Laowa 180mm f/4.5 1.5X Ultra Macro APO (MF, L-Mount)

Reviewers, who tested the autofocus Sony E version with the same optics, rate the image quality as very good. One found edge-to-edge resolution superb at telephoto distances and saw no lateral colour fringing or bokeh fringing at all; the other measured clear softening towards the edges in the lab and lateral CA a little higher than ideal, but found neither obvious in real shots. Distortion is negligible, vignetting is slight, and out-of-focus areas are smooth, with occasional outlining of bright highlights.

The build is described as well above its price, with a mostly metal barrel, internal focusing and a long, very smooth focus ring that makes manual focusing at high magnification a pleasure. The f/4.5 aperture gives very thin depth of field up close and is a little restrictive for general telephoto use. Both reviewers flag the manual-focus L-mount version as the less versatile option, since it loses autofocus for general telephoto work, though for macro they focused manually anyway.