Contents
Conclusion
Pros
- Wonderfully constructed lens with tight tolerances and weather sealing
- Smoothly operating manual focus ring
- OLED display makes manually focusing for hyperfocal distance easy and accurate
- Very sharp images, even at wide apertures
- Excellent color and contrast with that Zeiss punch
- Good control of lateral chromatic aberration
- Focuses very closely
- Fast and silent autofocus
Cons
- Expensive
- Longitudinal chromatic aberration visible at wide apertures
- Vignetting never really goes away, even at small apertures
There are a fair few wide-angle primes for the Sony full-frame e-mount, but most are congregated around the 35mm focal length. The Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2 is currently the widest native prime lens in the lineup (if you don’t count the conversion lenses on the FE 28mm), and it does a very nice job. The lens shows the classic Zeiss contrast and color, with excellent sharpness to go along with it. Bokeh is average, and some longitudinal CA and vignetting are some minor downsides, but overall, the lens puts out consistently excellent image quality. The fast and accurate autofocus also ensures that you won’t come in with a bunch of missed shots due to autofocus failure and the fast aperture gives some excellent versatility for wide-angle environmental portraiture or isolating subjects close up.
The only real downside to the lens is the price, which at $1,299 US is going to be a steep barrier to entry for many shooters. Still, the lack of readily available stock for the 25mm and its 85mm brother show that there’s plenty of demand for this lens, even at this price. I personally wasn’t quite as enamored with the lens as I was with the 85mm Batis, but I still very much enjoyed shooting with the lens and realizing the quality of images it produces. If you want an excellent wide-angle prime, the Batis 25mm will fit the bill handily. It’s an outstanding addition to the Zeiss lineup and the Sony FE system.
Image Samples
Click on an image to enlarge
thx jordan.
any thoughts on the batis vs the sony 28mm f2,aside from price and slightly wider fov?
I’ll actually have a direct comparison posted in the next few days. As you might expect, the Batis is optically better for the most part. Stay tuned for examples
The Batis is even better than Jordan says 😉
My copy is sharp from edge to edge even wide open. There might be a little less resolution in the extreme corners but you have to magnify the image by 200% to see that.
Color and rendering is also very special. Bokeh is nice actually and one can see this in the samples here, too. I have to disagree on that with Jordan, even though from a technical point he is right. Still very pleasant oof parts that never look distracting.
The 28mm Sony lens is nowhere near as good. I tried two copies of that lens because i would have loved to buy a smaller and lighter lens for my system for 1/3 of the price. Did not work. The Sony lens is soft in the corners and even in the center of the frame it is not on par with the Batis. It is much softer across the frame when you compare it to the 35 2.8 Sony, 55 1.8 Zeiss/Sony, the 85 1.4 Sony or this Batis.
wonderful stuff. was hoping the sony might be as good stopped down.
Hey Jordan,
Nice article/review.
I would like to read your opinion about new Loxia 21mm vs Batis 25mm
Which one of those are better, which one has a better CA, distortions, overall IQ, sharpness, etc…
Regards
I have literally only played with the Loxia 21mm for about 8 minutes at PhotoPlus, of which I took around 10 photos. I really can’t say definitively at this point. I will be reviewing the Loxia when it’s available.
Thanks for the article. Exactly what I was looking for.
Cool article. I use the 18mm Batis and the 21mm Loxia quite a bit but was thinking about edging up a bit towards a more standard lens. Very helpful.