Chad Wadsworth (Click here) shared a first impression of the new Batis lenses he tested:
Batis 25mm: Where the FE 28mm is in-your-face sharp, the Batis looks a bit smoother, yet zoom in to pixel peep and bam, there’s the same level of sharpness and micro contrast. The render of the Batis very much reminds me of the ZA 24mm f/2 but without all the field curvature AF issues that were endemic to that A-mount lens.
Batis 85mm: Focus was quick and sure – and dead on accurate. Pixel peeping shows an impressive amount of sharpness and detail at f/1.8. Having previously owned the legendary ZA 85/1.4 I have been anxiously awaiting an FE replacement but was concerned that the lens would be too large or too slow. Again with the Goldilocks reference but the Batis seems to nail it with just the right dimensions, weight and image quality.
You can chat with Chad Wadsworth on his SonyAlphaForum thread (Click here).
Both Batis lenses are now available for preorder in USA and Europe (UK/Germany)
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
In Europe and Asia the Loxias can be found in Stock via [shoplink 36456 ebay]eBay sellers (Click here)[/shoplink] and Digitalrev (Click here).
43 Responses
‘tsup?
Thanks for the great writeup, Chad Wadsworth.
Holy **** that 25mm Batis!!! The 28/2 is already a very nice rendering lens, but the Batis is on another level. I’m very excited about this lens now!
The 85mm looks great as well but it seems hard to do a bad 85mm these days.
Well for an 120% increase in price that was kinda expected. 😛
And hopefully distortion is far better than what the 28mm offers.
I am thinking of getting the 85mm but unfortunately it will never be available in my country. So I hope Sony comes out with a lens as good. Don’t mind the price if the quality is just as good.
Ah, a $1200 question. Sony have the 90f2.8, with which Steve Huff was quite impressed. As for a 85mm, I think Sony & Zeiss are in cahoots, so I wouldn’t hold my breath. ..
True. The Sony 90mm f2.8 seems like a good lens but for my needs f2.8 is too slow. 😛
I like my Minolta 85mm f1.4 and I have the LAEA4 adapter but the IQ of the Minolta is noticeably short compared to my good lenses like the Zeiss 24-70mm or even my Tamron 70-200mm f2.8.
Maybe off topic, but is there somewhere a review of 28 f2 with converters and their IQ?
I read one review though I admit I don’t understand their graphs. 😛
But the content is pretty easy to understand.
http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/reviews/lenses/sony-fe-28mm-f2-review
I’m puzzled as to why it would never be available in your country. Is there an import restriction on Zeiss lenses?
Ha ha nothing of the sort ! Its just that in my country Sony isn’t too big so none of the higher end stuff is available. People here buy Canon and Nikon mostly. Sony is catching on though but it still has a very long way to go.
The recent stampede to buy the Sony 500mm when it was incorrpectly priced affordably…
As well as the overwhelming demand for all the new 150-600mm lenses clearly demonstrates the demand for an affordable super telephoto Sony lense.
300-600 f5.6 for $3000
Or 300-800 f4.8-6.3 for $3400
Would be viable candidates.
Sony should really make something like that, possibly for FE mount.
“The recent stampede to buy the Sony 500mm when it was imcorectly priced affordably…”
I don’t think you can use this stampede as way of assessing demand for telephotos. Even those not interested in a telephoto would have snapped up a $13K lens with 90% off. You’d be stupid not to, right? If only to make a killing on ebay.
Yeah, the majority of these were prob greedy ebayers looking for some easy money … … maybe even Secondipity himself 😛
I would have been one of them. I don’t need an A7r, but would have bought a few, just to sell on Ebay at a discount and make a quick $.
Tamron and now Sigma 150-600mms are selling like crazy.
Because it represents a very good value (the Tamron at least), how many other long lenses and especially long primes are selling like crazy?
I would go for Sigma, if it exists for A-mount, because Sigma don’t cripple OS for Sony-mount.
My dream would be Sigma 150-600 “C” with OS, native for E-mount.
Or Sony 70-400, native for E-mount (with OSS, because IBIS is good enough at this focal lengths)
Better hurry and buy this one, they are selling like crazy. Or perhaps you have to be crazy to buy one. LOL
The FE mount does need long focal length lenses to complete the road map, they may well be in the pipeline for future release. These extremely long lenses however are the least popular focal lengths and will be the last to be designed. The stampede you mention was just the result of a website pricing error and not a good indicator of any buying trend.
Completing an arbitrary Sony roadmap that has nothing to do with customers is bull$$it.
The sysyem is inadequite to meet a wide variety of needs because it only concentrates on the few most common needs.
That is not a proffesional system.
A wildlife photographer for example would be foolish to choose Sony.
Specialized needs are what bring people to ILC cameras.
Those with average general needs are leaving this market in mass and using cellphones.
What you really mean is that the current road map doesn’t meet your particular needs. That much I agree with.
Sony’s FE system isn’t really the best choice for wildlife photos. And because of a lot more than the lens selection (think buffer, frame rate). Please use Canon/Nikon for your needs and be happy. But if you do, keep coming back here with your comments, they’re entertaining.
So go buy your Canikon and be gone. Just because Sony doesn’t quite meet your needs doesn’t mean they don’t meet the needs of others. On the other hand maybe I was talking to a manager at Sony and he told me they were holding off on producing the long lenses until after you changed brands because they don’t want to deal with you and your megalomaniacal crap.
nice samples, but i disagree with the “I can live with software based distortion corrections and some occasional CA cleanup, and so should you.” .. Lens makers need to stop being so lazy and depending on software to do the job for them
It’s nothing to do with being lazy, it’s simply a compromise. If the lens didn’t have software corrections it would be larger and/or more expensive.
The Batis lenses seem very well engineered, striking an almost ideal compromise/balance between cost, mechanical design and software correction. The end result is a series of lenses that perform extremely well and are reasonably priced considering the performance and build quality.
I’m sure lens manufactures could improve distortions and CA if cost and weight were no object. Would you or the public in general be willing to pay 2-3 times as much and carry around a lens weighing 1.5-2 times as much? I don’t think so.
That’s what the Otus essentially is
Have to shoot A mount for that I’m afraid. The future of lens design is all about in camera corrections.
which I’m ok with to a point if they would apply the in camera corrections to the raw files, which Sony doesn’t. Thats the annoying part about it.
Very true. Olympus bakes the software corrections into the RAW so that the most popular RAW converters like PS and Lightroom show the corrected results only.
Those who use older versions of Lightroom and PS will have to do manual based corrections to the 28mm RAW files if they wish for distortion free images or run them through the incredibly slow and buggy Sony IDC and convert to TIFF.
Did not know this. Wow, I can only imagine the utter shiiit my olympus lenses are actually pumping out. Must find a way to reverse this!
Yes its true. Check out the 12-50mm Olympus lens on Photozone. 6.9% barrel distortion when seeing uncorrected RAWs. Probably a record for a non fisheye lens ! 🙂
That said use a regular convertor like Photoshop and you will never see this barrel distortion.
“Where the FE 28mm is in-your-face sharp, the Batis looks a bit smoother”- There is no “smoother”…there is only sharp and not sharp. I hate these quassi pseudo phrases playing on my emotions! Give me cold hard facts. Don’t hold back, tell it like it is!
Other than the slightly wider field of view of the Batis, the FE28mm & the Batis 25mm look very similar in these limited samples.
He is a Sony Artisan, he’s not going to be negative.
Yeah the reviewer could be more specific. I think he’s talking about the harshness of the 28/2s colors, which make it appear sharper but IMO the Zeiss has better tones and looks better.
Batis 40mm
This guy is a Sony artisan. He should mention that on his blog.
i am very tempted to buy this batis 85mm but i hear a rumor that there is another 85mm 1.4 in the works, and its likely to be big like the 35mm 1.4 is, which is another lens i do want to get.
1.4 really? Hmmm should I just wait then….. AHHHH
These lenses are not Sony.
But its for sony.
Artisan is like bread makers or fancy pastry chefs. The fact that Sony proceeds it makes me cringe.