While many of DJI’s most popular and affordable drones have built-in camera modules, some of the company’s higher-end offerings have interchangeable camera systems and lens mounts. Zenmuse, Ronin, and Inspire series products, including gimbals and Inspire drones, accept DL lenses — a proprietary DJI mount system.
DJI makes DL lenses, of course, including a series of ultra-wide and wide-angle prime and zoom lenses. However, given DJI’s popularity and strong market position, third-party options are also available from companies such as Sirui, NiSi, and Venus Optics, among others.
Today, Venus Optics expanded its DL library with a pair of lenses, the Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL and the 14mm f/4 FF RL Zero-D. The “RL” in both lenses stands for rectilinear, while “Zero-D” reflects the promise of zero distortion.
Given that the lenses will be mounted to a drone or gimbal, they must be compact and lightweight. Both weigh between 228 and 254 grams (8.04 and 8.96 ounces). Both lenses are manual focus, by the way, so when used on a drone, they will be limited to specific types of shots where precise focus is not required, like for wide-angle shots of distant objects.
The Laowa 11mm f/4.5 FF RL and 14mm f/4 FF RL Zero-D join the Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D lens in Venus Optics’ DL mount lineup. These three options should work well for aerial or gimbal-based photo and video work.
The company also has an assortment of Laowa Nanomorph S35 1.5x anamorphic lenses available in DL mount, including 27mm T2.8, 35mm T2.4, 50mm T2.4, 65mm T2.4, and 80mm T2.4 primes. Costing $1,000 or more each, these are built more for handheld video work than flying through the skies. DJI is positioning its new wide-angle compact primes for aerial work, describing the lenses as made for “DJI pilots.”
As for the compact photo lenses, they are much more affordable. The new 11mm f/4.5 and 14mm f/4 primes for DL mount are $449 and $549, respectively. They are also affordable for various other mounts, including E, L, RF, Z, and even Leica M. The existing Laowa 9mm f/2.8 Zero-D lens is available in DL mount for $399.
Image credits: Venus Optics