Zeiss Otus 100mm f/1.4 lens to be announced before Photokina 2018

Otus 100mm

A rumor reported at Nokishita suggests Zeiss will soon release a Zeiss Otus 100mm f/1,4 lens. The announcement should happen before Photokina 2018.

The Zeiss Otus 100mm f/1.4 has an APO Sonnar design, and is said to have already undergone field testing. It will come four Canon and Nikon mounts (sorry Sony folks). Filter diameter is 86mm.

Zeiss Otus lenses are a lot of things but not inexpensive, so expect the Zeiss Otus 100mm f/1,4 to be in the same price range as its siblings.

Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 APO Distagon T* Review (D. Abbott)

Zeiss Otus 28mm F/1.4

Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4: B&H Photo, Adorama, Amazon USA, Amazon Canada, Canon Canada, Canon USA

At a glance:

  • EF Mount Lens/Full-Frame Format
  • Aperture Range: f/1.4 to f/16
  • Apochromatic, Distagon Optical Design
  • 8 Anomalous Partial Dispersion Elements
  • 2 Aspherical Elements
  • Floating Elements System
  • Zeiss T* Anti-Reflective Coating
  • Internal Focus; Manual Focus Design
  • All-Metal Barrel, Yellow Scale Markings

Photographer and reviewer Dustin Abbott posted his full review of the Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 APO Distagon T* lens. This is not your typical budged lens, the Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 sells for $4,990.

Dustin lists the pros of the Otus 28mm f/1.4:

  • Incredible amount of resolution wide open, and yet more when stopped down
  • Incredibly sharp at all focus distances, from minimum to infinity.
  • Absolute control of chromatic aberrations
  • Incredible flare resistance
  • Extremely accurate color rendition
  • Excellent light falloff control
  • Built to the most exacting standards
  • Perfectly damped manual focus ring

You can go for the written review, or have a look at the videos below. Enjoy.

Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 sample photos, taken with Canon EOS 5Ds R

Zeiss Otus 28mm

Photography Blog posted a set of 34 JPG and 34 raw photos taken with a final production version of Zeiss’ new Otus 28mm f/1.4 lens mounted on a Canon EOS 5Ds R.

You can get notified when the Otus 28mm f/1.4 is shipping. The new Otus will be available worldwide starting in the second quarter of 2016. The lens shade is included with delivery. The retail sales price is unknown to date, but cheap it will not be. Full technical specifications can be downloaded here.

Zeiss Otus 28mm

ZEISS Otus 28mm f/1.4 lens announced

Zeiss Otus 28mm

As anticipated here on Canon Watch, today Zeiss announced the Zeiss Otus 28mm f/1.4 lens. The new Otus will be available worldwide starting in the second quarter of 2016. The lens shade is included with delivery. The retail sales price is unknown to date, but cheap it will not be. Full technical specifications can be downloaded here.

Where details count in wide-angle photography, the Otus 1.4/28 for DSLR cameras with F- and EF-mount is the lens of choice.

The Otus 1.4/28 shows off its strengths particularly in landscape and nature photography. Even with a maximum aperture, the corners of the image are completely usable, so there are no limits to composition. In poor light combined with fast-moving objects, the lens also doesn’t break a sweat – thanks to its high speed of f/1.4. While other lenses reveal their shortcomings in correction in night photography, especially when lots of open light sources dominate an image, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 boasts a stellar performance. Finally, the latest member of the ZEISS Otus family is excellent for taking pictures of image elements in the foreground, as they take on a greater feeling of depth to the scene due to the wide background and the open aperture; here, the lens’s harmonious bokeh ensures a 3D effect.

For professional photographers

Inner focusing, a dial window and yellow labeling of the dials for easy legibility designate the Otus 1.4/28 as a lens, developed to meet the high demands of professional photographers. The mechanical quality also impresses: the soft focus operation with the large rotation angle allows for the finest variations when focusing – something that is only possible with a metal construction. In every focusing situation, the user is given freedom to compose – one of the most important creative factors in photography. An artistic tool is literally put in the photographer’s hands. With its robust all-metal barrel and easy-to-grip focus ring, the Otus 1.4/28 is also well suited for a photographer’s demanding everyday work.

With high image contrast all the way into the edges of the image – already at an open aperture of f/1.4 – the Otus 1.4/28 demonstrates its optical brilliance. At all distances it offers consistent performance (minimum working distance of 0.15 m), highly detailed images without any bothersome artifacts, and a neutral bokeh in the background.

Intricate construction for uncompromising imaging performance

A view inside the lens reveals how such optical excellence is achieved: The lens consists of 16 elements in 13 groups. One of the lens elements has an aspheric optical surface and one element is aspheric on both sides. Eight other lens elements are made of special glass. The basis of the optical design is a Distagon. The special glass has anomalous partial dispersion, as is typical for an apochromatic lens. This corrects the longitudinal chromatic aberrations superbly, which therefore lie considerably below the tightly defined boundaries. Bright-dark transitions in the image, in particular highlights, are depicted almost completely free of color artifacts. The floating elements design (the change of distances between certain lens elements when focusing) allows for unrivalled imaging performance along the entire focusing range, from 0.3 m to infinity.

Zeiss Otus 28mm

otus55

Dustin Abbott, Zeiss Otus 1.4/55mm APO Distagon T* Review

I directly compared the Otus to the flagship 50mm lens from Canon, the EF 50mm f/1.2L. I praised that lens in many ways, and I do think it has more to offer than some have given it credit for. […] But at the same know that in every measurable head to head comparison (other than autofocus!) it was no contest. The Otus simply destroys it. The Sigma 50mm f/1.4 ART series lens is somewhat better competition in terms of sharpness, and (to a lesser extent) contrast, but in overall image quality it falls short of Otus. The Sigma ART is a very nice lens, but, ironically, it isn’t nearly as “artful” as the Otus 55. The Otus has not only the biting sharpness and overall contrast but also adds a truly beautiful out of focus rendering that just seems to produce more “creaminess” than any of the lenses I stacked it up against.