The Laowa 105mm f/2 STF Is a Decade Old and Still Worth Buying

Most lens reviews chase what’s new. The Phoblographer’s Chris Gampat revisited a lens he first tested a decade ago — the Laowa 105mm f/2 Smooth Trans Focus — and the argument for still buying it in 2026 has nothing to do with being current.

Why Apodization Optics Still Matter

Bokeh quality is one of the few areas where computational sharpening and AI editing tools can’t fully substitute for optical design, and most manufacturers have quietly stopped making apodization (APD) lenses because they’re expensive to produce and hard to market against faster, autofocus-equipped alternatives. The Laowa 105mm f/2 STF is one of the few APD options still findable at a reasonable price, which is exactly why a decade-old manual lens is worth a fresh look rather than a nostalgia piece.

What Makes It Different

The STF element is the whole story: an apodization filter that tapers light transmission toward the edge of the aperture, smoothing out the harsh-edged bokeh discs that ordinary lenses produce. The tradeoff is real — the lens effectively costs one stop of light versus a standard f/2 design — but what it buys back is, in Gampat’s words, “much smoother bokeh and far more fascinating color output” than conventional glass at the same focal length. It’s manual focus only, with metal exterior construction and no weather sealing, which by 2026 standards reads as a deliberate constraint rather than a missing feature. Gampat argues the manual-focus requirement is actually the point: it “encourages intentional, deliberate composition work” that autofocus convenience trains photographers out of, particularly at f/2’s extremely shallow depth of field, where he recommends a tripod and patience over handheld speed.

The Catch / Who It’s For

Manual-only focus at f/2 is unforgiving — missed focus is a real risk without practice, and this isn’t a lens for fast-moving subjects or run-and-gun shooting. Gampat’s own workflow leans on pairing it with flash alongside natural light and stopping down from maximum aperture when sharpness across the frame matters more than the bokeh effect. That workflow rules the lens out for photographers who need autofocus reliability — event and sports shooters should look elsewhere, including Laowa’s own more modern tilt-shift optics built for different priorities. But for portrait photographers building a deliberate, controlled shooting process — studio work, planned outdoor portraits, anything where a few extra seconds per frame is a feature, not a cost — the STF effect is genuinely hard to replicate with any autofocus lens on the market.

Source: The Phoblographer

Content created with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy.