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Laowa's latest is the kind of lens the big companies aren't making
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| Image: Laowa |
Laowa is continuing to be the torchbearer for bringing tilt-shift lenses to modern mirrorless mounts. The company's latest release is the 17mm F4 Zero-D Tilt-Shift / Shift, which is available for Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon RF, Fujifilm GFX, Hasselblad XCD and L mount, though the latter comes with a pretty big caveat that we'll cover in a bit.
There are two versions of the lens, both of which use the same optics: 18 elements in 12 groups, with four extra-low dispersion lenses, two glass aspherical elements and five ultra high refraction glass elements. They both have 14-bladed apertures.
One just supports shifting, which gives you the ability to change perspective while keeping the camera level, which can be especially helpful when shooting architecture. The shift-only model supports 11mm of shift in either direction on full-frame system, or 8mm on a medium format camera.
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| Image: Laowa |
The tilt-shift model bumps that up to 12mm of shift on a full-frame, and adds 12° of tilt (10° on medium format), giving you the ability to manipulate the plane of focus. You can use that to either maximize your depth of field without having to worry about diffraction or to create the miniature effect that tilt-shift lenses are famous for.
The company promises that the lens has no barrel distortion, and says it can focus on subjects as close as 0.25m (9.8") away. It has an 86mm filter thread and a built-in Arca-Swiss compatible lens foot. The mount can easily be rotated with a click of a button and has preset rotation positions in 15° increments. It weighs 810g for the tilt-shift model and 770g for the shift model.
Given that the lens is manual focus only, and that Laowa has brought its other tilting and/or shifting lenses to a wide variety of mounts, it's not surprising to see this lens coming to mounts that are usually more restricted. It is, however, worth noting that the company says the L-mount version isn't compatible with some of the system's most popular cameras: the S5II/X, S1II, S1RII and S1IIE. The company told us this is because the overhang of those cameras' EVF housings protrudes forward over the lens mount. While you can physically mount the lens on one of the camera, the barrel will run into the EVF cladding essentially as soon as you try to rotate it, which severely limits the lens' functionality.
Given that we haven't seen major camera manufacturers like Canon or Nikon release tilt-shift lenses for their most recent systems, it's exciting to see Laowa continue to expand its lineup of them.
The 17mm F4 Zero-D Shift costs $999, and the Tilt-Shift costs $1249. Both are available starting today.
Manufacturer samples
Laowa 17mm F4 Zero-D Tilt-Shift specifications
| Principal specifications | |
|---|---|
| Lens type | Prime lens |
| Max Format size | Medium Format (44x33mm) |
| Focal length | 17 mm |
| Image stabilization | No |
| Lens mount | Canon RF, Canon RF-S, Fujifilm G, Hasselblad X, L-Mount, Nikon Z, Sony E, Sony FE |
| Aperture | |
| Maximum aperture | F4 |
| Minimum aperture | F22 |
| Aperture ring | Yes |
| Number of diaphragm blades | 14 |
| Optics | |
| Elements | 18 |
| Groups | 12 |
| Special elements / coatings | 4 extra-low dispersion, 2 asph., 5 ultra high refraction |
| Focus | |
| Minimum focus | 0.25 m (9.84″) |
| Maximum magnification | 0.13× |
| Autofocus | No |
| Full time manual | Yes |
| Focus method | Internal |
| Distance scale | Yes |
| DoF scale | Yes |
| Physical | |
| Weight | 810 g (1.79 lb) |
| Diameter | 93 mm (3.66″) |
| Length | 111 mm (4.37″) |
| Colour | Black |
| Filter thread | 86 mm |
| Hood supplied | Yes |
| Tripod collar | Yes |
