !!! So, it is an extremely useful lens in many ways. I truly love it. And it's price for i think it was somewhere around 590 €, was exceptionally affordable.

Well done Laowa.

In fact, there is an even brighter lens; a Laowa ARGUS 28 mm ƒ 0.95 (T1.0) cinematic lens. It is this noticeably bulkier of course. And almost 3x as expensive with $ 1500.

Yet; talk about outdoing themselves. I don't real with cine lenses, so I have no idea about its performance. It is pretty similar to the Argus 28/1.2 lens, though. Check the performance in detail at phillipreeve.net. He is amazing, in testing many lenses, both new and vintage !

Here are the impressions and test of that cine lens at phillipreeve.net