The Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D Lens

Since purchasing my Nikkor Z 24-200 f/4-6.3 lens I have been reasonably satisfied with my collection of Z mount lenses for my Nikon Z7. However, things change, and I recently found myself with a gap in my lens collection. The gap had appeared because of a big photography trip I have planned for the end of 2021 and with that trip came the need for a lens that would be good for astrophotography.

Except for my Laowa macro lens, all my lenses are f/4 and even with my limited knowledge of astrophotography I know that’s not fast enough. It’s not to say that you can’t get good astro shots with an f/4, it’s just that the general principle of having a fast lens is beneficial.

After asking some trusted photographers what I might look for in an astro lens I decided to pick up the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D lens. It’s ultra-wide, 2 stops faster than my other lenses (f/2 compared to f/4) and manual focus. Given that I’ll be using it for astro, the fact that it is manual focus doesn’t bother me.

Rather than leave this lens at home until my big trip in November I thought I’d take it out and shoot some landscapes with it. With Monty the dog super keen on a big walk, and an interesting weather forecast, I headed to a location on Dartmoor that I thought would be ideal for capturing ultra-wide landscape photographs in dramatic weather…Belstone Common. Watch how I got on in the video below.

Belstone Tor, Dartmoor Landscape Photographs

In the video you will have seen some photographs of wild garlic that I also took with the Laowa lens. I’ll be sharing those in a future blog post.