Nov 20, 2022
Laowa 20mm F4 Zero-D Shift
Introduction
With the constantly evolving photo market, some third-party manufacturers no longer produce lenses for specific mounts, such as Nikon's FX-DX format, or Pentax's K-mount. Others are still proposing new lenses at a regular pace.
One such manufacturer is Laowa. This company specializes in the lenses "no one else makes": extreme wide angles, high-magnification macros and, in the present case, a shift lens.
Released in 2022, the Laowa 20mm F4 Zero-D Shift is an interesting lens for many reasons. The first is, of course, its ability to shift the field of view. Another one is that it is a 20mm, full frame prime, something of a rarity nowadays (apart from the recently released Pentax D FA 21mm Limited).
A shift lens has the ability to correct perspective and ensure parallel surfaces appear parallel. Readers interested in a more thorough explanation can refer to this page in our Rokinon 24mm Tilt-Shift lens review.
Like all Laowa lenses, and all Shift lenses, the Laowa 20mm Shift is a purely manual lens, communicating no information to the camera body. Also like all Laowa lenses, it is superbly assembled, with a metal body and beautiful craftsmanship. How does it perform in our optical tests? Read on to find out!