What's up photography pals it's me again And today we're testing out a 3 800 Pound monster of a lens the zeiss otis 100 millimeter f 1.4 and when i say 3 800 pounds i'm not talking about weight I mean british pound sterling of course Although admittedly this lens is pretty Heavy too in the us it costs four Thousand five hundred dollars which is Also a pretty eye-watering investment I'd never dream of buying a lens this Expensive my mother would kill me first Off and i'd also be too afraid to even Breathe near it let alone take it out of My house for shooting but still i can't Wait to give it a good test it's fun to See what on earth these things are Capable of I've said in the past in a special video For my patreon supporters i think it was That my dream lens for portrait Photography has to be the sigma 105 Millimeter f 1.4 art simply because that Focal length is perfect for me giving You beautifully confessed images without Completely taking your backgrounds out Of the equation and at f 1.4 those Backgrounds are powerfully separated From your subject so this zeiss otis Lens would also be a dream portrait lens For me although unlike the sigma lens This thing is manual focus only zeiss Lenses have generally pretty lovely Build quality as they are but the
Reputation of their otus series is even More special and this lens is no Exception if you can handle its gigantic Size and very hefty weight of one and a Half kilograms over three pounds then Pretty much everything about that Metallic lens body feels as good as it Looks the focus and distance markings Are beautifully etched in yellow and the Lens's only control point a rubber Manual focus ring turns unbelievably Smoothly and with wonderful precision a Very long focus throw which is honestly Very helpful when shooting a telephoto Lens at f 1.4 the lens does exhibit a Moderate amount of focus breathing here As you can see zooming in a little as You focus more closely to your subject The only slight disappointment for me in This lens's build quality is its lack of Weather sealing as you can see here a Bizarre emission at this price point Another very slight issue is that the Aperture mechanism produces very loud Clicks on stopping down some of the Loudest i've heard on any camera lens so Those are two minor flies in the Ointment that i never would have even Mentioned if this wasn't a four thousand Five hundred dollar camo lens it comes With a tough metallic lens hood that can Be reverse mounted its filter thread Size is a large 86 millimeters and it Does not feature image stabilization
Overall gorgeous build quality here Although you'll need strong arms and a Big camera bag to carry it around with You and keep it out of the rain All right let's move on and look at Image quality i'll be testing it adapted Onto a canon eos r5 with its 45 Megapixel full-frame sensor no in-camera Corrections were available In the middle of the image at f 1.4 we See good contrast and excellent Sharpness although the lens isn't quite Bitingly sharp here but almost the Corner image quality is just a little Softer and very dark but still we are Seeing lots of detail here corner image Quality is about the same at f2 but f 2.8 seems just a tiny bit sharper and Finally stop down to f4 for perfect Sharpness across the entire image frame The lens stays this sharp down to f11 Where a little softness begins to emerge Due to the effect of diffraction Overall the lens is very sharp between f 1.4 and f 2.8 with good contrast but if You want razor sharpness stop down to f4 It's a great show but i was hoping for Just a tiny bit more here at the widest Apertures considering the lenses price Anyway let's look at distortion and Vignetting the lens project a very mild Pincushion distortion nothing to worry About in real life if anything it might Even make your subject look a little
Thinner less encouraging is the heavy Vignetting at f 1.4 and that vignetting Falls particularly sharply right in the Very edges of your images making it more Noticeable stop down to f2 for only a Slight improvement but it's at f 2.8 and F4 that we see even illumination across The whole image This lens can focus down to one meter Not too bad but it's not going to be Mistaken for a macro lens anytime soon Close-up image quality is a little Softer at f 1.4 than at normal distances But still very good stop down to f2 f 2.8 and f4 for mild improvements that Gradually lead us back to excellent Sharpness Now let's see how well the lens works Against bright light wow no real Problems here there is actually some Flaring being projected but it is so Translucent that it's almost impossible To see Nice and now one of the most important Features of this lens will be the Quality of its bokeh well what do you Think my conclusion is simple those Out-of-focus backgrounds look gorgeous To me although unfortunately the lens Doesn't seem to avoid the perennial Issue of cat's eye pocket shapes in the Corners of your images at the brightest Apertures And finally related to bokeh comes
Longitudinal chromatic aberration at f 1.4 we do see a hint of colour fringing On autofocus highlights here but it's Not too serious stop down to f2 and it's Mostly gone away Well what can we say about this crazy Lens overall then well let's get the Obvious out the way this lens produces Some of the most gorgeous images you Could imagine with lots of sharpness Uniquely autofocus backgrounds with Beautiful bokeh good contrast and Gorgeous build quality if you don't mind Fixing manually of course that is for Those willing to use manual focus though It is the portrait lens of your dreams Honestly honestly though considering the Lenses price i was hoping for a bit more Technical image quality fireworks i hate To be a boring old pixel peeping nerd But at thousand five hundred dollars the Lens should be utterly perfect so i was Hoping for just an edge of extra Sharpness at the brightest apertures Here just an edge and a little less Longitudinal chromatic aberration and Maybe a little less of the bothersome Vignetting oh i don't know i really am Nitpicking there or pixel picking Perhaps the lens is truly excellent but I'd much rather get the sigma 105 Millimeter f 1.4 arch lens that i Mentioned earlier instead which features Autofocus very useful and almost the
Same level of image quality at something Like a third of the price anyone who can Afford to pull the trigger on buying This lens though will surely not be Disappointed Well what did you think of that monster If you're watching this review because You can actually afford a lens like this Unlike me then i definitely encourage You to check out my patreon page down in The description below there supporters Of this channel make a big difference to Me keeping these review videos trucking On and also get all kinds of weekly Bonus content including special Exclusive videos ciao for now
