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BostonGreg
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Registered: Apr 19, 2011
Location: United States
Posts: 1494
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Review Date: Nov 21, 2011
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Build Quality
Image Quality
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This is my first Zeiss lens and I am extremely impressed. Build quality is just superb. Very solid feel with silky smooth focus ring. The images I've produced with this lens far exceed the IQ produced with my Canon 85 f/1.2 II. Tack sharp wide open with just the most beautiful colors and contrast. What I love best is the amazing bokeh and subject separation. The images truly have a 3D quality that my clients just love. Being one of the less expensive Zeiss pieces I would recommend this lens to anyone considering it. I loved it so much, I just dropped another $2k on the 100 f/2 Makro Planar. I am now a Zeiss fan for life as I know you will be after shooting with this wonderful glass!
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 Nov 21, 2011
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fsiagian
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Buy and Sell: On
Registered: May 23, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 1212
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Review Date: Mar 27, 2011
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $850.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Beautiful rendering, smooth focus, built quality.
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Cons:
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None.
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This lens is simply amazing. Beautiful rendering. If you don't mind manual focus, get this lens. I use it with nikon camera and I just love the pictures much more than the nikon/sigma 85mms.
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Mar 27, 2011
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imranaz
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Registered: Jul 9, 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 55
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Review Date: Oct 24, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Image quality, color rendition, sharpness except for wide open < 5ft, bokeh, build quality and size.
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Cons:
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Focus shift can make focusing without live view a challenge.
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Oct 24, 2010
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denoir
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Registered: Feb 11, 2010
Location: Sweden
Posts: 4184
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Review Date: Sep 3, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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colors, contrasts, bokeh, excellent at medium to long distances
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Cons:
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SA, LoCA, not very good for close ups
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I would not recommend this as a first Zeiss lens to anyone as it is not good for every task. If you want a Zeiss tele that is excellent at all apertures and distances then the Zeiss 100/2 MP is a much better choice.
The 85/1.4 is a special purpose lens. It has been designed to be a portrait lens that produces flattering images with nice smooth bokeh. Heavy spherical aberration smooths out the skin of your subjects and produces forgiving portraits. That same trait makes it completely unsuitable for closeups as it loses a lot of apparent sharpness and contrast at that distance. It is far from impossible to get a good close up but you have to carefully engineer the scene. It's not what it has been designed for.
At medium distances it becomes a very interesting landscape/city lens. It is sharp wide open and you get a really nice separation of subject and background even at pretty large distances. You have to be careful though of LoCA which if you are not careful in the selection of your background and the distance to it can create a very nasty busy bokeh. Done right, the background blur is very very good.
Stopped down it becomes razor sharp. It is a great landscape lens due to its subtle color rendering and the spatial qualities of the image (i.e. 3D).
This is definitely not a lens for everyone and you really need to spend time with it and get to know its strengths and weaknesses. It is very rewarding to do so as when used in the right context it can produce really fantastic images.
I would like to stress though that this is neither a suitable first Zeiss lens nor a suitable general purpose lens. Its uses are limited but where it shines, it really shines.
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Sep 3, 2010
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Choun W
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Registered: Jul 3, 2003
Location: Thailand
Posts: 27
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Review Date: Aug 3, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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excellence sharpness even wide open, sweet 3d look boken, very special charactor when shooting wide open in low and mix light condition, very very well build quality,
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Cons:
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focus shift at very close range (1m to 1.5m) but can manage with AF micro-adjustment on camera or using live-view still and movie mode
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I love this lens, even focus shift happen but I found can manage with AF micro-adjustment on my 5D2 and if I use tripod with live-view still or movie mode then it will stop down the apperture to the select one then it not an issue anymore. Just starting my review here http://www.pbase.com/chounws3/zeiss_85mm_f14_ze
will come with focus shift testing later.
Enjoy your lens as mind.
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Aug 3, 2010
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Lazyjoe
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Registered: Jul 29, 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 37
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Review Date: May 20, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Solid build, manual focusing smooth and accurate, superb image quality. Colors and contrast are excellent. CA is well controlled This lens is a beauty...
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Cons:
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none
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This lens has very smooth and accurate manual focusing and you really need to understand it to get the most out of it.
It has great contrast, some CA but well controlled, colors are vibrant and bokeh is just creamy. As some previous reviewer mentioned the images looks almost 3D.
Good focusing distance is around 8ft at its widest aperture, not exactly close but I wouldn't give it a negative rating because it, just like I wouldn't give it a negative rating because it's Manual Focus. I knew that before buying the lens.
I use this lens on my Canon 7D for shooting HD videos and once again it shines - image quality is just spectacular. I must say that still images with this lens and my Canon 7D is not nearly as nice as the images from my Canon 1ds Mark II. Something to be said about FF camera.
I wouldn't use this lens for action shots like sports etc. If my situation calls for auto-focusing lens, I usually use my 24-70mm f/2.8 L or 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS. This lens is not suited for all applications but Portrait and Video - You've got a winner.
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May 20, 2010
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nycandre
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Registered: Apr 23, 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 22
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Review Date: Apr 25, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Feels (and v probably is) very well built, manual focus is smooth and accurate
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Cons:
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No A/F on the Canon (or any line)
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I will leave the technical evaluations to other reviewers who have tested and commented on it extensively. My comment here is on the actual manual focusing: it is actually remarkably easy, doable and fast enough even in an indoor location with average lighting.
As expected the DOF is razor thin, and the bokeh is sweet -see this shot, with a 5D, 800ASA 1/400 sec F1.8. The eyelashes are spot on - well, some of them
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nycandre/3820793090/
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Apr 25, 2010
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burningheart
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Registered: Mar 20, 2005
Location: Canada
Posts: 2064
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Review Date: Apr 13, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Great contrast control on the edges, makes the object stand out very well. Smooth bokeh. Beautiful color rendition
CA on the frame edges of a high contrast areas at infinity such as tree branches against the sky. In the center CA is strongly controlled. I shot a waterfall wide open near inifinty and the whitewater cascading down the falls had no color fringing or CA. Though shooting flowers near minimum focus distance shows some blue fringing in out of focus area.
Slight loss of sharpness when going from F11 to F16 and F1.4 in flat or dim lighting. Sharp edge to edge at 1.4 in good lighting.
This lens has some tough competition Hartblei 80 T+S, Canon 85L, Nikon 85 PC, Leica 90 APO, Canon 90 T+S. Each has its strenghts and makes it tough to choose one over the other.
For IR shooters RG715 starts to hotspot at F8 and with a B+W 093 at F5.6.
I also have the 85 ZF-IR and it has no hotspots exceptional for IR at F11, terrific contrast and 3D look. My favorite 85 for IR.
When used as a regular lens on a regular digital camera there is a slight red cast and softness.
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Apr 13, 2010
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philber
Offline
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: May 20, 2008
Location: France
Posts: 6420
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Review Date: Apr 2, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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World-class rendition of detail, colour, contrast and volume. Great "3D". Exceptional build quality
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Cons:
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Not perfectly sharp up close and wide open, some focus shift at less than 8', some CA. Not exactly a light lens, nor a cheap one.
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The Zeiss Planar 85 is not for the faint-hearted. It is not light, not cheap, and not always easy to use. Its 85 mm means that depth-of-field wide open or close will be razor-thin, making manual focus a demanding exercise, with focus shift adding a little spice.
It is basically not optimized for close up-wide open-maximum background blur.
On the other hand if you stop down to f:2.0, it picks up unbelievable detail, and its rendition of colour is second to none. That makes it a world-class mid-distance portrait lens, as well as a phenomenal landscape short tele.
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Apr 2, 2010
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Grenache
Offline
Buy and Sell: On
Registered: Dec 17, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 1585
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Review Date: Apr 1, 2010
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Build quality and handling are extraordinary. It is quite sharp even wide open at greater distances than 8 or so feet. Nice 3D look to images and color throughout range.
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Cons:
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Sharpness and focus shift from minimum focus distance out to about 5-8 feet are sub par. I find the Contax version sharper and better at close distances.
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Apr 1, 2010
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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10
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17084
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Nov 21, 2011
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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100% of reviewers
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$850.00
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Build Quality Rating
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Price Rating
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Overall Rating
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9.90
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8.56
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9.0
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