Venus Optics has recently unveiled a series of new Laowa wide-angle lenses that are said to be the world’s widest rectilinear camera lenses for aerial platforms, offering nearly zero distortion.
These lenses have been designed for high-end DJI drones with the Zenmuse gimballed camera array.
The DL mount 11mm and 14mm full-frame lenses are lightweight and compact and come with an assurance from Venus Optics of sharpness and significantly reduced chromatic aberration and lens distortion.
Image Credit – Venus Optics
While the Laowa 11mm F4.5 FF RL lens is not a Zero-D lens, it offers impressive image quality with a 126° angle of view and almost no distortion.
Image Credit – Venus Optics
The lens contains 14 elements, including 2 aspherical and 3 extra-low dispersion lens elements organized in 10 groups. It also offers a 10-point Sunstar from its internal 5-bladed lens aperture iris and a minimum focus of 19 cm.
Image Credit – Venus Optics
On the other hand, the Laowa 14mm F4 FF RL Zero-D lens offers a slightly narrower 114° angle of view but with “close to zero” lens distortion.
Its lens element design contains 13 lens elements organized in 8 groups, including 2 low-dispersion and 2 aspherical lens elements. This one-of-a-kind design promises to inspire photographers to capture pictures with a unique and ultra-wide perspective.
Image Credit – Venus Optics
Both lenses come with a DJI DL mount for use on their unmanned aerial vehicle cameras. They also come in other lens mounts including Leica M mount (with optional rangefinder coupling), Sony FE, Nikon Z, Panasonic L, and Canon RF mounts. However, note that they are incompatible with Leica TL or CL cameras.
The lenses are lightweight and compact, weighing only 7.27 ounces (less than 206 grams). This feature promises to make setup easier and improve the overall stability of the drone platform while in flight.
With Laowa’s affordable yet super-sharp lens design, photographers can expect to capture sharper images, with a more accurate color gamut, and minimal image distortion at the wide ends of the image frame.
Price and Availability
The Venus Optics Laowa 11mm F4.5 FF RL lens has a retail price of $599, while the Laowa 14mm F4 FF RL Zero-D lens is available for a retail price of $499, with a $50 discount. More information can be found at VenusLens.net.
[source: Venus Optics]
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