I own the Canon 17mm TS-E and pretty much haven't used it in months due to the exact issues you described. In full transparency I'm also running it adapted to my A74 but saw the same results you've shown here and when put next to a G Master it's almost a crime for me to use it when looking at sharpness.
I've been using the Nikon 19mm PC-E for a few years now, absolutely love it, no issues with sharpness or image quality. Have used it on my D850, Z6ii, Z7ii, and Z9.
It may seem that way, but I wouldn't recommend a shift adapter. Adapters increase the distance from the sensor giving other problems to be aware of, and they tend to be prone to added vignetting and soft corners. Given the price of the Laowa, I'd recommend spending a bit more for that instead.
Hello nathan, i have 14mm for Sony and i am not sure should i buy 15mm or 20 shift for laowa for real estate what is your advice and if you say 15 which ring is better blue or red ring Thank you!
Uk here and yes, the rooms I have to shoot are tiny compared to the US. I love my Laowa just wish I’d bought it earlier. Game changer. Also there is a correction profile in LR.
Thanks Mick, but there is not correction profile for the shift lens for LR. Adobe doesn't support that lens helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/supported-lenses.html and there is no mention of a profile for the shift lens either on the Laowa website: www.venuslens.net/lens-profile-for-laowa-15mm-f-2-fe-and-15mm-f-4-are-now-available/
@@NathanCoolPhoto Ah! I see my mistake. I have been using the Laowa 15mm "f2" correction profile. To be honest the correction does such a good job that I didn't double check. Thanks for all you tuition over the past year. Taken my work to a new level.
Dear Sir, i've been watching your videos on/off; learning from a pro artist in the business "specialist" like your good self...sincere, serious & informative unlike others channels that depending only on products features...keep up the good work and reputation :) ... Peace.
Awesome review Nathan. I recently picked up the 20mm f/4 Shift from Laowa since I found the 15 far too wide and too much chance for extension distortion at least for interiors. The 20mm is fantastic although I still use my RF 14-35 more often as shift lens force you to slow down far too much for day to day real estate IMO. Great review nonetheless. I typically use my 20mm shift outdoors which is amazing!!!
Thank you! One thing I mention near the end of the video at 22:24 is where this lens is best suited, which fits some cases better than using other lenses, not sure if you caught that last section of the video but it might help shed some light as the when you might want to consider it (or not).
Would it be possible to use this lens on the Blackmagic 4k or 6k camera? Would you recommend the blackmagic for an all in one video and photo solution?
Hello Nathan, I just received my new Laowa 15mm Shift lens for a Sony E mount, from B&H. I have a Sony A1. As mentionned in the Laowa instruction, I enable the option Release without Lens. The problem is: When I take a picture in hand-held, I notice in the Live view, the image is shaking and not stabilised when I press the shutter button and the image is not sharp. In order to prevent the image shaking, I had to disable the 'In-body image-stabilization'. Do you have any idea what is the problem? Looks the Laowa 15mm Shift lens does not support Sony A1 'In-body image-stabilization On'. Do you have a solution for this, in order to use my lens with In-body image-stabilization 'On' ? Thanks,
I'm not sure how to do this on Sony, but on Nikon cameras we can specify what the lens is, which allows you to set IBIS. But the bigger question is why you'd be shooting RE work handheld. I'd recommend using a tripod, even for outdoor work, and especially when using a shift lens.
Thanks Nathan, I found out on the Sony menu where to set manually the focal lenght to 15mm. Too bad that It was not mentionned in Laola instruction. I'm intend to use a tripod but for testing itinialy, I decided to use my hand@@NathanCoolPhoto
Thank you for the video- I purchased the Tokina on your recommendation last year- Love the lens- I haven’t found that I have needed a shift lens enough to justify the purchase, but interesting nonetheless. ** I like your book collection by the way ;-)
Not sure there's a need to pop a TC on a wide angle lens like this, you'd be better off getting one of the higher focal-length lenses they offer like the 20mm, or think about the Roki 24.
have you used the 15mm f2 zero distortion? does the zero distortion work? do you think for someone that want to get into eral estate photography is a good lens? thanks in advance
If your camera has a higher resolution sensor, to me it just seems to make more sense to buy a good 12-14mm rectilinear lens and shoot with your camera sideways. Then even in post you can compose up and down or "shift" at will. (so long as your chosen wideangle gives fantastic sharpness at the edge) Since most of what we take as RE photographers just ends up on MLSs anyways, the drop in resolution doesn't really matter, though even on my a7rii the resolution will still be pretty high. Plus, you wouldn't need to deal with all the downsides of this lens, all manual, not weather sealed, no autofocus...etc. To me this lens makes sense for someone looking to take very high resolution photos of architecture and interiors where the loss in pixels wouldn't be acceptable. In those job you typically have more time for each shot as well. Thanks for the review Nathan!
I wouldn't recommend the vert-pano method you mentioned over using a shift lens. Vert-panos require much more time onsite to gather all of the flash and ambient shots (and window pulls) for each segment, processing would take extra time, and perspective control in stitching would be much more difficult than simply using a shift lens. Instead, there's the fake tilt-shift method I mentioned in the video, which can work in many cases, here's a tutorial on that as well: ruclips.net/video/epXjNDkmYdY/видео.html
Thank you for another great video. All I can say is you’re an outstanding teacher!
You're very welcome and thank you for the kind words!
I own the Canon 17mm TS-E and pretty much haven't used it in months due to the exact issues you described. In full transparency I'm also running it adapted to my A74 but saw the same results you've shown here and when put next to a G Master it's almost a crime for me to use it when looking at sharpness.
I've been using the Nikon 19mm PC-E for a few years now, absolutely love it, no issues with sharpness or image quality. Have used it on my D850, Z6ii, Z7ii, and Z9.
I've been considering a tilt shift adapter. Seems like you'd have more variety in general
It may seem that way, but I wouldn't recommend a shift adapter. Adapters increase the distance from the sensor giving other problems to be aware of, and they tend to be prone to added vignetting and soft corners. Given the price of the Laowa, I'd recommend spending a bit more for that instead.
Hello nathan, i have 14mm for Sony and i am not sure should i buy 15mm or 20 shift for laowa for real estate what is your advice and if you say 15 which ring is better blue or red ring
Thank you!
Uk here and yes, the rooms I have to shoot are tiny compared to the US. I love my Laowa just wish I’d bought it earlier. Game changer. Also there is a correction profile in LR.
Thanks Mick, but there is not correction profile for the shift lens for LR. Adobe doesn't support that lens helpx.adobe.com/camera-raw/kb/supported-lenses.html and there is no mention of a profile for the shift lens either on the Laowa website: www.venuslens.net/lens-profile-for-laowa-15mm-f-2-fe-and-15mm-f-4-are-now-available/
@@NathanCoolPhoto Ah! I see my mistake. I have been using the Laowa 15mm "f2" correction profile. To be honest the correction does such a good job that I didn't double check. Thanks for all you tuition over the past year. Taken my work to a new level.
Anyone else pause the video and peep all of the book titles?? 😆 Love the collection and thanks for the informative video!
Me! I almost forgot about some of those :)
Great review. I just picked this lens up last week for Sony mount. It's a game changer.
Dear Sir, i've been watching your videos on/off; learning from a pro artist in the business "specialist" like your good self...sincere, serious & informative unlike others channels that depending only on products features...keep up the good work and reputation :) ... Peace.
I've got that lens on my wish list, I appreciate this video, your content is great thanks for sharing .
How do you shoot with a shift lens and flambient method? Do you strobe shots around room, then shift and redo strobe shots?
Thanks for all you do! I love “your” books, they are very helpful. Also, love your book collection.
You are so welcome!
Love the book collection
Me too :)
Awesome review Nathan. I recently picked up the 20mm f/4 Shift from Laowa since I found the 15 far too wide and too much chance for extension distortion at least for interiors. The 20mm is fantastic although I still use my RF 14-35 more often as shift lens force you to slow down far too much for day to day real estate IMO. Great review nonetheless.
I typically use my 20mm shift outdoors which is amazing!!!
Thank you! One thing I mention near the end of the video at 22:24 is where this lens is best suited, which fits some cases better than using other lenses, not sure if you caught that last section of the video but it might help shed some light as the when you might want to consider it (or not).
Would it be possible to use this lens on the Blackmagic 4k or 6k camera? Would you recommend the blackmagic for an all in one video and photo solution?
This isn't for an MFT mount, but I could recommend this one amzn.to/3XxSGfW
Hello Nathan,
I just received my new Laowa 15mm Shift lens for a Sony E mount, from B&H.
I have a Sony A1. As mentionned in the Laowa instruction, I enable the option Release without Lens.
The problem is:
When I take a picture in hand-held, I notice in the Live view, the image is shaking and not stabilised when I press the shutter button and the image is not sharp.
In order to prevent the image shaking, I had to disable the 'In-body image-stabilization'.
Do you have any idea what is the problem? Looks the Laowa 15mm Shift lens does not support Sony A1 'In-body image-stabilization On'.
Do you have a solution for this, in order to use my lens with In-body image-stabilization 'On' ?
Thanks,
I'm not sure how to do this on Sony, but on Nikon cameras we can specify what the lens is, which allows you to set IBIS. But the bigger question is why you'd be shooting RE work handheld. I'd recommend using a tripod, even for outdoor work, and especially when using a shift lens.
Thanks Nathan, I found out on the Sony menu where to set manually the focal lenght to 15mm. Too bad that It was not mentionned in Laola instruction. I'm intend to use a tripod but for testing itinialy, I decided to use my hand@@NathanCoolPhoto
How does the shift differs from increasing your tripod height up and down?
It's completely different, the tripod moves the entire frame, the shift lens moves the composition.
Thank you for the video- I purchased the Tokina on your recommendation last year- Love the lens- I haven’t found that I have needed a shift lens enough to justify the purchase, but interesting nonetheless. ** I like your book collection by the way ;-)
Glad it was helpful! And glad you like my book collection too :)
would this work with teleconverters? What's your take on that
Not sure there's a need to pop a TC on a wide angle lens like this, you'd be better off getting one of the higher focal-length lenses they offer like the 20mm, or think about the Roki 24.
It seems to me that this lens is basically substituting one set of post production problems for another.
have you used the 15mm f2 zero distortion? does the zero distortion work? do you think for someone that want to get into eral estate photography is a good lens? thanks in advance
I used the 12mm zero-d for videos, I have more on that here: amzn.to/3o21Ods
If your camera has a higher resolution sensor, to me it just seems to make more sense to buy a good 12-14mm rectilinear lens and shoot with your camera sideways. Then even in post you can compose up and down or "shift" at will. (so long as your chosen wideangle gives fantastic sharpness at the edge) Since most of what we take as RE photographers just ends up on MLSs anyways, the drop in resolution doesn't really matter, though even on my a7rii the resolution will still be pretty high. Plus, you wouldn't need to deal with all the downsides of this lens, all manual, not weather sealed, no autofocus...etc. To me this lens makes sense for someone looking to take very high resolution photos of architecture and interiors where the loss in pixels wouldn't be acceptable. In those job you typically have more time for each shot as well. Thanks for the review Nathan!
I wouldn't recommend the vert-pano method you mentioned over using a shift lens. Vert-panos require much more time onsite to gather all of the flash and ambient shots (and window pulls) for each segment, processing would take extra time, and perspective control in stitching would be much more difficult than simply using a shift lens. Instead, there's the fake tilt-shift method I mentioned in the video, which can work in many cases, here's a tutorial on that as well: ruclips.net/video/epXjNDkmYdY/видео.html