You can know “pixel peep” full size image samples taken with the new Zeiss 35mm lens at Dpreview (Click here). Check the images and then tell us your first impression:
[poll id=”217″]
All new FE lens preorder links:
In USA at:
Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 FE at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony 90mm f/2.8 FE at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony 24-240mm FE at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony 28mm f/2.0 FE at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony Fisheye Conversion Lens for FE 28mm F/2 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony Ultra-Wide Conversion Lens for FE 28mm F/2 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony Fisheye Converter for E 16mm F/2.8 and E 20mm F/2.8 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony Ultra-Wide Converter for E 16mm F2.8 and E 20mm F2.8 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
In Europe at:
Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 FE at Sony Germany, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
Sony 90mm f/2.8 FE at Sony Germany, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
Sony 24-240mm FE at Sony Germany, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
Sony 28mm f/2.0 FE at Sony Germany, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
Wide Angle converter at Sony Germany, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
Fisheye converter at Sony Germany, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
Wide angle converter for 16 and 20mm lenses at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
Fisheye converter for 16 and 20mm lenses at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, FI, NO, PT.
In Asia at:
Sony 24-240mm FE lens at Digitalrev.
76 Responses
It has a lovely draw. I wonder how it compares to the Minolta AF 35/1.4 RS.
Very nice, even wide open. Vignetting seems linear and easy to correct. The shot of the glass lattice at f/2.8 is particularly impressive because there’s aliasing even in the corners.
Only a year until the dpreview review.
Who needs lens reviews? Photography is 90% about the sensor, so you can pretty much use any lens you can find. Ideally, an image should be analyzed from the raw sensor data, so you shouldn’t even have to look at it in a raw converter.
Eh? Is this a poor attempt at sarcasm?
Ideally you shouldn’t even have to look at the photos either!
No. More like 50%
Put a crappy lens on a nice sensor, you end up with crap.
Sensors can’t undo if it receives a crap.
waits for Sigma 35 1.4 Art, less size, less weight, less bucks, less soft, less vignetting
Shame they don’t weather seal their Art lenses.
weather seal is dinosaur feature, seal means it can leak lol… just a marketing fool term. why not splashproof
That ‘dinosaur feature’, as you put it, has come in very handy when I’ve shot outdoors in bad weather. But hey, if you want to gamble with your expensive equipment, go for it.
Wait all you want, Sigma will never make that lens for E mount.
Boasting
Looks pretty bloody good to me. Definitely will be getting.
Looks nice, strange how different from the ones Sony put out – I guess it goes to show the importance of post processing! These have a very gentle look to them rather similar to the ZE/ZF lenses – look at the bokeh on the portrait of the woman for example. It looks very sharp across the frame at f/1,4.
I doubt anyone is going to be disappointed as such, whether we ill be blown away remains to be seen.
Like it but will I be putting this on my a7rII anytime soon?
Are you asking us?
Probably a hint to admin: where are the rumors?
Even at f8, midfield sharpness is slightly blurred compared to sharp center and far corners.
Check out the crane and its moniker here:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/masters.galleries.dpreview.com/3155422.jpg?X-Amz-Expires=3600&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAIWXD4UV3FXMIDQLQ/20150306/us-east-1/s3/aws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20150306T013934Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=9aac9182c5835bc4a33153c9b6969e25662d94f0650386f3cf52c6b1fe2a9549
Center sharp enough to show moire’ on AC grates, even on a7II. Far corners sharp too. But that midfield is lacking all around top bottom sides and diagonal.
Odd wave form this new Sony 35.
Yes the tree looks a bit blurred, likey a gust of wind. Everything else is tack sharp, excellent lens.
The crane was moving when the shot was taken moron.
The houses behind the crane are also blurrier than the center and far corners. Its not the crane movement. The crane is blurred at every f-stop. This lens has odd midfield curvature, similar to the original Minolta 35/1.4.
It’s astigmatism and this is represented in the MTF charts published by Sony. Disregard the other replies by people who have no clue about how lenses work. Also don’t sweat it too much. These things are rarely visible in realistic sized final output and on larger aperture shots, will be totally invisible (in fact, the sharpness in each axis matches more closely so it’s not astigmatism anymore, just less sharp as to be expected.)
so how do you distinguish what you call astigmatism from exactly the kind of shallow DOF you’d expect from a full-frame with a fast lens just like this one?
Well, firstly, based on the published MTF charts, there is no astigmatism at large apertures. It’s occurring stopped down. Second, you would shoot at infinity focus and evaluate things that are too far away to be out of focus due to depth of field which is the point of the photograph of the city from the building, everything is in focus. Remember, it’s just a 35mm lens. So at f/8 you get to see how the MTF chart published for F8 relates to the real world effect of the lens.
And if you have been evaluating optical effects long enough, it becomes fairly easy to see the difference between pure lack of contrast vs. astigmatism as astigmatism is directional.
Now, if you’re shooting something closer and at larger apertures, you can’t see this effect unless it’s super strong and even more importantly, both axis have about the same sharpness at f/1.4 as published so there literally is no astigmatism (astigmatism is what happens when one axis is sharper than the other, and many lenses have it in the corners which is what causes the common “smearing” in corners on wide angle lenses assuming the sensor isn’t an issue there.)
Please learn to post images. it’s not hard. k thnx
Loaded the file into LR and it looks to be very sharp. I don’t see anything slightly blurred. I only have the problem when looking into the pictures directly within the web-browser.
For the price I paid for it, I will click “I really like the Image Quality it delivers” even if I don’t agree.
That won’t be a problem, you can’t afford it anyway. Stick with the Iphone.
Speak for yourself. I pre-ordered it the instant it was announced.
Lucky you.. maybe.
Who the hell pre-orders something without testing it first, especially at this price. Seriously, some people are just stupid.
Still waiting to see 1.4 put through the paces…
I’m blown away by the bokeh. Seems to be the best bokeh compared to lenses in Canon, Nikon land.
…but will it blend?
Yeah, sure, why not if your blender has 1-2HP? 🙂
At the high end of lenses, it becomes a a lot less about which lens has the best quality and more about which lens has a style that works well for the art direction of a shoot / series, artistic sensibilities of the photographer or will aid in achieving specific desired results. For instance, for a user shooting a gritty, documentary series a lens with high degree of sharpness across the frame may work well for that look whereas for A romantic, impressionistic shoot something softer with a different rendering style may produce the envisioned results better.
Too many gear heads argue endlessly about which lens is best based in charts and sharpness / resolution testing in a vacuum apart from actual sample,photos. An otus isn’t better than a sony zeiss 85mm or sigma art 85mm – high-end lenses today are great but for a specific look one will be superior in realizing what someone might be shooting for.
By your standards, perhaps the Otus isn’t “better” as you put it. But once you shoot with it, and discover its “specific look” as you put it, you won’t want to shoot for any other look with any other lens.
I’d love to see some of your work with an Otus… get a feel for why you would say that.
Sure. Large downloads 100% on a7R with 85 wide open. Notice the complete lack of any highlight anomalies in the background bokeh. All my other 85’s (ZA, Minolta, Samyang) would be littered with green/purple bokeh fringe wide open. Otus 85 is clean at f1.4. The 55 Otus is even better. And same can be said for the ZA135 vs Zeiss 135apo… though the ZA135 seems about a 1/2 stop brighter than the Zeiss 135.
http://alphatog.com/xxImages/Glass/Otus85/067fin.jpg
http://alphatog.com/xxImages/Glass/Otus85/034fin.jpg
Not saying the other lenses are bad. They’re awesome, especially if you need AF. But if you’re tired of bokeh aberrations, then the Otus has an option you might appreciate.
I dont know why the thumbnails won’t load. These are 100mb files. So just click on them and they should open in new window.
These images were taken by Stacy Caudle for Images Agency. Unless you are Stacy Caudle, you didn’t take these.
Sorry friend, Stacy is a staffer at IA, and a friend. But she only shoots the babies, and is very talented at it. I run the entire IA website, and every shot on there is mine.
That’s why the shots are on my AlphaTog server.
I do not know if you are or are not who you claim to be, but your anonymous username (“.”) here probably isn’t helping.
Revealing my identity isn’t helpful to my business identity. I have no desire to prove anything.
All I did was share some Otus knowledge, and photos, as requested. And for that… my efforts are completely disregarded in favor of uncovering some perceived internet crime.
I should have known better on SAR.
Oh I’m not accusing of you of stealing photos. I do think it is helpful when people show off their real work samples. Either way, the conversation was derailed.
Right, and I am Commander Shepard and this is my favorite rumor site on the Citadel!
That’s unlikely. But I’ve worked with Stacy for fifteen years. She uses my old a700. I set up her studio.
Alas, I should have realized the request for Otus photos was not serious. Just a desire to shoot the accommodating messenger.
I’m pulling the photos down. But keep an eye out for AlphaTog in the future. Lot’s of lens comparisons being prepared, shown on the job.
But here, I’ll leave you with this to ponder upon…
http://alphatog.com/xxImages/Glass/50ish/DSC05253.jpg
Dude… Two rules of the internet: 1) If you claim to be someone on the internet, people will not believe you. 2) Don’t claim to be someone on the internet.
We really don’t care if you are the owner of Canikon or IA, nor if you are Tony Stark. OP asked a question, and a simple answer will suffice, no need to go around proving that you are Mr. Important. We simply won’t believe you. Even if you are in fact who you say you are, it doesn’t matter one way or another.
Let’s just all enjoy the amazing photos this 35mm will deliver.
Edit: I think OP’s question was genuine, and we do appreciate you sharing the images.
“OP asked a question, and a simple answer will suffice”
That’s what I did. Was asked to share some of my Otus work. I accommodated. Next thing I know Dick Tracy has his thumb up my ass. I answered for that too. But I didn’t say I was anybody specifically because I don’t want to become “Mr. Important”.
Shocked that my accommodation resulted in such sleuth sport. Kinda diluted the original request. I’ll know better next time.
“OP asked a question, and a simple answer will suffice”
And I provided that by sharing some of my Otus work. I accommodated. Then Sherlock Holmes sticks nose up my business to avoid the original request in favor of tracking down some perceived internet injustice. I answered for that too. But I didn’t say I was anybody specifically because I don’t want to become “Mr. Important”.
Shocked that my accommodation resulted in such sleuth sport. Kinda diluted the original request. I’ll know better next time.
Someone on the internet claiming someone else’s work as their own?! Quick! Call the five-o!
Unless this bum lives in Hawaii, I’m not sure how useful that would be.
I listed art direction of a shoot / series first because I feel that should be a big determining factor in lens selection. There is no doubt that the otus lenses are among the best of their respective focal lengths, but what if the desired look for a series includes intentional imperfection to heighten the mood. Chromatic aberration or lack of corner sharpness may heighten this goal.
For photographers who are generally always going for the same consistent style, picking a single lens series may make perfect sense. For photographers with a mindset more akin to a cinematographer, who modify the shooting style to work within the confines of the art direction, choosing different lens sets may equally make sense. Either way, for top tier lenses I still stand by that it’s not about the best lab results.
I’ve spent a little time with the 55mm otus and it is great.
Finally someone gets it.
I looked at these samples and if I had an a7 series, I would get one.
Since I don’t, the extra stop isn’t convincing me enough to ditch my RX1s yet.
I don’t mind the size, just that the cost of the switch wouldn’t play in my favour right now and my current cameras work outstandingly well still.
Being out of fashion didn’t break them yet.
For it’s size and price, I was expecting better results, granted it’s DPR test shots, so better results may be possible.
DPR is well know for their unexciting test shots 😉
A chart is the dullest subject you can shoot, yet it tells you more about a lens than a creative/exciting photo.
DPR may have crappy photos, but if you can’t tell what can be done with that lens through those photos, looking at “better” photos won’t help you either.
It’s like saying that you need to give a lens to a good photographer to know if a lens is good. Well, maybe it’s better to improve your photography if you need a Nadav Kander or Elliot Erwitt to convince you to guy gear.
Leica fans love to say they are attached to the Henri Cartier-Bresson in their dreams…but they are not.
I downloaded a couple and printed them 30×20 inches today at work. Pretty good…. Ive definitely printed better off other glass. In saying that, I never take them too seriously until I get some RAWS.
IMHO. I’m assuming from mtf and from zeiss brand that the standard is very high. I know the differences between a Distagon and a Biogon. I think that a wide angle lens, even if moderate, well matching a7x sensors is a plus. I cannot forget that a7x means al least 3 very different kind of sensors, by dimension/resolution and because of microlenses on a7r and I cannot image what should be the compromise of best fit with all of them. And finally I know very well my a7r and I can immediately show the worse effects of a wide angle at maximum aperture: italian flag, CA, magenta shift, fring colors at borders…. The tests here are far from this a7r stress test and I’m neutral on this lens as well as I’m going to leave sony cameras. For sure it’s one of the best lens for a7x.
It has a typical Zeiss and even Leica 35mm summilux rendering look. Seems promising.
No comparison with the ZM…
Too much editing, adjusting shadows and highlights and stuff. Nothing should be touched except exposure, if it was off.
thats my thoughts as well
The Bokeh is pretty outstanding. I’m surprised they touched the sharpening slider, though. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of these kinds of tests? Either way, the one’s they didn’t sharpen look great.
Looks like an outstanding lens. My only gripe is that it is nearly twice the weight and an inch longer than the ZM. Knowing myself I would oftentimes grab the Loxia 35/2 instead.
It looks great, but it’s not going to persuade me to upgrade from my 35/2.8… Rendering feels a bit too clinical to me
i guess if you have the money and dont mind the size you wont be disaapointed with it. then its up to you to let it shine.
You are obviously unaware of such a thing called a 30-days return policy.
Bring the price down to $1300 and they’ll sell a lot more…they could today to me! but I can;t go for 1600 plus tax..I’ll make due with my lovely little 35mm f 2.8.
Just wait a year and buy imports from Japan on eBay for $1300.
maybe but been waiting a little too long on this Sony stuff may have to revert to Canon, since I have all the glass, flashes etc..
I’m sorry, but proper test photos would have 0 adjustments done to them.
Awful color rendition.
Dpreview are the worst in samples. we should wait for someone that knows how to photo.