Venus Optics, parent company of Laowa, has created some fabulous lenses under the Laowa banner. They have introduced options for Fujifilm GFX users, which are not only good but also affordable. As part of their portfolio expansion, the company has now announced a new fisheye lens, which will be adored by APS-C and Micro Four Thirds users. Have a look.
The lens, Laowa 4.5-10mm f2.8 CF zoom, is available for $399. Titled muffin lens, the Laowa fisheye is compact enough to sit in the palm of your hands. This is also the “world’s first zoom fisheye lens” that covers both circular and diagonal perspective — or so they claim. However, we think that Canon’s 7-14mm L Fisheye might be the first to do that. Here is a quick look at its specs:
- Angle of View: 175°–180°
- Optical Construction: 13 elements in 9 groups
- Aperture Blades: 7
- Zoom Ratio: 2.2x
- Minimum Focus Distance: 10cm
- Maximum Magnification: 0.27x
- Focus Type: Manual focus
- Filter Thread: None
- Parfocal: Yes
- Dimensions: Ø68.9×59.3mm
- Weight: 338g
- Available Mounts: Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, L-mount, Fujifilm X, Canon EF-M, Micro Four Thirds
At 4.5mm, the lens produces a 180° circular fisheye effect, which allows one to see a scene with a circle floating within the frame. This perspective will be loved by astrophotographers, skateboarders, and anyone who is looking to capture striking visuals. Then, at 10mm, you get a diagonal fisheye, which results in edge-to-edge distortion, which is ideal for action sports, skateboarding, surfing photography and more. All of this, at a constant aperture of f2.8 across the world zoom range. The aperture helps further for those shooting in low light.
In addition, the 10cm close focusing distance further allows one to create a bug-eye effect, especially when the subject is closer. For instance, the portraits of a girl. For hybrid use, the lens also has parfocal abilities. This means it can maintain critical focus when you zoom, allowing you to adjust focal length mid-shot without the need to acquire focus again.
Laowa has also pointed out how you can “de-fish” the effect in post-production — which is an odd thing to say because if that’s the case, anyone can do anything in post-production. This produces a wider effective field of view than a standard 10mm rectilinear wide-angle lens. Thus, the lens can also be used for architectural and landscape photography, especially when you work with the right workflow.
Priced under $500, many young and hybrid photographers will adore the lens. It will also be liked by those who enjoy different perspectives. Serious enthusiasts wanting to work with different genres of photography will further adore it. This lens can also be helpful to those shooting travel and street, as well as social media photographers.
We have revved other fisheye lenses from Laowa and the results, so far, have been fantastic. As we said in our review of the 8-15mm lens:
The Laowa 8-15mm f2.8 FF lens delivers when it comes to the solid feel of the lens, fairly compact size, and with the image quality. But it lacks in a few very important ways. While I pretty much never have a problem with manual focusing, this lens makes it difficult to use for what I’d really want to use a fisheye lens for: extreme sports like skating.
Given how good the previous lens has been, one expects similar results from the newly introduced fisheye lens. Until then, keep an eye out.