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Lomography has announced the Joseph Petzval Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art lens, a full-frame manual-focus prime for Canon RF, Nikon Z and Sony E cameras. The lens lets photographers and cinematographers adjust the intensity of its swirling bokeh and embraces flaws that modern lens designs aim to avoid.

Lomography

The Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art lens offers seven levels of bokeh, allowing photographers to customize the look of their images via a dial on the lens. Lomography says that with the effects turned down, the bokeh is similar to its previous Petzval Art lenses, with softer edges and soap-bubble bokeh.

With the bokeh level increased, Lomography says a much more dramatic change takes place. According to the company, the center stays sharp while the edges stretch and appear blurred. Lomography describes it as a “powerful hallucinatory effect around your subject.” It says the effect is best used to convey a disoriented state or when you want to create a sense of motion.

Lomography

The effect becomes even more pronounced at the lens’s 0.35m (1.1′) close focusing distance, where swirling bokeh and outward-stretched edges surround a sharp center. In the company’s sample images, only the very center of the frame remains sharp in these cases.

In addition to changing the look of the bokeh via the seven adjustments, the lens supports drop-in rear aperture plates to change the bokeh’s shape. It comes with five plates: a star, a sun, an oval, a heart and a snowflake.

Lomography

Lomography designed the Métamorphose for both photo and video work. It offers a 180-degree focus throw, Mod 0.8 gearing for standard follow-focus systems and a de-clicked aperture ring for smooth exposure adjustments. Its bokeh control can be adjusted without shifting focus, allowing users to alter the image’s rendering during a take. A built-in 1/4-inch mounting point can support the lens directly on a compatible camera rig, while a 67mm front thread accepts filters. The optical design comprises six elements in five groups.

The Métamorphose joins Lomography’s Petzval Art range of manual-focus, full-frame mirrorless lenses. The line is named for Joseph Petzval, who designed an influential portrait lens in 1840 that became known for its fast aperture, sharp central rendering and softer edges caused by field curvature. Lomography introduced its first modern Petzval lens in 2013 and has since expanded the series with 27mm, 35mm, 55mm, 80.5mm and 135mm models.

Unlike those more direct Petzval-derived designs, Lomography says the Métamorphose also draws on an early Gaussian optical formula developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1817.

The Joseph Petzval Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art lens is available for pre-order now for $649 and will ship beginning in December.

Lomography

Lomography Joseph Petzval Métamorphose 35mm F1.8 Art

• $649 at Lomography

LK Samyang has started to tease the arrival of a 28-135mm F2.8 autofocus zoom for Sony E-mount, more than four months ahead of a February 2027 launch.

The company has only released close-up photos of the lens, so far, but has also published full specifications.

So we know it’ll be an extending zoom that expands from 151mm to 190mm long, as you zoom in (6.0-7.5″). We also know that it’ll weigh 854g (1.9lbs).

This makes it almost 30% longer than the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 G2 and around 60% heavier, so you definitely pay a price for the additional flexibility the Samyang should offer. It’s around 27% longer and 50% heavier than Tamron’s 35-100mm F2.8, that doesn’t offer either the wide-angle or telephoto capabilities that this will.

It will also take an 82mm filter, rather than the 67mm filter used by the two Tamrons.

As with other recent LK Samyang lenses, its autofocus will be driven by a voice coil motor, which should be quiet and fast.

And, although no mention of them is made, the preview images show control ring grips that match the company’s lenses co-developed with Schneider-Kreuznach.

Laowa has announced the Acris 35mm F2.8 1X AF Macro APO, which it says is the “world’s first full-frame autofocus 35mm lens with 1:1 macro magnification.” It’s also only the fifth autofocus lens we’ve seen from the company, though some of the lens mounts it’s being released for will get a manual focus-only version.

Laowa says the autofocus versions of the lens will be available for Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon EF mounts. L mount and Canon’s mirrorless RF mount, meanwhile, will only be getting a manual focus version.

The lens is made up of 13 elements in 10 groups, and while Laowa doesn’t call out any special glass it’s using, the company says the apochromatic design means you’ll get “zero color fringing” due to chromatic aberration. In manual focus mode, it has a minimum focusing distance of 18cm (7.1″). This means the front of the lens has to be around 49mm (1.9″) away from your subject to achieve the 1:1 lifesize reproduction that gives the lens its name.

Leslie Jie / Laowa

Like with Laowa’s 180mm F4.5 macro lens, the autofocus capabilities are quite limited in macro mode. From the minimum focusing distance to 0.5m (19.7″), you have to manually acquire focus, but the lens can make precise adjustments for focus stacking purposes. If the subject you’re shooting is more than 0.5m away, though, Laowa says it’ll work like any other AF lens, providing “fast, responsive, and accurate subject acquisition.”

Of course, this is assuming you have the version of the lens that comes with autofocus, rather than being manual focus only. Beyond the lack of motors, there are two interesting differences between the two lenses: the AF version has 9 aperture blades and is threaded for 72mm filters, while the manual focus version has 13 and uses 67mm filters. Both, however, zoom internally.

Laowa

The dimensions of the lens will vary substantially based on which mount you get it in; for instance, the Sony E-mount version is 114mm (4.5″) long, while the EF version is 87mm (3.4″) long. The lens’s weights are much closer, though, with the E-mount one coming in at 560g (19.8oz) and the EF at 530g (18.7oz). Laowa says the lens is sealed against dust and moisture.

In terms of features, the lens is relatively spartan. It has a USB-C port for firmware updates, and a function button that Laowa says “allows seamless switching between modes.”

The Acris 35mm F2.8 1X AF Macro APO will be available starting today and will cost $449 in the US, though regional pricing may vary.

Laowa Acris 35mm F2.8 1X AF Macro APO specifications