Originally posted by miles So i'm thinking,
1. will the laowa have aperture coupling? It seems not - it's like an "M" lens, and will work like the Pentacon. The Samyang is an "A" lens, which is good news.
2. will the laowa allow focus confirmation and therefore CIF? If I recall, the Minolta stf, because of the apodization lens, did not give an AF lock.
3. How are the coatings on the laowa? The Samyang coatings seem mediocre imho.
Guessing here, I would say:
1- Probably not. That said, when I test drove the Sony STF, I almost never used the auto aperture and found that I could have used the lens equally well if it hadn't had a camera-controlled aperture ring.
2- I'd again say probably not. I wish I could comment on the focus confirmation on the Sony but the Alpha 9 does not have that.
3- My guess from looking at the images from Laowa lenses is they're okay to fine. I haven't seen any sample Laowa images, from the maker, where the sun or other light source is in the frame. That could be coincidence or it could be that they don't want the lens' flare and ghosting tendencies to be known. But the Laowa sample images seem to come from one or more photographers who have a distinct style and approach to subject handling and scene lighting.