Another new lens is here for the summer, and boy, is it a weird one. After Venus Optics shared several previews of their new lens to the public, it’s finally confirmed that the new Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Zoom Shift lens is ready to release and become an option for your APS-C mirrorless cameras.
Obviously, there are a lot of photography-focused perks to this lens, for it’s perhaps equally noteworthy for video professionals as well—unlike other tilt-shift lenses that we’ve seen for mirrorless and DSLR cameras—this new Laowa lens can change its focal length.
Let’s look at this new Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Zoom Shift lens and explore how it could be an option for you.
Introducing the Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Zoom Shift Lens
Designed with an APS-C crop factor, this new ultra-wide zoom from Venus Optics reaches an equivalent to an 18-36mm lens on your standard full-frame cameras, making it very much a wide-angle option for your videos. Its killer feature though is its ability to tilt +/- up to seven millimeters when being used on your APS-C cameras, making it a fully manual tilt-shift lens.
The Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Zoom Shift also includes 15 elements arranged across 11 groups, including a pair of aspherical and three ED lenses, plus a nine-bladed aperture diaphragm which is set for an aperture range of f/5.6 to f/22.
When using a tilt-shift lens like this one it should be quite capable of keeping vertical lines straight, even when you find yourself shooting at an angle, which could be huge for photographers and videographers alike.
Laowa CF Zoom Shift Lens
Venus Optics
Price and Availability
The Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Zoom Shift Lens is officially announced and should be available for E, L, RF, X, and Z mount cameras, but is not yet available for purchase here in the United States. We’ll keep you updated when pricing and availability are updated.
