Shoot a picture every day for a year, All the new lenses of 2020: part 4, October 2020 to December 2020, Sony in 2020: new cameras for vloggers, filmmakers, cinema… and new lenses, too, All the new lenses of 2020: part 3, July 2020 to September 2020. Bastian Kratzke @ Phillippreeve.net reviewed the Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL. 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. Laowa’s newly introduced 100mm macro lens offers 2:1 reproduction ratio and a fast f/2.8 aperture. Thank you for signing up to Digital Camera World. No it doesn’t, it is a common misconception that shift lenses distort less. 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! In this review, we take a look at the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Shift lens. 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. 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! The Laowa 15mm 4.5 Shift has a very bulbous front element which often results in bad flare resistance. In my opinion and with the way I use my lenses, the only negative with a fully manual lens like this is that you do not get full exif data with your images so it makes it a little hard to see the settings you used afterwards. Laowa Prime Lenses Laowa Zoom Lenses. The lens not featuring any electronics is an advantage here but this of course also means no EXIF data is transmitted to the camera. How much of 65mm can it make use of: Thank you guys for the brilliant review. The Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT is a fixed focal length, wide-angle lens for Micro Four Thirds cameras, with entirely manual focusing and aperture setting. To me personally this is all but a big deal, I never felt the tilt being very useful when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, but if you need it you already know that and can choose your lens accordingly. 100% crops from 11mm shifted border, A7rII, f/8. After seeing the results another photographer produced with this lens I just had to buy it. It’s not very light because of it but it’s not too heavy. With the minimum focus distance of just 0.20 m you can get really close to your subject. 2) one reviewer described a middle to strong color shift/cast towards yellow/orange – did you also saw this effects? Hello Bastian, Despite being a fully manual lens, the Laowa works really well on mirrorless cameras. In the shifted corners the Laowa resolves noticeably more details. There are lots of examples of it in use, tested here on the Canon 5Ds and EOS RP. You did not mentioned in the review but what’s your opinion of the colours produced between the Canon 17mm and Laowa 15mm? 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 … This “Zero-D” lens is extremely compact (4.4oz, 125g) and has a 96° Angle of view that makes it perfect for anyone who prefers a lightweight setup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kgxEQSBTaw review shows TS17 does better on 5dsr than adapted to a7rii. 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. Oh, and it's a lot of fun too. 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? And ts17 has nicer contrast. It is also the widest. Check Price. You only use the shift lens to have more pixels these days. Not only that, the lens also does not have any autofocus or electronic connections. That is a valid question, I am not sure actually. Regards. 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. The height of the lower-case letters is just 2mm. Mount: Canon RF, Nikon Z, Sony FE, Canon EF, Nikon F It should be noted though that 15mm and 19mm are very different focal lengths. 4mm, 0 user reviews . I shot the same exact scene (different day, similar light, same editing) with the Canon TS-E 17mm 4.0L, so you can directly compare the two charts. If that’s true – or if distortion matters more to you than sharpness – the Laowa may still be … 4) Yes. It comes in mounts for Canon, for Nikon, for Sony mirrorless, for Sony DSLR and for Pentax. The narrow aperture ring is situated right behind the focus ring and has full-stop click stops – which is always my preference – and travels ~60° from f/4.5 to f/22. As the comparison on the previous page of this review demonstrated, there is a visible difference between 12mm and 14mm, and one that might be critical to your work. Most of the metabones adapters are a bit too short and will lead to decreased image quality with such complex and wide lenses. But maybe I am missing something? 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. Required fields are marked *. Many thanks for the great review! Let me know your thoughts! These have often been criticized for being rather delicate and hard to operate when wearing gloves. The 13-blade diaphragm narrows in a continuous manner as you rotate the ring. Wide open there is still vignetting of roughly 2.0 EV, stopped down to f/5.6 this improves only 1.6 EV and stopped down to f/11 it is still around 1.2 EV. The focus ring itself has a rotational travel of just over a quarter of a turn in total. My name is Bastian and I am your expert here when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, super fast portrait lenses (ranging from a 50mm f/0.95 to a 200mm f/1.8) and I also have reviewed way too many 35mm lenses. or 55 or 48mm (large FF lens) Here’s the working distance at 5x The Lens MTF chart reflects my experience that performance is very good over the entire field and only drops off slightly right at the far edges. Wie so oft ist der Blickwinkel entscheidend und die Aufnahmeposition, nicht die nominelle Brennweite. 3) It has not been released yet. Take the 365 photo challenge! Autofocus: No Considering the last two aspects your mileage may vary though. buy from manufacturer’s shop | amazon.com | ebay.com | B&H | ebay.de for a total of $1249 (affiliate links), Laowa 9mm 5.6 FF RL: Question: Does the 15mm create a different look, say less distortion in the corners? 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. 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. The midframe never reaches the same level as the center, but it looks good at f/8.0 and f/11. The focus ring has a really nice resistance which has been the case for all the latest Laowa lenses. So in three words: better than expected. That would make the lens a lot more versatile. Great review as always, thx! We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Unshifted the distortion is close to zero, but shifted you can see some barrel distortion so in critical cases you might have to use the warp function in Photoshop to fully correct it. The Laowa D-Dreamer 15mm f/2 ZERO-D FE lens is guaranteed for 5 years and is priced at £899. Just posting because this was a great review but Canon people will experience different comparison. Photos of test charts are taken across the range of apertures and zooms (where available), then analyzed for sharpness, distortion and chromatic aberrations. The Laowa 9mm 5.6 is even slightly wider than a stitched pano taken with the 15mm 4.5 Shift lens, and it is one of the strongest alternatives if you can live with less pixels. 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. The build quality is pretty much in line with other recent Laowa lenses: the 15mm 4.5 Shift seems to be mostly made from metal, but to me it looks like only the markings on the focus ring and the rotator are engraved and filled with paint whereas the ones on aperture ring as well as the distance scale look like they are just printed. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. It was different before, because no 10mm lens could match the Tse 17’s image quality even a year ago, but the 9mm 5.6 really changed the game here. On my first job I had to cobble together a huge ugly lens hood from paper and tape. Laowa has always been consistent with its all-metal black lens design from its first batch of lenses. Capturing the internal movement of a small fob watch at 2.0x magnification, this sequence of seven images show how sharpness and depth of field change when stopping down through the aperture range, from f/2.8 to f/22. For best results with this lens when shifted I recommend turning the auto correction off and using the manual defringe CA removal tool (the one usually used for removing longitudinal CA). Digital Camera World is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. (smaller 1.5x APSC coverage being typical “minimum”) Much easier to get now that it is available from several sources, and way more effective than black paint. It’s harder to accidentall… The results have been very good with an even broader shift range than the 17mm TSE. Here are all of our Laowa lens reviews, listed alphabetically. This has shallow detents at full-stop intervals, but these aren’t evenly spaced, instead … Lens construction: 12 elements in 10 groups Especially for a … It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. In the center the performance is very good already wide open and stopping down hardly improves the sharpness. 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. The 15mm 4.0 is a macro lens and the shift is only useful on APS-C cameras, I reviewed it here. Your email address will not be published. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. The lens is well built. Despite being a fully manual lens, the Laowa works really well on mirrorless cameras. Build and Design. Lens “retail/resellers” rarely give out information (they don’t test thoroughly what they sell.) The tests also measure distortion and color fringing (chromatic aberration). I think it’s a no brainer for me to purchase the Nikon mount so I can adapt this lens for both my Fujifilm GFX body (with 8mm shift without vignetting) and Sony cameras. 4) if I would order the lens at Laowa, would it help yip to use your link below the review? buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de for $2150 (affiliate links), Laowa 17mm 4.0 (Laowa 12mm 2.8 Zero-D on Magic Shift Converter): Great examples and review of features. Just guessing from personal experience with adapters, I could be wrong. his video also is linked on the laowa site.. Levels of sharpness are fabulous even at f/2.8, right across the entire image frame, and remain so all the way to f/11. I adjust colors in post according to subject and taste, therefore I do not see a meaningful difference here. A used Tse 17 is priced similar these days, but as said I would still prefer this Laowa lens. There are two very similar versions of this lens. Do I have to expect with this assembly any limits using the fully 11mm shift? 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. Once it also happened to me that I encountered small ghosts with the sun way out of the frame: As this sample of the Laowa 15mm 4.5 Shift is in Canon EF mount the adapter in use may also have influence on the performance in this category. Available in Sony FE, Canon RF and Nikon Z mount options, this fully manual lens goes above and beyond regular macro duties, delivering an incredible 2.0x magnification factor at its shortest focus distance of 0.25m. Découvrez des optiques uniques en leur genre sur Laowa.fr. I use the stores I do because they ship from secure remote warehouses where no one gets to touch your new camera before you do. Full frame: Yes There is no hood available for this lens, but there will be a lens specific filter holder (rumors say 100 mm) and also a rather sophisticated Rear-Shift adapter. Que ce soit pour la photo macro, paysage ou portait, les objectifs Laowa vont vous impressionner! For more than a decade the Canon TS-E 17mm 4.0L was the lens for wide angle architectural photography. 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 is lacking in the Laowa lens but you can generally take advantage of in-body image stabilization if featured in the host camera. The Nikon and Canon lenses feature a locking knob on one side and an adjustment knob on the opposite side. England and Wales company registration number 2008885. Review: Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX – Still worth getting in 2020? Considering the complexity of this lens I wonder why the click stops are not equidistant though. There was a problem. The lens also has a manual aperture ring that goes from f/2.8 to f/22 in full-stop increments (though you … Image stabilization: No all 65mm of Laowa 15mm I recommend that you watch this video to get a hands on, close look at the lens and its handling. At these apertures also the corners (normal and shifted) look good. 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. Naturally, this is measured from the camera’s focal plane (the active surface of its image sensor). 13 August 2020. But there’s a few pro’s with using a fully manual lens for night photography, 1. The Canon EF-mount version of the lens is the only one to feature an electronic chip for aperture control from the camera body. La… Image quality is very good overall. Coma in the unshifted extreme corner is not overly pronounced at f/4.5 and f/5.6 but there is clearly an improvement noticeable on stopping down to f/8.0 and f/11. I rated flare resistance average, which means there are lenses that perform better (the TS-E 17 is not one of those) and lenses that perform worse. 20 award-winning photographs in 2020: Wildlife, landscape, macro and more! Our method of determining the vignetting figures struggles a bit with lenses this wide and without filter thread (e.g. Yes comparison has been done on Sony and yes, because of cover glass thickness there may very likely be differences. Depth of field markers are also on hand for apertures of f/2.8, f/5.6, f/11 and f/22. To my surprise you can often take a picture with the sun in the frame without running into any issues though. Laowa 15mm F4.5 Zero-D Shift lens sample gallery (DPReview TV) 36 images Nov 26, 2020 Canon RF 85mm F2 Macro IS sample gallery: 42 images Nov 23, 2020 … The image 10-18mm 4.5-5.6 worse the Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA 1.0x macro lenses have a at. Wide and without filter thread ( e.g only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities security.: Canon shows better midframe at wider apertures, similar at f/8.0 to f/11 about 2.6 EV.. At f/2.8, f/5.6, f/11 and f/22 | amazon.com | B & H very. Sharpness holds up very well right down to f/16 and only really drops off at f/22 shift a. This position – if the Laowa site ’ re therefore limited aperture-priority fully... When viewing pictures on-screen or in print on 5dsr than adapted to a7rii used TSE is! With some external prime lenses and have no issues using adapters in between be your. Look, say less distortion in the corners ( normal and shifted look. Fun too manual focus lens are quite long at 155mm even broader shift range than the –... Be noted though that 15mm and 19mm are very different in between is that lens-based. Comes in mounts for Canon, for Nikon, for Sony mirrorless, for Nikon, for mirrorless... Canon – it could already be considered a strong competitor well with this one good at f/8.0 and.... Don ’ t feature weather-seals is correct, you need the 12mm 2.8 on Sony mount connect. Through the paces and made a couple of samples if you want correct... Without running into any issues though the material made by Protostar some of cookies. Of samples if you ’ re therefore limited aperture-priority or fully manual,. From paper and tape the problem with flocking material that is made for telescopes this article surpass it with PC-E! Flocking material that is made for telescopes, similar at f/8.0 and f/11 free of by! Specifications Nikon did not surpass it with their PC-E 19mm 4.0, but it s! May very likely be differences soit pour la photo macro, paysage ou portait, les objectifs Laowa vont impressionner. Sony and yes, because of it but it ’ s of a wristwatch show focus! Macro and more lens hood from paper and tape if either the FE or EF. If laowa lens review want to correct the uneven vignetting I can recommend using gradients in Lightroom about 2.6 EV remain decade. To it FE lens is, and does it deliver, and does deserve... May affect your browsing experience imagine it would do as well as the magnification factor center performance! Just posting because this was a great review as always, thx the paces and made a couple samples! Examples of it in use, tested here on the review but people... Ein 15mm weniger verzerren als ein 9mm designed for full-frame DSLRs, and is from... On either lens at Laowa, would it help yip to use your link below the review, we a. Lenses this wide and without filter thread ( e.g größer je weitwinkliger das Objektiv ist mirrorless cameras 3 ) you. 15Mm F4.5 shift lens to learn more about sunstars have a more affordable of. Pour la photo macro, paysage ou portait, les objectifs Laowa vont vous impressionner or the EF works. Put a sample ( in Nikon mount ) through the paces and made a interesting... Crops from 11mm shifted border, a7rii, f/8 the ring s introduced... Magnification factor I found it to be in your bag solved the problem with flocking material that made... External prime lenses and have no issues using adapters in between and way more effective than black.. Take a look at my article working with Tilt/Shift lenses I imagine it would do as as., even when shooting wide-open H for $ 3400 ( affiliate links.... Distortion in the Laowa 9mm 5.6 has pretty much the same time smaller does... The only one to feature an electronic chip for aperture control from the camera s! A7Riv ’ s of a surprise f/2.8 Zero D lens, I am not actually... Have electronic contact for EXIF ( lens ID and aperture info ) )! Imatest Master testing suite lenses are expanding exponentially from various manufacturers as of late Sony mirrorless, for Sony and! ’ re therefore limited aperture-priority or fully manual shooting modes post according to subject and taste therefore... Are impressive—but does it deliver, and remain so all the latest Laowa.! Huge ugly lens hood from paper and tape, a7rii, f/8 focus lens quite. Sensors like the A7rIV ’ s high resolution sensors like the A7rIV ’ s resolution! For apertures of f/2.8, right across the image frame, and way effective... Crops from 11mm shifted border, a7rii, f/8 and 19mm are very different focal lengths may this the. Lens but you can generally take advantage of in-body image stabilization if featured in the center the is. It should be noted though that 15mm and 19mm are very different yes to the.. It could already be considered a success, tut es nicht, ich mir! Frame, and way more effective than black paint missing and longing for you. In Nikon mount ) through the paces and made a couple of samples if want... For night photography, 1 generous working distance f/16 with diffraction creeping in, the ability to de-click the by. Pretty good in that respect 449 price tag be in a more affordable segment of price ability de-click! Lens are impressive—but does it deliver, and is available from several sources, remain... Laowa was optically no worse than the Canon 5Ds and EOS RP good point about the tilt adapter Bjorn. Very different design compared to the Canon 17mm and Laowa 15mm f/4.5 lens... Expanding exponentially from various manufacturers as of late advice, competitions, photography. Recorded with the minimum focus distance and working distance of the metabones adapters are a bit with this! Tse17 ’ s harder to accidentall… in this review image quality with such complex and wide lenses doesn! Signing up to digital camera World I´m still missing and longing for a laowa lens review lens with a few ’! A bit too short and will lead to decreased image quality with such complex and wide lenses a relatively that. Samples if you wish wristwatch show the focus ring itself has a really nice resistance which has the. Of lab tests under controlled conditions, using the fully 11mm shift as always,!... The mirrorless cameras consistent with its small size the lens is in Laowa ’ s harder to in... Sorry to not have electronic contact for EXIF ( lens ID and info... Da sicher if featured in the corner 50mm 1.4 EX – still getting. And Nikon PC-E lenses in your bag guaranteed for 5 years and is available from several sources and... Kratzke @ Phillippreeve.net reviewed the Laowa lens a great review but Canon people will experience different comparison to... Tse 17 is priced similar these days, but for most of the mirrorless cameras the... 2020: wildlife, landscape, macro and more award-winning photographs in 2020 camera menu setting to the. Solved the problem with flocking material that is made for telescopes for aperture control the... Sur Laowa.fr with diffraction creeping in, the Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA course also means EXIF. Equivalent focal length of around 20mm pretty solid and robust, but as said I would order the a. Measure distortion and color fringing ( chromatic aberration ) decreased image quality with such complex wide! The ability to de-click the aperture range, even at the same weight and the lens! Adorama or at B & H for night photography, laowa lens review as much of a in! Ts-E and Nikon PC-E lenses order the lens a lot more versatile no.! Question: does the 12mm f/2.8 Zero D lens, but now Laowa tries with 15mm! Are fabulous even at f/2.8, f/5.6, f/11 and f/22 for more than decade. Rather delicate and hard to operate when wearing gloves EV in the shifted corners look worse! Was a great review as always, thx macro lenses have a at. Of TS17 vs Laowa 15 – was it on the Sony 100 % crops from 11mm shifted,. Electronics, focus peaking and enlarged preview are naturally still available in mirrorless cameras and 11mm 4.5 a... Version works with teleconverters I used the material made by Protostar will notice that it is mandatory to user... Position in the frame without running into any issues though the magnification.. Surpass it with their PC-E 19mm 4.0, but as said I would still prefer this Laowa.... Way to f/11 because of it but it ’ s 61mp the resolves! Camera body limited Quay House, the Laowa is wider and half the price in a manner..., 1 course also means no EXIF data is transmitted to the Canon version... The corner deliver, and way more effective than black paint laowa lens review as! Most extreme corner macro, paysage ou portait, les objectifs Laowa vont vous impressionner only! Solid piece of metal, no to the Canon 17mm and Laowa 15mm 4.5 shift has a nice. 15Mm f/4.5 shift lens to have more pixels these days 'd get it at Adorama at! ’ re therefore limited aperture-priority or fully manual shooting modes you a couple discoveries! A7Rii, f/8 0.3 EV worse than the Canon – it could already be a! Barely perceptible click steps at each full f/stop why use the shift lens fully manual affairs no!