What Can You Do With a Tilt-Shift Macro Lens? Trying Out the Laowa 55mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro

What Can You Do With a Tilt-Shift Macro Lens? Trying Out the Laowa 55mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro

Tilt-shift lenses are specialized tools for photography and even video, and you can imagine the functionality expanding further when it is also a macro lens. But what exactly can you do with such a lens that literally bends for you?

A tilt-shift lens, structurally, is like a Rubik’s cube and functionally like a Swiss Army knife. Tilt-shift lenses have long existed in limited variants on the market and can probably be considered products for a small niche market; however, those who use and fully utilize them would say they are very effective tools that make difficult tasks easier in their workflow. First, let’s talk about what lens tilt, lens shift, and being a macro lens actually mean—and let’s do so as simply as possible.

Lens Shift

The ability to shift is something that not many lenses have. Shift lenses (for the purpose of shifting) typically have two parts. One part is mounted onto your camera’s lens mount and remains stationary (let’s call this the base), and another distal part is connected to the base using a shift mechanism or joint (let’s call this the barrel). Using the shift mechanism, the distal part, or the barrel, is able to move towards two linear ends of the range of motion. This can either be vertically (up or down) or horizontally (left or right) and, in some cases, even diagonally by rotating the base to change the shift axis.

A shifted wide angle shot to shift the frame upwards to show the house instead of tilting

The implication of this movement is to shift the frame towards the intended direction without tilting the camera itself, thereby avoiding any perspective distortion. This can be used to take a single image with the intended framing to overcome physical limitations or to take multiple images that can later be assembled into a panorama with a wider perspective that is free of perspective distortion.

Panorama of multiple frames to show a larger surface area

Lens Tilt

On the other hand, a lens’s ability to tilt makes a totally different motion and has a totally different effect. If a shift lens keeps the camera position in place while the frame shifts, a tilt lens literally turns the barrel of the lens in a certain direction while keeping the camera relatively in place. While this also affects the perspective of the frame, it is secondary to the physical tilt. What the movement offers is the ability to tilt the image’s focal plane.

Think of your camera’s sensor as a plane and your focal plane as another that is perfectly parallel to the sensor. This focal plane is the layer that is in focus in your image, and how thick this layer is depends on your set aperture, which dictates the depth of field.

What a tilt lens essentially does is tilt the focal plane, allowing you to manipulate the layers that will be in focus in the image, which can have two opposite effects. If your subject or subjects are in a row parallel to the camera’s sensor, tilting the barrel allows you to selectively focus on one of them while blurring out the others, even if they are all equidistant from the camera.

Alternatively, when photographing a subject that is not entirely parallel to the camera’s sensor, tilting the barrel can align the focal plane with the subject. With proper focusing, this maximizes the details of the subject that will be in focus.

Macro and Magnification

Magnification refers to the ratio of the size of the object projected onto the camera’s sensor and the actual size of the object. Think of it as if you’re seeing the object from the perspective of your camera’s sensor (which, in reality, is how it works in photography). If the object appears bigger than its actual size, magnification is beyond 100%, or, expressed as a magnification ratio, beyond 1:1. Conversely, if the object appears smaller than its actual size (applicable to most conventional images), magnification is less than 1:1.

To understand this better, imagine taking a full-body image of a person. The fact that the person fits in the frame of your sensor, which is significantly smaller than the person, means the magnification is much less than 1:1. If that subject is 100 times bigger in real life, then the magnification is 1:100.

Macro lenses are essentially those that provide a magnification ratio of 1:1 (or higher) and can focus much closer to the subject, making the object appear life-sized in relation to the camera’s sensor. A 1:1 magnification is considered “true macro,” although some lenses offer slightly less magnification while still allowing very close focusing. On the other hand, lenses with significantly higher magnification, such as 2:1, make the object appear twice its actual size.

Close focusing but below 1:1 magnification

With all of that said, let’s talk about this lens that combines the ability to shift, rotate, tilt, and gives 1:1 image magnification, the Laowa 55mm f/2.8 Tilt-shift Macro lens.

The Laowa 55mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro

The Laowa 55mm is undoubtedly a large lens compared to other 55mm lenses and even most macro lenses. It features an all-metal build, as seen in most (if not all) Laowa lenses, and measures 6.4 x 3.3 inches (162 x 85 mm), weighing a hefty 1.345 kilograms (3 lbs). At the very front is a 77 mm filter thread surrounded by the 2 cm deep removable metal lens hood. It is, of course, manual focus only and comes in Sony E, Nikon Z, Canon R, and Leica L mounts.

Close to the distal end is a 2.3-inch (5.5 cm) zoom ring with a focus distance and magnification indicator at the bottom. Below this is a 0.6-inch aperture ring paired with soft tactile clicks for f/2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, and 22. Beneath that is a ring containing an embedded rotating collar connected to an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod foot, which is about 2.5 inches long. When used with an Arca-Swiss-type head, this foot can also function as a short macro focusing rail by partially loosening the quick-release clamp. However, it would have been ideal if a built-in mini focusing rail had been implemented, allowing the stem of the lens collar to move forward and back from the foot/plate, controlled by another knob. This is accompanied by a small knob that locks the barrel in place in terms of rotation, with angle markings around it.

Below the collar is a thicker, more rectangular 1.5-inch section housing the tilt mechanism. This mechanism allows the barrel to tilt up to 12 mm to each side. A knob on one side controls the tilting motion, while a smaller knob on the opposite side adjusts the friction of the tilt. Both sides feature markings to indicate the extent of the tilt. Behind and below this tilt section is a silver button that enables rotation of the entire front section (from the tilt mechanism to the front glass element) by 90 degrees, allowing the tilt motion to switch between horizontal and vertical orientations. 

The tilt section is followed by a thinner 0.6-inch rectangular section that houses the shift mechanism. In the center of this section is a line where the base and the barrel meet, marking the point of the shifting motion. On one side is the shift control knob, which has its own indicator markings, while the opposite side features a friction/lock knob for the lens shift. On a full frame camera, this lens can shift up to 10 mm in either direction. Additionally, a button on the corner of the section allows the base to rotate 360 degrees, enabling the shift axis to change to horizontal, vertical, or diagonal orientations.

Application and User Experience

Tilt-shift lenses, having been around for some time, offer numerous applications in photography. Without using the shift or tilt adjustments, they can function like any other lens of the same focal length.

Shot at 55mm with no tilt or shift applied

Thanks to their shifting ability, tilt-shift lenses, including the Laowa 55mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift, are ideal for photographing architecture, interiors, and other scenes requiring precise perspective control. By keeping the camera level, perspective distortion can be avoided. However, for photographing large structures, the subject must be relatively distant. The lens is also well-suited for landscapes or cityscapes, whether capturing a single frame or creating a panorama with a much larger image size. Perspective-wise, the results are similar to using a slightly wider lens, but with significantly higher resolution than the camera sensor alone provides.

Panorama of five vertical images using the entire shift range

The addition of the tilt function enables selective focusing in various scenarios. For architecture or cityscapes, a single structure can be isolated from others, even if they are equidistant from the camera. This effect can also be applied to people or objects, creating a depth of field much narrower than the lens’s maximum aperture of f/2.8.

Selective focusing from a full 10mm tilt

With the addition of macro features on this tilt-shift lens, the same effects can also be applied to much smaller objects. When photographing products or still life, the lens’s shift features can be used to create a much larger panorama that covers more surface area. The tilt feature can also be used to adjust the focal plane whenever the long side of the object is not entirely parallel to the camera’s sensor. This will result in more of the object’s smaller details being in focus and make it easier to perform focus stacking for a hyper-detailed macro shot of small objects. Another use of the tilt function is to position the camera at an angle where there are fewer reflections when the light source cannot be repositioned. This will allow the user to adjust the focal plane and focus properly, even if shooting from a relatively skewed angle.

The same effects can also be applied when photographing nature macro. The lens can focus as close as 270 mm from the sensor (technically less than 10 cm from the front element) and provide a 1:1 perspective of small insects, flowers, or other natural details that are too small to appreciate with the naked eye.

1:1 magnifcation at f/2.8

The shift mechanism makes it easier to make small adjustments to camera positions since a minor nudge can completely disrupt the framing. Meanwhile, the tilt mechanism can bring more details into focus with or without focus stacking. Alternatively, it can also be used to apply selective focusing; however, this might be less necessary because the depth of field becomes exponentially narrower when focusing very close.

Shot at 55mm at 1:1 magnification and closest focusing distance

As mentioned earlier, tilt-shift lenses are lenses that will turn and bend for you to get the shot, depending on the intended effect or the optical challenge. Further enhanced by a maximum aperture of f/2.8 and the ability to achieve 1:1 magnification, this lens essentially transforms and extends to achieve the perfect shot. Using the lens requires familiarization due to the multiple control knobs, rings, and buttons, but once properly oriented, it can work wonders to make otherwise impossible images achievable and simplify many challenging tasks.

What I Liked

  • Combined capabilities of a tilt-shift and 1:1 macro lens
  • Physically extremely versatile 
  • Fast f/2.8 maximum aperture

What Can Be Improved

  • More lightweight materials to decrease overall weight 
  • Possibly a built-in sliding macro rail on the collar

Purchase

You can purchase the Laowa 55mm f/2.8 Tilt-shift Macro lens here.

Nicco Valenzuela's picture

Nicco Valenzuela is a photographer from Quezon City, Philippines. Nicco shoots skyscrapers and cityscapes professionally as an architectural photographer and Landscape and travel photographs as a hobby.

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