Venus Optics Created First Telephoto Ultra-Macro Lens

2025.09.17

The very first telephoto ultra-macro lens was just announced earlier today by Venus Optics. The company has been specializing in unique macro lenses with extreme magnification capabilities for years, with great success. With the brand new prime lens announced today, they are offering a much longer focal-length than before while still providing high-magnification.

The new Laowa 180mm F/4.5 1.5X Ultra-Macro boasts a 180mm focal-length and a slightly dim F/4.5 maximum aperture. With a minimum focus-distance of just 30cm, it achieves a 1.5X magnification, this leaves about 15cm of working distance that makes working with this lens more comfortable than previous ultra-macro models. Using the F/4.5 maximum aperture, Venus Optics managed to make the new Laowa 180mm F/4.5 1.5X Ultra Macro a lot lighter than a typical 180mm lens. At under 522g, depending on the particular variant, it is among the lightest telephoto lenses with Full-Frame coverage.

There are many new features that Venus Optics implemented in this lens. One is that they made the body of this model weatherproof. This is aided by an entirely internal focusing system. It is important to know that there are two variants of the lens. For Canon RF and Leica L mounts, the lens is completely manual, which is common in the Laowa lineup. Generally macro lenses are used with Manual Focus due to an extremely shallow depth-of-field, so the lack of autofocus is not a significant restriction. For both those mounts, the minimum aperture if F/32.

The more sophisticated variant is an autofocus version for Sony E, Nikon Z and Canon EF mount. Using a mount adapter, it is possible to use the Canon EF version on a Canon RF camera and retain full electronic control. All models with autofocus have a minimum aperture of F/22. In either case, the aperture is made of 9 blades to get smooth backgrounds.

Autofocus versions of the Laowa 180mm F/4.5 1.5X Ultra Macro lens are able to switch between autofocus and manual focus modes via the focus-ring. By twisting it past infinity, the lens clicks into AF mode. These versions have electrical contacts to communicate EXIF data plus a USB-C port for firmware updates. All variants of this lens can be preordered for $500 USD from B&H Photo. Follow the links above for direct links to buying options.

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