Zeiss ZE 85mm f/1.4 for Canon

Newly released in Canon mount, the Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 Planar is one of the best 85mm lenses made. While the Zeiss lenses are manually focused, they have the electronics to provide focus confirmation; basically, you focus the lens manually, but the camera will confirm focus confirmation just as accurately as it would with an autofocus lens. Aperture is controlled from the camera body and even E-TTL flash metering is accurate.

Roger’s take: Full disclosure: I love Zeiss glass. I used to shoot it on the 1DsII with an adapter and still shoot ZF lenses on Nikon bodies pretty frequently. So I was as excited as anybody when Zeiss announced the ZE mount. The 85 f/1.4 was the first to be released and I was less excited about that since I already love the Canon 85 f/1.2 L, but I was excited nonetheless.
The ZE lens is superbly well built with metal body and hood, and the smoothest focusing ring I’ve handled. The electronic autofocus confirmation system works: You focus the lens manually with the shutter button half-depressed and you get the ‘red box’ through the viewfinder confirming focus. Its fairly accurate, although I found it took a few minutes of practice to get used to it and live-view focusing is more accurate. Not as convenient or quick as motor driven autofocus, but better than unaided through-the-viewfinder manual focus.

The 85 f/1.4 is not as sharp wide open as I’d hoped and I’d consider f/1.4 for emergency use only. By f/1.8 its sharp and at f/2.8 is wickedly sharp. As sharp as anything I’ve shot. My take is its sharpest in the mid range (from 7 to 50 feet) and not quite as sharp at infinity, which is what would be expected from a lens who’s primary use is protraiture and not landscape. Distortion is nil. The best part is it has that Zeiss ‘look’: great microcontrast, even when lighting conditions are harsh and contrast high.
One other point that needs to be made: this lens does exhibit focus shift from f/1.4 to f/2 or so: in that aperture range it will tend to front focus, especially on objects fairly close to the camera.
I know someone will ask this question, so no, its not ‘better’ than the Canon 85 f/1.2 L. Its different. It has a slightly different look in contrast and color that I personally love. Its also a lot smaller physically than the Canon 85, which can be important some times. You can see some 100% test shots here Its an excellent lens, but not my favorite among the Zeiss primes.

Sale of Zeiss ZE lenses: We are a registered Zeiss dealer and sell new in box, fully warrantied Zeiss ZE lenses and now stock for immediate delivery. If the “Purchase” link is active under the rental link, a new in box copy of the lens is in stock for immediate shipment. If the purchase link is inactive, we are out of new copies, although we still have rental copies available.

Zeiss Try and Buy: We offering a new service with ZE lenses only: rent any ZE lens for 4 days. If you decide you want to buy it, we will apply your 4 day rental fee to the purchase of a brand new copy at our listed price. (Note: this is not your used rental copy, you will be buying a new lens.)

If you’re interested in finding good reviews of the various ZF lenses, with in-depth analysis of their strengths and weaknesses, we recommend spending a few dollars and getting Lloyd Chambers online review of the ZF lineup