The following images were taken with the Laowa 5x Ultra Macro lens mounted on a 45MP Nikon Z7 camera. All images were shot on a motorized MJKZZ Ultra rail and focus stacked from RAW files with Helicon Focus 7.6.6 Pro. The resulting DNG files were processed in Lightroom 10.2/CRAW 13.2 to Adobe Color profile with CA compensation applied and a larger than usual sharpening radius of 1.5 plus additional texture enhancement of +20 to bring out the fine details in the images. Noise-reduction was set to 0 and I did some slight cropping on a few images. I also liberally adjusted tone, exposure, and color in post-processing, removed some spots and dust, and worked on the background to produce more pleasing images. For comparison I’ve provided single shots of the bee processed the usual way (sharpening at 50/0.5/36/10, no extra tone, color, or saturation adjustment). Those single shots also show how incredibly thin the dof at 2.5-5x magnification is.
Above: Laowa 25mm f2.8 2.5-5x Ultra Macro on MJKZZ Ultra focus rail
The individual exposure details plus additional information on magnification and number of photos in a focus stack are provided. These and other high resolution Laowa 5x Ultra Macro sample images are available to download in their original formats for analysis at Flickr. These files are for personal evaluation only and cannot be used in another publication or website without permission.
0.4 sec, f2.8, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 31 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, large original available at f2.8, f4.0
2 sec, f2.8, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 5x, 42 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, large original available at f2.8, f4.0
1/80, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 52 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/80, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 35 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/10, f2.8, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 5x, 97 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
0.4 sec, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 60 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/15, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 31 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/20, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 30 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/10, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 36 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/20, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 88 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1 sec, f2.8, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 4x, 62 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
0.6 sec, f8.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/15, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 91 photos stacked; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/15, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1.3 sec, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 5x, 125 photos stacked, step size 37.5 micron; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1.3 sec, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 5x; click image for 4k version, here for large original
1/4, f4.0, 64 ISO, Laowa 5x Ultra Macro at 2.5x, 59 photos stacked, step size 50 micron; click image for 4k version, here for large original