You Can Finally Get Your Hands on the Zeiss Otus ML 85mm f/1.4
In February, the legendary photo company Zeiss unveiled a pair of new Otus ML prime lenses for full-frame mirrorless cameras. The Zeiss Otus ML 50mm f/1.4 arrived shortly after launch. Now the new Otus 85mm f/1.4 has arrived.
Back in February, Zeiss said of the Otus ML 85mm f/1.4 that it would arrive later this year. The time has come, and photographers can purchase the fast new manual focus portrait prime lens for $2,999. It is available in Canon RF, Nikon Z, and Sony E mounts. None of the specs have changed since the original reveal near the beginning of this year, but given the time elapsed, it is worth revisiting the lens.
The Zeiss Otus ML 85mm f/1.4 features 15 elements across 11 groups, including two aspherical elements and five pieces of anomalous partial dispersion glass. Zeiss makes special note of the lens’s “relatively few glass-air surfaces” and its Sonnar optical design, created nearly a century ago by Dr. Ludwig Bertele.
The Otus ML 85mm f/1.4 lens is quite hefty, weighing around 2.3 pounds (a bit over one kilogram), although there are minor differences across each of the three mounts. The lens is around five inches long (just under 130 millimeters).
Speaking to PetaPixel at CP+ in February, days after Zeiss unveiled its new lenses, Petra Visuri, Product Manager of Photographer and Mobile Imaging, Zeiss Photonics and Optics PNO) explained that the new Otus ML lenses channel the spirit of the company’s legendary Otus primes for DSLR cameras. However, the move to mirrorless afforded Zeiss more flexibility in optical design, thanks to the different mount systems.
Further, given that mirrorless cameras are, all else equal, smaller and lighter than their DSLR counterparts, Zeiss wanted to make its new lenses smaller and lighter.
“We had to bring this same experience and same magical images to a compact and lightweight form,” Visuri said in February.
One thing that Zeiss did not want to do in the move to mirrorless was employ digital lens corrections, which are commonplace among first-party manufacturers.
“With the Otus way, we are not relying on any of those. That’s part of the design goal,” Visuri told PetaPixel. “In one way, [digital corrections are] fair. If it makes the job of the photographer easier, that’s fine. But when we design the design intention and also the goal we want to achieve, what we want to preserve with Otus and the new Otus ML family is that we do not need to rely on those corrections.”
The Zeiss Otus ML lenses, including the 85mm f/1.4, also buck modern trends by eschewing autofocus altogether. Both the Otus ML 50mm f/1.4 and the new 85mm f/1.4 are entirely manual focus. However, modern mirrorless cameras should make the manual focusing experience much easier thanks to live view and the ability to easily zoom in through the viewfinder or on the camera’s rear screen. Zeiss has also refined the focus ring on its new Otus ML primes, promising smooth, silent, and extremely precise focusing control.
“The primary advantage [of manual focus] is that you control your story creation,” Zeiss says. “You decide what it is you want to see in focus, the focus and depth of it. You control your story.”
Pricing and Availability
The Zeiss Otus ML 85mm f/1.4 is available now for Canon RF, Nikon Z, and Sony E mounts for $2,999.
Image credits: Chris Niccolls and Erin Thomson
