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Venus Optics’ New Fisheye Zoom Is Here

Venus Optics’ new Laowa 4.5-10mm f/2.8 CF fisheye zoom is here. It is an ultra-wide manual-focus lens designed for APS-C and Micro Four Thirds cameras and it has a 180-degree field of view at the 4.5mm end, which produces a full circular fisheye image. Zooming toward 10mm changes the lens into a more traditional diagonal fisheye that fills the frame instead.

Inside, the lens uses a 13-element, 9-group optical design with a constant f/2.8 aperture throughout the zoom range. It also works as a parfocal lens, meaning focus stays locked while zooming, which is particularly useful for video. The lens has a very close 10cm minimum focusing distance, allowing for some exaggerated foreground perspectives and close-up fisheye shots. Venus Optics also says the lens can be “de-fished” in post-processing, turning the curved fisheye rendering into an even wider-looking rectilinear-style photo than a standard 10mm ultra-wide lens would normally produce.

The lens measures around 68.9 × 59.3mm and weighs roughly 330 grams, it uses a fully manual focus design, has a 7-blade aperture diaphragm, supports a maximum magnification of 0.27x, and offers an aperture range from f/2.8 to f/22. The Laowa 4.5-10mm f/2.8 CF comes in at $399 and is available for Sony E, Fujifilm X, Nikon Z, Canon RF, Canon EF-M, L-Mount, and Micro Four Thirds mount systems.

XPPen’s First Creative Editing Console

XPPen has announced the XPPen Pilot Pro, making this the company’s first dedicated editing console for photographers and other creative users. XPPen is actually mostly known for its drawing tablets and pen displays, but the Pilot Pro is meant for a different part of the editing workflow. The device is designed around one-handed operation and uses physical controls that can be mapped to different editing software.

The Pilot Pro has 16 customisable buttons, three control dials, and an all-way joystick, along with a built-in linear motor for haptic feedback. XPPen says the console is designed for “eyes-free” use, meaning you should be able to operate it mostly by feel once controls are mapped out. The device supports app-specific profiles and can automatically switch layouts depending on which software is currently open. Out of the box, the Pilot Pro supports programs including Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut, and Final Cut Pro.

The console connects through either USB-C or Bluetooth 5.4, and XPPen says the built-in battery is rated for up to 15 hours of use on a charge. Weight comes in at around 251 grams and it is available in white only. The controls themselves can be assigned to anything from timeline navigation and clip trimming to image rotation, exposure adjustments, photo rating, tool switching, brush size adjustments, scrolling through edits, etc. The XPPen Pilot Pro is priced at $210.

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Photographer Spotlight

Discover amazing photographers

This time in the Spotlight: Kyogo Sekimoto

You can find him on Instagram as: @kyon.3.8

A few photos of his:

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Missed The Sunday Issue?

In case you missed yesterday’s Sunday Issue (Snapshot Issue 117) including the amazing interview with photographer Snap By Zuza and many more incredible articles, you can read it here.

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