The Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 is one big honkin’ lens. Zeiss’s magnum Otus incorporates an Apochromat lens design to eliminate chromatic aberrations. The lens is also claimed to offer the “medium format look” thanks to its wide aperture. The optics feature 11 elements, six of which are made from anomalous dispersion glass, one asphere to reduce distortion, and a floating optical system to reduce spherical aberration.
Beyond the fringing: Zeiss has managed to completely eliminate red/purple or blue fringing, which is a digital artifact resulting from chromatic aberrations. Even in the detail photo, below, near the upper right corner, contrasty edges are fringe-free.
The Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 lens comes in two mounts—Nikon or Canon. Zeiss claims edge-to-edge flat-field sharpness at all apertures, no lateral or chromatic distortion, and flare-free performance. And we have to mention this: At $4,490, this lens is a substantial investment. Is it the best 85mm lens on the market? Let’s find out.
Key Specs:
- Focal length: 85mm
- Actual length: 140mm (5.43 inches; not including lenshood)
- Aperture range: f/1.4-f/16 in half stops
- Focus: Manual
- Closest focus distance: 31.5 inches
- Optics: 11 elements in 9 groups
- Filter mount: 86mm
- Weight: 2.6 pounds
In the hands
At a hefty 52.3 ounces and measuring 5.4 inches (it has an internally focusing lens) Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 is as substantial as its price. The included solid metal lenshood reduces flare but also adds to its impressive dimensions. It is the largest 85mm f/1.4 lens currently available.
Manual focus: It’s tricky at f/1.4, but with a big payoff, thanks to this lens’s unusually sharp focus even at the widest aperture. Note how quickly focus falls off in this casual, handheld portrait in low ambient light at ISO 400.
The lens is manual focus. The focusing ring—the lens’s only moving part, is approximately one inch wide, and has a solid rubber exterior that offers an exceptionally confident grip. Focus from infinity to the minimum 2.75 feet requires a 120-degree rotation. The advantage of this is that you can fine-focus with greater precision. This is a welcome feature when shooting at the larger apertures and working with very narrow depth of field.
Despite its manual focus, the lens communicates focusing distance settings with the camera, and my Canon 5D Mark III displayed focus targets and beeped to confirm focus when I focused with the shutter release pressed halfway. Alternatively, when shooting on a tripod, I switched to Live View and used the magnified view setting to enlarge a small section of the image so I could fine-tune focus. This was especially useful when photographing a model up close at f/1.4.
Feet and meter distances are engraved on the focusing ring in large, bright yellow letters that appear in a generously sized window. And—bless their hearts—there’s a depth-of-field scale engraved on the lens barrel!
Shot at full aperture, this photo of Wayne, a local contractor, has a medium format film camera look.
In the field
I tested the lens for several key issues that, to a greater or lesser agree, can be found on most interchangeable lenses.
Flare: There was none to speak of. There was no ghosting or flare, even when shooting right into the sun. The resulting images were clear and contrasty with excellent clarity.
Fringing: None. I shot tree branches against a bright sky and studied the results, expecting to see the telltale red/purple fringes, but they simply weren’t there either in the center or outer corners of the frame. This is great news if you expect to make big blow-up prints.
Bokeh: Pleasing and natural. When shooting scenics and close shots, the background faded into a creamy out of focus quality with no “vibrating” double-line distortion commonly found on lesser lenses.
Focus fall-off is pleasing and creamy at f/1.4, above, but thanks to the rounded aperture ring blades, remains natural at smaller apertures such as f/8, below.
Specular Highlights: When shooting stopped down, lesser lenses will render out-of-focus points of light in the shape of the aperture rings. That’s why you may see background light take on a octagonal shape—a giveaway that you lens has an eight-blade aperture. With the Zeiss 85mm Otus, its rounded rings maintain the natural shape of out-of-focus specular highlights. It’s the kind of natural and pleasing Bokeh one should expect from a premium lens.
Linear Distortion: None at any aperture. This is not unusual for a short telephoto prime lens.
Vignetting: Minimal at full aperture, gone by f/2. An outstanding performance.
Sharpness: Zeiss claims edge-to-edge sharp focus at all apertures, and my boring test target results as well as independent tests from DxOMark confirm outstanding sharpness at all apertures.
Portrait Photography
85mm is an ideal focal length for portrait photography because it eliminates barrel distortion but isn’t so long that it compresses and flattens faces. The Zeiss Otus’s wide aperture combined with the lens’s refined optics make it very well suited for the job. Its outstanding sharpness also makes the lens a good choice for fashion photography since it does a great job of bringing out the fine detail in fabrics and patterns.
Sharp focus and pleasing focus falloff at f/1.4: As with other similar 85mm f/1.4 lenses, something magical happens at the maximum aperture, with the very narrow depth of field and rapid focus fall-off. The difference here? while competing lenses go a bit soft at f/1.4, the Zeiss Otus mantains extremely sharp focus even at its widest aperture. At 31.5 inches, this is the closest you can focus with this lens.
The Otus 85mm f/1.4 offers several under-the-hood improvements over the older, but still outstanding, Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 Planar T* (non-Otus), which is still available for Canonand Nikon DSLRs for $1,283. The most important is that the new version is just as sharp edge to edge at its widest aperture as it is stopped down. Zeiss has also refined lens coating and design to virtually eliminate all kinds of optical and linear distortion.
Here’s my favorite model, Leanne, posing in front of a chaldelier, a great way to test how this lens handles specular highlights.
Specular highlights at f/1.4: Nice, rounded highlights, smooth focus fall-off, very narrow depth of field.
Specular highlights at f/5.6: Maintains natural rounded shape. Great contrast and super-sharp!
Specular highlights at f/11: Pleasing focus fall-off. And at all apertures, the in-focus areas of the image were sharp from edge to edge at all apertures (see detail, below).
Conclusion and Recommendation
The Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 is, without a doubt, one of the best lenses for image quality that I’ve used. The images it produces remind me of the kind of photos I’ve gotten when shooting medium format, and the lack of fringing and other optical anomalies typically found on DSLR lenses sets it apart from many of its competitors. But it is not for everyone. It is heavy, expensive, and doesn’t have autofocus.
But if you are an elite, professional studio and fashion photographer who will spare no expense or effort to give yourself a competitive edge—and you’ve already invested in the most advanced high-resolution full-frame DSLR sensor technology—this lens will deliver the best images money can buy.
The Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 APO Planaris available from Adorama in Canonand Nikonfull-frame DSLR mounts.
