New Wotancraft TROOPER and the Widest and Fastest lens for Micro 4/3!
By Steve Huff
Another weekend is here and I will be headed out to shoot a cool event this evening with my Olympus EM1 MKII and Pro lenses. That report and video will come next week but for today I wanted to share some thoughts and a new video on THE NEW WOTANCRAFT TROOPER bag as well as the Venus Laowa 7.5 MM f/2 lens for Micro 4/3. Yesterday Debby and I went out to shoot this video at our local park because it was such a gorgeous day..take a look…
See the video overview of the lens and bag below! Images and Thoughts!
The new Wotancraft Trooper is a new bag and I have had it for a few weeks here. LOVELY bag and has the quality we have come to expect from Wotancraft. Gorgeous design, construction and usability/function depending on your needs of course but this bag is great for a mirrorless system. You can use this bag for Sony, Olympus, Leica, Fuji, etc. Wotancraft bags feature all premium hardware and leather/canvas and they last forever. I own several bags from Wotacraft and love them all, and this one is the lightest one I own as most of my others are full leather bags which can get heavy if you have them stuffed full of gear and are shooting all day. The Trooper, being canvas with leather trim is much lighter than the Ryker, which is my most used bag. This new bag may take over for my Ryker actually as I am really enjoying it. Wotancraft never disappoints!
Be sure to watch the video above to see more details on this and the 7.5mm Venus lens.
THE VENUS LAOWA 7.5 MM f/2 LENS for MICRO 4/3
This lens, as far as I know, is the widest/fastest lens for Micro 4/3. NOT a fisheye, but a normal ultra wide lens this 7.5mm will give you the field of view of a 15mm, which is still ultra wide! Being an f/2 aperture (and yes, it is a true f/2 for low light use) it will give you a little bit more niggle room for low light work. You can also actually get some shallow DOF from this, which is usually not the case of focus of an ultra wide lens, but to do this you need to focus close to your subject and this lens can focus CLOSE. Many use this lens for ASTRO photography. Manual focus, manual aperture dial tiny and comes with a lens hood which is made of metal. At $499 this lens is a great buy if you need such a wide angle lens for your Micro 4/3 camera. The construction is solid, doesn’t feel cheap at all, and the performance is what one would expect from a lens of this type and price, very good.
The lens can be found on Amazon or B&H Photo for $499 and is a great wide angle companion for your PEN-F or any Micro 4/3 camera. The strap I have on the PEN-F in the video above is THIS ONE.
–
So enjoy the video here, and enjoy your weekend!
Is it the Trooper M size bag?
Thanks
Laowa did fantastic work!!! i had 12/2.8 + MSC converter on my A7II and im totally in love!!!!
You still use the PEN-F, Steve. Do you think its contrast AF hinders this Olympus, specially when you compare it to the E-M1 II? Wouldn’t it be great if there was a small Olympus with the PDAF of the E-M1? 😉
I use the PEN-F every now and again, and still enjoy it. Compared to the EM1 MKII the AF is not as quick but I usually use the PEN-F for fun situations, where AF speed is not really important.
Hi Steve, I’m in the market for a new bag as I have outgrown my present bag. I’m shooting with the Sony a7Rll and the following Sony lenses. 55 1.8, 16-35 f4, 90 f2.8 and 100-400 f4-5.6 I also have the Rokinon 12mm f2.8 fisheye that I don’t usually carry unless I plan on using it. So I’m probably going to need the bigger version of this bag, but I’m wondering about the padding and the amount of protection on the sides and front of the bag? The material is lightweight like you said and I’m not seeing much padding in those areas to protect equipment from accidental banging around. Can you talk about the padding? Thanks
The padding of the Trooper is about the same as it is with the Ryker. Not overly thick, but when you have the inside configured how you need, it will keep your gear safe. Nothing I would worry about here but yes, I would suggest the larger version with that setup.
Nikon Direction
Hi Steve,
I received my Wotancraft TROOPER L about two weeks ago. I am stunned of the real life quality, functionality, gorgeous look and feel! Thanks to your reviews I bought my first Wotancraft some years ago. The Paratrooper, which I still own and probably will enjoy and love for many years to come. Wotancraft makes bags for real connaisseurs and you are one of them. Thank you for this new review which simply confirms my impression of this new Wotancraft product!
With regards
Oleg
Wondering if this might be good on my Black Magic Pocket Cinema. Does it focus in the direction of a Leica or a Nikon?
Should work on a BlackMagic with the MFT mount. Remember that your sensor is smaller (14.32 mm diagonal versus 21.60 mm for MFT), so you won’t see the full angle of view. The picture above shows that the focus scale runs in the Nikon direction.