Ordered (on a whim, admittedly) months ago, the 11mm f/4.5 Laowa FF II C-Dreamer in native Z-mount arrived today. As it was raining outside and the lens has an impressive 126(!) degrees view, the first test shots were conducted indoors.
I used the Laowa on my PrimaLuce Z5 and it turned out quite nice results. In fact, better than anticipated as least as central image sharpness is concerned. Apparently the optical design is sophisticated enough to avoid most of the nasty chromatic aberrations so often found with wide-angle lenses. There is vignetting wide open, as expected, and peripheral sharpness does decline substantially. However, with judicious use such shortcomings might not be too significant. On the positive merit side, the lens is very small, almost too tiny to be handled by large hands. Erik my Danish friend would be in troubles ... The field curvature is surprisingly low and geometric distortion (at distance) is negligible as well. Occasionally, "moustache" distortion is visible. For close-ups, to a near limit at 19cm, barrel distortion creeps in however.
Used for "selfie"-style shots, the Laowa renders a "lobster claw" view as one's hands become excessively large due to the huge angle of view and the rectilinear projection. So, unless you are into test shooting, don't do like what I did for the shot below
Slow shutter speed at 1/5 sec and no focusing provided just bearable (sic) image definition...
(colours are of course way off, as the PrimaLuce Z5 is full-spectrum and I used no corrective filtration. However, my hair and dress colours came out with acceptable likeness).
