New one-of-a-kind lens: Laowa 15mm UWA for crop sensors with 1:1 macro and shift
[IMG]http://www.venuslens.net/wp-content/upl ... Shots1.jpg[/IMG]
I am normally not the person to order something brand new and untested, especially from a Chinese company, but this new unique 15mm f4 lens from Venus did it to me (you can pre-order it here for 455$ US with free shipping if you use the 5% discount code SGMACRO; the shipping should start at the end of July). Multiple mounts are available. The lens is purely mechanical (no electronics inside).
Apparently this is one-of-a-kind lens in at least two capacities:
1) The first true UWA lens for a crop sensor with shift capability, and also by far the cheapest shift lens available; great for architectural photography, when you can compensate for severe perspective distortion effects without loosing resolution at the corners. (Korean Samyang recently came out with 24mm tilt/shift lens - good for full frame, not really an UWA for crop; also it costs double - 850$ US; Canon makes T/S as short as 17mm, which is still not too wide on a crop, and it will cost you a kidney).
2) The first UWA lens with 1:1 macro capability. (To be honest, at 1:1 the distance from the front element to the subject is an impractical 5mm, but if you use it 1:2 you can still produce very unique shots, at much more usable distance).
Other goodies:
- The lens allows usage of filters (with a very common 77mm thread) - not a common thing at such extreme focal lengths. Great for landscape.
- The lens has a large number (14) of aperture blades: great for out of focus blur.
In addition, it apparently has very good optical qualities, as judged from the MTF charts and sample shots from this Chinese thread (translated to English):
https://translate.google.ca/translate?s ... edit-text=
In particular, the following shot is pretty amazing, as it is using all the three capabilities at once: it is an UWA macro shot using a shift (spider alert!):
https://t.williamgates.net/image-5E45_5562E80D.jpg
One review in English is also available:
http://sgmacro.blogspot.dk/2015/06/revi ... f4-11.html
EDIT: I finally received my copy of the lens (end of August; it only took 5 days to ship it, over a weekend). My detailed review of non-macro qualities of this lens can be found here:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/sho ... ?t=1439325
My overall conclusions there:
[QUOTE]
From my tests it does appear that the new Laowa 15mm f4 lens was primarily designed for its unique UWA 1:1 macro feature; and it should be mostly used as such. Its qualities as a general purpose UWA lens were obviously sacrificed for that primary goal. [/QUOTE]
I am normally not the person to order something brand new and untested, especially from a Chinese company, but this new unique 15mm f4 lens from Venus did it to me (you can pre-order it here for 455$ US with free shipping if you use the 5% discount code SGMACRO; the shipping should start at the end of July). Multiple mounts are available. The lens is purely mechanical (no electronics inside).
Apparently this is one-of-a-kind lens in at least two capacities:
1) The first true UWA lens for a crop sensor with shift capability, and also by far the cheapest shift lens available; great for architectural photography, when you can compensate for severe perspective distortion effects without loosing resolution at the corners. (Korean Samyang recently came out with 24mm tilt/shift lens - good for full frame, not really an UWA for crop; also it costs double - 850$ US; Canon makes T/S as short as 17mm, which is still not too wide on a crop, and it will cost you a kidney).
2) The first UWA lens with 1:1 macro capability. (To be honest, at 1:1 the distance from the front element to the subject is an impractical 5mm, but if you use it 1:2 you can still produce very unique shots, at much more usable distance).
Other goodies:
- The lens allows usage of filters (with a very common 77mm thread) - not a common thing at such extreme focal lengths. Great for landscape.
- The lens has a large number (14) of aperture blades: great for out of focus blur.
In addition, it apparently has very good optical qualities, as judged from the MTF charts and sample shots from this Chinese thread (translated to English):
https://translate.google.ca/translate?s ... edit-text=
In particular, the following shot is pretty amazing, as it is using all the three capabilities at once: it is an UWA macro shot using a shift (spider alert!):
https://t.williamgates.net/image-5E45_5562E80D.jpg
One review in English is also available:
http://sgmacro.blogspot.dk/2015/06/revi ... f4-11.html
EDIT: I finally received my copy of the lens (end of August; it only took 5 days to ship it, over a weekend). My detailed review of non-macro qualities of this lens can be found here:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/sho ... ?t=1439325
My overall conclusions there:
[QUOTE]
From my tests it does appear that the new Laowa 15mm f4 lens was primarily designed for its unique UWA 1:1 macro feature; and it should be mostly used as such. Its qualities as a general purpose UWA lens were obviously sacrificed for that primary goal. [/QUOTE]