crycocyon, do you have any trouble focusing manually with the lens? Did you replace your body's focus screen with something better suited for a manual focus lens? The results are fantastic!
Thanks very much and thank-you for asking. I didn't replace the D850 screen (it's not trivial to do that so I would prefer not to). I usually shoot without my glasses (only -1.25 diopter) with the diopter adjustment on the eyepiece of the D850 set. However, I found that it was definitely more challenging locking focus with the f1.4 aperture and I was missing 50% of the shots. So using the focus confirmation dot in the viewfinder, I put my glasses on, I focused on a near small object and using a focus point defined that point as in focus, then rotated the diopter in the eyepiece until it appeared sharp to my eye. So then I was able to calibrate the diopter so I can wear my glasses and when I see something in sharp focus in the viewfinder, it turns out to be in focus through the lens as well (ie: parfocal).
Also, since I did photography through the 1980s/90s/early 2000s using a manual focus SLR, it is sort of second nature to me to manual focus, and the Zeiss is so smooth and light in the focus ring with a huge focus throw that precise focusing is for me at least fairly quick. It helps that the lens itself separates foreground/middle/background so sharply. I find I can work with a model and shoot normally although of course a bit slower and the success rate is maybe 70% in focus face and half those are sharp on one eye (usually at f1.4 only one eye will be in sharp focus). As distance increases to the subject the critical nature of the focus is less.
I love it. I find myself slowing down, shooting more thoughtfully, and I feel more connected to the process when I'm manually focusing. The first time I got an SLR in the early 1980s I just spent months with the 50mm f2 lens trying to master it, then bought a zoom lens, wide-angle etc.. So this is like going back to my roots.
I'll mention something unusual about the Otus 55mm. Because of the way it isolates subjects, keeping them razor sharp with beautiful bokeh at f1.4, the photos at least to me look like 85mm wide open. So I can shoot a close-up and it looks like 85mm, then step back and it's like 50mm. So I find I don't even need to change lenses because this thing is so versatile and gives such unusual impressions depending on the distance of the subject (something I think reviewers have reported about this lens).