THE Ultra Ultra-wide Prime Lens

Venus Optics recently announced their Laowa 12mm f2.8 Zero-D rectilinear lens which is available in Nikon, Canon Sony, and Pentax mounts. Considering that the lens has an f2.8 maximum aperture and covers a 35mm format (FX), it is quite small and weighs about 600g.

I use Nikon in both DX and FX formats. Along with my DX camera and the 18-55 and 55-200mm lenses, the 12mm lens becomes a super-wide 18mm f2.8 (FX equivalent), and does not take up much room in my bag. The perfect small outfit for travel!

Back in the 1970's Nikon made a 13mm f5.6 rectilinear lens which is very rare now and sells for about $20,000. Not only did I save $19,000, the Laowa is a 2.8 lens and half of the weight of the Nikon 13mm.