Laowa 105mm f/2 (T3.2) STF

It’s nicknamed the ‘Bokeh Dreamer’, but is this lens worth purchasing for portraiture?

 

- Michael Topham

The Laowa 105mm f/2 (T3.2) STF is designed specifically for DSLR cameras with a full-frame sensor. It’s one of only a few lenses to feature an apodization element, which promises to render superior bokeh.

STF refers to Smooth Trans Focus – a lens design associated with producing a high level of sharpness at the plane of focus, gradually melting away to form beautifully diffused out-of-focus rendition. The Laowa is manual focus (MF) only.

The apodization element is designed to transmit all of the light that’s directed through the centre of the aperture, but reduce its intensity gradually towards the periphery. The lens is also interesting in the way it has two separate diaphragms, both of which are controlled manually via separate rings on the barrel. The 14-bladed circular aperture, which is located closest to the front of the lens, provides users with the ability to produce the smoothest bokeh possible. With its declicked aperture ring, it’s actually intended to provide video graphers with a silent way of controlling the light passing through the lens, and the transmission value (the amount of light that reaches the sensor) is marked in T stops from T3.2 to T8. The eight-bladed aperture that’s located behind the 14-blade circular aperture is intended for photographers to control the aperture opening (f-number) and the depth of field in the usual way. However, this ring does click between stops. When one or the other diaphragm is used, the unused one should always be left wide open. For example, if the 14-blade circular aperture is set to f/5.6 or f/8, the eight-blade aperture should be set to f/2. Likewise, if the eight-bladed aperture is set to f/11, the 14-blade circular aperture should be set to T3.2.