The Laowa 15S (as we’ll call it for brevity) could be a very important lens for those that specialize in architecture or interior photography. The Laowa 15mm F4.5 W-Dreamer Shift lens is available in Canon EF and RF mounts, Nikon F and Z mounts, and Sony FE. But now Laowa has taken that knowledge and upped the ante, developing a dedicated shift lens that allows for an even wider frame of view. I actually purchase a Laowa 12mm F2.8 Zero D lens to pair with the MSC for shooting interiors and architecture on Sony, as it allows you to get amazing results with the resulting 17mm F4 Shift lens. Several years ago I reviewed their Magic Shift Converter, which leveraged the space provided in an adapter from a Canon EF or Nikon F mount to a Sony full frame mirrorless mount to incorporate ten degrees of shift into the lens. None of these are easy lenses to design and engineer, and yet Laowa has built its brand on taking on difficult challenges and largely pulling them off. Macro at very wide angles or extremely high magnification levels, a design that emphasizes zero distortion in a very wide focal length, a ridiculously wide reticular zoom lens, a smooth trans focus telephoto, and, perhaps strangest of all, a probe lens that looks more like a rifle. It is hard to find a “conventional” lens in their lineup, as every lens has some kind of unique twist to it. They chose the most conventional lens designs as those are the easiest to reproduce. Early Chinese lens designers typically made their reputation by offering up cheaper clones of existing lenses. Laowa (Venus Optics) has never been a conventional lens maker.
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