Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie

The Laowa 10mm f/4 Cookie is an ultra-wide prime for APS-C cameras. It comes in Canon RF, Fujifilm X, Leica L, Nikon Z and Sony E versions, so pick the one made for your system. At 10mm it suits tight spaces, architecture and landscape work.

Its main draw is size. The lens weighs little and sits close to the camera body, so it is easy to carry or leave mounted. That makes it a useful companion on trips where saving space matters.

The trade-off is a single f/4 aperture and manual focusing, so you set each shot more deliberately. Laowa introduced it in 2022.

The Cookie weighs 4.6 oz (130 g) and extends about 0.98 in (25 mm) from the mount. It is 2.36 in (60 mm) across. A screw-in filter must match the 37mm thread on the front. Our physical score is 57 out of 100.

At 10mm on APS-C, this lens takes in an extremely wide view. It works well in cramped rooms, narrow streets and cathedral interiors where you cannot step back. It also lets you place a bold foreground close to the camera and still keep the wider scene in frame.

The fixed f/4 maximum aperture suits daylight work. In dim interiors you will need a higher ISO or a slower shutter speed. Depth of field at 10mm is deep even at f/4, so much of the scene can stay sharp at once. That depth also eases manual focusing, since precise focus is less critical at moderate distances.

Focusing is manual only, with a ring on the barrel. You can focus as close as 0.3 ft (10 cm), which lets nearby objects loom large against a wide background. Laowa also quotes a maximum magnification of 0.15x. The five-blade aperture can give bright points of light a five-sided shape when they are out of focus.

Our optics score for this lens is 49 out of 100.

There is no image stabilization. At 10mm, camera shake shows up less than it would on a long lens, so the gap matters less for handheld stills. It matters more for handheld video or very slow shutter speeds in low light.

There is no weather sealing, so keep the lens dry in rain or dust. There is also no fluorine coating on the front glass. That means no extra layer that repels water and oil, so the front element needs more careful cleaning.

There is no zoom to set. Framing depends on where you stand, which is normal for a prime this wide.

Two aspherical elements use specially shaped surfaces that help correct distortion and spherical aberration. Straight edges such as building lines can benefit from that correction.

Four low-dispersion elements help reduce chromatic aberration, which shows as coloured fringes along high-contrast edges. Fringes can show where a dark roofline meets a bright sky. Our construction score is 31 out of 100.