Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macro Le

[Maximilian]

Re: Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macr

My guess is that they have mixed up those 2 specifications - most logical conclusion since it doesn't make sense as it stands.

What the specs say:
Min. working distance (Subject to Sensor) : 0.47 cm (1:1)
Min. shooting distance (Subject to Front Element) : 12 cm

What the specs should say:
Min. working distance (Subject to Sensor) : 12 cm
Min. shooting distance (Subject to Front Element) : 0.47 cm (1:1)

+1
otherwise that would be ridiculous.

 

[Bennymiata]

Re: Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macr

They make some interesting stuff, like their 2:1 60mm macro lens and the twin macro flash with their diffusers look interesting too.
As far as a wide manual macro lens goes, it doesn't interest me.

 

[exquisitor]

Re: Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macr

For me this lens would be interesting rather because of the shift ability than macro. 15 mm with a shift is very attractive, even though the shift is comparably small with only +-6 mm (Canon TS-E 17 mm has +-12 mm shift). At that price point it is however still very interesting.

 

[ejenner]

Re: Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macr

What an odd lens. The low minimum focus distance of many wide angle lenses is undoubtedly useful in unique situations, but the number of scenarios where one would need (or could us) 1:1 magnification with that kind of working distance is, well, small.

My thought exactly. I do use the close-focusing distance of my fisheye, and it's definitely useful, but this is kind of pointless IMO. I guess if you wanted a 15mm and the optics/price/performance is what you want then having a close MFD on an UWA is indeed nice, but 1:1?

I'm not sure about the 16-35 or other UWA, but I do know that it can be troublesome working with extension tubes at 16-17mm with some of these lenses. In many cases I found myself wanting something like a 6mm extension to do what I wanted.

Any shift is nice. I rarely use more than 6-8mm with my TS-E 17mm. One question is what is the IQ like in the corners when fully shifted. IMO the TS-E 17mm is not very useful in the corners at 10-12mm anyway (Of course it's better than nothing and sometimes you don't need the corners/edges).

 

[IgotGASbadDude]

Re: Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macr

I'm not so sure the macro feature is what I'm curious about but the ability to use a "tilt" in camera (yes, I know you can do this in Photoshop) appeals to the B&W large format veteran in me.

So have any of you regular posters purchased it?

 

[IgotGASbadDude]

Re: Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macr

Bump.

Has anyone purchased this lens?

 

[NancyP]

Re: Venus Optics Announces the Laowa 15mm f/4 Wide-Angle 1:1 Macro Lens, the World’s Widest 1:1 Macr

I'd check the macro websites for reviews - this is an exceedingly specialized lens.