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Venus Optics has announced the new Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Zoom Shift lens. The APS-C lens offers a focal length from 12mm to 24mm, so it’s pretty wide, with an f/5.6 constant maximum aperture. It supports shift of +/- 7mm for perspective control.
At the moment, the lens only appears to be available in China. It’s not even listed on the Laowa website yet. But the price in China is extremely reasonable for a shift lens, even without tilt. The fact that it’s a zoom as well is icing on the cake.
Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 – Shift but no tilt
To be clear, this is not a tilt-shift lens. It’s just a shift lens. So, you’re able to adjust the perspective, but you’re not able to manipulate the focal plane, depth of field, or turn the world miniature. You get +/- 7mm of shift adjustment, which isn’t terrible.
Of course, it’s not amazing, either. Nikon’s Nikkor PC primes offered +/12mm of shift adjustment. But this is a zoom, and it’s the first zoom perspective correction lens we’ve seen from any company. So, there may be design limitations on shift that aren’t there on a prime.
It will be interesting to see if we see more of these come from companies in the future. Especially Nikon, as its old F mount lenses have pretty much died off. Both tilt and shift seem to have been largely ignored – at least by camera manufacturers – since mirrorless took over.
So, it’s nice to see not only a new shift lens, but a shift with some zoom. This will make it ideal for architecture and landscape photographers. Maybe even a few product photographers.
Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Shift Zoom Stats
Focal length12-24mm
Max aperturef/5.6
Min aperturef/22
Angle of viewUnspecified
FormatAPS-C
MountSony E, Leica L Canon RF, Fuji X and Nikon Z
Focus typeManual Focus
Lens typeRectilinear Shift
Image CircleUnspecified
Shift range+/- 7mm
Optics15 elements in 11 groups
Aperture blades9
Min focus distance15cm
Dimensions80 x 98.91mm
Weight575g
This isn’t the first Laowa Shift lens. It may be the first zoom shift, but the company also released a 15mm f/4.5 Shift lens in 2020, and you can read our review of it here.
Price and Availability
The Laowa CF 12-24mm f/5.6 Shift Zoom only appears to be available in China at the moment for a regular retail price of 4,980 yuan (~$685). International pricing has not yet been announced, nor has an international release date. But we’ll update this post when we know more.
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