Review - Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 Macro Shift Lens

[Canon Rumors Guy]

Keith over at Northlight Images has completed his review of the very unique Laowa 15mm f/4 1:1 Macro Shift lens.</p>
<p>From Northlight:</p>
<blockquote><p>A thoroughly interesting lens.</p>
<p>If you’re not put off by its completely manual operation, then it’s capable of excellent performance as a macro and as a standard wide shift lens.</p>
<p>The 1:1 capability is likely to be unused by many for the sheer practical difficulty of having the focal plane only millimetres from the front element.</p>
<p>0.4:1 magnification increases this distance to a more workable 25mm or so.</p>
<p>The shift function works best with a crop sensor and allows for interesting control over background placement. I expect to see plenty of samples of small vertical objects (mushrooms/insects on twigs) with a perfectly placed soft out of focus background. Just take note that such shots will need a lot of care with camera mounting and lighting (I didn’t use flash once for this article). <a href="http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/reviews/lenses/venus_15mm_f4_macro_shift.html" target="_blank">Read the full review</a></p></blockquote>
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[pierlux]

Great! I was eagerly waiting for a good review of this lens. I have not yet read it, just wanted to say how much I'm glad to finally see someone trustworthy reviewing this lens. Now I'm hoping for Dustin to also be able to put his hands on one and try it out, l like his hands-on reviews a lot.

 

[pierlux]

Thanks Keith for the review!

What an intriguing lens, it should be a lot of fun to play with it and obtain images with a most peculiar perspective. Reading that it has the "feel and solidity of ... old Mamiya medium format lenses" gave me a reassuring feeling, a subtle pleasure. The worst cons, apart from being a completely manual lens, appear to be the fairly small focus throw (1/4 turn) and the fact that live view can't be used for estimating the exposure, nothing to be particularly worried about.

IQ is good overall, it has the "problems" every ultrawide lens has. My widest lens, save the 8-15 fisheye, is the 16-35 f/2.8 L II, the only shift lens I have is the TS-E 24 f/3.5 L II: with this lens I'd benefit from 1mm wider with less distorsion than the Canon, plus I'd complement the TS-E 24mm and shoot macro from a unique perspective.

I notice, from the link Keith provided, the Laowa 105 mm f/2 has already been discounted in both Canon and Nikon mounts at UKDigital so, hopefully, other Laowa offerings might also be discounted in a few months. Definitely I'll get one as soon as the price of the 15mm settles southern of the current one.

 

[kirispupis]

I have the Laowa 15mm macro. What I like most about it is the different perspective the lens gives. Image quality is decent - not outstanding - but not bad for the price. Flare is decently controlled. Edges are a bit soft but generally usable. The lens is most useful as a macro. If you intend to shift then don't bother - it is very difficult to fine tune and you lose considerable sharpness. If you're looking for a WA shift lens then look further.
The included hood is useless and it's very easy to bump the aperture dial and change it. That being said, I like the lens.

Here are a few shots I took with it.

Morning Stroll by Joseph Calev, on Flickr

Waiting for the Sun by Joseph Calev, on Flickr

Seattle Aquarium by Joseph Calev, on Flickr

Bee Story by Joseph Calev, on Flickr

 

[keithcooper]

Thanks for the comments - using shift at very short distances does need some thought about just where you want the plane of focus.

Definitely a fun lens to try out

I've also got the Laowa 60mm 2:1 macro here and hope to have another review before too long, but I need to get the Canon PRO-1000 one sorted first!

 

[mclaren777]

This lens is nice, but I want the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 so bad!!

 

[keithcooper]

This lens is nice, but I want the Laowa 12mm f/2.8 so bad!!

Definitely on my 'to do' list now ;-)