After publishing the 50mm f/1.4 ART review (read here) SLRgear also published the Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 test (read here). The good news is that you don’t have to spend $4,000 to get a terrific lens because the Sigma turns out to be 95% as good as the Otus! SLRgear writes:
While the Zeiss does show better performance in the corners at ƒ/1.4 on a full-frame camera, the other optical performance characteristics are pretty evenly matched.
Now we have to see how much the Sigma 50mm A-mount lens will cost. let’s hope it’s just a tiny bit under $1,000!
More news: Zeiss confirmed the release of the 85mm f/1.4 Otus lens (Source: MirrorlessRumors).
0 Responses
Cool about the Otus 85, hopefully this means in the not too distant future we get:
Otus-Mini 85 (Sony Zeiss FE 85 f1.8) for E-Mount users
Sigmotus 85 (Sigma Art 85mm f1.4) for A-Mount users
You have made up a derivative of a lens that does not yet exist for a system that Zeiss will not serve with the Otus line.
Otus was designed for SLRs and since Otus can be adapted to e-mount with no functionality or quality loss, Zeiss is particularly indifferent to re- designing their new design. Additionally they have a line specifically for mirrorless (Touit).
Unfortunately Zeiss does not care to release the Otus lens(es) for a- mount either …despite it being a better fit (with IBIS, focus peaking and magnification) than canon or Nikon AND despite obviously having access to the a-mount mounting hardware. That or Sony told them not to since they recently started selling their cz 50mm.
You really jumped the gun with this comment.
He was simply extrapolating an interesting possibility from known data.
We know that the Zeiss Otus 55mm is fantastic. We know that the “Sony-Zeiss” 55mm lens approaches the Otus quality. We know that Sigma has created a 50mm that rivals the Otus.
Given this plus Zeiss’ alleged confirmation of an Otus 85mm 1.4 lens, MbD’s prediction of a “Sony-Zeiss” 85mm 1.8 and a Sigma 85mm 1.4 doesn’t seem off base to me.
Especially considering that the FE line could do with a native 85mm lens.
The “Sony-Zeiss” lens of course being for E-Mount cameras.
You’re right, I didn’t notice the “Sony” in the parenthetical after Otus-mini on my phone. Unfortunately, a-mount users will continue to be Otus-less. Thanks to Sigma at least for thinking of us.
i wonder how this measures up against the FE55 since it’s almost the same price…Although it’s not natively FE mount and it’s double the weight. If only they released an FE version…that would surely eat into the FE55 sales.
Because the basis of measurement between FE55/1.8 and SIGMA/Zeiss OTUS aren’t the same. One is A7R and the others are 1D markIII. We might be sure that the open aperature aren’t comparable to SIGMA/Zeiss but the other aperature are quite competitive. And the SIZE between them are quite different.
Exactly what I wanted to say. How would that be a fair comparison? They should use one of the Sigmas adapted to the A7r and then we’ll talk about a comparison.
They seem to normalize results based on some average lp/mm parameter, thus APS-C lenses seem to be better. Flawed approach IMO.
You cannot normalize results since the measurement devices i.e. sensors are far more complicated than the lp/mm e.g. a7r has special microlens deisgns for corners and the blur you see with Sigma on the Canon 1Ds mk3 may be gone on the A7r….
This. Their test results always favor the lens tested on a lower resolution body. I’ll await for the Nikon version being tested at DXOMark to draw conclusions about sharpness, and real world comparisons to see how they compare at large apertures when it comes to coma (Otus rules here) etc.
That is what I want to know. I would sell my 55 and get the sigma. I could care less about the weight.
“couldn’t” care less.
don’t remember asking you.
He is right. If you “can care less” that means that there is still some care left that you can still give. If you “can’t care less”, it means that you have no caring left or, simply, you don’t give two $h!tS about something.
Explained eloquently by David Mitchell:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw
He couldn’t care less about grammatical corrections.
Grammar? Apologies. That is not a grammatical error. It is sheer nonsensical language. Sorry again.
Are they mutually exclusive?
It’s more of a logical error than a grammatical error.
where’s +1000 button when you need one?
Oh, he was correcting me. My uncle does this all the time.Thank you for the video. It is always nice to learn something.
sorry for the comment before. I understand what you were trying to say now.
Well, based on their graph sigma is sharper from f2.
You cannot compare the results between 22MP sensor and 36MP sensor. You can see at DxO how results very wide on different bodies. Each sensor has specifics. For example the 36MP A7r sensor has corner corrections and may be on 1.4 the Sigma would yield sharper corners. May be also the results will not show zero blur from f2 onwards but more like the 55/1.8 will contain very small amount of detectable blur…but this is just speculation as we have no tests on the same sensor of the two lenses.
If you look for yourself, the graph in the review (blur index) says that the Otus wide open is slightly sharper than the Sigma at f/2, I don’t know how they reached such a different conclusion with the same graph.
Please someone test the sigma against the sony 55mm 1.8
I was under the impression the sigma was tested against the FE 55 in the slr gear link. Their conclusion was the sony was close but beaten in distortion and they preferred the sigma over the sony 55 1.8. As a side note, when I saw this article the other day I was surprised to see the FE lens being used to compare. It used to be rare that an E mount lens was mentioned outside of their review.
The 55/1.8 is tested on 36MP sesnor with no AA filter. The Sigma is tested on 22MP sensor with extra strong AA filter. While the Sigma may be afantstic lens comparing the results of the two tests is highly deceptive.
there was a review calling the 55 a mini otus and I am very happy with the 55 but if for around the same price I can get something closer to the otus then I want the sigma. I guess with time somebody will do a real comparison.
Interesting comparison. But for me, comparing sharpness and contrast is only half way for the decision about a f/1.4 lens. I would like to see a bokeh comparison as well.
When I compared the Otus to the Leica Summilux, I could see that the Otus even matches the Summilux in terms of bokeh smoothness for what I loved the Summilux so much. If the Sigma will be on par here as well? Let’s see…
Valid question. Worth noting too that (although you are able to correct this with software) chromatic aberrations are not as well corrected on the Siggy as they are on the Otus. The lenses are not even well compared (36mp-vs-21mp) and at 1.4 (on a higher density sensor) the Otus is clearly more even across the entire frame than the Siggy at f2.
Someone should compare with the sigma 35mm 1.4 art lense, would be much mor interesting, because this lense allready is amazingly sharp
For a moment I was excited but then I saw that the Sigma was for A mount. Right. I really don’t understand the logic of using lenses with bigger than 55mm filter diameter on a mirrorless. Even 55mm is too big. 52mm should really be the comfortable and logical max.
I don’t understand the logic behind your logic. Aperture diameter is fixed by f-stop + focal length. Support, material thicknesses, focusing ring, autofocus motor+ electronics+ optical corrections add to that. Manual focus lenses can be made smaller, of course, if aperture is small or optical corrections are not that important.
Um. Wasn’t small and compact sized the reson d’etre for mirrorless? You do realise that 52mm is the size of the Nikkor 50mm 1.4, right? And that’s for a DSLR. You know, the camera thing with mirrors? So where’s the advantage to mirrorless if it’s just going to be in the (unbalanced) body?
I actually find 67mm 600 grams lenses to be perfect and perfectly balanced on a7r with a small 30gram grip. Most leica m lenses are too small and too light. And too narrow to focus comfortably.
And i agree with you full frame dslrs are too heavy with the same lenses.
Key is i use manual lenses that are meant to be supported by left hand full time. A7r with them feels much like an old school film camera, meant to be held and touched, not point n shot.
I find 55mm and below too narrow, 77mm too wide, 67mm perfect on a7r. For manual lenses, which require 2 hands.
If auto focus, its a different shooting style.
We want E mount!!
I have decided for not having a 50 mm f.1,4. But now i desperately want one. But i also want a new a99 mk II to go with it
Lol they tested it on a Canon… If I mount it on my NEX6 I am also pretty certain, that I won’t see a difference! You have to test it on 36 MP for gods sake!
Well, within the crop area the NEX6 is higher resolution than the full frame 36MP sensor.
Can anyone explain why Sigma is not developing new full frame lenses in the E(FE)-Mount? With the A7/A7r/A7s, now the E-mount seems to have more potential for full frame lenses than the A-mount. I’d really love to see this lens developed for native FE-Mount.
I think everybody would like to know! Eventually I think they will but given the R&D that needs to go into lens development, it might be a cost/profit analysis that Sigma did that didn’t justify the investment.
They developed only one lens for E mount – the 60mm f2.8 DN which I doubt tasted much success.
The 30mm f2.8 and 19mm f2.8 were existing designs used in their DP series cameras.
Probably because there aren’t enough FE bodies floating around to make it worthwhile. Adapting to A mount means basically just sticking on a mount, and you could still use it on E and FE bodies with adapters (but not if it were the other way around). So it’s the path with the least pain.
Because they are trying to make more cameras models than lenses.
retarded mentality. that’s why they don’t sell more A7’s.
wow….Zeiss is going to be so sour now! Depending on the price of this sigma, it’s going to be a big price to pay for the Zeiss for a 5% improvement over the Sigma….
please make some FE lens Sigma!!! 🙂
A new Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D costs around $300 and you can easily get one on ebay for $200. Beat that.
So the Sigma is about as good as the Zeiss FE 55 1.8 then. They did say the FE 55 1.8 was not far from the Otus.
What a rip off by Sigma. 😉
SLR Gear has their charts labeled wrong the second chart shows the inverse of the first. The Otus doesn’t produce CA like the Sigma.
Look at dilloyds test on LOCA and LACA with the Otus – practically absent. No other lens can do that except the Apo-Sonnar.
I’ve been waiting for the Sony 85mm for my a7R, but gave up after there was no announcement in Las Vegas. In the mean time I bought the new Rokinon 85mm 1.4 E-mount from B&H, $300. The following review compared it to the Canon 85mm 1.4 and except for a little blurring at mid range it was equal. It is manual focusing, but I mostly do manual, so it’s no problem since I’m using a Sony a7R with focus peaking and with the 36.4 MP sensor I’m hoping the sight blurring will not be an issue. It is a bit heavier, but since the Sony is so light I actually like the added weight. 1/5th the cost. Tomorrow will be the first day shooting, wish me luck. http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Samyang_Rokinon_85mm_f1-4_AE/
Why would you give up after NAB? An 85mm photographic lens would have little appeal to a room full of people attending a convention put on by the National Association of Broadcasters.
The a7s was announced because of its superior video options (compared to prior Sony products) not to pander to us photographers.
I wouldn’t doubt the appearance of a Sony or “Sony-Zeiss” 85mm FE lens.
Good luck with your shoot! 🙂
I guess I was thinking that Sony would make an announcement because SonyAlphaRumors, and their readers, led me to that conclusion. Does anyone know where, or when, Sony might make an announcement about that lens, or a wide FE lens?
I guess I wrote too much, here is the link: http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Samyang_Rokinon_85mm_f1-4_AE/