Steve Spencer wrote:
If you use eye AF extensively, then I would wait until more reports come in if that is a critical feature for you. I don't think the issues with eye AF are clear. I am sure that more people will be chiming in on both face detect and eye AF. Ultimately what is good enough, however, will be a matter that you will need to decide for yourself. I do hope people post some more pictures as Fred suggests, but I also hope Fred gets the lens soon and can share some of his tests
If I’m not mistaken you have to have face detect on to use EYe AF. I always had face detect on
I wasn't going to post this as I just quickly took these to compare it with another lens when I first got the 40/2 but as there's not many other photos I'll post them. I don't think I did any modification to them besides LR defaults.
Thanks it was hiding somewhere. Can’t believe it’s actually in stock. I have to wait till the weekend though. Need to sell my 55mm 1.8 too. Anyone looking let me know I’ll list it in the next day or two but PM me
Just got mine...I don't have any human subjects til the kids get home but so far mine is nailing, with no "jitters" or hesitation eyeballs with eyefocus using pics around the house of faces.
Guess we'll see how it goes with real subjects
It's so much lighter than the 35 or 50 1.4's...Wow, I'll check in later with some pics and more thoughts...
So far it's sharp as hell wide open and the AF seems great, like any other Batis (I have em all)...Too bad about the wonky bokeh balls, or whatever you call em...They seem to be fine (soften up) once you're out of close focus range.
The Zeiss Batis 40mm F2 is an excellent lens optically, it has an intermediate focal length between a classical 35mm for street photography and a 50mm more targeting portrait
Using the Zeiss Batis is a pleasure and the results obtained in the field of sharpness, color rendition, blurry background
However the autofocus is less efficient than the other Zeiss Batis (which was excellent)
Therefore if your primary use will be for portraits I will be hesitating due to AF Eye issue (on A7Riii, not tested on A7iii)
pros
Excellent sharpness wide open from center to corner
Very good color rendition
Soft and very good blurry background
Excellent contrast
Very good separation sharp area vs blurry background
Very good build quality
Very low distortion
Low Light fall off
Good resistance to flare
Very low chromatic aberrations
Short focusing distance
Cons
Reliability of AF with eye AF
Slow AF in video and sometimes hesitant
Bokeh Balls not perfectly rounded
Price
Nice review thanks, at least some "official" reviewer has without doubt reported that there is an issue with Eye-AF, so hopefully Zeiss will really make something about it, I cannot even think that such a reputable manufacturer would allow a 1.300 USD prime with the Zeiss badge to remain out in the wild with such a glaring defect (which apparently is not an A7III-only fault, so it looks really a problem with the lens itself).
P.S. Sorry to repeat myself, but those nonagonal bokeh balls on close-up shots remain plain ugly to me, which is really a pity as bokeh looks quite nice in mid-distance shots, even at F2.8, so that decision to close down the blades under 1m remains puzzling at best for me...
I really want to buy this lens and these reviews are not helping me buy it! Hopefully Eye AF and nasty wide open bokeh and video AF can be addressed in firmware. Maybe Zeiss can let users select aperture behavior and make their own trade off choice at close distance. Shame as bokeh (and lens in general) looks nice otherwise! Wah wah wah!
Well, after a short stint with my son the eye focus seems to work about the same as my other lenses. I really only use eye focus when I'm doing portraits, so, i tried it out at about the same distance i'd use for a portrait with a 40mm lens, about 4-5 feet.
I also tried the DMF and didn't experience any front focus...I'm no lens tester so perhaps I'm not as critical as some will be...But, that works in my favor so I'm good with it
Bokeh is nice and smooth, it's also very sharp, I can see myself using it more than my Zony 50/1.4...I like this lens!
Eye Focus, seems to be working.
The aperture is fully open only near infinity.
Since the Batis has an oled display, I tried to find the actual distance by watching the blades while focusing very slowly, but the display is pretty much guessing the numbers. The lowest number I got was 9m, and the highest 88m - 53m was the most common.
This might sound like an unfair comparison but can anyone with the Batis 40 share how it compares to either the Sony Zeiss 35mm f2.8 or the Samyang 35mm f2.8 if they have either one of those lenses as well? Is the image quality significantly better?
RT-- wrote:
The aperture is fully open only near infinity.
Since the Batis has an oled display, I tried to find the actual distance by watching the blades while focusing very slowly, but the display is pretty much guessing the numbers. The lowest number I got was 9m, and the highest 88m - 53m was the most common.
Not sure what's happening there but mines wide open at 1m, every time. Focus (half press) on a subject that you know is 1m and release then check lens. It will be (should) wide open repeat for subjects closer and when you check the lens you will see the aperture blades have closed in. Certainly doesn't need to be at infinity to get f2.
