Caleb Pike is showing off his new find from Laowa: a 15mm macro lens that gets a very different perspective.
The Venus Optics 15mm f/4 macro lens not only fits a full-frame camera, but also includes a shifting mechanism to straighten up lines in your shot. When Pike is showing it off here, I’m pretty astonished at how he’s able to basically press his thumb against the lens and have it in focus while also retaining a wide shot. The framing is something I’m just not used to seeing.
As he puts it, “this lens is really three completely different things all packaged together.” It shoots macro, it shoots wide, and then shoots with a tilt.
The Best Bits
- De-clicked aperture.
- Shifting mechanism (no tilting).
- Wide angle.
- Minimal lens distortion.
- 14-bladed aperture.
That’s not to say that it’s without its issues though. There’s a fair amount of lens breathing when focusing, there’s no image stabilization or autofocus, and for some reason the focus ring is at the back of the lens instead of the front. These are all gripes that you could get over I’m sure.
Venus Optics have been known to push the boundaries before. Remember their long and thin macro lens? Or perhaps their tamer shift adaptor? They also make another 15mm lens with very little distortion, that one sitting at f/2.8.
You can pick up their 15mm f/4 macro for about $500.
I'm not sure it means anything but most of the customer photos, on B&H site, are *very* soft.
Which rarely fits to macro lens...
Man I'd love to try this on some landscapes
on a primary macro lens a tilt function is much more needed as a shift unless it is more a super wide angle which can also do macro ;)
If you have an extenstion tube you can do the same thing with most wide angle lenses.
"a tilt-shift" lens? A tilt lens? 0.o
OK... I seriously want this lens.