Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift - Nikon F

Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift - Excellent wide angle with shift function

Venus Optics once again demonstrates its capabilities as a manufacturer of versatile and high-quality special lenses. This time the Laowa wide-angle lens range is completed with an interesting wide-angle lens, which is particularly well suited for real estate and architectural photography thanks to its shift feature.

The lens shift feature corrects for distortion of vertical lines due to distance. For example, if you are shooting a tall tower with a normal lens, the outline of the tower will appear to tilt slightly unnaturally. By shifting the shift function of the Laowa 20mm f/4, the lines of the tower are corrected to look optically natural. The maximum shift shift with this lens is ±11mm for full-frame cameras and ±8mm for medium format cameras.

As the name of the lens suggests, the 20mm f/4 is part of Laowa's ”Zero-D” series. This means that the image distortion caused by the lens is almost ”zero”. Therefore, all straight lines should remain straight from the edge of the image to the edge. This feature also explains why the Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D is ideally suited for architectural photography.

The stunning image quality of the lens is due in part to its optical design. The lens contains 16 elements in 11 groups, with 2 aspherical and 3 ED elements. These elements allow the lens to control chromatic aberration well and to maintain sharpness from the centre to the edges of the image. In addition, the 14-blade aperture creates a spectacularly smooth bokeh effect in images.

Venus Optics is also known for its excellent on macro glasses, but when using the Laowa 20mm f/4 lens, you don't necessarily need to change lenses to get close to your subject. The closest focusing distance is 25cm, which means you can get great wide-angle shots.

The Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift lens comes with a lens hood, but it's not quite the usual one. In fact, this lens hood can be rotated 360 degrees. By using the largest possible shift, the lens hood may appear in the image. Rotating the screen can eliminate this problem. In addition, rotating the lens hood can be more effective in eliminating reflections from a particular direction.

Unlike many lenses of this type, the Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift allows you to mount standard filters. 82mm filters can be used to further customise the possibilities of the lens.

Laowa has also designed a new, slightly more special lens support (oto be set out separately), suitable for the Laowa 20mm f/4 Zero-D Shift and Laowa 15mm f/4.5 Zero-D Shift lenses. The support attaches to the front of the lens and also allows the whole camera to be rotated between, for example, vertical and horizontal positions. The stand can be attached to standard camera mounts.

Main features

• Wide-angle lens for architectural photography
• Shift feature for correcting distorted lines
• 16 elements in 11 groups
• Very little distortion (Zero-Distortion)
• 14 dimmer blades produce a beautiful bokeh
• Only 25cm closest focusing distance
• 360° rotating backlight protection
• 82mm filter attachment

Technical specifications

• Bayonet: Nikon F
• Burning distance: 20mm
• Maximum aperture: f/4
• Minimum aperture: f/22
• Image circle coverage: Ø 65 mm
• Viewing angle: 94,4º
• Optical structure: 16 elements in 11 groups (2 aspherical and 3 ED elements)
• Filter size: 82mm
• Dimmer leaves: 14
• Maximum magnification: 0,17x
• Closest focusing distance: 25 cm
• Focusing mode: manual
• Dimensions: approx. 95 x 91 mm
• Weight: about 747 g

(The dimensions and weight of the lens are affected by whether the lens is for mirrorless or mirrorless cameras)