Venus Optics announce the new Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift Lens – World’s Widest Shift Lens for Full Frame Cameras

Canon Rumors Guy

Canon EOS 40D
CR Pro
Jul 20, 2010
10,779
3,158
Canada
www.canonrumors.com
Anhui China, Oct 30, 2020 – Venus Optics, the manufacturer specialized in making unique camera lenses, pioneered Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift, the widest shift lens for full-frame cameras and medium format cameras. Giving credits to a ±11mm shift amount (±8mm on the medium format), this ultra-wide shift lens breaks through the industry level and bringing the wide-angle lens standard to the next level.
Image quality is guaranteed with high image sharpness and nearly no optical distortion (Zero- D). The 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift enriches the diversity of Laowa’s extensive wide-angle lens collection by giving photographers more control on the perspective in their images.

World’s widest shift lens for Full Frame Cameras
15mm f/4.5 Shift is the widest shift lens for a full frame camera. The angle of view is 110°, and it covers a huge ⌀ 65mm image circle. The wider perspective offers great deal of flexibility for photographers to capture architecture and interior shots when space...

Continue reading...
 
Last edited:
I've got one of these on its way to me at the moment to review and test (just in time for the publication of my book about using tilt/shift lenses ;-) )

I'll have a full review in due course, but will post updates and info at http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/laowa-15mm-shift-lens/
If anyone has any questions, please do let me know? I'll be checking it against my TS-E17 on my 5Ds. The TS-E17 does have a falling off of detail in the far corners and a bit of colour fringing on bright edges - not serious, but obviously there (as you expect for any lens with that image circle and coverage)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 users
Upvote 0
Mar 25, 2011
16,848
1,835
I've got one of these on its way to me at the moment to review and test (just in time for the publication of my book about using tilt/shift lenses ;-) )

I'll have a full review in due course, but will post updates and info at http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/laowa-15mm-shift-lens/
If anyone has any questions, please do let me know? I'll be checking it against my TS-E17 on my 5Ds. The TS-E17 does have a falling off of detail in the far corners and a bit of colour fringing on bright edges - not serious, but obviously there (as you expect for any lens with that image circle and coverage)
I'm curious about the need for shift of such a wide lens but I can understand tilt. I suppose there are enough cases where the shift would help with stitching very wide lenses for interiors.

I'm looking forward to the review.
 
Upvote 0
Jan 29, 2011
10,675
6,121
Wow! Very interesting.

I have been enjoying messing around with a 24mm Samyang tilt-shif I have. I wish someone would make one in that price range at the 50mm focal length. Maybe someday these guys will get in that market.

-Brian
I was lucky and found a Canon TS-E50 on eBay virtually unused for a very good price. It is an amazingly good lens, sharp but not soulless, it has functionality to die for, is great for close focus, and it is just a delight to use. It takes the EF 1..4 and 2x TC's too so the versatility is solid.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
Jan 29, 2011
10,675
6,121
I'm curious about the need for shift of such a wide lens but I can understand tilt. I suppose there are enough cases where the shift would help with stitching very wide lenses for interiors.

I'm looking forward to the review.
I'd put it the other way around, I can see the use for shift on an ultra wide, but not tilt as the dof with these lenses is very deep anyway.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4 users
Upvote 0
Jan 29, 2011
10,675
6,121
I got the TS-E 17 when it was pretty young and used it a lot, mainly because it was so much fun, but the truth is I mostly use it with the 1.4TC now. Now when I need 17 I have the 17 but that is rare enough that I can't see me personally ever 'needing' a 15mm!

But hats off to Laowa for pushing the envelope yet again, I hear nothing but great things about their lenses and am sure this will not disappoint.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
Actually the other way round here - I looked at photos I'd used it for and noted that I use tilt about 1 in 50 shots compared to shift. I do architecture and wide is no use if the walls of buildings are leaning inwards. Tilt is only when I need to run the plane of focus along a ceiling/floor/wall. If I want to emphasise a positioned plane of focus, it's almost always with a longer, wider aperture lens

Lack of shift is why when I had to sell a lens earlier this year it was the 11-24 that got the chop. It's also why a 14mm RF tilt/shift would get me to jump to mirrorless ;-)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 6 users
Upvote 0
Wow! Very interesting.

I have been enjoying messing around with a 24mm Samyang tilt-shif I have. I wish someone would make one in that price range at the 50mm focal length. Maybe someday these guys will get in that market.

-Brian
Well, if you find some old M645 lenses...
These added 35/55/80/210mm for tilt/shift with a Fotodiox T/S adapter on the RP. I previously used them with a simple shift adapter on EF mount. but the Fotodiox adapter and mirrorless makes them really easy to use.
http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/fotodiox-tilt-shift-lens-adapter/
 
  • Wow
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0
Mar 20, 2015
428
372
I'm curious about the need for shift of such a wide lens but I can understand tilt. I suppose there are enough cases where the shift would help with stitching very wide lenses for interiors.

I did some work on windmills and stone towers this summer and even in portrait at maximum shift the 17mm wasn't always quite 'tall' enough to get them in the frame before I'd run out of back-stepping space, so I ended up having to tilt the camera slightly. Once I had to give up and use the 100-400 from afar.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 users
Upvote 0
I did some work on windmills and stone towers this summer and even in portrait at maximum shift the 17mm wasn't always quite 'tall' enough to get them in the frame before I'd run out of back-stepping space, so I ended up having to tilt the camera slightly. Once I had to give up and use the 100-400 from afar.
You can also get some perspective correction in post software.
 
Upvote 0

Nemorino

EOS R5
Aug 29, 2020
831
3,262
Interesting lens! It has some nice features as the adjustment by twisting. Also the lens support is a clever accessory. Have you watched the video? It looks well designed with it´s lockpoints.
Sadly again without electronic aperture control.:cry:
I wish someone would make one in that price range at the 50mm focal length.
I am still hoping Laowa will release a tilt macro lens! I would like one of Canon´s but they are far to expensive for me.
But hats off to Laowa for pushing the envelope yet again, I hear nothing but great things about their lenses and am sure this will not disappoint.
I own their first lens the 60mm ultra macro and it is at the moment my favourite lens in the macro range.
But it suffers from a bad focus breathing.
The 15mm macro is also very nice but challenging for macro work and has bad corners.
 
Upvote 0
Aug 12, 2010
169
172
Upvote 0
Would love to see worked examples of how tilt/shift fix architecture problems, as in "before any changes" and "after adding XXX".

Ok, this helps a lot.

I'll be sure to include a few 'why bother' examples in the review

...and in late November - see the bottom link in my .sig ;-)
The book was finished in January though, which means I've done quite a bit since - All my tilt/shift related stuff (some videos as well now) is at
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Upvote 0