I love the quirky, distorted perspective coming from fisheye lenses – the problem is that there’s a limited number of shots that the unusual perspective works well with. But Laowa has unveiled a new fisheye zoom with a few unusual tricks – and an endearing nickname. The Laowa 4.5-10mm f/2.8 CF Zoom Fisheye is a parafocal lens that has both the circular and rectangular fisheye look in one lens that’s so small photographers are calling it a “muffin lens.”
The lens leaked last week, but Laowa has now officially unveiled the new lens, complete with a price and a spec sheet. The lens comes in multiple mounts, including Canon RF, Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, Nikon Z, Sony E, and L-Mount. The lens is designed for APS-C and Micro Four Thirds rather than full frame.
What caught my eye first was that at 4.5mm, the lens captures a circular image on a black background. But at 10mm, the lens fills the frame with a rectangular image that still has some of that ultra-wide perspective distortion.
The two-looks-in-one isn’t entirely unheard of – Canon does this with the RF 7-14mm f/2.8-3.5L Fisheye STM, and Laowa also does this with the full frame 8-15mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye – but it’s a nice versatility boost regardless.
But the second feature that grabbed my attention is that the lens is parafocal, which means that as you zoom in or out, the focus distance doesn’t change. That allows creators to zoom in and out while shooting video without losing focus – and I really love this effect in the video samples Laowas has already shared.
The lens is manual focus only, which is hardly surprising given its availability in seven different mounts. The lens supports focusing on objects as close as 10cm to really exaggerate that fisheye perspective distortion.
Even with APS-C sensors, the lens captures a dramatic 180-degree field of view at 4.5mm – and it’s packed into a rather compact lens (for an f/2.8 anyway). Some are already calling it a “muffin lens,” a humorous term that means lenses that aren’t quite small enough to be called pancakes.
The lens weighs around 338g / 11.9 oz. That’s not small enough to earn the pancake moniker, but I think that’s still rather lightweight given that it’s an f/2.8 zoom. Ultra-wide zooms with bright apertures tend to be unusually heavy, but that doesn’t appear to be the case here.
The new lens is already available for pre-order across multiple mounts, including at Laowa’s website and, in the US, B&H. The lens retails for $399, which converts to about £297 / AU$557 / CA$550.
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