A Review of the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift Lens

Avoiding converging lines and keystone distortion with a wide angle lens can be tricky, which is why a shift function can be so useful. This great video review takes a look at the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift and the sort of image quality you can expect from it in practice. 

Coming to you from Christopher Frost, this excellent video review takes a look at the Venus Optics Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift lens. The Laowa 15mm f/4.5 is a versatile lens with a variety of useful features, including:

  • Part of the Zero-D line, meaning minimal distortion for architectural and interior work
  • +/- 11 mm of shift adjustment for correcting distortion
  • 65 mm-diameter image circle for complete coverage of full frame sensors with no vignetting even at full shift (up to 8 mm of shift on medium format 44x33mm sensors)
  • Full 360-degree rotation for applying shift in any direction (comes with 15-degree click stops)
  • Two aspherical elements for reduced spherical aberrations and distortion and increased sharpness
  • Three extra-low dispersion elements for reduced chromatic aberrations and increased clarity
  • Anti-reflective coating for reduced flares and ghosting and increased contrast
  • Minimum working distance of 7.9 inches
  • Five-blade diaphragm for 10-point sun stars

Altogether, the 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift looks like a very versatile and useful lens. Check out the video above for Frost's full thoughts. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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1 Comment

An interesting lens and a good review.