A rose or lens by any other name...

[rpcrowe]

Pardon the paraphrase of the Immortal Bard... I purchased what was touted as a Viltrox 60mm f/2.8 2:1 Macro lens. Chinese lens companies often re-brand their products under different names and this lens appears to be a Laowa model...

My lens...


60mm Laowa 2:1 lens from their website. The markings on the lens barrel are virtually identical


The front of my lens...


Very similar to the Laowa with the deletion of the Laowa brand name and without a serial number


It is pretty obvious that this is a re-branded Laowa lens which is great. That lens has had some top reviews. I cannot find a Viltrox lens of this type on the Viltrox website nor anywhere else on the Internet.

The thing that confuses me is that my lens has a slight tilt capability. It looks like an addition was installed to allow the tilt.


I cannot find a lens with this tilt capability on the Laowa website...

Another slight difference is that the lens seems to have an f/2.9 aperture. At least that is according to the engraving on the lens barrel.

Apparently Venus Laowa produces their own lenses not just sells re-branded lenses. I have contacted them by email them to ask if they would help in identifying this lens.

The Laowa lens is a full frame lens and my "Viltrox" was sold as an APSC lens. I wonder if this is because of the added tilt capability. I have not tested out the lens but it seems extremely well built entirely out of metal and the Laowa lens has received top line reviews. The seller stated that he purchased the lens used and was told that it was a Viltrox APSC model but, that he never investigated it.

I have a project to photograph several hundred fishing flies with sizes ranging from large saltwater streamers to the tiniest size 22 dry flies. is lens should be ideal for that use. This is a manual everything lens but, the Sony mirrorless cameras are ideal for shooting with manual lenses primarily due to the focus peaking and focus assist.

[Ken MT]

Looks like some images that you see where a person has dropped the lens!

[rpcrowe]

Looks like some images that you see where a person has dropped the lens!

Yep But, this is not a dropped lens. The lens tilts by rotating the band closest to the camera mount...

I have read of some tilt adapters that allow a full-frame lens to tilt and cover the image of a crop sensor. I think that this might be the case with this one. I haven't tested it on my full frame A7ii just yet but, the image quality from the crop sensor (without tilting) is pretty darn good.

[odds]

...The thing that confuses me is that my lens has a slight tilt capability. It looks like an addition was installed to allow the tilt.

Slight or not, the tilt angle appears similar to a full tilt on my Nikon tilt-and-shift lenses (about 8-8.5 degrees).

--
Odd S.

[rpcrowe]

When posting my query on several websites... This is the answer that I received:

This is a Remake of the Laowa 60mm f/2.8 2:1 by VILTROX and has the same specification as Laowa and is as good as Laowa Lens but has extra which Laowa doesn't have it which is Focusing Tilt Shift.

But on the Laowa you can see that is like full frame only when using at Macro and when at other than macro/close-up distances then it is APS-C format. So they always listed as APSC Lens.

This is from B&H
"Prime short-telephoto lens is designed for APS-C-format Sony E-mount mirrorless cameras and provides a 90mm equivalent focal length. It is also suitable for use with full-frame cameras, however some vignetting will occur when focused at infinity; it is ideal for full-frame use for macro applications.

That is better news than I expected regarding its use on full frame cameras. I thought that I might have to use this lens in the crop format mode on my A7iii but, since I intend to use it only for close-up and macro work, I can consider it a full-frame lens. Apparently, the vignetting at infinity is caused to a great extent by the recessed lens within the strange looking barrel. Of course, it might vignette when using the tilt feature.

I have a doctor's appointment this morning and hope to be able to run this lens through its paces mid-morning or early afternoon. I plan to test it both on a full frame and a crop camera. The full frame camera should be handy since a a 2:1 image ratio, he area covered by a crop sensor would be pretty tiny.

[Cantab]

Richard, I'm curious about the results of the lens testing!

[rpcrowe]

Had some facial surgery yesterday for a bit of skin cancer - a residue, I guess, from my days in Sunny Vietnam. Anyhow, I have a big bandage on my cheek and there tends to be some antibiotic salve in that area which could smear over the camera. I am going to wait for a few days before resuming shooting...

[Cantab]

Richard, all the best for your recovery.

[rpcrowe]

Richard, all the best for your recovery.

Thank you, my friend! Damn problem is those blood thinners for my cardiac problems. Hard for my cheek to heal...