they've chosen great subjects for the B.85 to eval its rendering, but most of the subjects for their B.25 are blah at best and one can't really learn anything about the lens from looking at them (although the couple that are quite good show the lens has a lot of potential!).
p.28 #2 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
ecarlino wrote:
they've chosen great subjects for the B.85 to eval its rendering, but most of the subjects for their B.25 are blah at best and one can't really learn anything about the lens from looking at them (although the couple that are quite good show the lens has a lot of potential!).
Totally agree. Some of the B85 images are fantastic - especialy the portraits of the girls. As for the B25 photos; they aren't really interesting to look at. But they still show how good lens this might be - colours and contrast is great, and sharpness is impeccable from corner to corner.
But then we have the price tag. Compared to cheap-but-still-very-good FE28/2.0 it seems to me that the Batis 25/2.0 isnt really worth it.
p.28 #3 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
Adding that the Batis 85 is virtually identical at f1.8 as f2. Very important to low lihgt portraitists..the FE55 by contrast is far weaker wide open then strengthens markedly at f2.2-f2.5.
Looking at the B25 compared with the ZEF 25/2, Zeiss have wisely gone all out for cross frame excellence at the cost of a little center performance. The older ZEF lens loses 20-25% once out of the smallish center, then falls apart at the wide edge. At f4 the B25 looks like a fine 85-100mm in mid apertures, no real loss of performance even in extreme corners. Lower distortion too. A very modern approach.
It's 335 grams, the ZEF 570/600 grams. If you want that one on FE add adapter weight. It looks like an ageing heavyweight prize fighter moving up divisions in the light of new standards and expectations. But, like George Foreman, it stll packs a heavy punch despite the belly flab.
p.28 #5 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
Am I the only one that thinks the new samples of the 85mm batis are just alright? I mean they look very generic beach shoot to me lol. I'm not trying to bash, but I like the examples of the little girl photos that appeared last month more. Could just be me to be honest, or my standards are really high since digilloyd claimed it to be very good lol. (Joke I don't really take his test to serious.)
p.28 #6 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
Simple. I don't think those recent shots were processed at all. Heck, at full res, they don't look sharp at all. And though I don't subscribe to the mirrorless section, I do have the Leica section. I have to say Lloyd's tests are more useful than most of the free tests out there. His field curvature analysis is very detailed (at different focus distance). I often filter out his own opinions, however, since I find his is rather extreme in some cases.
p.28 #9 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
The samples could have been shot on a 4/3 camera and I wouldn't know the difference so I'm not going to pretend to think that these samples show something elaborate compared to other lenses. They look nice to me, the beach shots could have been done by a point and shoot. Hawaii just so happens to have beaches with vivid colors like that. Time will tell how good they really are.
p.28 #12 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
Thanks for the quickie review. I am torn about replacing my Minolta 100/2. I see you have experience with the truly great ZA 85, but do you haveany with the 100/2?
p.28 #13 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
It would be also interesting to see how these lenses perform at infinity. My experience with the za 85 is that it was fantastic up close but just not as sharp as I would have liked it to be for landscapes. With zeiss it has mostly been the opposite, optimized for infinity and the let the sharpness degrade slightly upclose for nicer portraits. It's almost a given the B85 is excellent at close range, so I hope it does the same at longer distances.
p.28 #14 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
tsdevine wrote:
Also, would it kill them to publish aperture on these samples? I really just scratch my head.
-Tim
+100
I'm also seeing what seems to be motion blur or camera shake in some of the B85 shots, like of the 'belly dancer' on the beach, as well as I guess the older shots of the backlit girls in the grass. Those were ISO 100 1/320 f/1.8, which I guess might be stretching it a bit for optimum resolution if they were hand held, even with IBIS. Why not go ISO 200...? I guess time will tell once member here get their hands on the lens and give it a good workout, but right now, some images just don't seem to have a degree of fine detail sharpness I would expect, rather, kind of a coarse sharpness that looks more like slightly missed focus that was then sharpened in post... Yet other images are razor sharp, so kind of bewildering.
As for the B25, I really like the 'car 1' and 'car 2' shots. I agree Edward, it would be nice to see more distant subject images. There are a few cityscapes at Lake Lucerne, but it's difficult to know if it's just SOOC Jpegs, as the fine details feel a bit coarse and under resolved.
Regarding 75 APO and ZM85/2 veiling flare... I am also seeing this at times with the 90AA. Bright areas just outside the frame, such as an overcast sky, when photographing a relatively dark subject that fills the frame, tends to showcase veiling flare bleeding in from the out of frame bright area. In this respect, I think the 90 Summarit was a bit better.
p.28 #16 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
Test shots are notoriously poor, from review sites as well. Happens every time. Agree Ed, infinity is generally assured and Zeiss test at that FD so the MTF are valid and indicative of what to expect.
Thanks greatly Chad, that is the kind of off the cuff shooting I do. I feel it will be hard to take a poor shot with the 85, given a modicum of attention. Much noise from AF and any sense of OIS in operation, if you can recall? F1.8 looks really fine. Agree resolution does not 'shout' like sharpness. OOF looks very orderly, unobtrusive.
p.28 #20 · Zeiss "Batis" AF lens line to be released for FF E-mount
rscheffler wrote:
+100
I'm also seeing what seems to be motion blur or camera shake in some of the B85 shots, like of the 'belly dancer' on the beach, as well as I guess the older shots of the backlit girls in the grass. Those were ISO 100 1/320 f/1.8, which I guess might be stretching it a bit for optimum resolution if they were hand held, even with IBIS. Why not go ISO 200...? I guess time will tell once member here get their hands on the lens and give it a good workout, but right now, some images just don't seem to have a degree of fine detail sharpness I would expect, rather, kind of a coarse sharpness that looks more like slightly missed focus that was then sharpened in post... Yet other images are razor sharp, so kind of bewildering.
As for the B25, I really like the 'car 1' and 'car 2' shots. I agree Edward, it would be nice to see more distant subject images. There are a few cityscapes at Lake Lucerne, but it's difficult to know if it's just SOOC Jpegs, as the fine details feel a bit coarse and under resolved.
Regarding 75 APO and ZM85/2 veiling flare... I am also seeing this at times with the 90AA. Bright areas just outside the frame, such as an overcast sky, when photographing a relatively dark subject that fills the frame, tends to showcase veiling flare bleeding in from the out of frame bright area. In this respect, I think the 90 Summarit was a bit better....Show more →
Yep, also happens with the 90APO. But slightly different, in the sense that you could almost see the direction of the veiling flare, whereas with the 75APO it's a full frame wash most of the time.
Seriously I like what I see so far.