The Zeiss Touit 50mm f/2.8 macro lens for Sony E-mount APS-C cameras is set to ship from February 27 according to BHphoto (Click here). The store still doesn’t take preorders nor show the price. But Brian Hirschfeld who talked with the Zeiss guys at the PDNshow said the lens will cost around $1,000:
“A very nice man from Carl Zeiss showed me a prototype of an upcoming lens for the Zeiss Touit line of lenses, the Ziess 50mm f/2.8 Touit Macro. This lens will be available in Sony NEX and Fuijifilm X-mount’s at the beginning of 2014 for a price of somewhere around ~$1,000.00. Since this was a prototype the autofocus wasn’t the best but I was assured and expect this will improve before the final version considering how well most mirrorless lenses are focusing now. The lens was very sharp and got down to 1:1 and I wish that it would come in the MFT mount, though I understand why it won’t. My main complaints (which many share) are that these lenses don’t seem to be weather sealed or weather proof or really weather anything and that the focusing ring is lackluster at best. My main concern / complaint which Zeiss is apparently aware of (but not doing anything about?) is the absence of a focusing scale which would have been especially nice on a macro lens considering there is no way to know you are at the minimum focusing distance which is super annoying. This seems like a big oversight to me, but oh well.”
found via Photorumors.
Reminder: 20% off on all Zeiss Touit ASP-C E-mount lenses:
The 12mm f/2.8 Touit now sells for $999 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
The 32mm f/1.8 Touit now sells for $720 at Amazon (Click here), Adorama (Click here) and BHphoto (Click here).
24 Responses
Zeiss is nuts. Af is not that important and generally sucks when it comes to macro. You know what legendary mf & af macro lenses i can get for my nex and still have hundreds left over.
50mm isn’t that great for macro. It seams crazy to buy this lens when you can get the EF 55 f1.8 for the same price. You get more than one stop speed advantage, you have FF coverage for your next camera / resale market, and you can always buy a macro tube that preserves autofocus for ~$150 (I have a set and know it works for APS-C; don’t know if it will vignette on FF) .
50mm is a-ok, but 90-100mm will be better for certain shots. That being said, this is… not really a good buy.
not to mention if you get the 55 1.8 you can just use a macro tube anyway. I don’t understand the point of this lens. If it were 90mm maybe but even then its too much.
Fast ordinary lenses are crap off-center as soon as you put extension tubes… at least to someone who has used proper macro lenses.
Also even if this is an aps-c lens, with the use of extension tubes at the working apertures, the lens should still be usable on FF and will most likely be better than the FE 55 1.8 too.
So I bet this lens is fantastic, just like the Touit 12mm and even better. Only issue is it looks pretty big. That’s not a problem if a mirrorless is your primary camera.
Well, if you often change between macro distance and normal distance during a shoot, it’s useful to have the extension tube built into the lens.
I agree still that it’s not a desirable product. There are enough sharp macro lenses out there that also got all the things you really need like distance scale, mechanical MF etc. instead of lackluster Zeiss AF.
If it’s an autofocus lens, then it’s using focus by wire, which means that of course there will be no focusing scale. Right?
I am pretty sure there is nothing of the sort on this lens at all.
So where is the problem? On any NEX you have focus peaking and you can magnify your desired focus area. It’s also easily possible to turn the focus by wire system to the minimum focus, just turn it until focus doesn’t change anymore.
Faster lens is nonsense for manual focussing, you have to stop down anyways to get greater DOF.
Why don’t we all wait until we see some test results of what can be done with this lens before moaning about the price and specs? Anybody is free to go for other/cheaper adapted solutions if he wants, but that counts for any e-mount-lens.
Any news about new APS-C E mount lenses from Sony? Or has Sony given up making their own lens… ke ke ke
They just announced three emount lenses that are just hitting stores now… Plus you can put the 5 new FE mount on your aps-c nex. How is 8 new lenses in 6 months not a commitment?
What… Next 2014…
I really love Zeiss lenses on my cameras. But the Touit lineup is somewhat disppointing to me.
I intensively tested both the 12/2.8 and the 32/1.8.
And both are producing very nice images with nothing special to rave about.
And the built quality is also very good.
But on both lenses I was annoyed by the autofocus operation. Disturbingly loud, snail-slow and permanently hunting. For me personally this was an absolut no-go.
I doubt that this will be better with the upcoming macro.
Hopefully Sony or anyone of the 3rd’s will do something.
Disappointing – I’d assumed it would have a much better mf solution given the price… Even ignoring the issues with the focal length and oss (60-70mm is more sensible for an apsc macro), mf performance would be a deal breaker for me. I really can’t see this selling – if they’d opted for a mf design with electronic aperture, it might have been a different story. IMHO anyone spending $1000 on a macro knows how to use one and would see mf only as a pro.
well said.
Contrary to what most here seem to think, the Touit 2.8/50 is a very desirable lens IMHO. I loved the 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar as a portrait lens on APS-C bodies, and the Touit will (hopefully) be just as good. It’s one of the most versatile lenses – being a well corrected macro lens it should achieve great results not only for macro shots but also for portraits and landscapes.
And: Why is a 50mm (75mm eq) lens not a good portrait lens? It’s long enough not to show any noticeable perspective distortion even in close up portraits and you don’t need as much distance to the subject as with longer lenses, which often is an advantage. Also, don’t forget how many portraits were shot either with a 24-70mm lens at 70mm or with the old kit lenses, i.e. 50mm on film which is much shorter.
Poki, I love Zeiss lenses but I think this one is DOA. This is the most ill conceived of all Touits. Over priced and huge- these are the two reasons.
Huge? As far as I see it’s not much bigger than most 50mm f/2.8 macro lenses. Overpriced? We still don’t know the price. And when we’re talking about overpriced – it probably will be cheaper than the 50mm f/2 Makro-Planar, and nobody complains there that it’s overpriced, because it is an awesome lens.
I admit that it may not be a lens that makes people throwing their money at store fronts, but this doesn’t make it a bad lens in any way.
I did not say it is a “bad lens”. I just said it is DOA (won’t sell). 🙂
Well, okay, you’re probably right there. 😉
The big drawback of using a macro for portraits is they’re usually too sharp wide open. The only exception I can think of is the tamron 60/2…
IMHO, there is no such thing as ‘too sharp’. If you don’t see skin pores, it’s too soft. If it looks unpleasing, just use a slight brush to soften the skin areas. If you want it to look harsh (i.e. portraying workers, old people and so on) – perfect. I’d much rather use a super sharp lens than a slightly soft one for any type of photography.
As an underwater shooter with a NEX7 in Nauticam housing, I’m simply grateful we have a decent macro coming that will work in our NEX housings. The Sony 30mm macro doesn’t have the working distance for close up macro. This new Z50 isn’t all that much longer, but it’s still longer and it’s real, not just another rumor. Autofocus can be handy when working in current, so I’m all for the AF on this lens. When you don’t have a choice, you’re thankful for what you’ve got 🙂
Hopefully Sigma will make a longer more affordable macro like their Art lens series for the e-mount.
Wish Feb. would get here sooner, seems like us UW shooters have been waiting forever for this lens.
Want a longer macro! 80~100mm would be great.