{"id":5484,"date":"2015-08-28T06:06:54","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T11:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=5484"},"modified":"2015-08-28T16:05:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T21:05:37","slug":"review-zeiss-batis-85mm-f1-8-sonnar-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-zeiss-batis-85mm-f1-8-sonnar-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 Sonnar T*"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Zeiss name has been synonymous with high-end optics for a century. \u00a0In the past 30 years, they’ve become known for creating lenses with beautiful color and contrast and biting sharpness. \u00a0This legacy continues with the Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 Sonnar T* for Sony E-Mount. \u00a0Zeiss and Sony have long held a partnership in the photography industry, and Zeiss has collaborated on many Sony E-mount autofocus lenses. However, the new Batis line joins the earlier APS-C Touit line as Zeiss’ only mirrorless autofocus lenses to be designed with the Zeiss name only. This is a lens for which many\u00a0have\u00a0high hopes, and for the most part, I feel it meets or exceeds those expectations.\u00a0Let’s discuss why.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 Sonnar T*<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n

The Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 sticks with the company’s recent minimalist style. \u00a0The lens features similar smooth and contoured body lines in the style of the Otus lenses for SLRs and the Touit lenses for APS-C mirrorless. \u00a0The Batis 85mm has a completely metal exterior that has no bulges or protrusions. \u00a0It’s simply smooth, contoured metal that flares slightly at the end and comes narrower at the mount. \u00a0the only things breaking up the smooth metal body is the fully rubber focus ring and the new OLED display, but both fit in perfectly with the lens styling. \u00a0Looking at the front of the lens, you stare directly into the large beautiful front element. \u00a0When mounting the included lens hood, the smooth flare at the end carries directly into the hood, such that the lens and hood almost appear to be one piece.<\/p>\n

Aesthetically it’s quite striking. \u00a0Operationally, it’s a bit fat, but ultimately handles well since the lens is a bit lighter than you’d expect given its appearance. The overall quality of construction appears to be top notch with exceptionally tight tolerances. \u00a0The lens includes some sort of internal weather sealing, and a blue gasket surrounds the lens mount, making tight contact with the camera mount to prevent water or dust intrusion.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The lens hood continues the curves of the lens body<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While the large diameter makes it look a bit awkward on smaller e-mount bodies lik the a6000, the Batis 85mm\u00a0handles fairly well on such a body. \u00a0On the full-frame A7 II and A7R II bodies, the large grip makes handling a breeze. \u00a0 Because of the large diameter, however, it will take up more space in the bag than many other lenses, so plan accordingly. It’s not a petite lens, but given the overall performance, I’m not complaining too much.<\/p>\n

The focus ring is entirely smooth rubber, and the movement is smooth and has the perfect amount of resistance. \u00a0The operation is excellent, but the tactile feedback is lacking due to the uniform smoothness of the ring. \u00a0I’ve never been a big fan of the rubber rings on these recent Zeiss lenses, and that continues here. \u00a0The smoothness of operation lets me forgive this a bit, but I’d still prefer a ring with some sort of ribbed texture.<\/p>\n

That OLED display that sits in the middle of the lens is used to display focus and depth of field information in either feet or meters, depending on your preference. \u00a0I’ve read some reviews that have called this display useless and poorly executed, and I couldn’t disagree more. \u00a0A standard depth of field scale for manual focus works fine, but with nowhere near the precision of the one here. \u00a0The display flashes “ZEISS” when the camera is powered up or down, and the user can select when it is on during operation. \u00a0You can choose to always have the display active; you can choose to only have the display active in DMF or MF mode, or you can choose to turn the display off entirely. \u00a0If set to on or if you’re in DMF, the lens will show you the focus and DOF scale when focus is achieved. \u00a0This can be nice, but isn’t the pinnacle of importance. However, in manual focus, the display shines.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The OLED display makes dialing in the hyperfocal distance extremely easy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When in manual focus mode, the focus distance is shown in the center, with the near and far points of focus for the chosen aperture on either side. If you’re focusing close up, the distance will be shown with a +\/- distance in hundredths of a foot to denote depth of field. \u00a0It’s a quick and easy way to gauges exactly what will be in focus. \u00a0Where’s most handy is in setting hyperfocal distance. Simply select your aperture and adjust the ring until the right hand side clicks to infinity. \u00a0In my experience, these markings are very accurate, and hyperfocal distance indeed will keep distant subjects sharp.<\/p>\n

As an aside, if you are wondering how to change the settings for the OLED display, it’s done by turning the focus ring. \u00a0Turn the focus ring to the left repeatedly and eventually you’ll see “ON \u00a0MF \u00a0OFF” displayed. \u00a0Keep rotating left to pick between these settings for when the display will be used. \u00a0Once the ring is turned right again, your setting will be saved. \u00a0To switch between meters and feet, simply rotate the ring to the right repeatedly until the display changes to your units of choice.<\/p>\n

Autofocus and Image Stabilization<\/h3>\n

The Batis 85mm f\/1.8 has a very quick and quiet autofocus motor. The lens locks swiftly and surely to the subject. I experienced very good focus accuracy and excellent responsiveness in focusing. The lens works excellently with Sony’s Eye AF algorithms as well, and I used it often when shooting portraits. I also found the Batis 85mm to work quite well for continuous autofocus operations, keeping a relatively high percentage of shots in focus in my testing.<\/p>\n

The Zeiss 85mm f\/1.8 also features optical image stabilization. When used on an A7 II or A7R II, it will work in conjunction with the camera’s in-body stabilization. When used on another body, such as the original A7 series or the a6000, the optical stabilizer adds an extra 2 stops or so of handholdability. While it’s not the most effective stabilizer in the world, an extra 2 stops is handy no matter what. It’s especially useful if using the lens on APS-C, where the field of view is similar to a 128mm lens on full frame.<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

I’ll cut to the chace: the Batis 85mm f\/1.8 Sonnar simply delivers beautiful images. While, like essentially all lenses, it isn’t flawless, it performs extremely well in so many ways, and the way this lens draws is special.<\/p>\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n

The Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 is an exceptionally sharp lens. Right from f\/1.8, the lens delivers incredible clarity and sharpness over almost the entire image\u00a0frame, even when used on the ultra-high resolution A7R II.\u00a0Only the very corners show a bit of softening at f\/1.8.\u00a0Portraits taken at f\/1.8 can display that wonderful mix of exceptional detail and clarity on the eyes while letting the remainder of the image fall away beautifully to blur. \u00a0The shot below, taken at f\/2.5, shows the beautiful blur combined with biting sharpness that the Batis shows at essentially any aperture. \u00a0Click here<\/a> for a 100% crop of her left eye.<\/p>\n

\"Indifference<\/a>
Indifference – Sony A7 II with Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 @ f\/2.5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When stopped down, the lens displays equally impressive resolution, producing files that show tremendous levels of detail right into the extreme corners. It is an eminently impressive lens with regards to image sharpness. \u00a0It’s worth noting that the lens also displays excellent resolution across the frame on APS-C cameras like the a6000. It’s definitely a lens that can pull double duty on full-frame and APS-C cameras.<\/p>\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n

Bokeh, or the quality of the out of focus areas of the lens, is of utmost importance in a fast short telephoto lens. Bokeh is also among the most subjective of qualities to discuss. \u00a0Some photographers prefer lenses that show very soft featureless bokeh. \u00a0Others prefer some structure, while still others like some character in their lenses, from flaws in the bokeh. \u00a0I’m somewhere in the middle. \u00a0I like creamy backgrounds, but also appreciate lenses with a bit of ‘something’ in the background, and the Batis falls into this category.<\/p>\n

\"Statehouse<\/a>
Statehouse Statue – Sony A7 II with Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 @ f\/1.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The bokeh from the 85mm f\/1.8 is\u00a0very good\u00a0to my eye. \u00a0It’s generally smooth and neutral, but specular highlights can get a cat’s eye look towards the edges, and the very slightest outlining can be seen on those highlights as well. \u00a0Overall, the look is gorgeous in\u00a0the majority of situations, and especially when focused close up.\u00a0The high sharpness with excellent bokeh gives images depth and dimension. \u00a0When the lens is focused a bit further out, especially with a busy background, the high contrast of the overall rendering can make the bokeh gain a bit of roughness. \u00a0It’s not ‘nervous’ per se, as you don’t get double outlines or any other such aberrations, but it simply becomes slightly chunky. Check out the image samples for a wider variety of images showing how the lens deals with background blur.<\/p>\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n

The typical ‘Zeiss look’ consists of images with high image contrast, excellent fine local contrast and rich, vibrant color. However, Zeiss tends to back off the contrast and saturation a bit when it comes to their classic portrait lenses, and the Batis follows this design philosophy. Images are crisp and clear with good overall macro contrast, but show a little less bite than some other Zeiss lenses with regards to local ‘micro contrast.’ This is a good thing for portraiture, as it allows facial features to take on a nice natural appearance. It’s also just fine for other uses, as it allows for easy post-processing. Things are just about perfect here.<\/p>\n

The lens also performs quite well with regards to chromatic aberration. Lateral CA is extremely well controlled, and you’ll be very hard pressed to see it pop up in any images. Longitudinal CA is less well controlled, but it’s still only of minor concern in actual use.\u00a0You can sometimes see a light green or magenta fringe behind or in front of the focus point, but it’s not bright or well saturated. Some minor purple fringing can be induced, but again, it’s fairly minor.<\/p>\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n

The one area where the Batis 85mm f\/1.8 falters slightly is with regards to distortion. The lens has a profile for JPEGs and within Adobe conversion software that will correct for the native distortion, but optically, there is visible pincushion distortion produced by the lens. I found this to be only really visible when shooting architectural subjects, and it’s uniform enough that it isn’t terrible to view. That said, for those images with straight lines, it’s worth it to correct the distortion. The distortion correction may have a very minor affect on image sharpness, but the lens produces images with such high resolution that I can’t see a difference.<\/p>\n

\"Pincushion<\/a>
Pincushion distortion becomes evident when shooting architecture, but will be invisible for most other shots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With regards to flare, the Batis 85mm does a decent\u00a0job in some cases and a poor job in others.\u00a0With the sun or bright light in the frame, there is minimal\u00a0reduction in contrast in the image, but\u00a0bluish purple ghosts\u00a0can\u00a0appear around the sun, and green and sometimes purple ghosts can intrude opposite the frame. \u00a0If the sun is partially obscured, the ghosting will tend to disappear, leaving only images that are clear and with strong contrast.\u00a0With the deep hood and narrow field of view,\u00a0flare isn’t an oft encountered situation.<\/p>\n

The 85mm f\/1.8 shows some rather strong vignetting wide open, but I generally find it\u00a0pleasing for portrait work. Stopping down reduces vignetting to a negligible level by around f\/4.<\/p>\n

Overall, the image quality is\u00a0excellent.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros<\/h4>\n