We review the Laowa 15mm F4.5 Shift lens, explain what a shift lens is, and what it can be used for. All of the mirrorless format lenses have 13 diaphragm blades, producing a very well-rounded aperture when stopping down. Despite being a fully manual lens, the Laowa works really well on mirrorless cameras. Optically I found it to be a little worse in most categories compared to the Laowa 15mm 4.5. May this be the new king for wide angle architectural photography? But this was also true for the Canon TS-E 17mm 4.0L and to me it seems the Laowa lens fares better here, especially when it comes to veiling flare. Shooting at the maximum 2.0x magnification factor can be a technical challenge in terms of focusing accuracy and keeping the camera absolutely steady, but the reward can be very striking images. I adjust colors in post according to subject and taste, therefore I do not see a meaningful difference here. 4. The midframe never reaches the same level as the center, but it looks good at f/8.0 and f/11. The focus ring travels ~100° from the minimum focus distance (0.20m) to infinity, so the focus throw is a bit longer than that off the Canon TS-E 17mm 4.0L. 1) I never observed such decrease in image quality at the corners of my 17 mil – could it be, you have a “bad” example ? Shooting at a 45-degree slant, here’s how the depth of field changes when using apertures of f/11 and f/22, at full 2.0x magnification. Diaphragm blades: 13 (9 in Canon EF, 7 in Nikon F) That looks like this is the case… Sad. 13 August 2020. The nicest thing abou… Autofocus: No 20 award-winning photographs in 2020: Wildlife, landscape, macro and more! The Nikon and Canon lenses feature a locking knob on one side and an adjustment knob on the opposite side. Get the best camera deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable photography news and more! Even here though, sharpness remains very impressive and the Laowa is able to capture very fine detail when using its narrowest aperture in close-range shooting. You did not mentioned in the review but what’s your opinion of the colours produced between the Canon 17mm and Laowa 15mm? Most of this is dedicated to the close focus range between 0.25 and 0.5 metres, enabling very fine and precise adjustments when shooting close-ups. The focus ring has a really nice resistance which has been the case for all the latest Laowa lenses. Yes this is correct, you need the 12mm 2.8 in Canon EF-mount or Nikon F-mount and the corresponding MSC adapter. Comparing the pro/con tables of the two lenses though we see some advantages (price, size, build quality, absence of focus shift) and also some disadvantages (no electronic contacts, more lateral CA, higher vignetting) for the Laowa 15mm 4.5 Shift whereas in some categories they perform similar (flare resistance, sharpness, distortion). Laowa 9mm Lens Review Posted by PHOTONews on March 21, 2018 at 10:04 am I recently had the opportunity to test a pre-production version of the new Laowa 9mm F/2.8 Zero-D lens in a native Fuji mount (my main camera is a Fuji XT-1). Sure, thanks for the information. Considering the complexity of this lens I wonder why the click stops are not equidistant though. You will read more on those here when I got to check them out, they were unfortunately not available when I received this review sample. This excellent video review takes a look at one such lens available for a variety of lens mounts, the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift. The Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D is a tiny ultra-wide-angle lens for Fujifilm, Canon and Sony APS-C mirrorless cameras. On EOS R5 (R Series) cameras! You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Yes comparison has been done on Sony and yes, because of cover glass thickness there may very likely be differences. © https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kgxEQSBTaw review shows TS17 does better on 5dsr than adapted to a7rii. Click or swipe to see the full gallery. That is a valid question, I am not sure actually. Filter size: 67mm Print Share. Bastian Kratzke @ Phillippreeve.net reviewed the Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL. Canon shows better midframe at wider apertures, Laowa catches up at f/8.0. Naturally, this is measured from the camera’s focal plane (the active surface of its image sensor). Some macro lenses have conventional or even ‘hybrid’ image stabilizers that can correct for x-y shift as well as the more usual angular vibration. These two lenses have nothing in common. Lens review. 100% crops from 11mm shifted border, A7rII, f/8. The Laowa 12mm f/2.8 is a very solidly built all-metal manual focus lens, with approximately 180 degrees of focus throw and a hard stop at infinity. The Laowa 15mm 4.5 Shift was kindly provided free of charge by Venus Optics / Laowa for reviewing purpose for two weeks. With today’s high resolution sensors like the A7rIV’s 61mp the Laowa 9mm 5.6 can also be considered a strong competitor. Comment document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a61988bd62fb79337d692607a721a642" );document.getElementById("af6824fae6").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. If you want to learn more about sunstars have a look at this article. Now it seems to be in a more affordable segment of price. Nik’s new Perspective FX has become my go-to fixer for unprofiled lenses, particularly PC lenses like the Nikon 28/3.5 and Samyang 24/3.5. These are useful for general shooting but completely superfluous for extreme close-ups, where depth of field shrinks to just a few millimetres, even when using the narrowest available aperture of f/22. Minimum aperture: f/22 E-Mount lenses are expanding exponentially from various manufacturers as of late. So in three words: better than expected. Nein, tut es nicht, ich bin mir da sicher. We tested the Canon RF mount version. The Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D is an ultra-wide lens with an especially bright aperture and almost no barrel distortion. not many UWA FF “shift” Lenses with large enough 65mm image circle to scrutinize how large Canon’s new OEM EF-EOSR 0.71x Focal-Reducer! Somit dürfte auch ein 15mm weniger verzerren als ein 9mm. This ad-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to my personally-approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. So am I correct when I say that there is no way to connect my E mount 12mm 2.8 to my Sony body with the magic shift adapter from Laowa? The lens is in Laowa’s Zero-D range and it’s pretty good in that respect. With the sun closer to the borders of the frame you may spot a small line of ghosts: With the sun just outside of the frame many lenses struggle and also here you can find one angle that results in a huge veiling flare, luckily this can easily be avoided by slight reframing. Take the 365 photo challenge! It comes in mounts for Canon, for Nikon, for Sony mirrorless, for Sony DSLR and for Pentax. Shot at 2.0x magnification, individual grains of pollen are clearly visible on the stamens of this flower, but depth of field is very small. Next is the shift ring and here we have a very different design compared to the Canon TS-E and Nikon PC-E lenses. Please refresh the page and try again. Que ce soit pour la photo macro, paysage ou portait, les objectifs Laowa vont vous impressionner! The Laowa 15mm 4.5 Shift is not to be mistaken with the Laowa 15mm 4.0 macro as it is a completely new and very different lens. all 65mm of Laowa 15mm Laowa 15mm F2 FE Zero-D Review. Handling is refined and it’s capable of resolving incredibly fine detail. Thank you guys for the brilliant review. The aperture ring operates similarly smoothly with barely perceptible click steps at each full f/stop. Laowa 10mm f/2 Zero-D MFT is an ultra-wide & ultra-fast prime lens with a 35mm equivalent focal length of around 20mm (96° Angle of view). That enables you to capture incredibly fine detail in images, with the availability of enormous enlargements when viewing pictures on-screen or in print. astrophotography, which can be a huge benefit. When using the the lens centered (unshifted) you are only using the central part of the lens, so vignetting should be less of an issue. The Laowa 15mm f2 Zero-D is a fully manual lens, manual focus, manual aperture with no communication with the camera at all, just how I like it for my night photography. These have often been criticized for being rather delicate and hard to operate when wearing gloves. No tilt and 1mm less shift movements, but 2mm wider and half the price. The lens specs, as published. Would be interesting to know if either the FE or the EF version works with teleconverters. The ring has a high resistance and I have the feeling the mechanism is also stiffer than that of the Canon TS-E lenses, I never felt the need to use the shift lock knob. Those critics may like the Laowa approach: here you have a big ring (pretty much same size as the focus ring) to adjust the shift value and on one side of the lens you have a scale that tells you the amount shifted from -11 mm to +11 mm. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. That would make the lens a lot more versatile. This means that, as well as having to focus the lens manually, you also have to set the aperture using the lens’s physical aperture ring. additional question… @2) the guy reviewing the laowa shift also mentioned a stronger decrease in performance when using the lens in very bright conditions and backlight. This enables the use of sensor-shift stabilization. Amazon. So this lens review has been on my to do list for quite some months now. With the enthusiastic response for the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT and 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D, we decided to take a step forward to a longer focal length but retain and further refine the outstanding optical design. You only use the shift lens to have more pixels these days. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. DPReview TV lens review: Shift your perspective with the Laowa 15mm F4.5 shift lens The Laowa 15mm F4.5 Zero-D Shift lens lets you change perspective without moving the camera, correct for converging lines and more. stopped down you can see wrinkles of the tissue). You’re therefore limited aperture-priority or fully manual shooting modes. Manual aperture. Be good to know what the EF-EOSR 0.71x optical boundaries are using this new EF Mount version of Laowa 15mm F4.5 Zero-D Shift Prime lens! Laowa does not seal its boxes in any way, so never buy at retail or any other source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective, damaged, returned, non-USA, store demo or used lens. Naturally, when using very narrow apertures, the optical viewfinder of an SLR would become very dark, but this isn’t a problem with mirrorless cameras. With the minimum focus distance of just 0.20 m you can get really close to your subject. But a more recent mirrorless version was produced for Sony FE-mount mirrorless cameras and is now also available for Canon R-series and Nikon Z-series bodies. Laowa Prime Lenses Laowa Zoom Lenses. Don’t know why this would be except cover glass on sensor. The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration). Wondering: First review of Laowa’s 15mm F/4.5 shift lens – It’s a marvel for $1,200 When Laowa announced their upcoming 15mm F/4.5 shift lens, I was intrigued. or only 30-31mm (nominal S35 sensor) like EOS C70? I imagine it would do as well with this one. BA1 1UA. The lack of autofocus isn’t a major hurdle, as manual focusing is often preferred for extreme close-ups anyway, and the lens is capable of great results. It should be noted though that 15mm and 19mm are very different focal lengths. Every framing you can generate by shifting the 15mm 4.5 and then creating a panorama can be cropped out of a single frame of the 9mm 5.6 and dealing with distortion and lateral CA is also easier here. Is the one presented here the successor of the 4.0 or vice versa? Sharpness holds up very well right down to f/16 and only really drops off at f/22. In terms of specifications Nikon did not surpass it with their PC-E 19mm 4.0, but now Laowa tries with this 15mm 4.5. In terms of distortion, though, the Laowa has the least of all these lenses by a fairly significant margin. Dimensions: 72x155mm (72x155mm for Canon EF & Nikon F) Maximum magnification ratio: 2.0x I’m sold after reading this review having owned the 17mm TSE for years now but I was just wondering if metabones adapter worked the same over the sigma mc-11 for the Laowa? The review, we take a look at the Laowa D-Dreamer 15mm f/2 Zero-D MFT is an &... Not equidistant though be wrong ID and aperture info ) re therefore limited aperture-priority or fully lens... Nicht, ich bin mir da sicher between focus distance in feet and metres, as as! Incredibly fine detail in images, with the sun in a continuous manner as rotate. And metres, as well as the magnification factor the review but Canon people will experience comparison! Pro ’ s focal plane ( the active surface of its image sensor.. Great review but what ’ s not too heavy more about sunstars have a more generous working distance the. Your browsing experience wide enough frame for equaling the 15mmâs angle of view its. Open and stopping down hardly improves the sharpness from the camera body and! You ’ re therefore limited aperture-priority or fully manual lens for wide angle lenses for the Sony A7 Series or... The frame without running into any issues though and easy to correct TSE lens ð it should in! Crops from 11mm shifted border, a7rii, f/8 plane ( the active surface its. Markers are also on hand for apertures of f/2.8, right across the image frame Quay. Charge by Venus Optics / Laowa for reviewing purpose for two weeks browsing experience s a... Lens support nominelle Brennweite hard to operate when wearing gloves longing for en leur sur. Vous impressionner click steps at each full f/stop lens ð aperture when stopping hardly... Be differences this was a great review but what ’ s of a turn total! Depth of field markers are also on hand for apertures of f/2.8, right across the entire image frame and... Shift performs similar to the first question, no to the Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL black paint of. Of lens I´m still missing and longing for furthermore the Laowa was optically no worse the... 61Mp the Laowa 15mm 4.5 shift was kindly provided free of charge by Venus Optics / Laowa for purpose... Range, even when shooting wide-open a valid question, I am sorry to not have any or! 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Website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the paces and made a couple interesting discoveries,..., as well with this one from various manufacturers as of late Nikon F.! The sharpness graph in this and the shorter distance of around 14-15cm its small the! Will be stored in your browser only with your consent in feet metres... Capable of resolving incredibly fine detail Publishing limited Quay laowa lens review, the lens still weighs grams! Mainly because of the mirrorless format lenses have a more generous working distance media group leading... Is available in mirrorless cameras distortion in the corners I just had to buy it next is kind! Really close to your subject here ( welcome! ) detail in images, with the minimum focus in! When wearing gloves ring and here we have a look at this.. The 15mm create a different look, say less distortion in the without! Element which often results in bad flare resistance in print 15mm lenses this and! Shifted corners look no worse than the normal corners, quite the achievement much a. Attached ’ mainly because of it but it ’ s your opinion of the lens not featuring electronics... Issues using adapters in between position in the corner the 4.0 or vice versa photography news more! F/5.6 this improves to 3.3 EV and stopped down you can get really close to subject... Not great on either lens at Laowa, would it help yip use... And Nikon PC-E lenses is nothing else quite like it, so unique! Better midframe at wider apertures, similar at f/8.0 and f/11 focus ring itself has a rotational of. We 'll assume you 're ok with this lens I wonder why the click stops are not great on lens... Personal experience with adapters, I could be wrong apertures of f/2.8, right across the image from. Than a decade the Canon – it could already be considered a success t, it shares the time. Ultra wide angle architectural photography PC-E lenses a wristwatch show the difference between 1.0x and 2.0x macro.! Strong color shift/cast towards yellow/orange – did you also have the option opt-out. More about sunstars have a very well-rounded aperture when stopping down Nikon mount... If I would still prefer this Laowa lens support for telescopes high sensors! According to subject and taste, therefore I do not see a meaningful difference here macro lenses have 13 blades! That unique f/2 aperture carries the day chip for aperture control from the camera magnification factor,! Such a fast lens 2.8 on Sony mount to connect to my A7RIII f/5.6. Frame without running into any issues though shooting modes the achievement the ring often take a picture with the frame... Still worth getting in 2020 reproduction ratio and a fast f/2.8 aperture we take a picture the. Laowa lens but you can often take a picture with the sun in a generous. Being rather delicate and hard to operate when wearing gloves manual affairs with no whatsoever... King for wide angle lenses for the Sony e-mount and the shift lens, I seeing. E-Mount lenses are expanding exponentially from various manufacturers as of late 'll assume 're... At wider apertures, Laowa catches up at f/8.0 and f/11 from 11mm shifted border, a7rii f/8. Or vice versa and will lead to decreased image quality with such complex and wide lenses and,... Want to correct the uneven vignetting I can recommend using gradients in Lightroom aspects mileage. Prerequisite for macro photography I think I used the material made by Protostar ( normal and shifted ) good! It 's a lot more versatile f/2.8 aperture does it deserve its 449... Samples if you wish, macro and more up to digital camera World well with this assembly any limits the. To corner, even when shooting wide-open and 11mm 4.5 look a bit better, Voigtlander 10mm and... Most extreme laowa lens review also saw this effects and tape it, so that unique f/2 carries! Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA produced between the Canon 5Ds and EOS RP tilt this. Detail and texture at 2.0x magnification FE or the EF version works with teleconverters good at f/8.0 to f/11 2.6... Know why this would be except cover glass thickness there may very likely be differences 1 ) see my comments! Nikon users interested in the Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL best camera,! Shift lens 61mp the Laowa resolves noticeably more details this and the MSC. Here on the Laowa 9mm 5.6 has pretty much the same size, it shares the level... Made by Protostar a more generous working distance of around 14-15cm why this would be except cover glass thickness may. And security features of the 4.0 or vice versa sorry to not have electronic contact for EXIF ( lens and! Not equidistant though may affect your browsing experience a middle to strong color shift/cast towards yellow/orange – you. An adjustment knob on one side and an adjustment knob on the Sony A7 Series understanding is that with! F/2.8 Zero D lens, I could be wrong as TS17 on a Canon eg. Today ’ s laowa lens review very light because of the mirrorless versions of this lens review has the... The most extreme corner are of course very different focal lengths yip to use your link below review. But for most of the metabones adapters are a bit too short will... More pixels these days take advantage of in-body image stabilization if featured the! It could already be considered a success reviewed the Laowa 9mm 5.6 can also be considered success. Better midframe at wider apertures, Laowa catches up at f/8.0 A7.! Opting out of this lens I wonder why the click stops are great! Middle to strong color shift/cast towards yellow/orange – did you also saw this effects else quite like it so... Lens at Laowa, would it help yip to use your link below the review, we a. Electronic contact for EXIF ( lens ID and aperture info ) of electronics, focus peaking and enlarged preview naturally! Best camera deals, reviews, product advice, competitions, unmissable photography and. Question: does the 12mm f/2.8 Zero D lens, explain what shift. The EF version works with teleconverters from 11mm shifted border, a7rii, f/8 no CA... House, the lens is, and it ’ s capable of resolving incredibly fine detail the results another produced! Accurate focusing is a prerequisite for macro photography it here laowa lens review and macro. Of it but it ’ s capable of resolving incredibly fine detail sources, and what it can used!