Sony mirrorless camera users are quite blessed with a variety of medium tele prime choices. There are no less than 4 different Sony/Zeiss 85mm lenses plus the Sony 90mm f/2.8 macro and, of course, the Sony 100mm f/2.8 STF (and a bunch of exotics). Among the 85mm gang, there’s the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 which we’ll discuss in the scope of this review. It is a so-called “Sonnar” design which relates to fast Zeiss lenses. That being said, the Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM is faster still but therefore also bigger and quite a bit more expensive … although the Zeiss…
Author: Klaus
by Klaus Schroiff, published December 2017 Introduction Recently, we reviewed the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 – as it turned out, it’s quite an awesome lens. However, the Zeiss lens isn’t alone in its quest – it has a couple of Sony mates. There’s the insanely expensive 85mm f/1.4 GM and a more mainstream option, which we’ll discuss here – the Sony FE 85mm f/1.8. Some readers may not be too excited about it but as you will see later on it has its merits. Technically, an 85mm f/1.8 is a sweet spot in lens design. It is neither fast nor…
by Klaus Schroiff, published November 2017 Introduction It seems as if the Zeiss-Sony relationship has cooled off a little lately- probably because both want to harvest the premium segment. Zeiss appears to gravitate towards their own Zeiss Batis lens lineup now whereas Sony is focusing on Sony G and GM lenses. However, a while ago, the Sony / Zeiss Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA was one of the first high-speed, pro-grade lenses released for Sony’s full format mirrorless system. As you may have guessed already, such a lens isn’t cheap at around 1500USD/EUR. However, and this may come as…
by Klaus Schroiff, published September 2017 Introduction The Sony FE system is quite blessed by many lens options these days. While the third-party gang hasn’t really started supporting the system, both Sony and its close ally Zeiss have been very busy beefing up the system lately. These days you also have several lenses to choose from in the ultra-wide segment. The latest and most extreme one is the Sony FE 12-24mm f/4 G. Being a G-class lens it is primarily targeting the semi-pro or “prosumer” market and it also means that you have to have fairly deep pockets regarding its…
by Klaus Schroiff, published August 2017 Introduction After having reviewed several hundred of lenses, there aren’t too many new lenses that make me truly excited to be honest. However, the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 STF GM OSS is surely one of them. The high-level specs aren’t all that hot as you may notice – a 100mm f/2.8 is nothing to write home about after all. However, that’s the less interesting aspect here. The real story is described by the “STF” portion in the lens name. STF stands for “Smooth Trans Focus”. STF lenses feature an apodization (APD) element – a…
by Klaus Schroiff, published July 2017 Introduction You have a variety of choices when it comes to Zeiss lenses for Sony FE-mount cameras. Zeiss ZA lenses are co-developed, co-branded and marketed under the Sony umbrella. However, Zeiss is also offering several native lenses independent from the cooperation with Sony – namely the Zeiss Batis (AF) and Zeiss Loxia (manual focus) lenses. One of the most exciting of these lenses is the Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8 covered in this review. While the distribution channel may have changed, some things never do and the pricing falls into that category. Such ultra-wide prime…
The Micro-Four-Thirds (MFT) system is blessed by having two primary manufacturers. Their combined lineup is highly impressive by now and their standard zoom segment is especially crowded. Olympus is contributing lenses with three quality grades to the system and Panasonic adds at least two more – native Panasonic and Leica-branded lenses. The exact terms of the cooperation with Leica is not known but the Leica brand is certainly adding some poshness to MFT. One the the latest offsprings of this marriage is the Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 12-60mm f/2.8-4 ASPH Power OIS (gasp). Just to explain the “Vario-Elmarit” portion of the…
Which single lens would you take to a remote island? The answer will, of course, vary according to the individual preferences but many would probably chose a long-range zoom lens. Traditionally such lenses had a problem … or a couple of those – they were rather mediocre. Well, maybe with 2-3 exceptions: the Canon EF 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 USM L IS, Canon EF 35-350mm f/3.5-5.6 USM L and the Leica 14-150mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH OIS. This short list (of DSLR lenses) may already give you an indication – long-range zoom lenses of decent quality come also with a hefty price tag. Olympus…
Sony’s full format mirrorless system has been an immense success in recent years and with the release of the Alpha 9 they are now truly threatening the remaining native DSLR homelands. The FE system has been traditionally weak regarding very long tele lenses. However, Sony is trying to catch up now. A little while ago they released the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS – thus a mainstream tele zoom lens.Sony is offering 4 classes of lenses – the “plain” consumer lens, the G class and at the top of the line – Zeiss and Sony GM lenses. It’s probably…
Laowa may not be a well-known player to most of you but recently they caused quite some stir with their Laowa 105mm f/2 STF – a manual focus lens featuring an unusual apodization element for optimized bokeh rendering. Before that they released a 15mm f/4 Shift and a 60mm f/2.8 macro lens with 2:1 magnification. You probably agree that all this sounds exciting?! Well, this time they have something in the queue specifically designed for Micro-Four-Thirds cameras – the Laowa 7.5mm f/2 MFT. Once it’s released (planned: April 2017), it’ll be the fastest ultra-wide angle lens available for the system.…