Last month, a Chinese company called Venus Optics unveiled a 60mm f/2.8 lens, the first 2:1 magnification lens with infinity focus. Thomas Shahan, the “Bob Ross of macro photography“, was sent a copy from the company and reviewed it in the 4.5-minute video above.
Shahan notes that the lens weighs in at a little over a pound and has a solid metal housing. It’s “hefty” and “robust,” he says.
A quirky aspect is that the front element of the lens is relatively small, and it recedes way back into the lens housing when you’re focusing to infinity:
There’s also no automatic aperture control built into the glass.
Shahan found that the lens is very sharp with good optics and great color reproduction. There’s a great deal of sharpness and detail even as you zoom in beyond 4:1 magnification:
Here are some sample photos Shahan shared with us to show how the lens performs when out in the great outdoors:
Even though shooting through a stop-down aperture is “difficult,” “I’m in love with the lens,” Shahan says. “I’m amazed by the amount of detail I can pull out of this lens. I can focus on anything from a landscape to a portrait, down to a detail, down to a portrait of a jumping spider.”
“I wholeheartedly recommend it.”
The Venus 60mm f/2.8 is for sale over on eBay for $379.
If you’d like to learn more about how Shahan does his macro photography, check out this video showing his workflow.
Image credits: Video and photographs by Thomas Shahan and used with permission
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