Laowa unveils compact fisheye zoom with two distinct looks
A $399 Laowa fisheye zoom can jump from a circular frame to a diagonal fisheye look, giving crop-sensor shooters two specialty styles in one lens.
Venus Optics turned a niche idea into a compact tool with real range on May 21, 2026. The new Laowa 4.5-10mm f/2.8 CF Zoom Fisheye is a $399 manual-focus lens for APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras that can deliver two very different looks in one body: a circular fisheye at 4.5mm and a diagonal fisheye at 10mm, all while holding a constant f/2.8 aperture.
That split personality is the point. At the short end, the lens throws a 180-degree field of view and drops the image into a black frame, the kind of effect that works for skate clips, abstract street work and highly stylized travel frames. Zoom to 10mm and the lens fills the frame with a more conventional fisheye look, still heavily distorted but easier to use for interiors, architecture and action coverage where a full circular image may be too extreme.
Venus Optics says the lens is parfocal, so focus stays consistent as you zoom. That matters far beyond novelty, especially for video shooters moving between framing sizes on the fly for social clips, event coverage or run-and-gun footage. The lens also focuses as close as 10cm, giving photographers room to push foregrounds hard and exaggerate depth in tight spaces.
The spec sheet is small enough to match the pitch. The optical design uses 13 elements in 9 groups, the lens has 7 aperture blades, a 2.2x zoom ratio and a 29mm image circle. It measures 68.9mm in diameter by 59.3mm in length and weighs 338g, which helps explain why early reaction has focused as much on its size as on its effect. Venus Optics is offering it in Canon RF, Canon EF-M, Fujifilm X, Micro Four Thirds, Nikon Z, Sony E and L-Mount versions.
Laowa is also extending a concept it has already tested in full frame. The company’s Laowa 8-15mm f/2.8 FF Zoom Fisheye sells for $699, but this crop-sensor version brings that specialty zoom idea down to a far lower price and a smaller package. For photographers who want one lens that can swing from a circular novelty frame to a practical fisheye workhorse, that is the real hook.
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