At IBC in Amsterdam, Laowa was showing its new Laowa Ultima 12-120mm T4 S35 Zoom which is being touted as a good option for those shooting news or documentaries with Super35-sized sensor cameras.
12-120mm is an incredible range, especially for a lens of this size. The lens covers a lot of the focal lengths users require when shooting fast-paced content. The physical look of the lens and the range are almost reminiscent of some of the older B4 2/3′ wide-angle zooms that I used to use.
You could certainly use this lens for a wide array of applications including reality TV shows, news, some sports, documentaries, music videos, corporate work, etc.
The lens covers image circles of up to 29.5mm and it has a 114mm front diameter. The lens is only available in PL mount.
As you would expect a lens like this requires a lot of glass! The optical construction of the lens consists of 28 elements in 20 groups and there are 9 aperture blades.
The minimum focusing distance is 1m /3.3′.
The lens weighs in at 3.2kg /7 lb so it is a little on the heavy side, but considering the range and constant T4 aperture I think Laowa has done a good job in keeping the weight down. The lens is a little heavier at the front than the back, but I didn’t personally find it as bad as the Canon CN-E 17-120mm.
There is an optional servo grip available for the lens that is made by Movcam, but after having a look at the way it was designed, it looks more suited to be operated via a servo demand on a panhandle. It wasn’t ergonomic enough to be used when used for handheld work.
I had a quick play with the lens at the booth and what surprised me was that there wasn’t actually a lot of barrel distortion at the wide end. 12-120mm is a good range for a lot of doc work or when covering certain events.
Price & Availability
Laowa told me that they plan to try and get the lens to market early next year and the asking price will be around $15,000 USD. At that price, the lens will have to compete with lenses like the Fujinon XK 20-120mm T3.5. The only other alternative option that I personally know of that has a similar focal range is the Fujinon Duvo 14-100mm T2.9-T3.9. That lens is more than double the cost of the Laowa, but it does have an integrated servo zoom and a 1.5x extender.
