Macro lens specialist Venus Optics has unveiled the Laowa 85mm f/5.6 2X Ultra Macro APO; a small, lightweight lens for full-frame mirrorless cameras that offers twice life-size magnification. By using a shorter focal length and smaller maximum aperture, it’s about half the weight of the firm’s existing Laowa 100mm f/2.8 2x Ultra Macro APO and two-thirds of the length. Initially it’ll be available in Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony E and Leica M mounts, with the latter version being rangefinder-coupled, but more expensive as a result.

Venus Optics is highlighting the lens’s small size

Optically the lens employs a completely new design, with 13 elements in 9 groups, including 3 made from extra-low dispersion glass. According to Venus Optics, this allows colour fringing due to chromatic aberration to be essentially eliminated – hence the APO designation. The lens employs an internal focus design, with a minimum focus distance of just 16.3cm. Both focusing and aperture setting are manual.

An internal focus design means the Laowa 85mm f/5.6 2X Ultra Macro APO doesn’t extend when set to its closest focus distance