Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8 review

Summary

Highly Recommended award The Zeiss 85mm f1.8 Batis is pint-size-zoom lens for Sony's e-mount mirrorless cameras, and a clear step-up in image quality over Sony's ain FE 85mm f1.8 lens: information technology's sharper in the life-or-death areas, has less longitudinal CAs, less haloing around bright light sources, and better resistance against flair and glare in strong contra light. It also has superior build character plus a useful display to indicate distance and astuteness-of-field. The presence of physical science stabilisation is desirable for owners of Mark I A7 bodies, although gives it no advantage over unstabilised lenses mounted on more Recent epoch bodies with SteadyShot inside; indeed the combination of optical and detector-shift stabilisation actually proved less effective than body-based stabilisation alone in my tests. The Zeiss Batis is also slower to focus and has worse vignetting than the native Sony lenses. Its biggest distractor though is its price which is forked that of Sony's have FE 85mm f1.8 and equal to the very good Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art. That said, information technology's still cheaper than Sony's flagship 85mm G Master and its overall sense modality qualities earn it a Recommended.

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Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8 review

4th December 2018

Written away

In depth

The Zeiss 85mm f1.8 Genus Batis is a short-telephoto prime lens for Sony's mirrorless cameras, and rectified for use along untouched-frame bodies. The 85mm focal length is a classic for portrait shooters, but also useful for street photography Oregon pick-out details in urban OR physical landscapes. Launched in 2015, the 85mm f1.8 Batis is positioned 'tween Sony's flagship Fe 85mm f1.4 G Master and the Sony FE 85mm f1.8. It also features a unique OLED video display, indicating the focalisation distance and profoundness-of-field straddle at a coup d'oeil.

To find out how the Zeiss 85mm f1.8 Batis performs I tested information technology on the 42MP A7R II consistence against the Sony FE 85mm f1.8. So if you'atomic number 75 interested in which short-telephotograph prime to choose, you've touch the right place!

Facts from the catalog

American Samoa regular I'll have a look at the technical data of the Zeiss 85mm f1.8 Batis first. I've rated the features with a [+] (or [++]), when it's better than average or symmetric state of the art, a [0] if information technology's standard operating theatre but middling, and [-] if there's a disadvantage. For comparison I use the Sony FE 85mm f1.8 ("Sony" for short-stalked).

Size (diameter x distance): 78 x 86mm (3.1 x 3.4in.) summation 48mm for the lens hood which is 93mm in diameter. The Sony is slightly shorter at 78 x 82mm + 36mm for the lens exhaust hood (86mm diameter). [+]

Weight: 453g (16.0 oz.) plus 37g for the lens hood. The Sony is 374g (13.2 oz.) plus 28g for the electron lens punk. [0]

Optics: 11 elements (including 3 especial dispersion elements) in 8 groups. The Sony has the indistinguishable number of field glass/air surfaces: 9 elements in 8 groups. [+]

Closest focus distance is 0.80m (31in.) with a enlargement of 1:7.6 which is not much. 1:10 magnification is achieved at 1.01m distance. The Sony achieves a confusable magnification. [0]

Filter-thread: 67mm, the same as the Sony. [+]

Image stabilisation: The Genus Batis has its own optical image stabilization. The Sony lens has to rely on the intrinsic sensor-shift stabilization of more recent Sony A7 bodies. [+]

Auto focus: Yes with built-in AF drive. Manual-focus override is by simply turn the focus ring. The focalise ring has a variable gearing that allows for very precise manual focus when overturned slowly. Unfortunately this feature cannot be switched to linear gearing which makes smooth focus pulling for videographers almost impossible. The lens has a display for focus distance and profoundness of field. [+]

Covers full frame/FX or smaller. Same with the competition. [+]

Price: The electron lens currently sells for 1150 EUR (incl. 19% VAT) / 1200 USD. The Sony goes for 600 EUR / 600 USD. [0]

Comes with no sac but the lens hood is included, revocable for transport. Same with the Sony. [0]

Aperture band: no, just like the Sony. [0]

Waterproofing: yes, a prophylactic grommet at the lens-mount plus further special weather-sealing throughout the construction, just like the Sony. [+]

Display: The Genus Batis lenses uniquely feature a small OLED display which indicates the focus distance, atomic number 3 easily every bit the minimum and maximum distances covered by the depth-of-field at the underway aperture. This is a useful solution for ultramodern mirrorless lenses with motorised fly-away-wire focusing, as they often lack the focus distance and depth-of-field markings of Sir Thomas More traditional lenses. The Batis solution is also superior at larger apertures where the depth-of-field is so narrow it ass't comprise accurately indicated by a traditional printed scale. So while at first the display may appear like a novelty, it can be genuinely useful, especially for indicating the range of focus at a peek. Knowing the depth-of-field is, sound out, only 10cm, may immediately prompt you into adjusting the aperture. [+]

The score in the "features-department" is 0[-]/5[0]/8[+], the virtually prominent features of the lens beingness its built-in image stabilization and the display for distance and depth-of-field. IT's also relatively small, well protected against the elements, and has real nice make calibre.

Two Sony and two Zeiss 85mm prime lenses

Above from odd to right: Sony Fe 85mm f1.8, Sony FE 85mm f1.4 GM, Zeiss 85mm f1.8 Batis, Zeiss 85mm f1.4 Otus (needs E-mount adapter)

Alternatives

If you want a large aperture 85mm lens with E-mount and autofocus there are just 3 alternatives, two of them are larger and heavier f1.4 lenses:

Sony has the FE 85mm f1.8 from 2017 for 600 EUR / 600 USD. For more information escort my Sony 85mm f1.8 review. And there is the FE 85mm f1.4 GM from 2016 which sells for 1680 EUR / 1800 USD (see my Sony FE 85mm f1.4 GM try images).
Sigma offers the AF 85mm 1.4 DG HSM Art (1120 EUR / 1200 USD). It's an optical innovation from 2016 which is available in E-mount since 2018. Interestingly IT's priced the same as the Zeiss Genus Batis which has a 2/3 of a catch slower focal ratio. See my Sigma 85mm f1.4 Artistic creation inspection where it earned a Highly Recommended.

If you view adapted or manual focalize lenses, in that location are strange alternatives:

Tamron has the SP AF 85mm f1.8 Di USD for A-mount costing active 640 EUR / 750 USD (+ 125 EUR / 200 USD for the Sony Atomic number 57-EA3 go up adapter). It came Highly Recommended in my Tamron SP 85mm f1.8 VC review where I had a look at the stabilised version for Nikon F-mount which is optically the same.
Samyang/Rokinon/Walimex has a whole slew of 85mm lenses but only unitary offers autofocus: the AF 85mm f1.4 EF, which is only available in Canon EF-mount and costs some 540 EUR / 680 USD. Add to that the costs of an EF to E saddle horse convertor care the Sigma MC-11 (250 EUR / 150 USD). Or you convey the extremity focus 85mm f1.4 AS IF UMC which is disposable in E-bestrid (320 EUR / 250 USD).

Focus

Focus accuracy and repeatability is captious to consistently produce precipitous shots especially with large aperture lenses. Repeatability (the truth of focus happening the same subject afterwards repeated focus-acquisition) of this lens is comparatively good (metrical 95.5% in Reikan Central) with only 3 mildly soft results concluded a series of 40 shots. There is only little focus variant whether the crystalline lens focuses from a closer distance or from infinity.

The lens focuses in around 1 sec on an A7R Cardinal from infinity to 1m (1:10 enlargement), which is slow. The Sony Fe 85mm f1.8 is a trifle faster at 0.7 seconds. The focus/control ring is 18mm wide. It moves super smooth and can well be operated with one finger.

AF-surgery of the Zeiss Batis is scarce audible from the right and if you disc video with the intrinsic microphone the AF-force back produces no levelheaded. Equally you pull focus on, you'll notice a several focus respiration: the image becomes more magnified at closer focusing distances. When I adjusted the focus on from infinity to 1m, I measured a 13% increase in magnification. This is identical visible and pretty distracting when shooting videos. The Sony is the same.

Image stabilization

To examine the effectiveness of the envision stabilization with the Zeiss 85mm f1.8 Batis on a A7R II body, I did a serial publication of 140 psychometric test-shots hand-held. I time-tested with shutter speeds from 1/100 of a 2d down to 0.3 s. Shots at 1/100 sec with steady shot=OFF are used as reference of how good my hand-retention was at the clock of the test and Reikan FoCal did the task of evaluating the keenness of complete shots. Here're the inside information: With steady guessing=ON the combo produced 80% sharp shots at 1/25 sec (2 stops) which went down to 70% at 1/13 sec (3 stops). At 1/6 secant only 20% of the shots were usable. This is a 2-3 plosive speech sound advantage over my unstabilised results, but it's actually a little worsened than I measured for the Sony FE 85mm f1.8 when exclusively using the stabilization built into the A7R II body. So while the optical stabilization may be salutary to Mark I A7 bodies which didn't have sensor-shift stabilisation, owners of Mark II operating theater later bodies may actually get major compensation from unstabilised lenses which are forced to use the full body-supported system of rules alone. Of course your gas mileage may vary.

Next check out my quality results!

Check off prices on the Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8 at Amazon, B&H, or Adorama, or Wex. Alternatively beat yourself a imitate of my In private book surgery treat me to a deep brown! Thanks!

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