Thank you Schwarzlicht. I admit that some of your images were responsible for me to decide on the "impulse" purchased of the Batis 2.8/135. The owner was selling Sony 2.8/90 Macro that I wanted to buy to digitize my slide collection. He also had this Batis in like new condition. And here we are!
For some reason your links appear broken after quoting, but that f2.8 "flower in the garden" image may be the best single "makes me want to own that lens" image I've seen.
Alpunto wrote:
It's a shame how underrated this lens is just because it's only f/2.8
I learned a long time ago that focal length does more towards shallow DoF than aperture. The net difference between f2.8 and 1.8 or even 1.4 in that particular image would be negligible IMO — and in fact might detract from the flowers that are in focus 🤷🏼
Alpunto wrote:
It's a shame how underrated this lens is just because it's only f/2.8
That is one factor although not a major one, in my humble opinion. The other factor that made the lens not well received was the price. Zeiss was virtually the only 3rd party lens manufacturer some 9 years ago, and they felt the need to take advantage of the situation by charging $2,000 for a medium telephoto lens, having only an f/2.8 aperture. Don't get me wrong, the lens is a superb performer though but overpriced when new back then.
AGeoJO wrote:
That is one factor although not a major one, in my humble opinion. The other factor that made the lens not well received was the price. Zeiss was virtually the only 3rd party lens manufacturer some 9 years ago, and they felt the need to take advantage of the situation by charging $2,000 for a medium telephoto lens, having only an f/2.8 aperture. Don't get me wrong, the lens is a superb performer though but overpriced when new back then.
Joshua, when I was looking at the Batis around that time they sometimes have a sale. I got my Batis 85/1.8 at a discount. However, about a year from then I decided I wanted to get the 135 too but it went back to its regular price. So I got the 135/1.8 GM instead.
jojib wrote:
Joshua, when I was looking at the Batis around that time they sometimes have a sale. I got my Batis 85/1.8 at a discount. However, about a year from then I decided I wanted to get the 135 too but it went back to its regular price. So I got the 135/1.8 GM instead.
Joji, I was only referring to the Batis 135mm f/2.8 lens above although I didn't mention that in my post as such. I hope there is no misunderstanding there.
AGeoJO wrote:
Joji, I was only referring to the Batis 135mm f/2.8 lens above although I didn't mention that in my post as such. I hope there is no misunderstanding there.
I got ya Joshua. It's just not the right timing on my part, if the Batis 135/2.8 went on sale (maybe 20% off), I would have bought it instead of the GM as I really like the rendering of the Batis.
AGeoJO wrote:
That is one factor although not a major one, in my humble opinion. The other factor that made the lens not well received was the price. Zeiss was virtually the only 3rd party lens manufacturer some 9 years ago, and they felt the need to take advantage of the situation by charging $2,000 for a medium telephoto lens, having only an f/2.8 aperture. Don't get me wrong, the lens is a superb performer though but overpriced when new back then.
I agree about the price. It's expensive even today, but if you can get this lens at a good price, it might be an excellent choice. I was lucky enough to buy mine for only €1,000 at a store in Germany.
Alpunto wrote:
I agree about the price. It's expensive even today, but if you can get this lens at a good price, it might be an excellent choice. I was lucky enough to buy mine for only €1,000 at a store in Germany.
Again, I was referring to the situation 8-9 years ago. I didn't buy the lens back then. But a few years later, I was able to buy a used one for around $800 or so. I used it for awhile and although I was happy with it, I ended up selling it for about the same price in favor of the GM 70-200mm II. Since then, I was tempted to buy another one a few times...
AGeoJO wrote:
Again, I was referring to the situation 8-9 years ago. I didn't buy the lens back then. But a few years later, I was able to buy a used one for around $800 or so. I used it for awhile and although I was happy with it, I ended up selling it for about the same price in favor of the GM 70-200mm II. Since then, I was tempted to buy another one a few times...
Definitely, this lens has something special about it.
There are several interesting facts about the Batis 135mm f/2.8 that most people don't know:
- Zeiss has used the "APO" designation on only a handful of lenses throughout its history. That says something.
- Of its 14 optical elements, 8 are made of low-dispersion glass (ED). That's a lot!
- It weighs only 614 g and remains quite compact, even by today's standards.
- Among all the Batis lenses, this is the only one designed by Zeiss rather than Tamron because of its APO optical design. (Maybe this is an urban legend among Zeiss lovers.)
