Venus Optics announces the shipping and pricing of the Laowa OOOM 25- 100mm T2.9 cine lens interchangeable PL/EF/E mount. This absolutely great piece of glass might be your best investment in cine-zooms. Read more about it down below. 

Laowa “Out Of Our Minds” 25-100mm T/2.9

This Venus Optics’ cine zoom lens was first showcased as a prototype during Photokina 2018. The Laowa OOOM (“Out Of Our Minds”- as defined by the company) 25-100mm T/2.9 is supposed to offer an affordable solution for filmmakers without compromising on performance, which means, allowing the very desired focal lengths within cinema design that is more than just a rehoused still version. As stated by Venus Optics: “The OOOM is designed to offer a beautiful vintage look in its color and bokeh. The image is not overly contrasty nor flat but with a very good sharpness of modern lenses. It also renders a naturally healthy skin tone and silky smooth transition”.

The OOOM is designed to offer a beautiful vintage look in its color and bokeh. The image is not overly contrasty nor flat but with a very good sharpness of modern lenses. It also renders a naturally healthy skin tone and silky smooth transition.

Venus Optics

Big news to the super 35 cine-zoom arena

According to Venus Optics, the Laowa OOOM 25-100mm has been developed for more than 3 years in order to make the lens a budget par-focus cine zoom glass with a comprehensive zoom range and unique look. The company emphasizes that this “OOOM” lens was designed for cinematography purposes from the beginning and therefore it exhibits the imperative features including parfocal and little-to-none focus breathing. Venus Optics had also spent quite a lot of time to develop a unique ‘OOOM look’ with characters from vintage lenses as well as good sharpness of modern optics.

Check out the Laowa OOOM 25-100mm T2.9 Cine Showreel below:

Laowa OOOM 25-100mm T/2.9 Highlights

Here are the main features of the Laowa OOOM 25-100mm T/2.9 cine-zoom lens:

1. Industry-grade mechanical design: Both zoom, aperture, and focus rings are designed with 0.8mod gears for motor engagement.
2. Comprehensive 4x zoom range: All-in-one lens which is able to focus from ultra-wide (25mm) to telephoto (100mm) Super35+ coverage: The coverage can even be expanded to FF by using a 1.4x expander.
3. Parfocal design: The focus will remain the same no matter zooming in or out.
4. Low focus breathing: The composition will remain the same when pulling focus.
5. Constant T2.9 with super close focus: The large constant T2.9 allows you to shoot in low light situations throughout the whole zoom range. The lens can focus as close as 60cm.
6. Full Frame Compatible via 1.4x Expander (To be released in 3 months): A 1.4X FF Expander is tailor-designed for the OOOM to expand the coverage into full-frame without degradation on image quality (There will be a 1-stop light impact and 1.4x impact on the range, making it a 35-140mm T4 lens.
7. Rear 1.33X Anamorphic Adapter (To be released in 3 months): A new 1.33X rear Anamorphic Adapter is also designed to create cinematic 2.35:1 widescreen ratio
8. User-interchangeable PL/EF/E mounts: It comes in a hard case in default PL mount. A separate EF and E mount bayonet are included in the package where users can change it easily. A package of shims and tools are included for users to fine-tune the lens to the flange distance of their own cameras. 

Price and availability

The new Laowa OOOM 25-100mm T2.9 is currently available to order via Venus Optics’ new website for cinema lenses and authorized resellers. The US (ex-VAT) price is $5,000 for the lens only and $6,500 for a bundle with the 2 adapters. The standalone price of the 1.4x FF expander as well as the 1.33x rear anamorphic adapter is $999 respectively. 

Final thoughts

Laowa is well known for innovative lenses, and the OOOM 25- 100mm cine-zoom is no exception. I can see this lens being heavily used by indie filmmakers that are eager to be armed with powerful fast cine-zoom which can deliver unique imagery. The OOOM 25-100mm T2.9  offers an extremely desired focal length under a super affordable price range. The most important part of the announcement is the price and also, the business attitude of the company, which produces a healthy competition which can help to break the cine-zoom tough market.