Clint Milby & Jake Fruia
Debuted publicly at this year’s Photokina show, the Zeiss Otus 85mm was tailor made by the engineers at Carl Zeiss to be the perfect photographer’s lens. So we stopped to talk with Zeiss’ Rich Schleuning about the Otus’ release, as well as their photo/video combo series of lenses, the Loxia.
Otus 85mm
The Otus 85mm is thesecond in the family of Otus lenses started by the Otus 55mm, made specifically hi res still cameras. The Otus 85mm has taken the quality and performance of the Otus 55mm and gone even further. As Rich puts it, “This is, without question, the best short telephoto [lens] Zeiss has ever done.”
With the Otus family, you don’t have to worry about a sweet spot as the entire lens is the sweet spot. “You can shoot wide open all day long” says Rich. The 85mm in particular gives photogrophers more creative control, without having to compromise the image while shooting with a shallow depth of field.
Despite having been tailor made for photography, the Otus has seen success with video shooters as well. True to its owl inspired name, the Otus 85mm is perfect for shooting video in low light and nighttime, all without degradation of the image or having to boost your ISO to noisy levels.
The Otus 85mm is shipping now in both Nikon and Canon mounts for $4,490. If you know about lens pricing, this is a great price for such a high quality lens. Add that to the continually dropping price of high quality cameras, and you have a powerful, reasonably priced lens option. For more information on the Otus lens family, visit www.Zeiss.com
Loxia Lens Family
The Loxia series of lenses are the first full frame, manual focus E-mount lenses designed specifically for the Sony A7 series. Built specifically for versatility, the Loxia lenses have been built for both still and video capture. They even have a de-click feature, that allows you to make the Loxia function more like a cine lens. The Loxia lenses possess a small, light form factor “In fitting with the [A7S]”.
The Loxia 2/50 should be available about now for approximately $$949, with the Loxia 2/35 coming within the month for about $1,299. For more information on the Loxia lens family, visit www.Zeiss.com
Servo Compact Zoom Controller
Lastly, Zeiss’ yet unnamed compact zoom controller was in prototype form at this year’s NAB, with a working prototype at IBC 2014. The device will attach to all three Zeiss compact zoom lenses with a mounting bracket that attaches to the lens itself, allowing you to simply snap the controller on and off. The controller will allow you to manually control iris and zoom with ease, as well as wirelessly. We’ll bring you more on this new product as information comes.
For more info on all Zeiss products and projects, visit Zeiss.com
