Zeis Otus 85mm f/1.4 for Canon, Nikon DSLRs
The Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4, which can be ordered today from Adorama in Nikon or Canon mounts, joins the Otus 55mm f/1.4 standard SLR lens, which was introduced earlier this year.
Designed as a portrait lens with excellent image quality even when at full aperture, the short telephoto lens is designed especially for studio work, fashion, advertising, product, and architectural photography. Zeiss claims outstanding edge-to-edge sharpness at all apertures, making it a good choice for full-frame DSLRs, yielding unusually high contrast and depth of field and outstanding bokeh.
In low light, Zeiss says the lens shows “no trace of correction deficits” that often appear in low-light shooting. The lens has internal focusing, and is designed with a dial window and clearly imprinted distance and aperture measurements for quick calculation of depth of field. Manual focus is completed in a 261-degree turn. The lens barrel is all metal, with a wide, solid rubber grip around the focus ring for easy grasping and turning. The lens accepts 86mm filters.
As one would expect from a premium pro lens, the Otus 85mm f/1.4’s optics, which are based on a Planar design, yield natural bokeh, highly detailed image, no optical artifacts, and high resolving power across the entire image field with no color fringing or distortion, plus high image contrast edge to edge.
The lens is constructed of 11 lens elements in nine groups. This includes one with an aspheric optical surface and six made of special glass. As a result, Zeiss claims there’s virtually no perceptible color finging on contrasty edges both in front of and behind the focal plane. Bright-dark transitions, especially highlights, are said to be free of color artifacts. Zeiss says the variable air spaces between certain lens groups (“floating elements design”) create a consistently high imaging performance across the entire focusing range from 0.8 m to infinity.
The Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 lens comes with a lens hood, user manual, test certificate (each one is tested by hand) and lens caps. It will be available from Adorama in mid-September in Nikon (ZF.2) or Canon EF-mount ZI8514ZE (ZE) for approximately $4,490.
Loxia 35mm, 50mm manual focus lenses for Sony MILCs
In a continuation of the company’s close partnership with Sony, Zeiss has announced the new Loxia line, which combines high quality with the ease-of-use of Sony E-mount full-frame cameras. The Zeiss Loxia 35mm f/2 and Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 are a pair of high-quality prime lenses designed for use with the Sony a7 line of 35mm-sensor Mirrorless Interchangeable-lens cameras.
The two lenses are the first members of a new line of manual-focus lenses designed specifically for digital cameras and are optimized for digital sensors and electronic viewfinders, as well as with the needs of videography in mind thanks to a mechanical de-activation of click stops, via a special key (see photo, below).
Ambitious videographers will have at their disposal the possibility of progressive aperture settings (de-click). This will put a tool with enormous creative potential into their hands thanks to the mechanical deactivation of aperture click stops. The lenses’ precise manual focusing also makes the Loxia suitable for professional video productions. The Loxia lenses are optimized for digital full-frame sensors, and factor the approx. 2.5 mm thick low-pass and infrared filters in, situated in front of the sensor of the corresponding Sony cameras.
The Loxia 35mm f/2 lens is a Biogon design, with 9 elements in 6 groups, with a close focus of approximately 12 inches. It is constructed of special glass with anomalous partial dispersion and rounded aperture rings for good bokeh.
The Loxia 50mm f/2 is based on the Planar lens design, with 6 elements in 4 groups, a classic normal lens. Designed for travel, photojournalism, street photography, and portraiture, it has a 0.37-meter minimum focus, for close work. The lens is constructed of ten circular aperture blades for pleasing bokeh. The lens is unobtrusive and will not attract attention to itself when shooting candidly.
Zeiss says image quality is excellent across the entire imaging field, especially at f/2, with smooth focus, a large focus rotation of 180 degrees, and a 52mm filter ring. The lens barrel is all metal and is weather-sealed.
The Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 will cost $949 and should be available from Adorama by October, while the Zeiss Loxia 35mm f/2 will cost $1,299 and is expected by the end of 2014.
