Laowa 15mm f/4.5 shift lens set to bring perspective control to Sony and L mount

Laowa 15mm f/4.5 shift lens
(Image credit: Nikon Rumors)

Laowa is set to release a radical 15mm f/4.5 ultra-wide shift lens to fit a range of full frame cameras, including Nikon DSLRs and mirrorless models, Canon EOS DSLRs and mirrorless EOS R cameras and – crucially – Sony FE and Panasonic/Leica/Sigma L mount cameras.

According to Photo Rumors, it's one of several new lenses on their way from the innovative Chinese lens maker, which specializes in ultra wide and macro lenses.

A shift lens uses a special movement to shift the image circle up and down in the frame so that you don't have to tilt the camera to capture tall buildings or high-ceiling interiors. This is too niche for regular snappers, but a must-have for architectural photographers.

Nikon and Canon already make their own shift lenses, but Nikon's widest is its PC NIKKOR 19mm f/4E ED, and while Canon does have a TS-E 17mm f4L lens, both are expensive, at around $3000 and $2,000 respectively.

More important, there are currently no own-brand shift lenses available for full frame Sony or L mount cameras. Samyang does make a less wide 24mm shift lens in various mounts including Sony (but not yet L mount) and Laowa's existing Magic Shift Converter can adapt DSLR lenses to produce a shift movement, but the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 shift lens will be the company's first shift lens and also the widest full frame shift lens on the market. It could really open these systems up to professional commercial photographers.

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Rod Lawton
Contributor

Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com