Most lenses are rather simple things – at least from the outside. They have a focus- (& zoom-) ring and a couple of switches and buttons. If we are lucky, the manufacturers added a dedicated aperture ring to it. And then there are lenses like the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro … although I’m not sure whether there’s really a comparable lens, because besides its tiling and shifting capabilities, it’s also a 1x macro lens.
The tilt feature is meant for non-standard focus control, whereas the shift aspect can be used for perspective corrections – but more on this later. This requires a larger image circle compared to conventional lenses. And this means that we are talking about a rather massive lens here – for a 100mm f/2.8 at least. In fact, Laowa is also offering it in Fujifilm GX mount as well – for medium format that is – albeit with reduced degrees of freedom. By many standards, it is a rather exotic lens, which also explains its rather steep price tag of $1249. Given its mechanical complexities, it doesn’t feel overpriced, though.
In terms of mechanical execution, it is a little wonder that will overwhelm the uninitiated at first – as does the weight. All the required glass, the metal construction and the mechanical reinforcements due to the tilt-shift mechanism will take their toll on your biceps. The tilt-shift mechanism can be released via corresponding lock screws. From there on, you can either use another set of screws to shift and/or tilt the lens. It’s also possible to rotate the lens after pressing a small button near the mount – which also means that the distance scale and aperture marker turn on this axis.
It’s a fully mechanical lens so no AF, no EXIF data and the aperture has to be controlled on the lens. A metal lens hood is included. You may wonder about its small size given that this is a tele lens, but this simply relates to the required image circle and light transmission characteristics of a TS lens.
The lens feels massive and very solid, but the detachable tripod mount isn’t really ideal. While it is commendable that there is one at all, it has two issues – it’s located too far towards the front, making the setup rear-heavy – and it isn’t super stable due to the thin metal connection screwed onto a rather small control ring. You may spot this in the product image below. We’d also wished that the focus throw would be a little longer because the depth-of-field can be extremely shallow in tilt mode. The internal focusing provides some protection against the elements, but there’s no formal weather-sealing.
| Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Optical construction | 13 elements in 10 groups |
| Number of aperture blades | 15 |
| min. focus distance | 0.32 (max magnification 1x) |
| Dimensions | φ85x162mm |
| Weight | 1215g |
| Filter size | φ77mm |
| Hood | barrel-shaped (bayonet mount, supplied) |
| Other features | Tilt: ±10° Shift: ±12mm |
The Tilt-shift dance looks like this here:
Tilt Feature
If you purchase such a lens, you won’t do it for its conventional characteristics, so unlike in other reviews, let’s skip this for the moment and go straight for the meat – the Tilt mechanism.
In a conventional lens, the subject plane is parallel to the image plane (= the sensor). If you tilt the lens, you tilt the subject plane, as shown below (courtesy of Wikipedia @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheimpflug_principle).
This can be used to achieve two different effects:
- you can effectively increase the depth-of-field on the subject – more so than by just stopping down
- you can dramatically reduce the depth-of-field outside the subject plan – more so than what you can achieve with nominally faster lenses
Let’s check this in a more formal way – the following image crops were all taken at f/2.8 and focused on the “0”. The camera to subject distance was kept the same.
As you can see, the differences are stark between the different settings.
Maximizing the depth-of-field while keeping the aperture below negative diffraction effects can be a godsend for macro photographers.
Conversely, minimizing the Depth-of-Field has its own appeal, as you can see below. It can produce “miniature”-like scenes with a seemingly “shallow” depth-of-field that is impossible to achieve even by the fastest lenses.
Shift Feature
This is primarily about perspective control.
We all know the situation – when pointing the camera upwards / downwards the resulting object “tilts” backwards / forwards – as illustrated below (by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilt-shift_photography)
Shift lenses can correct this to some degree. It’s not a silver bullet, but wide-angle shift lenses can help a lot with this.
The shift implementation in the Laowa lens is perfectly fine – technically. However, with a 100mm lens, it barely makes a difference. You can achieve the same effect during post-processing with a negligible loss of image quality. That’s different with wide angle lenses where this can be very lossy, but here – not so much. If you are a DIY fan – and if you are interested in such a lens, you probably are – it’s still fun to play around with this, of course.
Stitched panoramas are also possible with shift lenses – but not with a 100mm lens.
Below are two images that show the extent of the possible correction in the two shift directions – it’s not much, really.
Distortions
It’s a fully manual lens, thus there’s no correction profile available. However, it only produces a negligible amount of pincushion distortion.
Vignetting
The Laowa lens projects a much larger than average image circle. In neutral TS position, there is very little vignetting even at f/2.8.
In full shift mode, the vignetting increases because the image frame “moves” towards the edges of the projected image circle. This also results in a single-sided vignetting. However, even at f/2.8, the vignetting remains manageable with a maximum of ~1.3EV (f-stops). Stopping down reduces the vignetting as usual.
MTF (resolution)
The resolution characteristic of the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro is mostly flawless. The broader center quality is already excellent at f/2.8 (albeit just) and the outer image field is also pretty good. Stopping down to f/4 provides some extra bite, and the best results are achieved around f/5.6. Beyond diffraction is the limiting factor. f/11 remains usable, but some softness creeps in from f/16 (on high megapixel sensors).
The centering quality of the tested sample was Okay. The focus field is quite flat.
Please note that the MTF results are not directly comparable across the different systems!
Below is a simplified summary of the formal findings. The chart shows line widths per picture height (LW/PH) which can be taken as a measure of sharpness. If you want to know more about the MTF50 figures, you may check out the corresponding Imatest Explanations.
Chromatic Aberrations (CAs)
Lateral CAs are very low and nothing to worry about.
Bokeh
Let’s check the quality of the bokeh with the lens set to neutral position.
Out-of-focus highlights are nicely rendered, with a quite smooth inner zone of the discs and minimal outlining at the edges. Stopping down to f/4 and f/5.6 maintains the circular shape thanks to no less than 15 (!) aperture blades.
When looking at the highlight rendering across the image field, the circular shape remains mostly intact, with only a slight deterioration to an ellipsoid shape in the corners. The large image circle helps here, of course. Stopping down to f/4 produces perfect discs, even in the corners.
It is worth noting that the disc quality deteriorates when playing around with the TS feature, though.
The bokeh quality in the focus transition zone is generally smooth both in the image background (left below) and foreground (to the right).
Bokeh Fringing / LoCA
LoCAs, or bokeh fringing, is a color fringing effect on the Z-axis. It shows up with a purplish tint in front of the focus point and a greenish tint behind – and it’s nearly impossible to fully correct in post.
The Laowa lens does a pretty good job here, despite the lack and any fancy elements in the optical design. There are barely any traces of color fringing visible at f/2.8 already.
You may also notice that there’s also no focus shift when stopping down, so you can rely on the focus setting at f/2.8 prior to stopping down – this is rather important for a fully manual lens.
Competition
There aren’t really many TS tele lenses around. On the cheaper side, there’s a AstrHori 85mm f/2.8 Shift Macro. It’s less sophisticated. We had one for testing at some point, but it was very decentered. That’s probably the most tricky part here – quality control. There are more moving parts than on conventional lenses, so producing consistently batches is difficult. That’s another reason why OEM Tilt-Shift lenses are so expensive. The AstrHori also has a very limited usable tilt range, making it only an option on APS-C realistically.
A cheap way to the tilt-shift world could be a tilt-shift adapter, where you mount a legacy lens to the adapter – preferably a medium format lens when used on full frame cameras (or full frame lenses on an APS-C camera). Such adapters cost around the $200USD mark.
Sample Images
Laowa has found their niche in providing all kinds of rather extreme products - extreme ultra-wide-, extreme macro- and extremely fast lenses. And it seems that they have shifted (pun intended) their attention to a new segment - tilt-shift lenses. It's not a completely new arena for them. They released some shift lenses in the past already, but these were more like afterthoughts. The Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro clearly isn't. Besides all the bells and whistles (lots of screws, really), it also provides the required large image circle for a proper tilt-shift lens. The shift aspect isn't all that interesting at this focal length, but the tilt function is pretty awesome although far from being easy to use (as yours truly had to find out as well). If you are into macrophotography, the depth-of-field potential could be very interesting, and the selective depth-of-field at conventional distances can deliver truly baffling effects. And it can function as a normal tele macro lens as well, of course.
The optical performance of the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro is very decent. In "normal" mode, it is very sharp with minimal CAs. Image distortions are negligible, and the vignetting is low thanks to the large image circle. The bokeh is also smooth. In full tilt mode, the border bokeh deteriorates, but that's probably to be expected.
It's a fully manual lens without electronic coupling. Given the nature of the lens, the lack of autofocus is hardly surprising. However, it would have been nice if Laowa implemented the transfer of EXIF data. This would help with the inevitably, steep learning curve that you'll have to go through. The lens feels like a tank, except for the tripod mount.
The price tag of the Laowa 100mm f/2.8 Tilt-Shift 1x Macro is surely a big entry hurdle, but you are getting a lot of a lens for your bucks in return. It's certainly not a lens for everybody. However, in the right hands it can deliver magic - well ... almost.
The Good
- The tilt function, of course
- Great build quality (*)
- It's sharp
The Bad
- (*) except for the tripod mount
- No electronic coupling
- Short focus throw
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Optical Quality
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Build Quality
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Price / Performance