Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift (for GFX)

[Ed Hurst]

Hello all,

During a recent thread, there was some discussion of this lens and its likely performance on a GFX100S. Does anyone have any experience of this, especially fully shifted? Perhaps even shifting more than the 8mm recommended for use on GFX? I'm really looking for tests/experiences/results on GFX, not FF.

I have looked around at reviews and it looks promising - but keen to find out more info. before committing to it.

All the best,
Ed

 

[asnapper]

In the this review using the lens on a 50r, 11mm of movement was possible without any issues. samples are included in the review, at all apertures & with shift from zero to 11mm.

Test Laowa 20mm F/4 Zero-D Shift sur Fuji GFX | Pierre-Louis Ferrer

Test de l'objectif Laowa 20mm F/4 Zero-D Shift adapté sur le boitier moyen format Fuji GFX 50R.

www.plferrer.photos

 

[Knorp]

Hi there, Ed.
two 'bad weather' samples (resized sooc jpegs) to give you an idea how the lens vignettes at maximum shift (11 mm).
In landscape mode it's not too bad and what ever darkening there is it can easily be corrected in post, so no hard vignetting.
In portrait mode it's a different matter, real hard vignetting that can't be corrected.
Best regards.

 

[Ed Hurst]

Thanks so much - that's very helpful and encouraging. Since the 'recommended' max shift for this lens on a medium format sensor is 8mm, I think that performance is as expected. I think I'll pull the trigger and see how it goes.

 

[Ed Hurst]

Well - I've just acquired my copy of this lens. When I've had the opportunity to use it in anger, I'll obviously share the results here (or, if the image is good enough to justify it, in the usual 'Fun with...' thread) but if anyone has anything specific they'd like me to do with it, feel free to post here. I can't promise to do everything asked, as I'm hardly a lens testing sort of a chap - but I'll do what I feasibly can.

All I've done so far is take a test shot of my house (from the back garden) comparing shifting upwards with angling the camera upwards; the difference, as you'd expect, is stark. Lovely straight lines! As noted above, Laowa claims that the lens allows 8mm of shift without trouble on a 33mm x 44mm sensor, though it physically permits up to 11mm. From my initial messing around, 11mm does show vignetting (even in landscape mode) but I'd say 8mm is conservative - good results seem possible up to about 9 or 10mm. The lens seems optically pretty good. Certainly by f8 or f11, it's very sharp. Wide open usage may not be so good into the corners, but I'll have to learn about that from experience over time. I want to know how stars look wide open right up into those corners on maximum shift!

Anyhow, watch this space as weather and time permit me to shoot. Going through a cloudy spell here just now.

Annoyingly, I feel I am going to have to go back to various images and re-do them now!

 

[davemillier]

Hi there, Ed.
two 'bad weather' samples (resized sooc jpegs) to give you an idea how the lens vignettes at maximum shift (11 mm).
In landscape mode it's not too bad and what ever darkening there is it can easily be corrected in post, so no hard vignetting.
In portrait mode it's a different matter, real hard vignetting that can't be corrected.
Best regards.

Just crop the top, fine then!