Zeiss Otus Initial Impressions
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I'm glad to hear the Otus community is growing and I am looking forward to see your posts. You're in for a treatleGreve said:
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Please pardon this rookie question.
With all the discussion about cross type focus points vs. non cross type, and "how many focus points does your camera have?", here you have the top of the food chain lens that does not have AF. My question is, how do you use it? At f1.4, must you use a tripod and live view? Can this be used hand held without a tripod? Can one reliably focus using the view finder?
I am not in the market for this lens, I am simply curious as to how a lens like this is used. I remember back in the pre-autofocus film days where there was the indicator in the middle of the view finder that assisted with focusing but now those are gone.
With all the discussion about cross type focus points vs. non cross type, and "how many focus points does your camera have?", here you have the top of the food chain lens that does not have AF. My question is, how do you use it? At f1.4, must you use a tripod and live view? Can this be used hand held without a tripod? Can one reliably focus using the view finder?
I am not in the market for this lens, I am simply curious as to how a lens like this is used. I remember back in the pre-autofocus film days where there was the indicator in the middle of the view finder that assisted with focusing but now those are gone.
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leGreve said:Viggo said:
Kristiansund… home of Stavenes Lighthouse, Bremsnes Cave and The Atlantic Road
Cool, I live in a similar sounding place, Kristiansand, at the very south of Norway. Almost all of Norway is superb for nature photography, landscapes and nowadays you might even experience a few degrees below, although is a very rare warm winter periods now. Have fun and please share some pictures !
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Currently I use the standard focusing screens for the 5DIII and 1DX, which are not very good for manual focus. But all the outdoor images and about half of the indoor images I have posted earlier on this thread are handheld, focused through the viewfinder. But to focus through the viewfinder wider than f2.8 can be a bit of a gamble, due to shallow DOF and (lack of) accuracy on the focus indicators. But after some practice, I do get quite a healthy number of keepers.Badger said:
But to me this lens is not for any stressed situation or action oriented shooting. It is a low shoulders, low pulse, take your time and use a tripod kind of lens.
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Here is the first shot I took with this lens. I was thrilled after transferring it to the PC and having a look at the details. So now you know what a Norwegian Christmas tree looks like 
5DIII, 1.6s, f4,0, ISO100
5DIII, 1.6s, f4,0, ISO100
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Well… fate would have it that I got pneumonia the second I landed at my moms house….. still not in good shape.
So that kinda ruined my photo trip. I tried going out into the Fjell this morning, but it only made things worse.
Anyways. I was woken up early feeling bad, but I looked out the window and saw it was a stary morning.
So I quickly set up the tripod and tested the Zeiss.
This photo is shot at f 1.4, iso 1600 and 6 seconds exposure. Untouched…
My initial impressions are that this lens is huge haha, so if you are coming from a "lesser" 50mm you'll be surprised.
However if you are used to having the 24-70 2.8L living on your camera you wont be surprised by its weight.
The lens is lovely. I like the old ZE and ZF.2 lenses, but construction wise Otus is a step further. I really feels solid and durable. Just dont do any fast swings around as you'll most likely hurt someone if you hit them with this blunt weapon made of metal
What you have to be aware of before spending money on this:
- I'll probably get better at it but right now I'm relying on the live view with 10x magnification to set focus perfect. Which makes it a slow lens to work with.
- You can half press the shutter button and focus till the squares disappear, but it's not easy to hit the spot, especially at 1.4.
- Heavy… roughly 1kg.
- Looong focus rotation, which makes it lovely for my film work, but can be a bit of an effort for photos. I think it's around 270 degrees.
- Some people on the film community have talked about the ZF version of Zeiss lenses being better for filming because of the external aperture. However… this is only true if you are definitely going to de-click the lens. If not, you are stuck with half apertures opposed to the ZE version's 1/3 stops. Having said this… I don't think I would declick the Otus even if I could.
So that kinda ruined my photo trip. I tried going out into the Fjell this morning, but it only made things worse.
Anyways. I was woken up early feeling bad, but I looked out the window and saw it was a stary morning.
So I quickly set up the tripod and tested the Zeiss.
This photo is shot at f 1.4, iso 1600 and 6 seconds exposure. Untouched…
My initial impressions are that this lens is huge
haha, so if you are coming from a "lesser" 50mm you'll be surprised.However if you are used to having the 24-70 2.8L living on your camera you wont be surprised by its weight.
The lens is lovely. I like the old ZE and ZF.2 lenses, but construction wise Otus is a step further. I really feels solid and durable. Just dont do any fast swings around as you'll most likely hurt someone if you hit them with this blunt weapon made of metal
What you have to be aware of before spending money on this:
- I'll probably get better at it but right now I'm relying on the live view with 10x magnification to set focus perfect. Which makes it a slow lens to work with.
- You can half press the shutter button and focus till the squares disappear, but it's not easy to hit the spot, especially at 1.4.
- Heavy… roughly 1kg.
- Looong focus rotation, which makes it lovely for my film work, but can be a bit of an effort for photos. I think it's around 270 degrees.
- Some people on the film community have talked about the ZF version of Zeiss lenses being better for filming because of the external aperture. However… this is only true if you are definitely going to de-click the lens. If not, you are stuck with half apertures opposed to the ZE version's 1/3 stops. Having said this… I don't think I would declick the Otus even if I could.
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This shot it untouched…
So an addendum to my previous post would be that you might need a camera that can utilize the Otus' amazing resolution to its full extend. The 5D mk III to eyes doesn't seem to do so.
Also the vignetting is quite apparent at 1.4. This of course was already known, just interesting to see it for myself.
So blowing a bit to the flames of resolution warfare again here… suddenly the D800 looks mighty interesting
iso 100, f 1.4, 1/80s
So an addendum to my previous post would be that you might need a camera that can utilize the Otus' amazing resolution to its full extend. The 5D mk III to eyes doesn't seem to do so.
Also the vignetting is quite apparent at 1.4. This of course was already known, just interesting to see it for myself.
So blowing a bit to the flames of resolution warfare again here… suddenly the D800 looks mighty interesting
iso 100, f 1.4, 1/80s
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Glad to hear you got the lens and looking forward to many posts. It would be good if you could post closer to the 4M size limit though. Sorry to hear of your health. Hope you recover soon, so you can take advantage of the beautiful scenery where you are.
I am in a similar situation, but with a less serious diagnosis. So in lack of anything better to do, I shot this out the window of my TV room. No stars though. Only thing special about this one is that it is NOT snowing. But it has a few pixel peeping qualities.
5DIII, 13s, f10, ISO100
I am in a similar situation, but with a less serious diagnosis. So in lack of anything better to do, I shot this out the window of my TV room. No stars though. Only thing special about this one is that it is NOT snowing. But it has a few pixel peeping qualities.
5DIII, 13s, f10, ISO100
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Very good!
I am also looking forward to a higher resolution body, even though I am not very tempted by the 800.
I have practiced my focusing skills through the viewfinder for a while now and from f2 I get an acceptable amount of keepers. Wider than that is a bit of a gamble. I am tempted to install the EcS focusing screen in my 1DX and see how that works.
I am also looking forward to a higher resolution body, even though I am not very tempted by the 800.
I have practiced my focusing skills through the viewfinder for a while now and from f2 I get an acceptable amount of keepers. Wider than that is a bit of a gamble. I am tempted to install the EcS focusing screen in my 1DX and see how that works.
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Settings: Iso 800, f 4, 1/200s
This was a quick test of the 50cm near focus. I just love that soft transition of focus and the ever so creamy bokeh.
The grain ofcourse is not because of the Zeiss but the fact that I underexposed a whole stop on iso 800.
This was a quick test of the 50cm near focus. I just love that soft transition of focus and the ever so creamy bokeh.
The grain ofcourse is not because of the Zeiss but the fact that I underexposed a whole stop on iso 800.
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Did you get the Otus before Christmas? There are lots of angry posts on the Zeiss website for late deliveries.eml58 said:
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