Laowa 7.5mm f2 - Thoughts?

Since moving to the EM1 Mark II about a month ago Im starting to look into underwater gear to shoot this summer. The main two lens are the 8mm 1.8 and 7-14mm 2.8 from Olympus. As I was looking through some sites I came across this lens and was wondering what everyone thinks about it? How hard would it be to shoot this underwater since its a MF lens?

I don't see any reason to choose this lens over the 7-14. Why give up the versatility of the zoom? Why give up autofocus? Why give up auto exposure? (it has a manual aperture ring).

I wish that Olympus or Panasonic or Sigma would offer a nice fixed lens in the 9-11mm range.

As for this Laowa lens, perhaps if I already had one or more ports that I thought might work for it, and had been wishing for a wider fixed lens, and had the money and time to play with the idea, and was willing to experiment with fitting the lens to a port, and making or adapting a focus ring or settling for fixed focus, this could be an entertaining experiment.

Otherwise, I would use the existing Ply and Pana lenses, 8mm, 12mm, 7-14, 9-18, 12-40, 12-50, macro lenses, etc.

Overall, I am having some trouble figuring out how the Laowa would be preferable underwater to one of the 8mm FE lenses.

But that is just me. If it is appealing to you, go for it and then let us know how it works out!

I really am looking at the Olympus 8mm 1.8 as well for underwater work just thought I would ask about this one.

Then your choice is single focal length fisheye, or rectilinear zoom. If you are just starting out, I would go with the zoom. It gives a more natural perspective and is easier to learn with than the fisheye, which is a much more specialized tool. Also, the zoom would even allow you to get moderate fish portraits and other perspectives that you would not easily get with the fisheye. The Laowa is rectilinear ultra-wide (weitwinkel), but still not as wide as the zoom would be.