Laowa Pro2be 24mm T8 2X Hands On (IBC 2023)

During IBC 2023 we had a chance to check out several Venus Optics Laowa products, including the newly released Laowa Pro2be 24mm T8 2X lenses. We had a chance to see the lenses in action and ask some questions about their design.

Laowa Pro2be 24mm T8 2X lenses

Laowa recently introduced a new generation of its probe lenses (we have discussed it several times on our LensVid Talk videos – see here and here).

The original Probe lens has been around for a few years, and Laowa has introduced several new versions with different features since then. The latest iteration called Pro2be has a number of interesting innovations and improvements.

The first is the aperture – unlike the very slow original lens which had an f/14 aperture the three new lenses have a much faster T8 (they are all Cine lenses this time around and there are no stills/Cine versions). This is a huge improvement as it cuts down significantly on the amount of light (or ISO) that is needed to light a scene.

The second change is image quality. The new lenses are said to be sharper across the frame compared to previous models.

The new lenses also come in 3 variants. straight, 35 degrees, and a periscope variant. We asked during IBC why Laowa chose to make three different lenses instead of a single interchangeable lens (like it did in a previous version of the Laowa probe) and the answer was that rental houses would prefer to have three lenses for rent rather than a single one with three front parts.

The periscope version can change angles, however, you will need tools for that. Laowa mentioned that it does not intend to change the angle of the lens during shooting but we still would have liked to see this process done without using tools.

Official Laowa 24mm T8 2X Macro Pro2be video

Pricing and availability

All 3 lenses are already available on B&H (pricing ranges between $2850-$3350).

Special thanks to our sponsors for IBC 2023: SmallRig, Ulanzi, Godox, Zhiyun.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.