Phil Holland, a friend and Zeiss Embassador, recently published an article on Zeiss’ cleverly titled blog – LENSPIRE. The post explores the conditions in which Phil finds himself needing the absolute best image quality possible, and how the Zeiss Otus primes allow him to achieve his vision. With an ever growing line up, 28mm f/1.4, 55mm f/1.4, and 85mm f/1.4, the Otus line continues to set the bar for photographers and cinematographers alike. Continue reading “Phil Holland Takes The Otus Trio Out For A Spin”→
Zeiss has had a busy few weeks with the announcement of the new autofocus Batis primes as well as the Milvus line of lenses that replace the outgoing “Classic” ZF.2 and ZE primes with a more modern, ergonomic housing including two brand new optical designs in the Milvus 50mm f/1.4 and Milvus 85mm f/1.4. Then, only a few weeks later Zeiss announced their 21mm f/2.8 Loxia lens designed specifically for Sony FE mount cameras. A wide-angle Otus lens had been rumored for almost a year and we’re finally able to talk about the newest member of the venerable Otus line of primes. Continue reading “Zeiss 28mm Otus Officially Announced”→
Eager to show their engineering prowess, Zeiss has released a whole new line of SLR lenses they’re calling the Milvus. The new lenses include a 21mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2.0, 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4, 50mm f/2.0 Makro, and 100mm f/2.0 Makro. If you’re a Zeiss fan and these focal lengths all sound familiar to you, there’s a good reason for that – some of the previous ZF.2 lenses, which are now considered “classic” were based on relatively old optical designs. Continue reading “Zeiss Announces New Milvus Line of Primes”→
Zeiss has officially released all of the details around their elite new line of lenses which they are calling Otus. Otus? That’s almost as weird as Touit. But with the kind of specs and image quality Zeiss has been touting with this new line of lenses, I don’t care what they call it. The 55mm f/1.4 is the first prime lens to be released this coming November and if Zeiss can stick to the extremely high manufacturing tolerances and quality required for such a lens, I think everyone will want one of these in their kit.
It’s going to be available in the ZF.2 (Nikon F) and ZE (Canon EF) mount just like the former ZF.2/ZE lenses. Again, the ZE version will not have a manual aperture ring but the ZF.2 version will. Duclos Lenses will be offering the full Cine-Mod and possibly the same great Leitax Canon EF mount for the ZF.2 version so that you can have the beautiful de-clicked aperture ring on your Canon EF mount camera. It makes perfect sense that Zeiss started with the 55mm focal length as it’s considered the “normal” field of view for 35mm full frame cameras (and if we’re being honest, the 50mm f/1.4 ZF.2/ZE is the weakest link in the older model line-up and deserves the refresh the most).
If you haven’t heard about why the new Otus line of lenses is so desirable, you should check out the post here. Zeiss is really talking up the superb image quality of these new lenses which are setting my expectations very high with quotes like:
…the new ZEISS Otus 1.4/55 offers ambitious photographers who do not accept any compromises in image quality…
Our goal was to bring the best standard lens for SLR cameras onto the market. The Otus 1.4/55 delivers outstanding sharpness and contrast rendition all the way into the corners of the image.
If you’re already aware of this amazing lens, Duclos Lenses is accepting Pre-Orders which should be available November 2013. As soon as these beauties begin rolling in, I assure you I’ll be taking one out for some stress testing. Exciting.
Zeiss has had a busy few weeks with the announcement of the new autofocus Batis primes as well as the 
