Laowa f/0.95 35mm Argus Pic Leaked

Laowa’s long-rumored and seemingly-too-good-to-be-true 35mm f/0.95 35mm E-mount lens is now pictured – literally – in the hands of a user. Reported to be released soon, Laowa announced the new Argus series almost a year ago, just before the world went turtle due to the COVID-19 crisis. The image was first seen on SonyAlphaRumors.com.

The 35mm lens pictured below is notable for its oddly small size for such a wide-aperture lens. The Sigma 35mm f/1.2 Art lens also made for Sony E-mount appears to be more than five times the volume of the lens appearing in this leaked image.

Laowa – also known as Venus Optics – has earned a very good reputation for providing excellent manual focus macro lenses, especially in focal lengths and innovative designs not covered by other manufacturers. The difference in size between the very large aperture versions of the 35mm Laowa versus the 35mm Sigma may indicate that the Laowa version will not bother attempting to provide all of the corrective lens elements the Sigma included – rendering the Sigma Art version one of the sharpest lenses ever made for the E-mount system.