By contributing editor Chuck Fadely in New York:
Zeiss is showing two new lenses at PDN PhotoPlus Expo in New York.
The Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 normal lens in Canon and Nikon mounts is being touted as delivering “no compromises image quality.” It’s a large chunk of glass with an astonishing price tag in the neighborhood of $4,000 U.S. They are marketing it as providing medium-format image quality out of full-frame 35mm sensors. It’s an Apo Distagon they say has no visible aberrations, color fringing, or distortion.
The lens is lovely to hold with a smooth, long-throw manual-only focus which should be great for video. It weighs 1030g (2.43 lbs) in ZE (Canon) mount and focuses to .5 meter (19.68″.)
They were showing prints of images shot with the lens. Images shot against the light had open shadows; clean highlights, and great sharpness.
They say they are shipping the 55mm lens to rental houses soon and it should be out in November.
“Otus” is apparently a Latin word for an owl that sees in the dark. A ton of sample images are on Zeiss’ flikr page.
A sample image from Zeiss 55mm
The other new lens is a Touit 50mm 2.8 macro lens for mirrorless cameras, including Sony E mount and Fuji. It won’t be available until first quarter of 2014.
