Does anyone have....

...experience with Venus Optics Laowa lenses? Specifically, the Venus Optics Laowa 55mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro Lens. How 'bout with tilt-shift lenses in general?

For the VOL: Good quality? Mediocre? 'Run away! Run away!' kind of bad?

For the T-S aspect: Useful? Not?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Thanks!

I paid $100 for an RF-mount Laowa 4mm circular fisheye. I bid on one and won.

As you know, it's got a bare metal mount. No communication between the lens and the camera at all. No AF, no IS, no EXIF, none of that. So, with that in mind, my lens works perfectly. Mounts right up. Sensor reads the image.

Mine's a fisheye lens so I don't even know how I'd evaluate the glass. The image is curved, but sharp enough. Infinity starts at about 3 feet, so manual focus is no big deal. It's an odd enough lens that I don't think you could translate its characteristics to a different lens. Sorry.

But my Laowa lens does have an oddity that might interest you. It's a 4mm lens with a 210° angle of view. I used to own a Sigma 180° circular fisheye and that was plenty wide. At 210° the Laowa can see the grip of my R10. If I happen to be using the grip to hold the camera, it can see my fingers. I built 2 LR presets to crop my circular images; 1 with and 1 without fingers.

Who at VOL signed off on that? It makes me suspect all their engineering choices. A T/S lens is a complex thing and I'm not sure I'd trust Laowa to pull that off.

I don't know much about T/S lenses. I used one a few times back in the film days. They seemed finicky and I was never sure I was using them right. Plus, for less than the price of a Nikon T/S at the time, you could get a competent view camera setup.

Once digital came out and let me straighten things in post, I've never given a T/S lens another thought.

Laowa CP 4mm f.2.8 Circular Fisheye
Full frame, no fingers

I don't have any experience with this lens, but Keith Cooper did a reviews of all of the Laowa Tilt-Shift lenses. His review of the 55mm was of the version for Fuji Medium format, but maybe the same info would apply for an RF mount version.

Keith Cooper review

ShipleyNW said:

I paid $100 for an RF-mount Laowa 4mm circular fisheye. I bid on one and won.

As you know, it's got a bare metal mount. No communication between the lens and the camera at all. No AF, no IS, no EXIF, none of that. So, with that in mind, my lens works perfectly. Mounts right up. Sensor reads the image.

Mine's a fisheye lens so I don't even know how I'd evaluate the glass. The image is curved, but sharp enough. Infinity starts at about 3 feet, so manual focus is no big deal. It's an odd enough lens that I don't think you could translate its characteristics to a different lens. Sorry.

But my Laowa lens does have an oddity that might interest you. It's a 4mm lens with a 210° angle of view. I used to own a Sigma 180° circular fisheye and that was plenty wide. At 210° the Laowa can see the grip of my R10. If I happen to be using the grip to hold the camera, it can see my fingers. I built 2 LR presets to crop my circular images; 1 with and 1 without fingers.

Who at VOL signed off on that? It makes me suspect all their engineering choices. A T/S lens is a complex thing and I'm not sure I'd trust Laowa to pull that off.

I don't know much about T/S lenses. I used one a few times back in the film days. They seemed finicky and I was never sure I was using them right. Plus, for less than the price of a Nikon T/S at the time, you could get a competent view camera setup.

Once digital came out and let me straighten things in post, I've never given a T/S lens another thought.

Laowa CP 4mm f.2.8 Circular Fisheye
Full frame, no fingers
View attachment 42356

Click to expand...

Good info, thank you. I have no hard and fast need for such a lens, but I thought it would be a fun way to get creative. The prospect of 'miniaturizing' a scene (in the source, not in post) is really interesting.

Bryan Conner said:

I don't have any experience with this lens, but Keith Cooper did a reviews of all of the Laowa Tilt-Shift lenses. His review of the 55mm was of the version for Fuji Medium format, but maybe the same info would apply for an RF mount version.

Keith Cooper review

Click to expand...

Thank you - I'll check it out!

As it turns out, I did pick up a Fuji GFX100II this past year, so I'll be covered either way.

Seems like a great lens, with the caveat that there are no automatic lens corrections available due to the lack of an electronic connection to the body. From Dustin Abbott's review:

Laowa Tilt/Shift 55mm F2.8 Macro Review - DustinAbbott.net

Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a thorough, real world review of the Laowa Tilt/Shift 55mm F2.8 Macro lens for full frame mirrorless

dustinabbott.net

Pros:

• High level of build quality
• Knobs and levers feel well made
• Good mechanical movement of tilt and shift functions
• Manual focus ring very well executed
• No distortion
• Low vignette
• No fringing
• Very sharp even at F2.8
• Great contrast
• Gorgeous color
• Good flare resistance
• Extremely versatile lens

Cons:​

• Large and heavy
• Expensive
• Very complex
• No electronics
• Bokeh isn’t particularly soft

Click to expand...

Laowa is known for their exceptional optics, though like every other brand, there's always an average or dud lens design here and there. As far as tilt shifts in general, the biggest issue you're going to run into is when reaching the limits of the optics. Image quality can fall off like things usually do in the corners of a lens (softness, CA, vignetting, stretched bokeh, etc.), though this will happen unevenly, based on how far you've moved the lens in that direction, and how far the manufacturer lets you go. How it affects your image depends on plenty of things, such as your chosen DOF, your distance to the subject, the amount of detail in the area, etc. No lens is perfect, but this one seems L class.

I won the Laowa Argus 35mm f/0.95 Full Frame in RF mount.

It's manual focus, but it's an amazing lens that dos some dramatic low light pictures.

I took these pictures of the Northern Lights from my backyard here in NE Oklahoma last year with it and my R6 mkII.

I picked up the EF LAOWA 180mm f/4.5 1.5X Ultra Macro APO for $500 direct and adapted it a great lens.