Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZE

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Love that shot! And looks to be really nice bokeh at f2.0 also. Love everything about it! The colors are stunning. Do you make your own color profiles or which one do you use, if you use Lr.

Thanks. I´ll forward your compliments to His Highness

I am too unsystematic to have color profiles. On this one I had to push highlights and shadows quite a bit, due to the harsh light. The only other change I made in LR was a -10 luminance on orange and blue, plus a +10 saturation and sharpness set to 50. I´m in my cabin, with only a laptop to work on, so the quality may suffer from that.

I need to spend more time with the lens to pass a full judgement, but what I have seen so far is very good though. It is a bit more difficult to be blown away by this lens than the 55 Otus. Firstly I have seen what the first Otus could do, so that establish the bar and then I already had the 85 1.2L II, which I still wonder why I sold. But we´ll see.

I was hoping to be able to shoot some more challenging subjects and lighting conditions this weekend, but apparently we will have rain, so that will have to wait.

 

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Grey and boring day in the mountains today. But as we Norwegian say; "There´s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing" ...

I know that my threshold for when I feel something is heavy is higher than most. But to me, a 1DX with this lens on is no issue. I had it on my shoulder for a 4 hour hike today. But I do that also with the 600mm f4L IS II mounted on, so I suppose I am not representative there.

The lens is a joy to work with. But I like it better mounted on the 1DX than the 5DIII. Balance is better and I find manual focusing easier. But as I said further up this thread, it might have to do with the focusing screen.

I am not trying to win awards with these images, I just want to give you an impression of what you can expect. I also suspect that most of you are interested in what it can do wide open, so that is what I´m posting.

1DX, f1.4, ISO400

 

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Bokeh is second to none in my view.

 

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

I´m not the only one. This is my wife during Sony RX100 III field trials

 

[msm]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Grey and boring day in the mountains today. But as we Norwegian say; "There´s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing" ...

I know that my threshold for when I feel something is heavy is higher than most. But to me, a 1DX with this lens on is no issue. I had it on my shoulder for a 4 hour hike today. But I do that also with the 600mm f4L IS II mounted on, so I suppose I am not representative there.

The lens is a joy to work with. But I like it better mounted on the 1DX than the 5DIII. Balance is better and I find manual focusing easier. But as I said further up this thread, it might have to do with the focusing screen.

I am not trying to win awards with these images, I just want to give you an impression of what you can expect. I also suspect that most of you are interested in what it can do wide open, so that is what I´m posting.

1DX, f1.4, ISO400

I think the photo of the creek is a very beautiful image and the oof areas are very pleasing. I am a notorious pixel peeper however and I see some artifacts on the tree trunk to the left however, maybe because of a bad mask for an adjustment brush or something.

 

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Grey and boring day in the mountains today. But as we Norwegian say; "There´s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing" ...

I know that my threshold for when I feel something is heavy is higher than most. But to me, a 1DX with this lens on is no issue. I had it on my shoulder for a 4 hour hike today. But I do that also with the 600mm f4L IS II mounted on, so I suppose I am not representative there.

The lens is a joy to work with. But I like it better mounted on the 1DX than the 5DIII. Balance is better and I find manual focusing easier. But as I said further up this thread, it might have to do with the focusing screen.

I am not trying to win awards with these images, I just want to give you an impression of what you can expect. I also suspect that most of you are interested in what it can do wide open, so that is what I´m posting.

1DX, f1.4, ISO400

I think the photo of the creek is a very beautiful image and the oof areas are very pleasing. I am a notorious pixel peeper however and I see some artifacts on the tree trunk to the left however, maybe because of a bad mask for an adjustment brush or something.

He he, I was wondering if anyone bothered to have more thorough look. Yes, its a bad mask from an adjustment brush Well spotted anyway!

Here´s the unaltered version

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Those are some lovely images, Eldar. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Those are some lovely images, Eldar. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Dustin,
I actually got it on my birthday, so that was a nice gesture by my dealer. I only had time for a short walk through a park after work, prior to a birthday dinner at a restaurant. I hope to be able to post some more to the point images for this lens in the near future. I don´t believe it will be my go to lens for a walk in the mountains, say a year from now

I also want to compare it more closely to the Zeiss 135/2.0. As you concluded yourself in yur review, that is a phenomenal lens and I wonder if the Otus, apart from a shorter focal length, can do anything the 135 can´t do.

 

[msm]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Here is my first attempt at a portrait with this lens.

 

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Here is my first attempt at a portrait with this lens.

Excellent! I´m looking forward to your next posts!

 

[Eldar]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

I tried to find some challenging light conditions, to see how it handle high contrast etc. but unfortunately the weather turned very gray. This image is not ideal, but it does have some high contrast areas and may give some indications to the pixel peepers how it works.

The image is slightly underexposed, so, from standard LR settings, I have lifted yellow and orange luminance +25, shadows +10 and saturation +10.

1DX, 1/200s, f1.6, ISO100

 

[Maximilian]

Re: Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2

Eldar, thanks a lot for all these pictures and you initial impressions.
Some really nice pictures there. My compliments to the artist.

And the lens bokeh looks fantastic.

 

[Eldar]

Not many posts here, so I´ll add one to keep it alive. For this I added some fill light with two of my newly acquired soft boxes, with 600ex-rt flashes.

1DX, 1/250s, f2.0, ISO640

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

Not many posts here, so I´ll add one to keep it alive. For this I added some fill light with two of my newly acquired soft boxes, with 600ex-rt flashes.

1DX, 1/250s, f2.0, ISO640

Classy portrait. Very warm and inviting with a lot of character. I'm reviewing the few year old 50mm Planar T 50mm f/1.4 right now, comparing it to the Sigma ART 50mm and hopefully the Otus in a big shoot-out later this week. The Planar T doesn't have the killer sharp optics of the Sigma and Otus, but it does have a lot of character that reminds me of my vintage glass.

 

[Eldar]

Not many posts here, so I´ll add one to keep it alive. For this I added some fill light with two of my newly acquired soft boxes, with 600ex-rt flashes.

1DX, 1/250s, f2.0, ISO640

Classy portrait. Very warm and inviting with a lot of character. I'm reviewing the few year old 50mm Planar T 50mm f/1.4 right now, comparing it to the Sigma ART 50mm and hopefully the Otus in a big shoot-out later this week. The Planar T doesn't have the killer sharp optics of the Sigma and Otus, but it does have a lot of character that reminds me of my vintage glass.

Thanks Dustin,
There is something special with this Zeiss glass. The combination of color, contrast, sharpness, bokeh and all the rest of it is just special. I now have 6 Zeiss primes them and I am totally lost. They are becoming my most used lenses. If you´re willing to accept the hassle of manual focus, I don´t know of anything better to put on a Canon DSLR.

Looking forward to your shoot out!

Here´s another of my mentor. I posted this on an other thread, but I suppose it belong here. The image was meant to show the intellect, sharp look and presence of this man I truly admire. And the image have a pixel peeping quality also.

1DX, 1/250s, f4.0, ISO100

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

Just because everyone needs to have a cat shot with a lens that costs $4500 ;D

My review copy arrived from Zeiss today. I've only had a chance to shoot a few, but that focus ring is to die for. So amazingly smooth and accurate. Microcontrast on the lens is amazing. It really renders the fine details like nothing I've seen...when it's focused! I've softened the tone curve and desaturated a bit for the "look" here.

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

Here's a couple of other random images from the first bit of fooling around with it

 

[gsealy]

This lens is off the charts great. Great photos. I have been giving it great consideration but that $4500 price tag is not easy to get past. Meanwhile I'll enjoy these wonderful shots. Thanks.

 

[Eldar]

Looking forward to your review Justin. It´s a wonderful lens.

 

[TWI by Dustin Abbott]

Amazed at the ability to shoot landscape images at f/1.4. These conditions would have produced soft images with lots of CA from most lenses. This image has only had a RAW conversion. I came home with a large number of such images that really blew my mind. I was shooting in a snowstorm at f/1.4, and yet everything in the focal range is beautifully resolved. No CA to be seen...