The New Laowa 15mm f4.5 Macro is only $399

Today, Laowa is announcing a brand new 15mm f4.5 Macro lens. This is the first time in a while that they’ve developed something seemingly a bit more traditional for photography. Designed for full-frame cameras, it’s also going to come in Sony E, Nikon Z, Leica L, Nikon F, and Canon EF-Manual aperture variants. This isn’t the company’s first 15mm lens, however. Laowa also has a 15mm f4.5 Zero Distortion Tilt-shift, a 15mm f2, and a 15mm f4 macro — the latter is something we stated to be, “…true thing of beauty.” Perhaps best of all, this lens is only going to cost $399.

Laowa is a company that doesn’t incorporate weather resistance into their lenses. As a result, they’re often much more affordable. Granted, they usually have a fully metal exterior that adds to their allure. And this one is no exception.

From the sample images that Laowa provided to the press, this lens seems like it’s targeted to photographers who want to explore the great outdoors and get close to things like wildlife. But we also see it being used in big cities for travel-style photography. That’s similar to both the Irix 15mm f2.4 and the Zeiss 15mm f2.8. And these days, we could see it being used for things like astrophotography and Live View Composite with LUMIX cameras.

The Laowa 15mm f4.5 Macro will sport electronic communication with the cameras so that the aperture is recorded in the EXIF data and that it can also be adjusted that way too. We’re not sure how that will work with focus peaking — but considering that this is a 15mm lens, it’s going to be hard to not get something in focus at all.

With a 62mm filter thread, it’s also bound to be fairly small. But perhaps what you’re all wondering about is the “macro” part of the lens name. Well, it apparently focuses as close as just under 1.5 inches. That’s pretty awesome! And we’re very curious to try this out for ourselves.

Laowa also didn’t do what many of the Japanese have done — which is fixate over the bokeh. It only sports 5 aperture blades, and that’s probably enough. We don’t foresee photographers really shooting with this lens to get super bokeh-laden imagery. Instead, it’s more about getting the entire frame in focus. If you really wanted to use it for product photography with a shallow depth of field, a photographer could always use it with a flash to emphasize what’s in focus.

More sample images are below, along with the tech specs table provided by Laowa to the Phoblographer. Check it out on Amazon.

Laowa 15mm f4.5 Sample Images

Laowa 15mm f4.5 Tech Specs