Hey everyone!
I'm John Sison and welcome back to my channel.
Today we're taking a look at the Zeiss 135mm F2.8 Batis lens, for the Sony E-mount system.
The Zeiss 135mm F2.8 is the fourth lens to be released under the Batis lens lineup joining
the 18mm, 25mm and 85mm focal lengths.
Now what's special about this lens is that its the first 135mm lens that actually features
autofocus and you don't need to adapt it using a mount adapter from either the Canon EF mount
or the Sony A-mount.
Now while that's good news for Sony E-mount users, it has also been met with a bit of
criticism which I'll get into a bit of detail later on.
Now today I have it mounted on my Sony A7RM2 so stay tuned because I'll take you through
its design, features and more importantly the images you can expect out of this lens.
The lens has a sleek design that looks simplistic with a rubber focus ring with the Zeiss badge
on both sides of the lens.
On the top you have a unique OLED screen that can be seen in different lighting conditions.
This displays focus distance and depth of field.
For a quick tutorial on how to use it, turn it continuously to the left to change when
it is on.
You can have it set to be on for it to be displayed all the time, off to turn it off
completely or on during manual focus only.
To change the metric from metres to feet or vice versa, turn it to the right continuously
until it changes.
Supplied with the lens is a plastic barrel type lens hood with the focal length and aperture
printed on it.
It has a metal mount with a blue rubber gasket to prevent any dust and moisture from getting
in.
The lens also accepts 67mm filters.
Now I'm going to be in the office for this little bit but what I have here are all the
Batis lenses from the widest which is the 18mm, all the way up to the 135mm focal length.
Now as you can tell the 135mm is the tallest and the heaviest out of the bunch but when
you compare it to other 135mm lenses that are currently on the market, its certainly
not the heaviest.
Now whats important about this lens is that the size and weight keeps in line with the
A72 series cameras so its not going to be overly large and heavy to carry around for
long periods of time.
This is basically one of the reasons why Zeiss didn't go with a wider aperture lens because
its going to be a little heavier and a little larger.
Now in terms of its handling, it was very quick to focus for a 135mm lens.
I didn't have any issues regarding how accurate it was to focus and it focused perfectly in
bright situations where it was a bit slower in dim lighting.
Using it with Eye-AF and continuous autofocus worked great as I was walking toward the camera
and it managed to keep up with most of my movement.
It even worked well when I tracking dogs but to be fair, they were running across the frame
and not toward the camera.
The lens employs a fly by wire system so no hard stops with this lens but if you're well
acquainted with the other Batis lenses, you wouldn't expect any different.
The focus ring has a bit of resistance to it which is great for helping fine tune your
focus and works perfectly with Sony's peaking and focus magnifier.
Plus with a minimum focusing distance of 87cm, you can get some pretty decent close up shots.
The stabilisation worked well which is useful at this focal length, especially if you're
using this lens on a Sony camera that does not have stabilisation built into the body.
For people who are thinking of using this lens for video, it can track pretty well for
autofocus but the downside is that there is a fair amount of focus breathing.
When it came down to shooting with this lens, the lens and camera produced some excellent
results.
It was extremely sharp in the centres, even wide open and towards the edges it was only
slightly less sharp.
Out of focus blur was smooth and not too distracting but I'll let you be the judge of that.
Like any other lens that has a wide aperture at a telephoto range it could be very easy
for the camera to misjudge focus as the depth of field is so shallow, so its best to use
this lens with Eye-AF, especially if you were doing portraits.
Colours were pleasing with no visible chromatic aberration thanks to the lens's APO design, however there was a little bit
of vignetting wide open and pincushion distortion which are the only downsides regarding image
quality.
Now the Zeiss 135mm F2.8 Batis is a lens that a lot of photographers have been sort of waiting
for.
Now what I mean by that is that while photographers want a 135mm focal length, having it at F2.8
can seem a little off putting for people who are interested in the lens and may have expected
something a bit brighter like an F1.8 or F2 just for that flexibility in different lighting
conditions.
And for the asking price it is about $1999 US dollars or for people like me it can be
found in local stores for about $2900 Australian dollars and that alone is a bit hard to stomach
because the price is so high and that will actually make it out of reach for many photographers.
But that's pretty much where the bad news ends.
The lens is very well built and its much attuned to the other Batis lenses with weather seals,
a unique OLED display and a design that isn't too heavy to carry around.
I had a high percentage of photos that were worth keeping and that's actually thanks to
the quick autofocusing speed and in lens stabilisation which worked very well with the in-body stabilisation
from the A7RM2.
Now if you do intend to get this lens, I don't think you'll be disappointed with how incredibly
detailed and how sharp this lens is and also with the classic Zeiss colours, this lens
oozes with character and with a good amount of contrast and creamy out of focus blur.
Now if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below and if you already
own one, let me know what you think of it and remember to share some love by liking
this video and subscribing to my channel for more Zeiss lens reviews and tutorials.
You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more sample photos and photo updates and
don't forget to take a look in the description below for more information on the lens as
well as purchasing links.
Now until then, happy shooting and thanks for watching.
Now wow wow.
And more importantly, the images ???????
Now today I have it.
*giggles*
Is that it ah eh aw
I will let you know ah aw argh!
Which I'll get into detail about it later on.
Ah far out!
But I'll get into more of detail on that mater later.
Alright I've got it that's fine.
The price is so high out of preople.
Preople.
Now I ?????