Laowa 8-15 mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye Comes to GFX and XCD Mounts: But There’s a Catch

Laowa has expanded the mount lineup of its 8-15 mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye, and medium-format shooters are now in on the fun. The lens is now available in Fujifilm GFX and Hasselblad XCD mounts, bringing Laowa’s signature dual-style fisheye look to a much larger sensor size. But while that sounds exciting, there’s one key caveat medium format users will need to keep in mind.

Fisheye for Full Frame… And Beyond?

Originally designed for full-frame sensors, the Laowa 8-15 mm f/2.8 offers both circular and diagonal fisheye perspectives depending on your zoom setting. At 8 mm, it delivers a circular image with full 180° coverage. At 15 mm, it switches to a diagonal fisheye with strong edge distortion and dramatic curvature – pretty standard for a fisheye lens. With a constant f/2.8 aperture, it’s also not shy about low-light work.

Now, things are a bit different with the new GFX and XCD options. The lens’s image circle doesn’t fully cover the larger medium-format sensors, even when zoomed in to 15 mm. That means vignetting or heavy cropping is inevitable.

[Related Reading: Would a circular image sensor be the best thing ever? Heck yeah!]

It’s a Feature, Not a Bug

Now, you may frown at the 8-15 mm not covering the entire sensor. But Laowa makes it sound like it’s exactly what they wanted. “Photographers can embrace this dramatic aesthetic or crop the image to suit their desired composition,” the company writes. This “feature” lets you unlock “fresh opportunities for playful framing and creative exploration on medium-format platforms.

Instead of trying to eliminate the vignette, Laowa suggests embracing it. You can crop to more traditional aspect ratios like 4:3 or 16:9, or go full cinema with an XPan-style 65:24 panoramic crop. In practice, that makes this lens an interesting option for medium-format photographers who don’t mind (or even prefer) a little cropping.

Laowa 8-15 mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye Specs

Specification	Details
Product Name	LAOWA 8–15 mm F2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye
Format Compatibility	Full Frame
Focal Length	8–15 mm
Aperture Range	f/2.8–f/22
Angle of View	175°–180°
Optical Design	13 elements in 9 groups
Aperture Blades	9
Focus Mode	Manual Focus
Minimum Focus Distance	16 cm
Max. Magnification	0.23x
Dimensions (GFX)	101.2 mm × Ø76.4 mm
Dimensions (XCD)	96.36 mm × Ø76.4 mm
Weight	~650g
Mounts Available	E / Z / L / RF / GFX / XCD
Price	USD $699

Sample Photos

Pricing and Availability

The Laowa 8-15 mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye is available now in GFX and XCD mounts for $699. It’s not a lens everyone will love, that’s for sure. But if you’re a medium format shooter looking to spice things up and experiment (and crop), this could be your chosen piece of glass.

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