Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4 (on a Nikon D850 )

crycocyon

Senior Member
Got the Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4 in the mail today :D ....I wouldn't want to spend so much on the lens new, and wasn't even planning to get one (I thought I would save for the 85mm) but this was actually an insanely good deal, so much so that I was surprised I won the auction. The focus is ultra smooth and test shots were certainly confirming its known optical benefits. I have the Sigma 50mm Art as well as the Sigma 105mm Art lens, so it will be interesting to do my own comparison of these lenses in similar conditions. Why it's of interest to me is because DxO Mark shows the Sigma 85mm being #1 with the Zeiss Otus 55mm at #2, but they never tested the Sigma 105mm f1.4 Art, so I would like to see where it sits in that hierarchy. Also, they tested Sigma 85mm and Otus 55mm with a Nikon D800E and I'll be testing it (just by eye) with the Nikon D850. Sorry for the bad quality photos... just quick iphone shots of it.


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crycocyon

Senior Member
Call me crazy but for fun I got the Life+Guard skin for the Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4. This was not easy to put on, but certainly sets the lens apart in an almost more industrial design sort of way.

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And on the Nikon D850 ...

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crycocyon

Senior Member
Labor Day shooting with the Zeiss Otus 55mm f1.4 on the Nikon D850 around Boston...

Separation of different elements in the photo is quite striking...

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I'm struck by the resolving power...

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hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
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!
 

crycocyon

Senior Member
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).
 
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