Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon Review

Dustin Abbott

April 19th, 2019

The original idea behind mirrorless cameras was they would be smaller, lighter alternatives to DSLRs due to the differences in technology while providing similar levels of optical performance. As I’ve noted in many subsequent reviews this idea is often lost, as frequently lenses designed for mirrorless (like the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master) are, if anything, bigger and heavier than their DSLR counterparts. But Zeiss has managed to design an extremely compact, extremely high performance range for Sony FE (full frame mirrorless) – the Loxia series of lenses. They deliver amazing optical performance in beautifully made, tiny packages, but with a few caveats. They are expensive, for one, and perhaps more relevant for many people, they are manual focus only. The fifth release in the Loxia series is the Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon. Both the focal length and the maximum aperture are a little unconventional, but the performance of the Loxia 25mm is likely to satisfy just about any photographer.

The 25mm focal length is only unconventional for other lens makers, as Zeiss has a number of lenses at the 25mm focal length, including an F1.4 Milvus version, an F2 Batis version, and this F2.4 Loxia variation. Each of these lenses serves a different purpose and exists for a different market. The Loxia series has a unique position for Sony mirrorless users, and that is demonstrated by the fact the Zeiss actually makes two different lenses at the 25mm focal length for Sony full frame mirrorless. Zeiss clearly sees the Loxia series and the Batis series as having two separate roles.

The Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon quickly shows part of what makes the Loxia series special. You are getting all of the build quality and performance of Zeiss’ DSLR lines (like Milvus) in a much smaller, lighter (but NOT less expensive) package in the Sony E-Mount Loxia lenses. The Loxia 25mm is a beautifully compact lens, only 2.44 x 2.95″ (62 x 75 mm). Like other Loxia lenses, the Loxia 25mm has a surprisingly dense feel due to the high grade build materials (all metal and glass). It weighs more than you might expect as a result at 13.86 oz / 393 g. This quickly begs the question as to WHY more mirrorless lenses can’t be smaller – particularly when the Loxia series nicely covers the 35mm/full frame image circle. Too many mirrorless lenses are massive due to different design priorities. Some people don’t mind large lenses, but others envision mirrorless systems as being a way to achieve exceptional image quality in a compact package. Zeiss should be applauded for providing options for these photographers and also for managing to design quality optical instruments within the design constraints of keeping the Loxia lenses compact and with a commonality of design.

And that is a real strength of the Loxia line. They have been very intentionally designed to work in concert with each other. Each of the 5 lenses in the lineup (2.8/21mm, 2.4/25mm, 2/35mm, 2/50mm, and 2.4/85mm) all share a common filter size (52mm) and a roughly identical diameter. This allows them to come in a kit for filmmakers like this one, complete with a fantastic hard case:

They are also each designed with the option of quickly “declicking” the aperture (a common preference for video work as it allows one to have smooth control over the aperture iris) and they can also be quickly/easily “geared” with the Zeiss LensGear Mini due to a common diameter. This accessory allows you to quickly set them up for focus follow systems (gearing), which is the preferred focus protocol for filmmaking as it gives one complete control over focus. What I like about the LensGear compared to other systems that I’ve used is that it is completely tool less and can be very swiftly loosened or tightened by gripping the front ring and rotating it.

The ability to “declick” the aperture makes the Loxia series more useful for filmmakers, as many filmmakers prefer smooth aperture iris control to be able to change aperture values on the fly to control what is in focus or even do an “aperture rack” where one’s “vision” is increased by moving to a smaller aperture value where more is in focus. You may find that a declicked aperture is your personal preference even for stills work. This design approach clearly delineates the Loxia line’s unique positioning as lenses designed with both still and video in mind.

Even when the aperture is “clicked” there is an advantage for the Loxia series over many manual focus lenses that I’ve used. Some have detents (and thus allow you only to select) the full aperture stops (like f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, etc…). Others might have a half stop in between some apertures. The Loxia series allows you to select aperture in one-third stops (i.e. f/2.8, f/3.2, f/3.5), which gives you more finite control over aperture. I personally find that a manual aperture ring often causes me to be more intentional about aperture and to think about it a little more. If you aren’t confident in the relationship between aperture and depth of field or light gathering, however, a manual aperture ring does preclude the ability for the camera to automatically select aperture, which might be a serious issue for you.

On the plus side, a Sony body and a manual focus lens like this is a great place to learn, as the electronic viewfinder shows you true depth of field, so you can easily see how the depth of field is impacted by the aperture that you have selected.

On that note, the Loxia series is fully manual focus, though there is no easier a place to shoot manual focus glass than a Sony mirrorless body…particularly those with Steady Shot Inside (In Body Image Stabilization). One great asset is that as soon as input is detected on the manual focus ring, the camera will automatically zoom in the portion of the image where the active focus point is (the default is the center of the frame if no other area is selected). This makes it very easy to visually confirm focus. I find that I have a near perfect “keeper rate” with MF lenses on Sony mirrorless bodies. Because the lens does have electronic contacts all EXIF data will be communicated to the camera. The lenses work exceptionally well and are some of the better examples of manual focus lenses out there, but yes, they are manual focus only.

So, if you aren’t put off by manual focus, have a Sony E-mount camera, (and have fairly deep pockets) and haven’t been turned off yet, read on, as the Loxia 25mm is a lovely lens that produces some gorgeous images.

Prefer to Watch your reviews? Check out my visually packed video review replete with some video footage captured with the Loxia 25mm as well:

Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Build Quality

There is next to nothing to complain about when it comes to the build quality of the Loxia series. These are absolutely gorgeous lenses, with a classic sense of style that looks good now and will look good in 50 years. They are built to last that long, too. While the Loxia lenses are much more compact than the Milvus lenses, the build quality in no way is inferior on the Loxia series. I think there is a unique challenge for the Loxia series when it comes to price, however. A large lens seems to justify its price more than a small one, though in many ways Zeiss’ optical achievement is more impressive because that they are achieving it within such a compact package. Often you have to to compromise image quality to get a compact lens, but Zeiss has (without fail) delivered excellent optical performance from each of the Loxia series.

Take a closer look at the build, design, and features in this hands-on video breakdown:

The materials of the Loxia 25mm F2.4 are all metal and glass, with that lovely satin anodized metal finish that Zeiss does so well. Subtle blue accents (Zeiss badges and the blue of the weather sealing gasket) help to give the lens a uniquely Zeiss look. The lens hood is made of metal, and has a flocked interior. One real strength for Loxia 25mm is that the lens hood (like other Loxia lenses) reverses very tightly against the barrel body and adds almost no extra girth for storage. You can really squeeze the Loxia 25mm into some very small slots in your camera bag, and, in fact, it will even fit in a jacket pocket or a side pocket in cargo pants. The intrinsic advantage for such a lens is that the size makes it much easier to bring along. It doesn’t matter how good a lens is if it is sitting at home rather than in one’s bag. Too many photographers buy a large lens based on the marketing hype of its abilities without considering the fact (realizing) that the reality of such a large lens dictates that (over time) the lens will increasingly be left out of one’s bag due to size and weight considerations.

I love the front facade on Zeiss lenses. I like the lens designation information that is there, and, in this case, it is practical, as it does help to distinguish the lens from other lenses in the Loxia series that have a similar diameter and shape. The Loxia 21mm and 25mm (like the 35mm and 50mm lenses) are near identical in size and shape, so having that clear lens designation on the front facade is very helpful when trying to select the correct lens from one’s bag if you have more than one Loxia lens in your kit. As previously noted, like other lenses in the series it sports a 52mm filter thread in metal.

The main portion of the barrel is occupied with the ribbed focus ring. This ring also has a smooth portion with all of the distance markings. The damping on the Loxia 25mm is beautifully light and smooth – essentially perfection. The focus throw isn’t huge (about 130 degrees), but I’ve not had any issues with nailing focus at any focus distance. The excellent damping combined with the automatic zooming of the image in the viewfinder or LCD screen makes it easy to get quickly to the correct focus point and then hold it. The shot below, for example, was one taken on the move and I was able to quickly nab correct focus.

The smaller portion of the lens barrel is filled with the manual aperture ring. The total length of the lens is very, very short, and the byproduct of everything being able to rotate like this is that there is no fixed portion of the lens to grasp for mounting and unmounting. You have to grasp the lens more as a whole to be able to apply pressure to twist it free. That’s the tradeoff for having such a small lens!

At the rear of the lens you will find a metal (of course!) bayonet mount along with the gasket to help seal the lens from dust and moisture. Zeiss also notes that there are internal seals to help more fully weather seal the Loxia 25mm.

All in all, these lenses are as nicely built as anything you’ll ever find. It’s compact size in no way belies the excellence of its build. Larger lenses require you to evaluate whether or not you will actually use them on a shoot, but the Loxia 25mm is a very easy lens to throw in the bag “just in case”.

Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Image Quality

Here is where Zeiss lenses typically justify their price tag (at least for some people). Pretty much everyone agrees Zeiss glass is special; the only disagreement is whether it is special enough to validate its price tag. I suspect that people will still disagree on this after reading this section, but hopefully my tests will help bring some clarification.

I break down optical performance into two major categories: Resolution (sharpness, contrast, and longitudinal chromatic aberrations) and Rendering (Color, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, etc…)

The Loxia 25mm uses a classic Zeiss Distagon optical design, with 10 elements arranged in 8 groups.

I would encourage you to watch this video episode to get the whole story on the optical performance of the Loxia 25mm Distagon:

Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon Resolution

First, let’s take a quick look at the distortion and vignette. There is some mild barrel distortion that is fortunately very linear, meaning that it corrects fairly easily. There is some pronounced vignette wide open, which will be corrected either in-camera (JPEG) or through the attached profile correction in RAW files after import to your editing software. Here’s a look at the corrected/uncorrected files:

The vignette lifts somewhat by F4, though a mild amount remains through F8. Fortunately you are unlikely to ever see it unless you specifically turn off profile corrections. The profile (at least in Lightroom/ACR) does a very good job of providing very even illumination across the frame without evidence of overcorrection.

Since it is unlikely that you will view the files without correction in real-world use, I will show my sharpness results with the profile enabled. I’m using a 42MP Sony a7RIII for these tests.

Wide open you will find near perfect sharpness and very good contrast in the center of the frame. Image composed in the center 2/3rds of the frame will look fantastically sharp. There is some dropoff near the edges, however, with reduced resolution and contrast.

You can see that real-world images have a lot of punch in the center 2/3rds, with that excellent Zeiss micro-contrast on full display.

Stopped down the slightly more than 1/3rd stop to F2.8 provides a mild improvement in center contrast (resolution was already pretty much perfect). Edge improvement is similarly mild. Some lenses make a big jump with just a tiny stop-down, but that’s not the case here. Stopping on down to F4 shows a corner improvement to good, but not what I would call excellent.

F5.6 and F8 deliver the best edge to edge performance for landscapes, with excellent sharpness across the frame.

Real world landscape shots are fantastic from the Loxia 25mm due not only to strong resolution, but the great Loxia characteristics of excellent microcontrast and color rendition. Textures really pop!

The shots above were at F5.6, with F8 providing a tiny improvement over this year, but one hard to detect in real-world situations. I really love Loxia lenses for landscape work, as they provide images with an extra bit of sparkle to them. Here are a few more samples:

Zeiss Loxia 25mm Distagon Rendering

There’s more to a lens than just its resolution, as some lenses have a lot of sharpness but little character. The Loxia 25mm (as is true of all the Loxia lenses) is loaded with good character, providing real world images that just look better than competing lenses. The standout characteristic of Loxia glass is truly fantastic colors. The color is very consistent across the series (the glass is nicely matched), which is a great advantage if color fidelity for a certain project (be it stills or video) is required. It’s hard to top Arizona sunsets for beautiful color to begin with, but shooting them with a Loxia lens is a real treat!

I saw no issue with lateral chromatic aberrations along the edges of images, and rarely saw longitudinal CA, either. The most egregious example over my testing period was a bit of green fringing in the bokeh of this image here:

The good control of chromatic aberrations is part of the secret to such excellent microcontrast, as the longitudinal chromatic aberrations tend to diminish the acutance of images by blurring edges. As you can see from the image and crop above, the Loxia 25mm does a really good job of producing very well-defined edges on subjects.

While a wide angle lens with only a moderately large maximum aperture is not going to be the world’s strongest bokeh producer, I do think the bokeh quality from the Loxia 25mm is fairly nice. I didn’t see any hard edging or “nervousness” in the transition areas, and while the lens has excellent contrast it manages to not produce busy backgrounds. Bokeh rendering is subjective, so I’ll let you look at some images and determine that for yourself.

Flare resistance is very robust. I saw very mild veiling near the sun/light source and a bit of ghosting with the lens stopped down, but contrast remains strong even in extreme situations. The ten aperture blades produces a really gorgeous, well-defined sunburst effect as well. I enjoyed playing with that to compliment images:

The Loxia 25mm gets very high marks for astrophotography as well. Even at F2.4 I saw little coma, with star points nice and crisp across the frame…even on the edges. Stopping down to F2.8 made a very mild improvement, but I consider the performance even at F2.4 excellent.

This is definitely a lens that should be on your list for shooting the night sky if you are a Sony shooter.

All in all, there is little to criticize in the optical performance from the Loxia 25mm over than less-than-impressive extreme corner performance at wider apertures. I would say that the Batis 25mm F2 is a little more consistent across the frame, but has a little less punch when stopped down compared to the Loxia. You can see more images from the Loxia by visiting the Lens Image Gallery here.

Loxia 25mm Video Performance

I recommend that you check out the video review here to see some actual visual evidence of the Loxia 25mm’s video performance, as it is somewhat hard to portray in a text article. As I noted earlier, however, the Loxia 25mm (as are all the Loxia lenses) is designed with video in mind. The standard diameter (ready for geared systems and focus follow), the ability to declick the aperture, and even the purposeful design of the shared filter threads all point to the intentional inclusion of video in the design. The consistency of color rendition across the series is another compelling reason to consider Loxia lenses for your video kit. I found the compact nature and relatively light weight made it an easy lens to balance on a motorized gimbal, and the focal length is great both in full frame or Super 35 modes to give a genuinely useful perspective. This is the kind of lens I would think most cinematographers would enjoy having in their bag.

I also used an inexpensive tool called the FocusShifter (you can catch my video review here) to aid me in nailing smooth focus pulls. That, combined with the smooth focus ring and great manual focus aids in the camera body, made doing video work a real treat with the whole Loxia series.

The great color, sharpness, and contrast of the lens (when stopped down) and the unique character of the lens (along with the near complete lack of distortion) make it a natural fit for these Sony mirrorless cameras that double as such capable vehicles for getting great video footage. I found the footage in 4K looks just great!

Conclusion

If you envisioned mirrorless cameras as being a platform where you could travel small and light while still retaining excellent image quality, then the Zeiss Loxia series is probably just what you are looking for. The Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 is another beautifully unique lens in the Loxia lineup. It’s incredibly compact, wonderfully built, a genuine joy to use, and produces exceptional images. But the Loxia series (and the Loxia 25mm) is not a lens for everyone. Many photographers will note that the Zeiss Batis 25mm F2 is the exact same price ($1299 USD), and the Batis 25 offers a faster maximum aperture and autofocus. So why buy a manual focus lens instead? The best answer is that if you intend to do video work. The Loxia lenses are peerless for those that want to do both video and stills, and the focus-by-wire nature of of the Batis lenses are a liability if you want manually control focus or use a geared system. The Loxia 25mm is by far the better video option. The Batis 25mm is a little more consistently sharp across the frame at wide apertures, but the Loxia 25mm nudges in as the better lens at landscape apertures. They are both exceptional lenses, but each is made for a different clientele. I hope this review has helped you understand if you fit the profile as someone who would really benefit from using the Loxia 25mm.

Pros:

Beautiful made and beautifully compact
Weather sealed
Focus ring is near perfect
Clickless aperture option and gearing design makes it a great video lens
Fabulous color rendering and microcontrast
Great flare resistance
Very low coma – a great night sky lens
Excellent center sharpness from wide open on
Well controlled chromatic aberrations

Cons:

Expensive
Edge sharpness and contrast lags behind center performance at wide apertures
Manual everything isn’t for everyone
Takes some practice to easily mount/unmount

Thanks to Zeiss Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

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Keywords: Zeiss Loxia, Loxia 25mm, Zeiss 25mm, Zeiss Loxia 25mm, Loxia 25mm f/2.4, Loxia 25mm F2.4, Loxia Review, Zeiss Loxia Review, Loxia 25 Review, Loxia 25mm Review, Dustin Abbott, Carl Zeiss, loxia2425, Zeiss, Loxia, 25mm, F2.4, f/2.4, Distagon, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Declick, Video, Sample Images, Coma

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Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

March 31st, 2019

The original idea behind mirrorless cameras was they would be smaller, lighter alternatives to DSLRs due to the differences in technology while providing similar levels of optical performance. As I’ve noted in many subsequent reviews this idea is often lost, as frequently lenses designed for mirrorless (like the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master) are, if anything, bigger and heavier than their DSLR counterparts. But Zeiss has managed to design an extremely compact, extremely high performance range for Sony FE (full frame mirrorless) – the Loxia series of lenses. They deliver amazing optical performance in beautifully made, tiny packages, but with a few caveats. They are expensive, for one, and perhaps more relevant for many people, they are manual focus only. The fifth release in the Loxia series is the Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon. Both the focal length and the maximum aperture are a little unconventional, but the performance of the Loxia 25mm is likely to satisfy just about any photographer. The 25mm focal length is only unconventional for other lens makers, as Zeiss has a number of lenses at the 25mm focal length, including an F1.4 Milvus version, an F2 Batis version, and this F2.4 Loxia variation. Each of these lenses serves a different purpose and exists for a different market. This marks the most recent of my reviews of the Loxia series (I’ve now covered all the existing lenses), and I think the Loxia 25mm is another special lens. Stay tuned for my review coverage, and enjoy the images in the galleries below!

Photos of the Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4

Photos Taken with the Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4

Thanks to Zeiss Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

Visit Dustin’s Amazon Storefront and see his favorite gear

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

Keywords: Zeiss Loxia, Loxia 25mm, Zeiss 25mm, Zeiss Loxia 25mm, Loxia 25mm f/2.4, Loxia 25mm F2.4, Loxia Review, Zeiss Loxia Review, Loxia 25 Review, Loxia 25mm Review, Dustin Abbott, Carl Zeiss, loxia2425, Zeiss, Loxia, 25mm, F2.4, f/2.4, Distagon, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Declick, Video, Sample Images, Coma

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Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 OS Sport Review

Dustin Abbott

March 8th, 2019

Sigma has produced perhaps more lenses than anyone over the past five years, but few of them are as important as the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS | Sport. Not only does this complete Sigma’s “trinity” of fast aperture zooms (14-24mm F2.8 ART, 24-70mm F2.8 ART), but there are few lenses more indispensable to professional photographers than a 70-200mm F2.8. Speaking personally, I can safely say that when I shoot weddings, events, and even portrait sessions a 70-200mm F2.8 is the first lens I reach for. The challenge for Sigma is that because this is such an important lens, a lot of lens makers have invested time and effort in developing good lenses in the class. Sigma doesn’t just face competition from Canon and Nikon, but Tamron’s excellent SP 70-200mm F2.8 G2 already provides a solid third party alternative at a fantastic price point. Sigma absolutely has to get this one right, as response to their 24-70 ART was somewhat tepid and many reviewers (including myself) declared the Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 G2 the better lens. Don’t expect Sigma to get outdone again, however, as the Sigma 70-200mm Sport is a serious, professional grade lens that is going to challenge everyone in the class on merit alone. The downside is that it is a (slightly) bigger and definitely heavier lens than competitors. The 70-200S is Sigma’s answer to the major players at this most important of focal ranges. But is it enough? Read on to find out.

Prefer to watch your reviews? Watch my thorough video review to get all the details!

Sigma 70-200S Build and Handling

If you want a nice, close look at the lens and its features, I recommend that you watch this video episode here:

Size and weight seems to have stopped being a consideration for Sigma about the same time as they switched to their new “Global Vision”. Their serious lens releases since that point have typically been the largest and heaviest in the class, and that’s no different here. 70-200mm F2.8 lenses have never been known for being petite, but Sigma delivers a lens that increases the weight over competitors by more than 300 grams. The Canon L III weighs 3.26lb (1480g), the Tamron G2 lens weighs 3.31lb (1500g), and the Nikkor ED VR lens weighs 3.15lb (1430g). The Sigma Sport? It comes in at a hefty 3.97lb (1800g). That’s nearly a pound heavier than the Nikkor lens. And, unlike the competitors, the tripod collar on the Sigma is not removable (it can be fully rotated but not removed), and so you can’t reduce that weight if you don’t need a tripod mount. I often shoot the Tamron 70-200 G2 without the tripod collar attached, so when I weighed it as I typically use it, it came out at 1387g. The Sigma tipped my scales (without caps) at 1812g; a little over its listed weight.

The 70-200S is also the longest lens in the class, though this is by a fairly tiny measure. It is essentially 8″ long (203mm), making it only a half millimeter longer than the Nikkor lens, 9.5mm longer than the Tamron, and 3mm longer than the Canon. Where the extra weight comes into play is more due to the diameter of the 70-200S. It is 3.71″ (94.2mm) in diameter and sports a larger 82mm filter thread (every other 70-200mm F2.8 lens I’ve used has been 77mm). All the other lenses are within a millimeter of each other in diamter, at roughly 88.5mm, making the Sigma nearly 6mm wider (which is accounted for in that larger filter size).

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that this is a very, very well made lens. It feels more professional grade than any 70-200mm lens I’ve used before. The Tamron G2 that I have on hand for comparison feels very well made. It is sleek and modern, but when I compare the two the lens the Sigma feels more “military grade”. It employs more of a flocked matte finish that seems highly resistant to either fingerprints or scuffing (something that the Tamron is less immune to). The feel of the rings are more robust. Sigma tends to give its Sport lenses the highest grades of build, and that seems very true here. The barrel is made from magnesium alloy, which is the same extremely tough material used in pro-grade camera bodies.

Included in the build quality is a thorough dust and splash proofing, including a rear gasket, internal seals, and coatings to the outer element surfaces to resist moisture and oils (fingerprints). These make the elements easier to clean, too.

One new design element that I’ve not seen previously on a Sigma lens is a locking mechanism on the lens hood. While I’m not personally convinced that a lock is necessary, I know that others do value this. I also noted that Sigma has done the best job I’ve seen with such a locking mechanism. It’s wide, easy to depress, and has nice mechanical functionality to it. The lens hood is nice and lightweight as well, and has other nice Sigma touches like a soft touch transition area and ribbed section that makes it easier to twist free.

Another new feature is the inclusion of a custom button on the lens (often reserved for very expensive super telephotos). This button is repeated on three sides of the lens to make it easy to access in multiple orientations.

There are various options you can assign to the custom button. On a Nikon body you can program this only through the Sigma USB Dock (and the Sigma Optimization Pro software). Since I have a Canon EF mount lens, that option is greyed out in the software, and the value is assigned in the Canon camera menu (see photo).

In my case, I programmed the button to switch between Single Shot and Continuous AF modes. This is really useful to me when I’m shooting events or weddings, as different modes suit different moments. I consider this a useful addition.

Also useful is the two custom modes included on the CUSTOM switch. These values are programmed through the USB Dock. I chose to program C1 to unlock the Faster Speed Autofocus option (more on that in a moment) and assigned C2 to a third OS (Optical Stabilizer) mode. Sigma allows one to choose autofocus prioritity (speed, accuracy, or the standard mode which tries to balance the two). Many have noted that the Speed option gives a bit more speed without any real accuracy cost, and that appears to be the case here. Speed is mildly faster and accuracy seems about the same.

As for the OS mode, I prefer Tamron’s approach where their VC switch has 3 different options. Modes 1 and 2 are fixed (standard and panning, as they are here on the Sigma), while Mode 3 can be programmed in two different directions (one video-centric mode which stabilizes all the time and a dynamic mode that focuses on stabilizing the final image without affecting the viewfinder much). Sigma has a similar mode to this, which I’ve programmed to C2, but I like Tamron’s approach better as it groups the stabilizer options together. Sigma’s approach means that you have to choose C1 or C2, so in my case I can have the faster AF option or the stabilizer option that I want, but I can’t have both at the same time. Still, having more options here is welcome, so kudos to Sigma for that.

I did find that using the programmable Mode 3 made a difference. I took these shots while being waist-deep in snow and with an outside temperature of -20C. The shot is 1/13th second at 200mm. In the first shot (one of about four with similar results), I used the standard mode (1). I could not get a steady result (a lot of motion blur). I switched to the Mode 3 that I programmed to C2, and got a much better result with my first try.

If you don’t need a super-steady viewfinder, this is going to give you the best final results. This is one area where Sigma lags a little behind Tamron, however, as the G2 is rated at 5 stops of assistance in this mode while the 70-200S is rated at 4 stops.

Other switches include controls for the OS, a focus limiter with Full and 3m-∞ options, and the control switch for the autofocus.

There is a distance window and various lens designations on the barrel. The closest ring to the camera is the manual focus ring, which is about an inch wide and has a high-quality feel to the rubberized materials. The ring moves fairly well for an autofocusing lens. The zoom ring is the farther ring, and I like the fact that there is a bevel mid-way through it that makes it very easy to find by feel. It’s about twice as wide as the MF ring, and the zoom action has a very precise damping that feels more professional-grade than the Tamron, which feels a little looser and more inconsistent by comparison. The 70-200S both zooms and focuses internally, so, while large, the outer dimensions of the lens never change in operation.

I’ve riffed on the tripod collar a bit, but I do want to balance that with some praise. The tripod foot is a little more robust than Tamron’s and also shares its Arca-Swiss compatibility, which is a big deal to me. Canon still neglects to do this at times, but it is so helpful to be able to just mount the lens on a tripod without messing with a quick release plate. Every tripod foot should have this compatibility. The collar also has easy-to-feel detents at the four points of the compass and the locking knob has a quality feel to it.

The 70-200S is compatible with, well, a lot of things. It works with the USB dock as mentioned, and is eligible Sigma’s lens mount conversion. It’s also (importantly!) compatible with Canon’s Lens Aberration Corrections, which means that JPEGs receive in-camera correction for Distortion, Vignette, Chromatic Aberrations, and Diffraction just like a Canon lens would. This is a definitely advantage over Tamron, and if you favor shooting JPEGs, it is huge! RAW files will need correction in post just like other lenses.

I’ve noted a secondary advantage for Sigma lenses that are supported like this. Because the camera accurately recognizes the lens, it means that certain lenses (like this one) play better with Canon’s own teleconverters. Both Sigma and Tamron make their own TCs, of course, and would recommend that you use them, but I’ve heard a lot of comments from my viewers that suggests that many photographers are uninterested in dropping another $400+ on a branded TC, particularly if they already own one for Canon or Nikon. The Tamron G2 lens does not play well with my Canon Extender 1.4x III, but the Sigma 70-200S works just fine. It reports fine, focuses fine, and produces good quality results.

In fact, the lens is also eligible with Sigma’s MC-11 converter, which means that 70-200S behaves better on a Sony body than any other non-Sony telephoto that I’ve used. It works fairly close to a native lens, which I certainly can’t say for the Tamron or Canon 70-200mm lenses that I’ve tested on it in the past. What’s more interesting, though, is that it also works fine with the Canon 1.4x III attached to the MC-11 and my Sony a7RIII. Autofocus continues to work fine (a little more hunting in difficult situations but otherwise good), image quality is good, and everything reports correctly save the lens designation (the lens now reports as DT 98-280mm F0 SAM). A small price to pay for that additional functionality! Here’s a few samples shot with that combination:

These are some real advantages over Tamron (and even Canon or Nikon) if they apply to you and further extend the value proposition of the Sigma.

If adding more size and weight to an already large class of lens doesn’t turn you off, then I suspect nothing else about this design will. This is one of the best built, best executed Sigma lenses that I’ve used.

Sigma 70-200S Autofocus

Before elaborating on autofocus in the native Canon EF mount that I’m reviewing here, I first want to reiterate that if you are looking for a lens to use on dual systems (Canon and Sony), the Sigma is most definitely the way to go. Sigma did a very clever thing when they introduced the MC-11 mount converter. It is a great adapter (my favorite, actually), in its own right, but more importantly, it has given Sigma lenses a “baked-in” advantage over all other lenses when it comes to adapting them to Sony bodies. It is fine-tuned to Sigma’s focus algorithms and they have been very proactive about keeping it updated. I’ve seen a steady improvement with the quality of focus that it produces with my non-Sigma lenses, but the advantage is even clearer when using Sigma lenses. Adapted Sigma lenses are the closest thing to native AF performance from a non-E-mount lens, and that’s certainly true here. When shooting in AF-C mode there is a bit of sound as the autofocus continually makes microadjustments (different focus motor than the typical mirrorless lens), and there is a little more sound even in AF-S for the same reason, but this is essentially true of all lenses without the stepping/linear motors more typically used in mirrorless lenses. The 70-200S focuses quickly and confidently on my Sony a7R3 body. Functions like Eye-AF are well supported.

Image quality with my a7R3 is unsurprisingly excellent. It has a great sensor, and the great resolution of the 70-200S pairs nicely with the camera. Take a look at the detail captured in this 100mm shot at F5.6:

Another thing I enjoy about using such a lens on Sony is that I have APS-C/Crop mode mapped to my C1 button, where at the press of the button I can switch to a cropped mode where I’ve got 300mm of equivalent reach at a still very useful 18 MP. Yes, I could achieve the same thing by cropping later, but often when shooting an event or something similar, getting the framing I want in the moment is more important. Take a look at this two orchid shots: one is in FF mode, the second in APS-C mode. Being able to make this choice in the moment is very useful, and you can see autofocus is nailed in them both:

The lens reports accurately on a Sony body in every way, and that further extends the usefulness when sorting and cataloging in Lightroom or Luminar’s library module. Here’s a few more Sony shots:

In the past I’ve frequently criticized Sigma lenses for inconsistent autofocus accuracy, but fortunately that has really changed in the past year. I’ve reviewed about 5-6 straight Sigma lenses that have shown markedly improved autofocus accuracy, and that includes the 70-200S. I address a minor front-focus tendency through a quick AFMA, and have had nicely accurate focus results since. This includes using points outside of the center group on my Canon 5D Mark IV.

I had good results in a portrait session as well, with good focus results on the face:

Autofocus speed (after enabling focus speed priority in the USB Dock) seemed roughly on par with the Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 G2, so roughly on par with competing lenses. This is a lens that is going to meet the needs of the average photographer just fine. If you are a professional sports photographer on the sideline of a major event, you might want to elect for the Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS III for the peace of mind in autofocus speed, but I’m not sure there’s much of a difference.

All in all, Sigma has done a solid job here with the autofocus. The HSM (Hypersonic Motor) gets the job done without any major missteps that I’ve spotted.

Sigma 70-200S Image Quality

Whenever I review a lens that has thrown out either price constraints or size restraints as a part of their design philosophy I tend to be a little more critical. Sigma has shown restraint with pricing on this lens, but they have given us a larger, heavier lens than competing lenses, so I feel that needs to counterbalanced by build and image quality gains. We’ve seen that this is true to some degree with the build quality, but how about the optical performance? I did a lot of direction comparisons of the lens with the Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 VC G2, which I consider to be the main competitor to the lens on either Canon or Nikon. We’ll break down my observations into two categories: Resolution and Rendering.

It should be noted that Sigma didn’t skimp with expensive elements in this optical design. There are nine top-grade FLD (Fluorite Low Dispersion) elements and an SLD (Special Low Dispersion) element in the optical path, which is the most complex of competing lenses with 24 elements in 22 groups.

I’ve observed that in the internet age people want clear-cut answers. They want to be able to Google “which 70-200mm F2.8 lens is the best/sharpest” and get a simple answer. As someone who spends extensive time with dozens of new lenses every year, I can safely tell you that this is rarely the true reality when testing modern lenses. The answer is inevitably much more nuanced. Is the 70-200S the best 70-200mm F2.8 lens on the market? After weeks of extensive tests, I can’t answer that question, but I can safely say that this is a truly excellent optical instrument.

Sigma 70-200S Resolution

The best way to view my findings as I compared the 70-200S and the Tamron 70-200 G2 is by viewing this video episode.

The first thing to note is that the Sigma actually shows a smaller amount of barrel distortion at 70mm than competing lenses. That’s very clear when compared with the Tamron:

While there isn’t yet a standard profile in ACR/Lightroom for the lens, I was able to easily manually correct for distortion and vignette, which makes it clear that the profile will be able to fix this easily:

My hope was that the larger diameter of the 70-200S along with the larger filter size would result in less vignette and better light transmission. I did not find that to be the case, however, for while there was some give and take, the Sigma showed roughly equal amounts of vignette as the Tamron (less at some focal lengths, more at others). The Tamron actually exhibited slightly better light transmission, too. The added complexity of the Sigma’s optical formula could contribute to that. Consider me slightly disappointed on this point, as I expect there to be a tangible tradeoff if I’m accepting more size and weight.

As I noted before, the end results when you look at the resolution are somewhat nuanced and can vary depending on where you look in the frame. At 70mm my conclusion was that the lenses showed a roughly even amount of resolution with give and take at different points in the frame. I do like the contrast better from the Sigma along the edge wide open. Stopping down a bit produces an uptick in sharpness and contrast to excellent levels all across the frame. Once again I slightly favor the contrast from the Sigma.

At 100mm both lenses are excellent in the center of the frame wide open but the Tamron is clearly stronger at the edge of the frame. Stopping down to F4 only widens the gap for the Tamron on the edge.

AT 135mm both lenses exhibit a very strong center performance (a theme across the focal range!) and a very strong edge performance. Stopped down they are roughly equal in resolution, but I slightly prefer the Sigma contrast:

Before moving on, let’s step back for a moment and consider just how good this performance is in the real world. It’s easy to get lost in pixel-peeping and the nth degree of comparisons without considering how good these lenses actually are. Here’s a real world wide open shot from the Sigma at 135mm along with a detail crop:

Pretty fabulous, no?

Moving on to 200mm is where I saw the biggest advantage for the Sigma (at least with the copies I’ve compared). In the center of the frame the difference is slight, with the Sigma showing a little stronger contrast and a tiny bit more resolution, but the difference is a little more pronounced on the edge. Stopping down closes the gap but the Tamron doesn’t quite catch up.

This advantage at 200mm also translates into better performance with a teleconverter attached. As previously noted, the Tamron does not communicate properly with the Canon 1.4x III attached. It acts like a 2x converter is attached for some reason. So, despite what the results say, this is at 280mm comparison at F4 for both lenses:

You can see the Sigma retains more contrast and a bit more resolution…plus it behaves properly. This would obviously not be a problem if I were using a Tamron TC with the Tamron, but the same would be true of the Sigma with the Sigma TC. I would argue that 200mm is the most important focal length in this zoom range, and a strong performance there is very important. That strong teleconverter performance further extends the usefulness of the 70-200S. This real world shot looks pretty great!

While I haven’t yet tested the Canon 70-200mm F2.8L III, I did spend extensive time with the Mark II while doing my review of the Tamron G2. To summarize my comparisons there and how they play out here, I would say that the Sigma is stronger than the Canon from 70-135mm and is roughly equal from 150-200mm. That means that the Sigma is competing at all tested focal lengths and is delivering arguably the most consistent performance across the range. So while Sigma isn’t “blowing away” any of the competitors in terms of resolution, it is the near the top of heap and represents essentially as good a performance as you are going to find in a zoom lens covering this focal range.

Sigma 70-200S Rendering

Beyond resolution there are still a lot of important considerations. In a second video episode I covered those other factors.

YouTube is prone to extremism. One reviewer or influencer notices something, makes a big deal about it, and that becomes the defining factor for a new piece of gear for a while until cooler heads moderate that reporting. That defining issue for the Tamron was “focus breathing”. In this context it means that the Tamron behaves as a lens with a much shorter focal length at close focus distances. It’s not until about 30 feet that the Tamron behaves like a true 200mm lens. One of the first questions I got about the 70-200S was whether or not it had the same issue.

It doesn’t.

It behaves similarly to the Canon or newest Nikkor lens (the previous model also struggled with this) with a near identical minimum focus distances and magnification. This is definitely my preference, though I will note a few areas of nuance here. With both lenses at their minimum focus distances you can see a notable difference in their degrees of magnification.

The Tamron can focus more closely, so if your subject is at the same distance (say six feet or a couple of meters), the amount of difference in magnification would be even more pronounced. Case closed, right?

For some, yes, but if you care to take a closer look, you find that the truth is a little more complicated.

First of all, the nature of the Tamron’s design means that while it has poorer magnification, it also produces better image quality at minimum focus distances:

The second truth is that the disadvantage on the 200mm end becomes an advantage at the 70mm. If you are in a room where you have limited space, you will find the Tamron the more flexible instrument. Look at this comparison at about nine foot away. The Tamron has about 25% more in the frame.

As I said, nuances. Still, in many situations the Sigma will have the advantage. At close to medium focus distances it will allow one to more strongly compress the scene, giving a more defocused background. Look at how lovely the defocused backgrounds are here:

I suspect that portrait photographers will prefer the Sigma for this reason. It will give more separation of your subject from the background at most portrait distances. It is definitely a lovely portrait lens:

Bokeh is a somewhat subject measurement, and I found the bokeh from the Tamron and Sigma lenses more similar than different:

I noticed a couple of minor differences. I do think that the Sigma grabs a few more hard edges at longer focal lengths, which is perhaps unsurprising considering that it has a little more contrast. Strong contrast doesn’t disappear in the defocused regions. The second difference is that I found the geometry of bokeh highlights gets a little more “squeezed” along the edges of the frame on the Tamron than on the Sigma, which is a positive for the 70-200S. The Sigma has a unique 11 bladed aperture to help keep bokeh highlights very circular, and it does a great job.

Chromatic aberrations are very well controlled. In field (real world) use, I didn’t really see any even in very high contrast situations:

All in all the Sigma 70-200S provides images with a lot of punch. It seemed competent for everything that I threw at it over my review period. If you’d like to see more images, check out the Image Gallery here!

Conclusion

Sigma is, in many ways, the latecomer to the party here. Tamron has released two generations of their 70-200mm F2.8 VC lenses since Sigma’s EX lens was released in 2010. Both Canon and Nikon have released newer versions of their own 70-200mm F2.8 lenses in that period as well. If Sigma had released this lens 3-4 years ago, it probably would have been heralded as the undisputed champ. In today’s market it is unquestionably still near the top in terms of build and performance, but Tamron’s 70-200mm F2.8 G2 is such a strong entry that the choice today is a little more complicated – particularly considering that the Tamron is an absolute bargain at $1299 USD. There’s no question, however, that the Sigma is also a strong value at $1499 USD. I feel that its build is a cut above that of the Tamron and every bit as good (if not better) than the Canon or Nikon versions. It’s performance is perhaps the most even of any of them, too, with no significant flaws that I could spot.

The Tamron SP 70-200mm F2.8 G2 is still the best value in the class, and I would choose it if I A) valued size and weight 2) didn’t plan to ever shoot it on Sony. If you are a Canon shooter and like shooting JPEGs, the fact that the Sigma has access to Canon’s corrections, works better with Canon teleconverters, and essentially lacks nothing that the more expensive Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS III lens has makes it a compelling choice. If you want to also shoot your lens on Sony, don’t even think twice about it – the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport and the Sigma MC-11 are the way to go. If you are a Nikon shooter, I can’t really think of any reason why one would pay the additional $1300 premium to go the Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8E VR unless they were seriously paranoid about third party lenses (are there still people that feel that way?) The only fly in the ointment here is the additional weight of the Sigma. But if that doesn’t put you off, I suspect that you will love this lens if you add it to your kit.

Pros:

“Military Grade” build – extremely robust
Good weather sealing
AF hold and custom function button and switches
Fast, accurate autofocus
Great image quality across the focal length
Good performance with teleconverters
Canon’s Lens Aberration Corrections support
Works well with the Sigma MC-11 on Sony bodies
Few optical flaws
No focus breathing

Cons:

Bigger and heavier than competing lenses
Tripod collar cannot be removed

Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

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Keywords: Sigma 70-200 Sport, Sigma 70-200 Sport Review, Sigma 70-200mm Sport, 70-200mm Sport, 70-200 Sport Review, 70-200mm Sport Review, Dustin Abbott, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Review, Sport, 70-200mm, Sigma, Sport, OS, 1.4x, 2x, Extender, Sigma MC-11, Sony, Canon, A7RIII, 5D Mark IV, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Video, Sample Images

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Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar Review

Dustin Abbott

March 4th, 2019

The original idea behind mirrorless cameras was they would be smaller, lighter alternatives to DSLRs due to the differences in technology while providing similar levels of optical performance. As I’ve noted in many subsequent reviews this idea is often lost, as frequently lenses designed for mirrorless (like the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master) are, if anything, bigger and heavier than their DSLR counterparts. But Zeiss has managed to design an extremely compact, extremely high performance range for Sony FE (full frame mirrorless) – the Loxia series of lenses. The Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar lens is the fourth in the series that I’m reviewing (I’ll follow up with the Loxia 25mm F2.4, which is the most recent release). The Loxia 85mm is the longest focal length in the Loxia series, and, as we’ll see from the next section, may continue to hold that distinction for a long time.

The Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar has a very unique profile for a modern lens. The closest comparison I can come up with is a couple of vintage telephoto lenses I have from Takumar in the M42 mount (135mm F3.5 and 150mm F4). I think the reason for that similarity is the same; in both cases the lens designers were working around the theme of maintaining a consistent diameter and filter size (I personally own 5 Takumar lenses from that era that all have a 49mm front filter thread and similar diameter). The Takumar designers allowed for the more extreme focal lengths (or for larger aperture values) by making the lenses longer, not wider. That seems to be the case here, too, as all the Loxia lenses share a roughly common diameter (2.46″/62.5mm here) and a common filter thread (52mm). The main difference with the 85mm is that the longer focal length combined with the diameter restraints resulted in them developing a very long and slender lens (the Loxia 85mm is 3.73″/95mm long, which is almost an inch longer than the next longest Loxia lens). This gives the Loxia 85mm a very unique lens profile among modern lenses where many other 85mm lenses tend to be wide and squat.

The Loxia 85mm F2.4 is longer than either the Sony 85mm F1.8 or Zeiss Batis 85mm F1.8 lenses despite having a smaller maximum aperture than either of them for this reason. The Loxia 85mm is also the heaviest of the trio, weighing in at 1.31lb (594g) due to having a more robust, metal-rich construction than the other two lenses. It’s also the most expensive at $1399 despite being both manual focus and having a smaller maximum aperture of just F2.4.

That is the other tradeoff. In many ways I feel like the Loxia 85mm is the most compromised of the Loxia series in the basic design (not performance) by the physical constraints placed on the Loxia series. It comes with away with a smaller maximum aperture than almost all competing lenses. It has a different kinds of lens profile that, as noted, looks more retro than modern. These same constraints make me wonder if this is as far as Zeiss will go with the Loxia series in terms of telephoto (a 135mm F3.5 might be possible, but probably isn’t likely). But at the same time, this liability is also the Loxia lineup’s greatest strength for some shooters…and in particular for videographers.

A real strength of the Loxia line is that they have been designed to work in concert with each other. Each of the 5 lenses in the lineup (2.8/21mm, 2.4/25mm, 2/35mm, 2/50mm, and 2.4/85mm) all share a common filter size (52mm) and a roughly identical diameter. This allows them to come in a kit for filmmakers like this one, complete with a fantastic hard case:

They are also each designed with the option of quickly “declicking” the aperture (a common preference for video work as it allows one to have smooth control over the aperture iris) and they can also be quickly/easily “geared” with the Zeiss LensGear Mini due to a common diameter. This accessory allows you to quickly set them up for focus follow systems (gearing), which is the preferred focus protocol for filmmaking as it gives one complete control over focus. What I like about the LensGear compared to other systems that I’ve used is that it is completely tool less and can be very swiftly loosened or tightened by gripping the front ring and rotating it.

The ability to “declick” the aperture makes the Loxia series more useful for filmmakers, as many filmmakers prefer smooth aperture iris control to be able to change aperture values on the fly to control what is in focus or even do an “aperture rack” where one’s “vision” is increased by moving to a smaller aperture value where more is in focus. You may find that a declicked aperture is your personal preference even for stills work.

Even when the aperture is “clicked” there is an advantage for the Loxia series over many manual focus lenses that I’ve used. Some have detents (and thus allow you only to select) the full aperture stops (like f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, etc…). Others might have a half stop in between some apertures. The Loxia series allows you to select aperture in one-third stops (i.e. f/2.8, f/3.2, f/3.5), which gives you more finite control over aperture. I personally find that a manual aperture ring often causes me to be more intentional about aperture and to think about it a little more. If you aren’t confident in the relationship between aperture and depth of field or light gathering, however, a manual aperture ring does preclude the ability for the camera to automatically select aperture, which might be a serious issue for you.

On the plus side, a Sony body and a manual focus lens like this is a great place to learn, as the electronic viewfinder shows you true depth of field, so you can easily see how the depth of field is impacted by the aperture that you have selected. And, if you do video, the Loxia 85mm is seriously one of the best video lenses that I’ve used for reasons I’ll detail in this review.

The Loxia series is fully manual focus, though there is no easier a place to shoot manual focus glass than a Sony mirrorless body…particularly those with Steady Shot Inside (In Body Image Stabilization). One great asset is that as soon as input is detected on the manual focus ring, the camera will automatically zoom in the portion of the image where the active focus point is (the default is the center of the frame if no other area is selected). This makes it very easy to visually confirm focus. I find that I have a near perfect “keeper rate” with MF lenses on Sony mirrorless bodies. Because the lens does have electronic contacts all EXIF data will be communicated to the camera. The lenses work exceptionally well and are some of the better examples of manual focus lenses out there, but yes, they are manual focus only.

So, if you aren’t put off by manual focus (and have fairly deep pockets), then read on, as the Loxia lenses are a treat reserved only for Sony E-mount shooters!

Prefer to Watch your reviews? Check out my visually packed video review replete with some video footage captured with the Loxia 85mm as well:

Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Build Quality

There is next to nothing to complain about when it comes to the build quality of the Loxia series. These are absolutely gorgeous lenses, with a classic sense of style that looks good now and will look good in 50 years. They are built to last that long, too.

Take a closer look at the build, design, and features in this hands-on video breakdown:

The materials of the Loxia 85mm are all metal and glass, with that lovely satin anodized metal finish that Zeiss does so well. Subtle blue accents (Zeiss badges and the blue of the weather sealing gasket) help to give the lens a uniquely Zeiss look. The lens hood is made of metal, and has a flocked interior. One real strength for Loxia 85mm is that the lens hood (like other Loxia lenses) reverses very tightly against the barrel body and adds almost no extra girth for storage. The longer lens profile of the 85mm means that it doesn’t fit into as many places, but it is still a very slim lens. I traveled to Kentucky using only a Peak Design Everyday Sling 5L bag and was able to fit a Sony a7R3 + the Loxia 21mm, Loxia 50mm, and 85mm lenses all in the bag along with some basic accessories like extra batteries and a Peak Design Leash strap.

I love the front facade on Zeiss lenses. I like the lens designation information that is there, and, in this case, it is practical, as it does help to distinguish the lens from other lenses in the Loxia series that have a similar diameter and shape. This is particularly true of the 2/35 and 2/50 Loxia lenses, which are near identical in size and shape. The 85mm is the most unique lens of the bunch due to being so much longer. The Loxia 85mm identifies the classic Sonnar optical design of the lens. Like other lenses in the series it sports a 52mm filter thread in metal.

The main portion of the barrel is occupied with the ribbed focus ring. It’s very wide on the 85mm and falls easily to hand. This ring also has a smooth portion with all of the distance markings. The damping on the Loxia 85mm is light, smooth, and precise – essentially perfection. The focus throw felt about right with the lens, and I feel like I’ve been able to nail focus without any real issue.

The smaller portion of the lens barrel is filled with the manual aperture ring. The total length of the lens is very, very short, and the byproduct of everything being able to rotate like this is that there is no fixed portion of the lens to grasp for mounting and unmounting. You have to grasp the lens more as a whole to be able to apply pressure to twist it free. It’s a little easier than other Loxia lenses because of the longer barrel.

At the rear of the lens you will find a metal (of course!) bayonet mount along with the gasket to help seal the lens from dust and moisture. There are some internal seals as well to help make the lens weather resistant.

The lens hood is quite long on the Loxia 85mm. It has a light flocking inside to help keep extra light from hitting the front of the lens.

All in all, these lenses are as nicely built as anything you’ll ever find. It feels like classic Zeiss construction and quality…only miniaturized. Larger lenses require you to evaluate whether or not you will actually use them on a shoot, but the narrow profile of Loxia 85mm makes it an easy lens to keep in a spare slot in your bag and bring along “just in case”. I find that the build quality of the Loxia series inspires a lot of confidence.

Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Image Quality

Here is where Zeiss lenses typically justify their price tag (at least for some people). Pretty much everyone agrees Zeiss glass is special; the only disagreement is whether it is special enough to validate its price tag. The Loxia 85mm will in many ways be the “hardest sell” for the Loxia series as it is isn’t as compact and there are some very strong entries for Sony at 85mm, including the Sony 85mm F1.8 and the Zeiss Batis 85mm F1.8 (along with the very expensive Sony 85mm F1.4 G Master lens). The Loxia 85mm is actually more expensive than either of the 1.8/85mm lenses despite having a smaller maximum aperture. The optical performance of the Loxia 85mm is fantastic (as we will see), but I think the most compelling reason for purchasing it may be more “video-centric” than stills photography. We’ll examine why, but I will also say this: I have rarely seen a lens that produces better color than the Loxia 85mm. Images are just beautiful…

I break down optical performance into two major categories: Resolution (sharpness, contrast, and longitudinal chromatic aberrations) and Rendering (Color, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, etc…)

The Loxia 85mm uses a classic Zeiss Sonnar optical design, with 7 elements in 7 groups. This is a fairly simple optical formula, and that is music to the ears of many shooters who feel that overly complicated optical formulas rob lenses of some classic priorities like microcontrast. The Loxia 85mm is a pretty strong vote in favor of this approach, as it delivers stunningly levels of contrast and image pop.

I would encourage you to watch this video episode to get the whole story on the optical performance of the Loxia 85mm Sonnar:

Loxia 85mm F2.4 Planar Resolution

First, let’s take a quick look at the distortion and vignette and how the standard profile corrects for it.

There isn’t much distortion to correct, as you can. There is some moderate vignette, but it is nicely cleared up either in camera (JPEGs) or with the standard profile applied in software (Lightroom in this case). Nothing really to be concerned about.

If we take a look at wide open sharpness we can see that the Loxia 85mm is fantastically sharp in the center and only has a mild amount of drop-off in the corners wide open. It delivers one of the better across-the-frame performances I’ve seen at 85mm.

Wide open contrast is simply fantastic (particularly where you will compose most images), and this real world image and crop shows you just how incredible the microcontrast is on the fine details of images.

The leaf looks like a perfectly rendered cutout. Wide open contrast is just incredible, and that is at least partly due to very well-controlled chromatic aberrations. Look at this mug of tea, for example:

Even in the crop you can see very little CA even on the super-high-contrast backlit glass. And did you notice how rich the character of the image is?

Stopping down to F2.8 increases contrast and corner performance a bit, and by F4-5.6 the corner sharpness is essentially as good as the center sharpness for remarkably even results for landscape work:

Actual landscape images look fantastically good. Color saturation is simply incredible.

I will also note that the Loxia 85mm handles high contrast areas really well. This is an area where some lenses fall apart. I shot this very demanding scene wide open and expected garbage results…but didn’t get them. The dried grasses in the distance were saturated with light and had a very heavily shaded background beyond them. This is typically where due to reduced acutance a lens is incapable of rendering the fine details because of the amount of contrast in the scene. The Loxia 85mm nailed it, though, as you can see from this crop.

This allows the Loxia 85mm to serve as a very good event lens despite it’s manual focus nature. With the automatic image magnification, it is easy to visually confirm focus and get very nice results. I also like the fact that I can switch into APS-C mode (I have it mapped to C1 on my Sony cameras) and get a nearly 130mm framing. The “two focal lengths” gives me some flexibility in shooting events.

The resolution and acutance from the Loxia 85mm is genuinely excellent.

Zeiss Loxia 85mm Rendering

There’s more to a lens than just its resolution, as some lenses have a lot of sharpness but little character. The Loxia 85mm packs a tremendous amount of punch with fantastic microcontrast and color. One valid reason to consider the Loxia lenses as a set is if getting consistent color across lenses (consistently excellent color, at that), is important to your work (this may be particularly important for those of you who do video). The color is stunningly good out of the Loxia 85, both rich and accurate. If your “thing” is do as little post-processing as possible, then Loxia lenses (and this 85mm) are a great place to start. I find that the Loxia lenses produce rich but still natural color right out of camera.

The bokeh quality is generally quite good from the Loxia 85mm, though in a few situations I felt like the intense contrast resulted in the bokeh being a little busier than what I might light (not unusual with very high contrast lenses). Here’s some shots to allow you to judge for yourself.

I expect your conclusion will be that there is a lot more good than bad there.

The Loxia 85mm can be guilty of some pronounced veiling if bright sun enters the frame directly, though this happens in a way that can be used creatively in some situations. The first shot below shows this wide open, the second is with the lens stopped down for F5.6 (the general veiling becomes more like rays), and, in the final shot, you can see the nice looking sunstar that comes if you stop the lens down and compose creatively with it.

Frankly there isn’t a whole lot to complain about. I found my actual images from the lens to just be beautiful, period.

Loxia 85mm Video Performance

I recommend that you check out the video review here to see some actual visual evidence of the Loxia 85mm’s video performance, as it is somewhat hard to portray in a text article. As I noted earlier, however, the Loxia 85mm (as are all the Loxia lenses) is designed with video in mind. The standard diameter (ready for geared systems and focus follow), the ability to declick the aperture, and even the purposeful design of the shared filter threads all point to the intentional inclusion of video in the design. I found the compact nature and relatively light weight made it an easy lens to balance on a motorized gimbal, and the focal length is great both in full frame or Super 35 modes to give a genuinely useful perspective. This is the kind of lens I would think most cinematographers would enjoy having in their bag.

I recently tried to use one of the Batis lenses for video work (using something like the LensGear). Frankly, I hated it. Focus by wire is just no substitute for the silky smooth focus action of a perfectly damped mechanical manual focus ring like the Loxia series has. For video work the Loxia series are among the best tools Sony shooters have at their disposal. And their price (compared to dedicated cine lenses) suddenly becomes much more reasonable. Here’s a short film documenting my morning routine (as a minister) using only the Loxia 85mm:

I also used an inexpensive tool called the FocusShifter (you can catch my video review here) to aid me in nailing smooth focus pulls. That, combined with the smooth focus ring and great manual focus aids in the camera body, made doing video work a real treat with the whole Loxia series.

The great color, sharpness, and contrast of the lens (when stopped down) and the unique character of the lens (along with the near complete lack of distortion) make it a natural fit for these Sony mirrorless cameras that double as such capable vehicles for getting great video footage. I found the footage in 4K looks just great!

Conclusion

In some ways the Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 is the least of the Loxia series (it is the least compact and light). In other ways it represents the pinnacle of the optical performance of the series, with amazingly crisp, contrasty results and incredible color rendition. You may actually find yourself reducing saturation with this lens rather than boosting it! It’s also my favorite video tool of the group in part because the added length gives you a little more room to operate with something like a focus follow system. If you are a stills-only shooter, it might be hard to make the case for the Loxia 85mm over the excellent Zeiss Batis 85mm (cheaper, larger maximum aperture, and autofocus) or even the excellent Sony 85mm F1.8, which may be the strongest value for money lens in Sony’s lineup. The only exception to that rule is if you own other Loxia lenses and prefer the shared commonality of color, “look”, and filtering. If you are video shooter, however, the Loxia 85mm hammers the other two options. Its focus ring is perfect, the aperture can be declicked, its image quality is fantastic for video, and the physical design is very accommodating to the gear we use to get good video. While the Loxia 85mm is a fantastic stills lens, in many ways it seems more designed for video than anything else, and I think that is where it succeeds the most. It costs nearly $1400, but for some videographers it will be worth every penny.

Pros:

Beautiful made
Has some weather sealing
Almost no distortion
Sharp at wide apertures; exquisitely sharp at smaller apertures
Beautiful color rendition
Beautifully soft bokeh rendering
Excellent microcontrast; insane levels of contrast
Focus ring is near perfect
Clickless aperture option and gearing design makes it a great video lens

Cons:

Relatively expensive
The least small and compact lens in the series
Manual everything isn’t for everyone
Takes some practice to easily mount/unmount

Thanks to Zeiss Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

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Keywords: Zeiss Loxia, Loxia 85mm, Zeiss 85mm, Zeiss Loxia 85mm, Loxia 85mm f/2.4, Loxia 85mm F2.4, Loxia Review, Zeiss Loxia Review, Loxia 85 Review, Loxia 85mm Review, Dustin Abbott, Carl Zeiss, loxia2485, Zeiss, Loxia, 85mm, F2.4, f/2.4, Sonnar, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Declick, LensGear Mini, Video, Sample Images

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Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar Image Galleries

Dustin Abbott

February 18th, 2019

The original idea behind mirrorless cameras was they would be smaller, lighter alternatives to DSLRs due to the differences in technology while providing similar levels of optical performance. As I’ve noted in many subsequent reviews this idea is often lost, as frequently lenses designed for mirrorless (like the Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 G Master) are, if anything, bigger and heavier than their DSLR counterparts. But Zeiss has managed to design an extremely compact, extremely high performance range for Sony FE (full frame mirrorless) – the Loxia series of lenses. The short telephoto end of the lineup is handled ably by the Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar, a lens that delivers a tremendous amount of optical punch with high contrast, extremely sharp, and vividly colored images. These galleries will contain a variety of photos of the beautiful lens lens and taken with it. The Loxia 85mm F2.4 is a great stills lens, but an even better video lens. Check out this little short film I shot with it to commemorate my favorite part of the day and my morning routine as a minister.

Stay tuned for my ongoing coverage and final review!

Take a closer look at the build, design, and features in this hands-on breakdown:

Images of the Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar

Images taken with the Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

Keywords: Zeiss Loxia, Loxia 85mm, Zeiss 85mm, Zeiss Loxia 85mm, Loxia 85mm f/2.4, Loxia 85mm F2.4, Loxia Review, Zeiss Loxia Review, Loxia 85 Review, Loxia 85mm Review, Dustin Abbott, Carl Zeiss, loxia2485, Zeiss, Loxia, 85mm, F2.4, f/2.4, Sonnar, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Declick, LensGear Mini, Video, Sample Images

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Viltrox 20mm F1.8 ASPH for Sony FE Review

Dustin Abbott

February 15th, 2019

If you were to go back even five years ago, it was easy to know the players in the photography industry. As a Canon shooter at the time, the lenses essentially universally came from Canon, Sigma, Tamron, Zeiss, and relative newcomer Samyang/Rokinon. There were a few fringe/cult following lenses from Voigtländer that most photographers had never heard of, but essentially there were five players, and the same true if you were a Nikon shooter (just substitute Nikkor for Canon). It seems like the mirrorless revolution has really opened the door for new lens makers, however, and in the past two years in particular I’ve suddenly been reviewing lenses from lens makers I had never heard of previously like Laowa, Kamlan, Meike, Yongnuo, Zonlai, Irix, and now, Viltrox, with the Viltrox PFU RBMH 20mm F1.8 ASPH. The Viltrox 20mm F1.8 is a brand new lens for Sony FE (full frame mirrorless), and I’ll be reviewing it on the demanding 42 MP sensor of the Sony A7rIII.

If there is a common thread among most of these lens makers, however, it is that they are (with the exception of Irix) Chinese companies. The original four I mentioned are all either Japanese companies or, in the case of Zeiss, a German company with modern manufacturing in Japan. Samyang was the unique one as it is a Korean company. Here in North America there has been a lingering stigma that a lot of Chinese made products are “cheap”, and, while that is true of a few lenses that I’ve reviewed from a few of these companies, I’ve personally been impressed by the quality of a lot of these lenses…and the kinds of images they can produce!

That’s very true with the Viltrox 20mm. Viltrox has been a manufacturer of camera gear for some time, but they made camera accessories (flashes, adapters, some lights, etc…), not lenses. That all changed in late 2018, however, as Viltrox hit the late trade shows with prototypes of not one but three new lenses, including this 20mm F1.8 in a Sony E mount, an additional 85mm F1.8 E-mount lens, and an autofocusing 85mm F1.8 lens for Fuji X-mount. It’s clear too that Viltrox is working on a number of different development levels, too, as this 20mm lens is a purely manual lens without any electronics of any kind, while the 85mm E-mount lens is manual focus but has an electromagnetic aperture (no aperture ring, but rather the aperture is controlled from within the camera), and the Fuji mount 85mm is a full autofocus lenses without any manual controls (outside of a MF ring, of course, like any lens).

Interestingly, this Viltrox 20mm lens is the most expensive lens of the trio at nearly $500 USD (it’s $486 at Amazon right now) despite being the most “old-school” in terms of electronics. While that price is actually fairly reasonable for a wide aperture, wide angle lens designed for a full frame camera, it’s not cheap enough that people will take a flyer on an unknown lens from an unknown lens maker unless it carves out a reputation for itself in some way. Does the Viltrox 20mm F1.8 ASPH manage to do that? That’s what we are here to discover.

Prefer to watch your reviews? My thorough video review will show you the details for both photography and video.

Viltrox 20mm F1.8 Build and Handling

I would recommend that you watch this video episode to get a detailed close look at the lens and its features:

The Viltrox 20mm does not feel like the work of a novice lens maker. I was impressed first by the presentation coming out of the box, which was somewhat reminiscent of Laowa, who has managed to pull-off a Zeiss-like level of presentation (and has also succeeded in moving their brand somewhat upscale). The box design is clean and well-packed, and the lens comes with the basic accessories (including a drawstring bag for the lens which offers minimal protection value other than, perhaps, some protection from scratching or marks in your camera bag).

It is the lens itself, however, that impressed me. It has a feeling of density and premium build materials that I once associated solely with Zeiss. It is all metal and glass, and has some serious heft to it despite being only a medium-sized lens. It weighs in at 1.71 lbs (775g), which is near the upper limit of what balances well on the smaller size of mirrorless camera bodies. I find the balance on my Sony a7RIII test body helped by two factors: 1) the lens isn’t particularly long (4.02”/102mm), so most of that weight is close to the camera body and 2) I use a SmallRig grip extender on my a7RIII which enables me to achieve better balance with heavier lenses.

The Viltrox 20mm has an anodized metal satin finish that is both classic and attractive (and, again, quite Zeiss-like). If you slapped some Zeiss logos on the lens, it wouldn’t be hard to pass it off as a Classic Zeiss lens, in fact. All of the markings on the lens barrel are etched, not just painted, with the lettering mostly in white but with bright orange/yellow high contrast paint marking the Imperial measures on the distance scale (the metric markings are in white). The high contrast paint reminds me a bit of the Otus lenses.

I was initially thrown by some of the acronyms on the lens, as while I’m extremely experienced with lenses, there were several that I didn’t understand. On the front of the barrel, for example, it says, “PFU RBMH”. That was a new one to me. After some inquiries to Viltrox I learned that it is actually English representations of Chinese character that speak to being true to one’s purpose – more of a company motto than an optical designation.

On the side of the lens there is a red badge that says DF (Digital Full Frame) and RBW (Real Beam Waveguide Coating, which refers to their proprietary multicoating). The ASPH in the lens designation is a more common one, and refers to “Aspherical” as the optical formula includes an aspherical element.

There are a wide variety of hyperfocal distance markings (at F1.8, F4, F5,6, F8, F11, and F16), which are appreciated on a fully manual lens. Often lenses only give you 2 or 3 options on the hyperfocal scale, and they are often at extremes (wide open and minimum aperture, for example). Even with a hyperfocal scale, however, it does take some trial and error to learn how to best utilize a lens for hyperfocus (which is where you try to have as much as possible in acceptable focus for landscape work, for example). I often find I prefer the results from just magnifying the image and focusing on something about halfway through the scene, but your mileage may vary.

The focus ring is fantastic. It is roughly an inch in diameter, and is made of metal with metal ribs that make it both easy to grip and easy to install a focus follow rig of some kind onto. The damping is perfect. It is light enough to glide along very smoothly without any sticking points, but has enough weight that fine-tuning focus is also easy to accomplish. I also like the focal travel (throw) of the MF ring, which is right under 150 degrees. The feel of a manual focus ring is a highly nuanced thing that not everyone gets right. I’m impressed that Viltrox nailed this key aspect of lens handling.

Equally impressive is the manual aperture ring and the aperture iris itself. The aperture ring is a much narrower ribbed metal ring further along the barrel towards the front of the lens. If I have an criticism here, it is in the placement of the ring. My favorite place for aperture rings is near the lens mount where you won’t grab it inadvertently. The next best place is at the very front of the lens with some space from the MF ring. In this case, the aperture ring is a little too close to the manual focus ring, which makes it possible to inadvertently move it when you are trying to focus (particularly if you are wearing gloves, which is not unusual when you are reviewing a lens in Canada during the month of January!!) I haven’t had a big issue with this, but I have had to be very intentional about making sure to not do this. Beyond the placement, however, the ring itself is excellent. It is a clickless aperture ring, meaning that there are no detents at aperture “stops”, so you can rack smoothly through all aperture opening sizes. There are markings on the barrel that indicate the position where traditional full stops are (there is a marking for both F1.8 and F2, of course). This makes the ring even more useful for video work, as many videographers prefer to be able to smoothly change aperture without negatively impacting video. The damping of this aperture ring is also perfect…which again has left a very positive impression on me.

The aperture itself is intriguing. It has a very high blade count of 14, and if you look at the physical aperture as you close it down, you can see that it retains an essentially perfect circular shape as you stop the lens down. I love this, and I’m not quite sure why more lens makers don’t do something similar. One of my least favorite things about Zeiss lenses, for example, is how quickly you begin to see the shape of the aperture (typically a nonagonal shape). While 20mm is not a strong focal length for producing defocus, you can see that circular highlights do remain round when the lens is stopped down.

There are more interesting things when you get up front. At first blush, you might think the Viltrox 20mm has a fixed lens hood like many wide aperture, wide-angle lenses (Sigma’s 20mm F1.4 ART, for example). The petal-shaped metal lens hood (ribbed inside to stop light from bouncing around) helps shade and protect a bulbous front element. The lens cap is one that fits over the top of the lens hood. It’s plastic (which is actually a good thing, as I find the metal ones often get dinged up if they fall on the ground), and, in another step I like, actually has clips that allow it to stay attached until you release the cap by pinching these tabs. Sometimes such lens caps rely on friction or suction to stay attached, and this system doesn’t always work well. The downside of these lens caps for wide angle lenses like this is that they are considering deeper than most lens caps and are much harder to slip into a pocket.

So, at this point is where you would typically start lamenting how the tradeoff for having the larger than typical maximum aperture precludes the ability to use traditional filters, but Viltrox has designed a clever solution for this. The lens hood is in fact removable, and there is a second hood/filter adapter included. The second hood provides less shading due to being more shallow, but it is threaded at the end with fairly common/reasonable 82mm filter threads. This really adds to the versatility of the lens, and should be a consideration when looking at the price, as some alternatives might require a more expensive filter solution (if you are a filter user).

The Viltrox 20mm is not weather sealed, though there is a special multilayer Nano coating (RBW) on the front element to help to resist moisture or fingerprints. The rear element is fixed, so there is no opening in the back for dust to enter in. Everything focuses internally as well, so while there isn’t a gasket or internal seals to keep out dust and moisture, the basic lens design will limit opportunities for dust to enter the lens, and, without electronics, there is less concern about damage from moisture. In certain extremely moist environments it is possible (as with all lenses) for fungus to start to develop if you don’t utilize good storage techniques.

The Viltrox 20mm can focus down to a minimum of 9.84” (0.25m), but the short focal length only achieves a unimpressive 1:8.3 ratio or a 0.12x maximum magnification. Still, due to the wide maximum aperture it is possible to get close to your subject and create a nicely defocused background. Just know that with wide angle lenses you do have to be careful with how you compose, as it it’s pretty easy to create some perspective distortion.

The Viltrox 20mm does not have image stabilization, obviously, but if you are using it on a Sony camera with Steady Shot Inside (IBIS), it will effectively stabilize the lens. You’ll need to manually select the focal length in the menu for the best performance as the lens does not have any electronic contacts to signal this to the camera.

All in all, I’m quite impressed with what Viltrox has done with this lens. A fully manual lens isn’t for everyone, but Viltrox has managed to nail the details on this 20mm F1.8. The key areas like the quality of the focus, build quality, and the ability to filter the lens are all covered. I noted in my video episode that if you stripped off the branding from the lens and put it in my hands 5 years ago, I would have thought I was holding a classic Zeiss lens. Kudos to Viltrox.

Viltrox 20mm F1.8 Image Quality Breakdown

Developing a 20mm lens for full frame with a much wider-than-average maximum aperture of F1.8 is no small challenge. Zeiss, for example, has had a number of lenses at the 21mm focal length, but has never had a wider maximum aperture than F2.8. Only the Sigma 20mm F1.4 ART lens has delivered a wider maximum aperture on Sony at this focal length, though that is a considerably larger and heavier lens (and costs nearly twice as much). Now, to be fair, Viltrox has delivered a fully manual lens without autofocus or electronic contacts, but let’s not forget that the Zeiss Loxia 21mm F2.8 (a fabulous lens, by the way!) is also manual focus only and costs $1500!

In this secondary episode I take a close look at the image quality from the Vitrox 20mm F1.8. I would encourage you to watch this video to get a more detailed examination of the image quality.

Viltrox has invested some serious work in the optical design of this lens, as developing a wide aperture, wide angle lens that covers a full frame image circle is not a small task. The lens employs 12 elements in 9 groups, and actually has a number of expensive elements in the design, including an aspherical element (which you can see from the name) along with 4 fluorite ED (extra dispersion) elements. Here’s a look at both the lens design and the MTF charts.

A maximum aperture of F1.8 is 1 1/3 stops brighter than a maximum aperture of F2.8, which means that it will let in more than twice as much light. That adds value to this lens for the kinds of things that you can do.

Let me pause here and just give you some food for thought. I think that most of us prefer a lens with a larger maximum aperture to a smaller one. But sometimes we fall for the marketing. I’ve never bought any of the Sigma F1.4 wide angle lenses (or the 14mm F1.8) because I personally don’t really need F1.4 at 20mm. But I primarily use wide angle lenses for two purposes: landscapes and astrophotography. For landscapes I typically shoot in the F5.6-F11 range; a wide aperture is, frankly, pointless under that circumstance. You are adding cost and size unnecessarily.

Astro is a somewhat different story, as more light is better, so a wider aperture lens is better, though experience says that in most cases the engineering requirements of a wide aperture in a wide-angle lens often makes them prone to coma until you stop them down to the F2.8 range, which obviously kind of defeats the purpose. My main wide-angle lens for the past four-five years has been the Tamron 15-30mm F2.8 VC lens, which is large but is also a flexible zoom with a great focal length. Even so, the very size of the lens means that I don’t use it as often as what I would like as I have to be very intentional about bringing it due to the size. I have some much smaller prime lenses that often come along instead.

But not everyone uses wide angle lenses for these two purposes. Wedding or event photographers often value not only a wide angle of view but also a wide maximum aperture to help stop action in dimly-lit venues. Sometimes portrait photographers want a wide angle of view for environmental portraits but also want the “cut-out” effect of their subject that only a wide aperture can provide at that focal length.

My point is that you need to buy a lens based on your needs rather than the marketing hype of lens specs.

The Viltrox 20mm worked very well for low light, wide aperture work (as I know how to manually focus!) due to having a very sharp, high contrast center portion of the frame. I’ll give you a peek at some real-world images before we dive into more formal tests. If you can read MTF charts, you’ll have noticed that the lens is actually very sharp and with great acutance even at F1.8 and across a good portion of the frame. You can see the real world evidence of this in these wide open shots:

One of the primary reasons for such excellent wide open contrast in these areas is that longitudinal chromatic aberrations are nearly perfectly controlled (no green or purple fringing before or after the plane of focus). This allows for good wide-open “punch” to images.

If you can read the MTF charts, though, you can also see that there is a pretty swift drop-off in the corners. The Viltrox 20mm starts off essentially as sharp at F1.8 as the Zeiss Loxia 21mm F2.8 is at F2.8 (very, very impressive) but the sharpness dropoff in the edges is more pronounced. That is reflected in the findings of my brick wall test.

Wow – those corners look about as rough at F1.8 as that center looks impressive! Interestingly, though, if you move over to mid-frame and the top edge (or any edge between the corners), the performance is much, much stronger.

Stopping down to F2 only makes a marginal difference on the resolution/contrast front, but on a positive note the camera metered exactly one third stop different at F2. Why does that matter? Because I’ve seen a number of F1.8 lenses that metered identically at F2, which makes me question if the aperture iris is actually F1.8. That’s not a problem here, though the difference in lens performance (other than light transmission) isn’t significant.

The Viltrox 20mm does make a massive leap at F2.8, however, with vastly improved edge and corner performance. Look at how much better that extreme corner looks:

The mid-frame position now looks fantastically good…pretty much perfect.

Look at how excellent a real-world F2.8 shot looks:

If we compare an F5.6 shot taken within second of the F2.8, we can see that the F2.8 shot is nearly as good even near the edge.

Stopping on down produces only mild, mild resolution improvements, but other improvements can be seen. Contrast improves, with some textures looking noticeably more crisp, and edge acutance is improved. If we return to our comparison we can see by looking at the opposite side that all of the complex textures and luminance variations in the snowflakes, needles, and trunks plus branches are noticeably improved.

Frankly, if you don’t mind manual focus and a larger lens, it’s hard to argue with those results for landscape work. That’s 42MP (Sony a7R3) being resolved pretty well in that real-world shot. It’s worth noting that the differences between F2.8 and F5.6 are more easily seen at infinity distance than what they were at the brick wall distance. That’s a very strong performance at under $500, and, frankly, it’s not far off what you would get from the Zeiss Loxia 21mm F2.8 which costs 3x as much (but is also half the size).

I happened to be reviewing the Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 at the same time (also an E-mount), and I shot some of the same scenes with both lenses. What I found is that the far-more expensive Loxia lens showed better microcontrast (better contrast in the fine textures of scenes), but the Viltrox lens did not look severely outclassed. The Viltrox does not record aperture, but looking at the shutter speed, it looks like the Viltrox was at F4 rather than F5.6. I equalized the color temperature to make everything match up as close as possible otherwise. Let’s take a look:

Globally (first photo) there isn’t much to see. The Viltrox is slightly warmer in its rendering, the Loxia slightly cooler. The Viltrox 20mm obviously frames considerably wider as you would expect. In the second shot (a center crop), we can see that difference in microcontrast, which favors the Loxia, though one could argue that without the two lenses side by side you wouldn’t see the difference. The final shot of the front left corner foreground doesn’t really favor either lens. The Viltrox has excellent contrast in those foreground textures, and, after I clicked the “Remove Chromatic Aberrations” box in Lightroom, it looks pretty flawless.

I will say that the size and handling of the Loxia is preferred, and I think that images are maybe a little easier to process (the vignette is automatically corrected whereas I manually corrected the Viltrox), but if you are just looking at the end results, it would be hard to argue that the Loxia is worth 2 1/2 times as much. That’s a very solid performance by Viltrox at their first “kick at the can”. Going toe to toe with Zeiss and walking away unbloodied is very impressive. Real world landscape shots confirm that this is a great landscape lens.

How about some of the other metrics? As noted already, while the lens does control longitudinal CA extremely well, it does suffer with some lateral chromatic aberrations. Lateral CA exhibits only along the edges of images and manifests consistently as green fringing on one side of an edge and purple on the other. The bad news is that unlike Longitudinal CA, it doesn’t improve when you stop the lens down. The good news is that because it consistently manifests, it’s the kind you can fix with one click. Here’s a before and after:

As you can, the corrected result looks crisper and cleaner. Because this is easy to correct, it’s not a big deal…if you shoot RAW. If you want to shoot JPEGs and skip any post-processing, you might see a bit of lateral CA in your images.

One issue that isn’t so easily fixed is a mustache-patterned barrel distortion. The amount of distortion is actually fairly mild, but the nature of that distortion makes it hard to correct with the basic tools available in Lightroom. The “mustache” pattern doesn’t correct in a linear fashion, leaving a result after correction that may or may not be an improvement.

Unless you are shooting something with straight lines, it would probably be better to just leave it.

The Viltrox 20mm does fairly well with the sun in the frame. At wide apertures there is little more than a bit of prismatic haze around the light source with little ghosting. When stopped down, there can be a visible ghosting pattern dependent on where you place the sun. Under all circumstances contrast holds up well. The sunburst effect from the 14 bladed aperture isn’t the best I’ve seen, but it is fairly attractive.

I don’t see any serious issues here.

The bokeh from the lens is somewhat of a mixed bag. Across most of the frame the bokeh is fairly soft with nicely circular shapes, but things get busier near the edges. In one case (a certain distance), I saw something almost akin to a motion blur due to the elongation of the bokeh highlights. I’ll let you judge from yourself from these samples:

There is some vignette, and, while it is never overly heavy, it doesn’t clear up on its own just by stopping down, which means that it is still there at landscape apertures. It is mostly reserved to the corners, so the midframe is largely untouched. This will become significant in a moment. The first two images below show a wide open real world image (F1.8) vs a stopped down (F6.3) example. You can particularly track the vignette in the lower right corner. The final image shows the F1.8 vignette with a solid white background.

I was interested to see if using the filter adapter and a filter (particularly a ND1000 filter for long exposures) introduced a lot of additional mechanical vignette. The answer is that it did produce some additional vignette, but nothing so heavy as to be uncorrectable. The reality is that I have found my ND1000 filter often produces additional vignetting due in part to the nature of the long exposure. I suspect the “damage” would be much less with either a CP-L filter or a ND8-type filter.

The final metric to cover here is coma. Comatic distortion comes into play primarily when shooting astrophotography, an intriguing application for this lens due to the focal length and aperture combination. The Viltrox 20mm delivers a mixed-bag performance. On the positive side of things, the lens is very sharp even at F1.8 over a lot of the frame, delivering star points that are very crisp. The good light transmission of the lens allows you to use lower ISO values (cleaner images), and the fact that vignette is mostly reserved to the deep corners also helps. There is, however, some coma along the edges of the frame. Some star points start to look like flying insects. Stopping down a little (my second example is somewhere around F2.4-F2.5) reduces the appearance of coma considerably (see the second portrait oriented image and crop in the series below).

So, if you stop the lens down a little you can eliminate most of the coma if that is a problem for you. So, once again, Viltrox has managed to mitigate a lot of the typical flaws of such a lens and keep them from being too destructive.

I mostly did this review during a “polar vortex” with extremely cold conditions and without a lot of beautiful scenes to shoot, but what I saw via comparisons makes me think that the lens is capable of producing nice color. I look forward to spending time with it in more hospitable conditions in the future!

All in all, I think Viltrox has done a solid job with this 20mm F1.8 lens. Developing a large aperture, wide angle lens takes a lot of engineering skill, and they’ve managed to deliver a lens that, while imperfect, has very manageable flaws and a lot of assets.

Conclusion

I don’t envy a company like Viltrox breaking into the lens scene. Many established lens makers starting designing lenses for digital cameras when resolution figures were in single digits and a lot of lens flaws could be hidden by low resolution. Now a company like Viltrox has to design lenses in an environment where my test body for this review is 42mp. Most flaws show up at that kind of resolution. Consider me impressed, however, with both the mechanical construction of the lens along with its optical performance. I would have loved to see electronic contacts on this lens, but Viltrox honestly told me that it was beyond their engineering ability at present with the 20mm lens even though they managed to do it on the simpler 85mm F1.8 for Sony. Fair enough. The fact that they did it on another lens (and have even managed to pull off autofocus in a Fuji X-mount 85mm F1.8) tells me that we can expect Viltrox to forge a reputation for themselves pretty quickly.

The Viltrox 20mm F1.8 ASPH is not a perfect lens. It’s larger and heavier than what I would like, and it has a few optical imperfections. But it’s also a very impressive optical instrument, managing to combine a large maximum aperture with a wide focal length in a very credible package. It’s smooth focus ring and declicked aperture make it a great option for video, too, and while I can’t show you video in the text review, a look at my video review will show you that the Viltrox 20mm is a great option for video work. That may even be the most compelling application for it, though stills photographers on a limited budget that want a lens that can do everything this lens can should also pay attention. It’s hard to pick a direct competitor for this lens (the Tokina 20mm F2 Firin is probably the closest), but it costs about twice as much. If you can handle the physical limitations of a manual focus lens without electronics, the Viltrox 20mm F1.8 is definitely worth a long look.

Pros:

Beautiful, high grade build quality
All the mechanical operation is impressively mature
Filter solution is innovative and works
Great center sharpness through focal range
Good sharpness across the frame from F2.8 on
Impressive contrast and very low longitudinal chromatic aberrations
Flare resistance is fairly good
Color rendition seems good
Reasonable price

Cons:

Fairly large and heavy
No electronic contacts
Some barrel distortion and persistent vignette
Corners quite soft wide open

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

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Keywords: Viltrox, Viltrox 20 Review, Viltrox 20mm Review, Viltrox 20 F1.8, Viltrox 20mm 1.8, Viltrox 20mm F1.8, Dustin Abbott, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Sony, FE, Sony FE, Sony a7RIII, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Declick, Video, Sample Images, Coma

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Zeiss Batis 40mm F2 CF Review

Dustin Abbott

February 11th, 2019

The Zeiss Batis series has been a serious treat for Sony FE shooters. The idea of having Zeiss optics in compact, weather sealed bodies with autofocus was one of the most compelling arguments for me to personally add Sony bodies to my own kit. I’ve spent time with 3 of the Batis lenses, including the 18mm, 25mm, and 135mm lenses. The 85mm is on my agenda for when I do an 85mm shootout on Sony. If the Batis lineup was missing anything, however, it was something in the “normal” range. Conventional wisdom would be a 50mm lens, but Zeiss has shot for slightly unconventional instead by releasing a 40mm F2 lens instead. The Zeiss Batis 40mm F2 Distagon CF adopts a hybrid focal length that in many ways covers both the 35mm and 50mm focal lengths. The Batis 40 also has a secondary trick up it’s little sleeve in the form of its close focus (the CF in the name) and a unusually high magnification figure for such a lens. In some ways this lens is the closest equivalent to the 50mm Makro-Planar in the Batis lineup because of the macro(ish) potential.

The Batis 40 will fight the traditional battle of Zeiss lenses: is the cost justified? Like other Batis (or Zeiss lenses in general), the Batis 40mm comes to market with a premium price attached to it. At $1299 USD, the Batis 40 splits the price of the 55mm F1.8 Sony/Zeiss Sonnar lens and the 50mm F1.4 Sony/Zeiss Planar lens, and I would expect both of those lenses to be considered by potential buyers of this lens. Skeptics will point out that this lens has only a moderately wide aperture to back up its premium price and will quickly point out more moderately priced alternatives. But Zeiss also has a market of buyers that feel that Zeiss’ optical performance and superior color is worth paying for.

What about those who are on the fence, however? The purpose of this review is to explore the real world strengths and weaknesses of the Batis 40mm and determine if it is the lens for you!

Prefer to watch your reviews? Check out my full video review to get all the info on the Batis 40!

Batis 40 Build, Design, and Handling

The best way to get the details of this lens is by checking out my hands on video below. It will take you up close the lens and demonstrate all of its features.

The Batis 40 will have a fairly familiar appearance to anyone who has used other lenses in the series. It’s a handsome lens that has a familiar Zeiss look save the materials are engineered plastics (to keep the weight down) instead of the metal alloys common to many Zeiss lenses. The lens is on the small side of medium 3.58” (91mm) in diameter and is 3.66” (93mm) in length. The weight is a fairly light 12.73 oz (361g). The filter thread is a common 67mm. It comes standard with a fairly substantial lens hood.

One hallmark of all the Batis lenses is the OLED display on the lens barrel that serves as a replacement for a typical distance window. There are no distance markings on the barrel, which is typical for mirrorless autofocusing lenses due to manual focus being “focus by wire”. All focus input on the manual focus ring is routed through the autofocus motor of the lens, and it is actually the focus motor, not the ring, that moves the elements. Because there is no mechanical connection to the lens elements, there is no fixed position for the focus ring, and thus no traditional focus distance information. Most mirrorless lenses force you to rely on focus information in the camera body, but, as mentioned, the Batis 18mm has an OLED screen that can display this information instead. When the camera is turned on the OLED will flash the word “Zeiss”, and then what information that is further displayed there will depend on what mode you put it. Out of the box it will mostly stay dark unless you are in manual focus mode, when it will display actual focus distance as a numerical value (in meters [up to two decimal points] or feet), which is very handy and arguably more useful than a traditional focus window.

The usefulness doesn’t end there, however. If you put the camera in MF mode and then turn the manual focus ring to the left past minimum focus 360 degrees you will enter into the control for the OLED. You have three options there: ON, MF (Default Position), and OFF. In the ON position it will show the focus distance even in AF mode. If you put the camera in MF mode and twist the focus ring to the right for a while it will allow you to switch the readout to measuring in feet rather than meters. You might argue that this is of minimal value, but when you consider that many mirrorless lenses lose any kind of distance window, I think that this is one of the beneficial hallmarks of the Batis line that remains fairly unique (I’ve seen a couple of Canon lenses with something similar).

The Batis series does employ weather sealing to help enable photographers to keep shooting when the weather turns a little inclement.

There is a single switch on the lens barrel, and it is actually a focus limiter. It’s a wise inclusion, as lenses that can focus down very closely have an extended focus throw that can be a liability when you don’t need the close focus abilities. I owned Tamron’s 45mm F1.8 VC lens for Canon for several year (in some ways a similar lens), and I always lamented the fact that it didn’t include a focus limiter.

As noted, the Batis 40 can focus unusually close (9.45″ / 24 cm) giving it a much higher-than-average reproduction ratio of 1:3.3 (a 0.30x magnification figure, or nearly one third life size). I love lenses like this, as I feel that it really enhances the versatility of what you can do with the lens.

Close focus comes with a few quirks, one of which becomes apparent when reading user reviews. I’ve seen complaints about the lens not “actually being F2” at close focus distances…and that’s true, but only true in the way that no macro lens retains its maximum aperture at close focus distances. The nature of physics means that less light reaches the sensor at macro distances, resulting in an effective aperture change (an F2.8 macro lens might behave more like an 5.6 lens at minimum focus). With most lens/camera combination this is masked because the stated aperture does not change. Unlike most macro lenses, however, it seems like the Batis 40 retains this aperture shift at a little further distances. It’s as if the aperture doesn’t open back up when it should. I mostly notice this because you can see the aperture blade shapes even at “F2” at relatively long distances (as much as 5 feet or so). In these photos, for example, you can see the nonagonal shape of the aperture blades in these bokeh highlights.

This threw me initially, as whether aperture blades are rounded or not (Zeiss lenses typically don’t have rounded blades), one doesn’t see them at maximum aperture because they are fully retracted at maximum aperture (F2, in this case). The fact that I can see the aperture blades tells me that the aperture blades are not fully retracted…which means that the functional maximum aperture is not F2 at that distance.

In this photo (shot about 10-12 feet away), you can see that the bokeh circles are perfectly round, meaning that the aperture blades are fully retracted.

If I physically inspect the aperture at close focus, and compare it to an aperture value selected at infinity, it looks like the F2 aperture closes to about F3.5 at minimum focus. At 5-6 feet, the aperture is roughly F2.2, and beyond that it fully opens (somewhere around 8 feet and beyond). It’s slightly strange behavior in my experience, and not one that I’ve seen with other Batis lenses. My guess is that it is attached to the close focus abilities of the lens itself. There’s only serious downside, and that is that the aperture blades are not curved, meaning that starting at F2.2 you can slightly see the shape of the aperture blades. Some people don’t care about this; others strongly care. If you are shooting at close focus distances, you will see aperture blade shape if you have bokeh highlights. The upside is that this can only be seen with very bright circular highlights (like the Christmas lights I’ve shown). If you look very, very carefully, the same thing is happening with this shot of an organ keyboard, but because the highlights aren’t as bright and isolated, you really can’t tell. I think the image actually looks great:

Some viewers have informed me that they have contacted Zeiss about this issue and been told that a firmware update will be released to address this. Note, however, that this will address the tendency to keep the aperture closed down a bit, but can’t address the reality of physics at near-macro distances. I think Zeiss could have avoided this issue altogether by making the aperture blades more rounded (I’ve long noted that Zeiss lenses’ aperture show a non-circular shape far too soon for my tastes when stopped down). Even if the lens stopped down a little, the bokeh highlights would have remained circular.

At the same time, these “floating elements” allow for impressively strong performance at close focus distances. While not a macro lens, the Batis 40 is “macro-sharp” with the fine details. Look at a crop from this photo…no-CA, great sharpness and contrast, and a very impressive result.

The lens barrel has a black anodized satin finish that is very handsome. The lens hood has a different material (plastic vs lightweight metal alloy), and, while the finish of the two isn’t a perfect match, it’s fairly close. The small, tasteful Zeiss badges on either side are an elegant touch. The front façade of the Batis lenses look nice but not quite as attractive as the metal façade of the Loxia/Milvus/Otus/Classic lenses. The Batis lens seem to employ engineered plastics in the front faceplate.

The lens has a fairly squat profile which in some ways makes the lens look bigger than what it actually is. It’s not a particularly long lens, but it is fairly wide (I’ve got the Loxia 25mm on hand for review at the moment, and the Batis looks much bigger despite only being about 18mm longer [and weighing less!])

The manual focus ring on the Batis lenses (including the Batis 40) has a smooth, rubberized texture with great grip and a moderate damping. It works well for manual focus, allowing for smooth, precise manual focus despite the “focus-by-wire” nature of the manual focus. Zeiss does a great job with maintaining quality manual focus despite the transition to focus by wire. It’s not as good as true manual focus on a classic Zeiss lens but the trade off is the instantly magnified image that allows you to quickly visually confirm focus. One minor gripe about all of Zeiss’ rubberized focus rings is that they are lint magnets.

If you are familiar with the Batis lineup, then you know what to expect here. This is a nicely built lens that balances the considerations of build quality and weight/size effectively. There is nothing negative that I observed about the build other than the somewhat unusual behavior with the aperture.

Batis 40 Autofocus

The Batis 40 has a very effective, quiet autofocus system. One of the best things about the Batis series is that they pair great Zeiss optics with solid autofocus performance. The AF is very quiet in either AF-S or AF-C modes. Speed in either mode is also excellent, as is autofocus accuracy. Some have apparently reported that Eye-AF doesn’t work well with the Batis 40, but I had the opposite result. Eye-AF worked very well at all focus distances.

In AF-S mode there is a very quick pulse before focus lock. It happens in a split second, but you can see the pattern. The AF-C focus is faster still, with near instantaneous focus changes and no evidence of the pulse. This is probably because the focus system has a chance to make tiny micro adjustments even after arriving at the focus destination, whereas this isn’t an option with AF-S. I saw pulsing only in a very rare situations – specifically when focusing on a very close subject in poor lighting or with poor contrast to lock onto. Outside of that dedicated scenario, focus was very confident.

Focus changes in video mode were smooth and silent. This seems to be a good option for video work, as the near complete lack of noise means that you will have no issue with an on-board microphone picking up focus sounds. Face tracking was smooth and without the nervous hunting that sometimes affects lenses.

Eye AF also worked well (with my a7R3 body), with the lens quickly detecting the eye and tracking it in real time. Focus accuracy when using Eye AF was good.

The Batis 40 also gets high marks for being steady in video AF with a static subject (like when I do my video segments). Some lenses can’t seem to steady under those conditions, and tend pulse back and forth some. I shot a couple of segments using the Batis 40, and the face tracking was essentially flawless with no unnecessary movements.

It also gets high marks for making smooth, quiet, and confident transitions when I tested focus pulls from one focus point to another (with a Sony a7RIII). The Batis 40 settled quickly and easily on each new subject without any pulsing.

While the Batis 40 gets very high marks for its autofocus behavior during video, the focus-by-wire system is completely unsatisfactory for doing manual focus pulls using a gearing system. The problem is that the a focus-by-wire system does not produce repeatable results, so if you pull a focus lever to a specific point, it doesn’t always produce the same result depending on the speed you pull it. True accuracy with video manual focus requires repeatability. If you want a lens with precision manual control for video, the Zeiss Loxia series is a definitely a better choice. For autofocus during video, however, the Batis series is great.

There was nothing objectionable about the autofocus that I saw during my tests with the Batis 40. It behaved in a very mannerly fashion.

It’s great to have an autofocusing Zeiss lens; it’s even better to have one with great autofocus.

Batis 40 Image Quality

The Batis 40, like other Zeiss lenses, comes with a premium price tag. I make it very clear that I hold expensive lenses to a higher standard than I do inexpensive ones. There are things that you can overlook in a lens costing $299 that you won’t overlook in a lens costing $1299. The Batis 40 needs to produce optically (which it does). The best way to see how the image quality breaks down is by watching this video episode here where I interactively show (in detail) how the lens behaves.

I like to look at both the sharpness from a lens along with its overall rendering. Think of this as the balance between pixel level performance and the global “look” of images. Fortunately the Batis 40 does pretty much everything well save the somewhat odd aperture behavior we’ve already detailed. For that reason, let’s break with convention and talk about bokeh first.

I’ve already detailed what I don’t like (namely seeing the nonagonal shape even with the aperture “wide open” in close focus situations). By the way, Zeiss could have circumvented this problem by just creating more rounded aperture blades that retain a circular shape more effectively when stopped down. If they had done that, there’s a good chance that 99.5% of photographers would have never even noticed that the aperture closes a bit at close focus distances. Beyond what I don’t like, however, there is a lot that I do like. The Batis 40 delivers very soft, artful out of focus rendering in most situations. Take this close focus shot of organ keys, for example. If you look very carefully, you can see the slightest hint of the aperture shape due to the factor mentioned before, but without bright highlights to draw your attention to that, what you mostly see is a really nice transition to defocus. This is helped by the fact that the lens controls longitudinal chromatic aberrations extremely well. In this case those would mostly manifest as green fringing in out of focus areas beyond the plane of focus. They are essentially not there at all.

As a result, the bokeh mostly just looks fantastic. Likewise in this pair of images, I highlight the defocused rendering first in the out of focus background and then, in the second, in the out of focus foreground. Both look good, though I like the defocused background image more than the defocused foreground image.

Take a look at this portrait image, too, as it has more defocused area in what we call the “transition zone” (about 8-15 feet), where often bokeh starts to look busy and distracting. I don’t see any jittery behavior in the bokeh. What I see instead is that everything moves smoothly towards defocus.

The focal length and aperture is not going to be one that just “obliterates” backgrounds into multicolored cream, but rather it is going to give you a nice 3-dimensional rendering of your subject (they stand out) while keeping the background and the greater scene in context. I think the Batis 40 would be a great compliment to a longer focal length (85-135mm) in a portrait photographer’s arsenal.

If we look closer at resolution, we find that the lens is already very, very good over almost all the frame even at F2. There is a hint of lower contrast along the periphery of the image circle, but it’s not a pronounced drop off.

I should note that in this example I’ve actually turned down the amount of automatic vignette correction in Lightroom to about 35% as I feel it is far too aggressive by default. That’s something I’ve seen with previous Batis lenses. Here you can see the difference between the default correction (left) and the turned down correction on the right.

If I turn off the corrections entirely I note two things: First of all, there is essentially no correction of distortion because there is essentially no distortion. That’s a big bonus for close focus work. The second is that the natural vignette is moderate and extends a moderate amount into the frame. A manual correction to my liking required only a +28 on the vignette correction amount and a 27 value for the midpoint. The result is far more pleasing to my eye than the default correction.

Stopping down to F2.8 produces an uptick in contrast along with a very even sharpness profile across the whole frame. Image quality is already essentially perfect now.

Stopping on down to smaller apertures can be used when more depth of field is required, but is not necessary for further sharpness. Landscape images do look great, though.

I also didn’t see any kind of longitudinal chromatic aberrations during my review, either. Zeiss has managed to essentially banish traditional aberrations with this lens, which makes it extremely usable at its maximum aperture. The surface of this vintage camera is a potential hotbed for CA, but I can’t really see any:

This makes the lens an excellent choice for product or food photographer. At its close focus distances it is resolving incredibly high, and the complete control of aberrations allows it to really do a fabulous job of rendering fine details. Here’s a few examples:

That’s stunningly good. I also mention food or product photography because of the reality that often a traditional macro lens focus length (90-105mm) is a little too narrow for food or product photography. The perspective of the Batis 40 is excellent for that.

Another great application of this lens is for wedding photographers. First of all, this is a great focal length for capturing a “normal” perspective of the world that produces very relatable images because the scenes look a lot like people would see them. Here’s some “everyday” photos that demonstrate what I mean.

Secondly, however, the close focus distance abilities of the lens allow you to move from a “normal” perspective to capturing the final details on decorations, rings, shoes, etc… That means you can keep moving without wasting time switching lenses. I’m an experienced wedding photographer, and I can tell you that the Batis 40 would become a favorite tool in your arsenal if you owned it.

Flare resistance is fairly good if not perfect. At wide apertures you will see some basic prismatic veiling at the epicenter of the light source, but little evidence of ghosting artifacts.

What I did see with a side light source out of the frame was an interesting effect that looks very vintage to me. It looks a lot like the kind of effect one might add through software. Take a look at the left side of this photo to see what I mean.

I find this kind of effect very cool, actually, but that’s a matter of taste. Stopping the lens down will produce a few tiny little ghosting artifacts, but I would consider flare resistance in general to be solid.

The color rendition from the lens is very good. I find the Loxia lenses just a slight bit more “special” in their color rendition, but it’s not by much. Color from the Batis 40 is accurate and punchy, but just a hair less rich than Loxia (like the Loxia 50mm F2, for example). If you look at these images, you can see a whole lot to like!

All in all the image quality from the Batis 40 is excellent. I’ve already harped on my one objection, but, other than the price, I have nothing else to complain about. Here’s a couple more photos, but I would recommend that you visit the Lens Image Gallery here to see a lot more photos than this review allows me to share.

Conclusion

There’s no question that the Zeiss Batis 40mm F2 CF is a welcome addition to the Batis lineup. 40mm is an unconventional focal length, but I’ve personally always found 40mm to be a very useful focal length. I’ve actually owned several 40mm lenses (Canon EF 40mm F2.8 STM, Voigtländer Ultron 40mm F2, and also the Tamron SP 45mm F1.8 VC), and have always found this focal length to be extremely useful. The Batis 40 is the kind of lens that you may find glued to your camera because it is a “jack-of-all-trades” lens. It’s great for product or food photography, is a great tool for wedding or portrait photographers, but is also just generally useful. At $1299 USD, the hardest sell for many photographers will be the price. It’s more expensive than the very popular Sony Zeiss 55mm F1.8 Sonnar, and, for a few hundred dollars more, one could buy the exceptional Sony Zeiss 50mm F1.4 Planar (a lens I own). But neither of those lenses (or the Sigma 50mm F1.4 ART) have the close focus ability of the Batis 40. If you don’t value close focus, you might be just as happy with one of the other options, but if you could use a lens that does a little bit of everything, you really should consider the Zeiss Batis 40mm F2 CF. It is the new “Swiss Army Knife” of Sony FE lenses.

Pros:

Quality build with weather sealing
Excellent autofocus with good speed and accuracy
Good autofocus behavior during video AF
Excellent image sharpness
Near perfect chromatic aberration control
Close focus ability makes this extremely useful
Soft, artful bokeh in most circumstances
Good flare resistance

Cons:

Expensive for a lens with a max aperture of F2
Nonagonal shape of aperture blades shows up at close focus
Focus-by-wire focus system not reliable for MF in video pulls

Thanks to Zeiss Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

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Keywords: Zeiss Batis, Batis 40, Zeiss Batis 40, Batis 40mm, Batis 40 F2, Batis 40mm F2, Zeiss Batis Review, Review, Dustin Abbott, Batis 40 Review, Batis 40 F2 Review, Batis 40mm Review, CF, Close Focus, Distagon, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Video, Sample Images, Coma

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

February 5th, 2019

Sigma has produced perhaps more lenses than anyone over the past five years, but few of them are as important as the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS | Sport. Not only does this complete Sigma’s “trinity” of fast aperture zooms (14-24mm F2.8 ART, 24-70mm F2.8 ART), but there are few lenses more indispensable to professional photographers than a 70-200mm F2.8. Speaking personally, I can safely say that when I shoot weddings, events, and even portrait sessions a 70-200mm F2.8 is the first lens I reach for. The challenge for Sigma is that because this is such an important lens, a lot of lens makers have invested time and effort in developing good lenses in the class. Sigma doesn’t just face competition from Canon and Nikon, but Tamron’s excellent SP 70-200mm F2.8 G2 already provides a solid third party alternative at a fantastic price point. Sigma absolutely has to get this one right, as response to their 24-70 ART was somewhat tepid and many reviewers (including myself) declared the Tamron 24-70mm F2.8 G2 the better lens. Don’t expect Sigma to get outdone again, however, as the Sigma 70-200mm Sport is a serious, professional grade lens that is going to challenge everyone in the class on merit alone. The downside is that it is a (slightly) bigger and definitely heavier lens than competitors. We’ll examine in this review series whether the performance is worth the tradeoff.

Photos of the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport

Photos Taken with the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport (Canon 5DIV)

Sigma 70-200mm Sport + 1.4x Extender (Canon 1.4x III)

Sigma 70-200mm Sport + MC-11 (Sony a7RIII)

Thanks to Sigma Canada (Gentec) for the loaner!

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Purchasing your gear through B&H and these links helps fund this website and keeps the articles coming. You can also make a donation here if you would like. Visit my Amazon page for some of my gear of choice! Thank you for your support.

Great News! I can now offer a 5% discount on all purchases at Amplis Foto, Canada’s Leading Photographic Supplier. Please enter discount code: AMPLIS52018DA in your cart. It is good for everything in your cart, and is stackable with other coupons, too! It will take 5% off your entire order! Proceeds go towards keeping this site going and providing you with new reviews!

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

Keywords: Sigma 70-200 Sport, Sigma 70-200 Sport Review, Sigma 70-200mm Sport, 70-200mm Sport, 70-200 Sport Review, 70-200mm Sport Review, Dustin Abbott, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport, Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Review, Sport, 70-200mm, Sigma, Sport, OS, 1.4x, 2x, Extender, Sigma MC-11, Sony, Canon, A7RIII, 5D Mark IV, Review, Hands On, Comparison, Test, Sharpness, Distortion, Chromatic Aberration, CA, Video Test, Video, Sample Images

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon Review

Dustin Abbott

April 19th, 2019

Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Build Quality

Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Image Quality

Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon Resolution

Zeiss Loxia 25mm Distagon Rendering

Loxia 25mm Video Performance

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) any Skylum product: Luminar, Aurora, or AirMagic

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Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4 Distagon Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

March 31st, 2019

Photos of the Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4

Photos Taken with the Zeiss Loxia 25mm F2.4

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

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Sigma 70-200mm f2.8 OS Sport Review

Dustin Abbott

March 8th, 2019

Sigma 70-200S Build and Handling

Sigma 70-200S Autofocus

Sigma 70-200S Image Quality

Sigma 70-200S Resolution

Sigma 70-200S Rendering

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

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Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar Review

Dustin Abbott

March 4th, 2019

Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Build Quality

Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Image Quality

Loxia 85mm F2.4 Planar Resolution

Zeiss Loxia 85mm Rendering

Loxia 85mm Video Performance

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

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Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar Image Galleries

Dustin Abbott

February 18th, 2019

Images of the Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar

Images taken with the Zeiss Loxia 85mm F2.4 Sonnar

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

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Viltrox 20mm F1.8 ASPH for Sony FE Review

Dustin Abbott

February 15th, 2019

Viltrox 20mm F1.8 Build and Handling

Viltrox 20mm F1.8 Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

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Zeiss Batis 40mm F2 CF Review

Dustin Abbott

February 11th, 2019

Batis 40 Build, Design, and Handling

Batis 40 Autofocus

Batis 40 Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

Use Code “DUSTINHDR” to get $10 off ($15 CDN) Luminar and/or AuroraHDR

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 OS Sport Image Gallery

Dustin Abbott

February 5th, 2019

Photos of the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport

Photos Taken with the Sigma 70-200mm F2.8 Sport (Canon 5DIV)

Sigma 70-200mm Sport + 1.4x Extender (Canon 1.4x III)