Both B&H And Adorama have the Zeiss 135mm f/2.0 Apo-Sonnar ZE for Canon mount available for pre-order, price is $2,122 (click on shop name): B&H | Adorama.

Expected to ship February 2013. From Adorama’s product description:

• Because this lens is an apochromat, chromatic aberrations (axial chromatic aberrations) are corrected with elements of special glass with anomalous partial dispersion. The chromatic aberrations are therefore significantly below the defined limits
• Great low-light shots start with a great lens for your DSLR camera. A high-speed lens captures as much light as possible. A lens with a wide maximum aperture offers the best results in difficult lighting conditions
• The lens design ensures consistent imaging performance throughout the entire focusing range as well as sharpness to the periphery of the image. The asphere’s more complex surface profile can reduce or eliminate spherical aberration and also reduce other optical aberrations compared to a simple lens
• Rich, vibrant colors are vital to creating a lasting impression. Stray light in the lens, however, would lead to a brightening of the image, which is particularly visible in shadow areas. Image contrast is lowered; the image appears dull and bleached
• Photographers want to guide the observer through the image. Minimal depth of focus is often used as a design element. This keeps the background intentionally blurred to keep the attention of the observer on the main subject
• The nine diaphragm blades and the resulting, virtually circular aperture on Carl Zeiss SLR lenses are crucial to favorable rendition of highlights in the fore and background

[via The Digital Picture]

The Pholographer reviewed Zeiss Distagon T* f/2.8 21mm ZE, a lens with outstanding optical properties, anda great lens for street photographers. The price tag? Well it’s a hefty $1843, but then: it’s a Zeiss glass, you pay and get a glass that’s among the best. An EOS 5D Mark II[/shoplink. Was used for testing. They describe the lens as «luxurious, sharp, and clinical». There are many sample images to check. From the conclusion:

Zeiss’s 21mm f2.8 is quite an excellent lens, but with that said we’re not sure who exactly this lens would be for. Though Street Photographers would love this lens, many of them these days opt for rangefinders or mirrorless cameras due to the small size and awesome optics designed for them. Documentary photographers that like to go slow and take their time with the process may want to spring for this lens. Additionally, landscape photographers may also want to try this lens.

Despite the high price tag, the lens earned excellent marks for sharpness, image quality, color rendition, contrast, and build quality. There really is nothing to fault with this lens except the high price tag.But even then, it really is an awesome optic.

[via The Phoblographer]

Zeiss Distagon T* 21mm f/2.8 ZE hands-on at The Phoblographer. This lens is a superlative wide-angle prime with outstanding optical properties. As The Phoblographer states: «for when Canon’s L series isn’t good enough», and «the lens is made extremely well with fit and finish being absolutely fantastic. The build seriously puts Canon’s L series to shame».

Please have a look to the review if this lens is in your thoughts. Sample images are provided. From the conclusion:

There is an extremely luxurious feel to this lens and the quality of the shots is fantastic. You can use it for a lot of things: architecture, landscapes, creative portraits and wherever you’d like a nice, large field of view. Just make sure you’re using this on a full frame camera, or else you end up with a more pedestrian 28mm or 35mm focal length (depending on your crop factor). Zeiss lenses will cost you but we are talking the difference between driving a Toyota or a BMW here

Tech specs (see also Zeiss’ site):

• Focal length 21 mm
• Aperture range f/2.8 – f/22
• Focusing range 0.22 m – ∞
• Number of elements/groups 16/13
• Angular field, diag./horiz./vert. 90°/81°/59°
• Coverage at close range 18 x 12 cm
• Filter thread M 82 x 0.75
• Dimensions (with caps) ø 87 mm, length 110-112 mm
• Weight 600g – 720g

The Zeiss Distagon T* 21mm f/2.8 ZE costs $1843 and can be ordered at the following shops: Amazon | B&H | Adorama

Video above: Michael Schiehlen, Sales Director at Carl Zeiss, introduces the new tele lens Apo Sonnar T* 2/135.

The Phoblographer had the opportunity to briefly test the new Zeiss Apo Sonnar 135mm f/2 ZE lens (Canon mount) on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II. As expected first impressions of this high end lens are totally positive. Sample shots are provided. Quoting The Phoblographer:

As a slightly long portrait lens or for non-macro closeups the Zeiss 135mm f/2.0 is an upper class contender. It is super sharp with the typical micro-contrast that Zeiss optics give, and it also provides a clinically clean and beautiful look that is valued by many photographers willing to pay top dollar for what they put in front of their camera sensor. In fact, when a Zeiss lens is put on a Canon body, it only seems like the white balancing right out of the camera just becomes better vs actual Canon glass. We’re looking forward to putting this one through its pace

More on Carl Zeiss' homepage

Image credit: The Phoblographer

The new Distagon T* 1,4/55.

Zeiss announced it will develop a new lenses family aimed at high resolution full frame DSLRs.

Carl Zeiss is heralding a particularly powerful new full-frame SLR lens at photokina 2012.  Dr. Michael Pollmann, Consumer Lenses Product and Program Manager in the Carl Zeiss Camera Lenses Division, is addressing strengths and technical details of the new high-end SLR lens family in a Q&A.

The lenses are expected for Autumn 2013 (sigh) and will cost around $3000 since “the lenses are more demanding in terms of material selection and construction than our previous ZE and ZF.2 lenses“. The lenses will be available also for the EF bayonet (ZE).

What does “uncompromising image quality” mean?

The new lenses will achieve extremely high image quality throughout the entire picture including edges even at maximum aperture. At the same time, chromatic aberration is extremely low.

Read the rest of this entry →

First Photokina news rolling in. Zeiss (Click here) announced a new Distagon 55mm f/1.4 lens for full-frame cameras.

[...] a high-performance, full-format SLR camera lens with manual focus. With a focal length of 55 mm and aperture of f/1.4, this lens is the first model of a new product family designed for demanding users. Thanks to a newly developed optical design, this lens is superior to conventional full-frame lenses, and it achieves with powerful full-frame, full-format cameras an image performance that until now has only been seen with medium-format systems. The first prototype of this new range will celebrate its world debut at photokina. The family of lenses is expected to be on the market in the second half of 2013 for EF bayonet (ZE) [...]

But the hot news is another. Zeiss announced its plans for the production of auto-focus lenses for mirrorless systems. And that is great!

Another highlight will be the presentation of a design study, with which Carl Zeiss will offer a sneak preview of a new family of autofocus lenses for mirrorless system cameras (CSC) that will most likely be available in mid-2013. Due to their performance and high speed, these new lenses will be ideal for deliberate photo composition, making them perfect for more sophisticated photographers as well. Carl Zeiss plans to initially offer fixed focal lengths in the wide angle and standard range as well as a macro.

There is no info about which systems will be supported. So let your speculations go wild. It would be great if Zeiss would make lenses for Canon’s EOS M system. Moreover, more high quality Zeiss lenses for Canon mounts are totally welcome. Click here to see Zeiss lenses for Canon on Amazon, and click here to see what’s on offer on eBay US, and here for eBay Germany, and here for eBay UK, eBay IT, eBay Canada, eBay France.