Yongnuo has announced its acronym-laden Yongnuo YN 11mm f/1.8S DA DSM WL APS-C lens. It’s currently available in China for Sony E mount, but other mounts, including Nikon Z, are expected to roll out later.
What’s particularly interesting about this lens is what comes with it. Oddly, it seems to have its own native wireless follow-focus capability. Perhaps a strange feature in a lens with such a shallow depth of field.
Wireless Follow Focus ?!?
Although all of the text in the marketing images is Chinese, there are a few things we can conclude from the pictures themselves. The first is that the lens is consistently shown sitting next to what looks like a wireless follow-focus dial.
And that appears to be exactly what this is. From the looks of things, it appears that this lens is the first of at least four that are in the series. The marketing suggests that the entire series will offer wireless control.
This is a great feature for filmmakers, stop motion and timelapse photographers, macro photographers watching on a monitor, etc. That is, assuming it works the way one expects a standard wireless follow focus to work.
Switchable Clickless Aperture
If the wireless focus control wasn’t enough to convince you, this helps to drive the point home. The YN 11mm f/1.8S, like many lenses these days, features a switch to let you enable aperture clicks for photos and disable it for video.
Lots of missing info
The full specs of the lens have been released, although much of the text is in China. This is due to it only having been released in China so far. There’s no news on exactly when it will see a global release or how much it will cost. That said, it’s expected to come to the company’s Amazon store soon.
It appears it’s initially being launched for Sony E mount. It will also become available for Fuji X mount and Nikon Z mount. But we don’t know when that will be. It could be a month, it could be a year. This is Yongnuo we’re talking about. Actually, that could also mean it’s an empty promise – but I shall remain hopeful.
Yongnuo YN 11mm f/1.8S DA DSM WL Specs
| Focal length | 11mm |
| Max aperture | f/1.8 |
| Min aperture | f/16 |
| Format | APS-C |
| Mount | Sony E, Fuji X, Nikon Z |
| Angle of view | Unspecified |
| Optics | 10 elements in 9 groups |
| Aperture blades | 7 |
| Min focus distance | 15cm |
| Filter diameter | 58mm |
| Dimensions | 66 x 69mm |
| Weight | 260g |
Price and Availability
As mentioned, the lens has only been released in China so far. It’s expected to come to Yongnuo’s Amazon store soon, although there’s no mention of price. It will initially be offered in Sony E mount, with Fuji X and Nikon Z mounts to follow in the future.
