Venus Optics has announced a bunch of new lenses. Two of them are for DJI’s DL mount, with the remaining three for the medium-format Hasselblad XCD mount. And all of them are very wide-angle lenses.
DJI’s DL mount is exclusive to DJI drones, so you know these will be compact and lightweight lenses. And with the negative crop factor of medium format, the ultra-wides are going to become ludicrously wide.
Laowa 11mm f/4.5 & 14mm f/4 DL Mount
The DL mount lenses are designed exclusively for DJI drones. While DJI’s future in the USA may be uncertain, it’s not deterring other companies from supporting them. These full-frame lenses are ultra-wide lenses offering extremely wide fields of view.
The Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL (buy here) has an insanely wide 126° field of view, with a minimum focus distance of only 19cm. At only 6.3cm long and with a weight of 254g, it’s very light for easy balancing on a drone gimbal camera like the Zenmuse X9 (buy here).
The Laowa 14mm f/4 FF RL (buy here) is a little bit narrower, but not by much. It’s also an extremely small lens weighing 228g and measuring only 5.8cm long. It has a field of view of 114°, providing a nice view of the scene up in the air.
Laowa 15mm f/4.5 and 19mm f/2.8 & 20mm f/4 XCD Mount
The other three lenses are the 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift, the 19mm f/2.8 Zero-D and the 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift. All three lenses are for medium format Hasselblad XCD Mount mirrorless cameras.
The Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift (buy here) is a 14-blade aperture lens with a very wide field of view. It has +/- 8mm of shift and was previously available only for Fujifilm GFX. Now, it’s available for both of the main medium format players.
The Laowa 19mm f/2.8 Zero-D (buy here) was specifically designed for medium format cameras. As such, it’s only available on Fujifilm GFX mount and now Hasselblad XCD. It’s not a shift lens like the above, but offers a 110° field of view.
The Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift (buy here) also provides +/- 8mm of shift with a 94.4° field of view. As one of Laowa’s Zero-D lenses, it offers near-zero distortion, despite its wide angle of view. This makes it ideal for interiors and architecture.
Price and Availability
The lenses are currently listed on the Laowa website. The Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL for DL Mount is available to buy now for $549. The Laowa 14mm f4 FF RL Zero-D for DL mount is also available to buy now for $449.
For medium format, the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift for DL Mount is available to buy now for $1,199. The Laowa 19mm f/2.8 Zero-D is available to buy now for $999. Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift is also available to buy now for $1,099.
