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The fun of shooting 11mm on a full frame camera

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I didn’t buy the Irix Blackstone 11mm f/4 because of its optical qualities even though they are more than satisfactory. Truth be told, I wanted to experience what it would be like to shoot ultra wide-angle (UWA) for the sheer fun of it.

There are plenty of reviews for this lens, so this article has a different aim. I will share some images and a few words on how it feels to use the lens. In addition, I will mention a few ideas on how to take advantage of the wide-angle distortion.

Even though this is a rectilinear lens there will be distortions. An UWA lens will stretch the edges, and it will diminish objects in the middle of the frame.

The Irix’ maximum angle of view is a whopping 126 degrees, so you have to be careful how you place both your and your tripod’s feet.

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First exclusive footage samples of Laowa’s upcoming 9mm Full-Frame rectilinear lens

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The Laowa Venus Optics 9mm Full-Frame Lens f5.6 Dreamer is just one of Venus Optics’ newest upcoming lenses. At 9mm you’re probably associating it with a fisheye. This lens, however, is rectilinear by design. We got our hands on an early pre-production model and took it for a spin. Turns out 9mm is incredibly wide

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Can you shoot effective portraits with a wide-angle lens? Well, yes, you can

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Ultra-wide-angle lenses are typically associated with portrait photography. In fact, most people will specifically avoid them for portraits, casting them out as “useless”. But this video, part of a series called The Focal Length Challenge by Becki and Chris, looks at how we can take advantage of an ultra-wide 16mm lens in order to shoot effective portraits.

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Here are the first images taken with the Laowa 9mm f/5.6 full frame lens

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A little while back, Laowa (A.K.A. Venus optics) announced a very exciting new 9mm f/5.6 full-frame lens. (Laowa already has a 9mm 2.8 lens for crop sensors, but this lens is for full-frame and lower aperture).

One of the exciting features of this lens is that it is a Rectilinear, low distortion lens and does not create any fish-eye distortion. It is not as distortion-free as Laowa’s Zero-D, but still has very (very!) low distortion for a 9mm lens.

We managed to get our hands on a few sample photos for the lens made with various cameras, click on each image for larger resolution.

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The best wide angle lenses for astrophotography 2020

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When it comes to Astrophotography, the lens can often times end up being more important than the camera. Good lenses allow you to get sharp images at wide apertures, with little chromatic aberration, astigmatisms, or coma.

In this article we are going to go over my picks for the top of the line of the best Lenses for modern Full frame DSLR cameras available today.

It should be noted that the title of this article could easily be swapped for “My Favorite Lenses for Astrophotography” since a lot of this will be based primarily off of my experience and preferences, and I would highly recommend getting more than one opinion.

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How I built my own DIY wide-angle macro lens

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The wide-angle paradox

As we know, wide angle lenses show a larger field of view and therefore make things appear smaller and appear further away than they are. Which contradicts the concept of macro photography, where we want our subject to be projected onto the sensor at a magnification ratio of at least 1.0x. So how can we combine a wide angle perspective and macro macro-capabilities?

The concept of wide-angle macro photography is not exactly new and there are other photographers out there, who built their own super-wide macro lenses. There even are a couple lenses on the market that provide 1.0x at a15mm focal length, but I much rather an interesting DIY project than spending 500$ on a niche lens.

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The history of the fisheye lens and why it’s used for album covers

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Fisheye lenses are useful for different purposes, from scientific to artistic. But there’s one field where their unique look has been consistently popular from the early ‘60s to this very day: album covers. In this interesting video, Vox brings you a brief history of fisheye lenses. It explores why they have been such a popular tool, both for album covers and music videos, for nearly 60 years.

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Venus Optics announces two new Laowa wide-angle lenses for Nikon Z and Canon RF

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Full frame mirrorless cameras from Nikon and Canon have just got two new third-party lenses. Venus Optics has announced the Laowa 15mm f/2 Zero-D and the Laowa 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6. Both lenses already exist in the company’s line, but now the users of Canon EOS R and Nikon Z cameras can add them to their arsenal, too.[Read More…]

This algorithm is a new way to fix distortion in your wide-angle selfies

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More and more modern phones come with an ultra-wide-angle camera. When it’s a front camera, it lets you capture more people into a group selfie. However, those heads near the edges of the frame will get distorted. A group of researchers has come up with a new method for dealing with this problem. They have created an algorithm that makes your group portraits distortion-free and flattering for everyone in the photo.

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How to master using wide-angle lenses and take your photography to a higher level

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It’s hard to imagine shooting landscapes, cityscapes or architecture without wide-angle lenses. Of course, photographers of many other genres use them as well. However, it’s easy to make mistakes with a wide-angle lens that will make your photos, well, less than impressive. In this video, Spencer Cox of Photography Life guides you through some tips for mastering wide-angle lenses and using them to make the best out of your shots.

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