Carl Zeiss 25mm F2 Batis Lens Review by John Sison
PcMag tested the 85mm Batis and writes:
The Zeiss Batis 85/1.8 is a near-perfect lens, at a price that’s well shy of the company’s manual focus Otus line. It’s tack sharp from corner to corner, even at f/1.8, captures a heck of a lot of light, and draws wonderful portraits with a very shallow depth of field. The only real complaint is the pincushion distortion that it exhibits, and that’s something that’s easily corrected on a computer. If you’re in want of a prime lens in this focal range for your Sony mirrorless system, and you put an emphasis on portrait and general photography, look no further.
Chad Wadsworth writes:
The a7R II/Batis combination was simply praise worthy – it focused quickly and accurately, producing razor sharp images with pleasing bokeh.
Otto Schulze writes:
Yes, the Otus just in terms of sheer IQ wins but I was surprised by how close the Otus and the Batis were in pure IQ. Add to that equation the size difference and addition of fast and quiet AF and I have an absolute winner for my destination wedding work. And the 25mm Batis met all my needs on the other end of the spectrum as well. Just superb!
quick test between the Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 and the Sony FE 28mm f/2 on Admiring Light.
Why I’m returning my Batis 85 mm f/1.8 (Alin Popescu).
Skydiving with the Batis 2/25 and Alex Torre (Lenspire)
Batis store links:
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.
18 Responses
I’m interested to see comments that the Batis 85mm has a pleasing Bokeh but have read remarks elsewhere that Bokeh is poor ?
it’s distance-dependent (camera-to-model distance and model-to-background distance) and in some situations it could be really poor…
Of course that could be said for any lens not just the Batis
I like it. Many samples show nice bokeh. Additionally it is incredibly sharp wide open already. There was a lengthy discussion on Dpreview following this authors decision to give it back, too (search in forum “My story with the Batis 85mm – why I’m sending it back”). I don’t see it worse than my 85/1.8g from Nikon which we used before.
Bokeh is way better than that of the AF-S Nikkor 85/1.8 G.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hhackbarth/22248327920
85mm Batis bokeh is nothing short of stellar. I was expecting generic Tamron/Sony/Nikon bokeh, but this is pure Zeiss signature.
85 caught a few people (myself included) off guard with the cat-eye rendering in some lighting conditions, though it should be expected from Sonnar design. I’ve come to love it since the first few days. Still waiting on my 25 though the bokeh on this Distagon is not as pleasing from the images I’ve seen. Particularly the onion ring effect, but I doubt it will bother me much. I do have the 28mm, which I still can’t believe how good it is for the $$ and the bokeh on this little sucker actually is quite amazing, even more pleasing to the side by side comparisons with the B25 from the samples I’ve seen. I’ll reserve the rest of my judgment once I have the B25 in hand 🙂
BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Whatever! They are just NOT IN STOCK !!!
I’m able to find them but at a $500+ premium to full retail price 🙁
It took 5months for me to received my Batis lenses. Now, the 25mm is attach on my a7r II and 85mm on a7s 90% of the time. Haven’t touch my FE55 and FE16-35 lately. I know it’s NOT fun to wait for that long, however, once I used the Batis lenses I forgot waiting time. For many, Batis lenses are little pricyyy. For me, any additional benefits the lenses can produce better images are HUGE PLUS.
REALLY-REALLY look forward for Batis 135f2 and or 200f2.8.
How the af works for you with 85mm? Does it hunt a lot for example when taking portraits indoors?
AF works great. Many mentioned AF hunts in lower light, I do not see that on my copy. Eye and Face focus are great.
Edit: The only minor issue I have is it gives a warmer tone.
Is the 25mm worthy? Does it have that extra super special something? I don’t know man- I looked at all the files luminous landscape put up. I think I’d still pick the 16-35mm.
IQ is for sure better. However, if you do landscape, 16-35 still a better choice due to wider fl. Something 25mm can’t do.
“The only real complaint is the pincushion distortion that it exhibits, and that’s something that’s easily corrected on a computer. ”
What, Sony cameras do not autocorrect distortion with Zeiss lenses in preview and JPEGs?
In my experience 85mm batis is great except for one thing: the auto focus with a7m2 is somehow much worse than with fe 55 1.8 and fe 28 2.0. It hunts a lot, and for that, it is almost unusable indoors. I asked from zeiss about it, and their answer is that it is cameras fault – may be so, but kind of a poor excuse.
25mm has some delectable corners but I’m worried about the aftertaste.