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Zeiss ZF.2 85mm f/1.4 for Nikon
Available Today
An ideal lens for both indoor and outdoor portraits, this short, high speed lens was designed for challenging photography missions. The nine-blade diaphragm provides impressive bokeh, and distortion is practically nil. This superb Planar lens guarantees high-quality, colorful images even at full aperture.
The ZF.2 designation adds a microchip to the lens that automatically lets the camera know time, aperture setting, and manual exposure settings, including those for cameras that are not AI-compatible. Since the lens now transmits the EXIF data photographers no longer need to set the parameters manually. Optically the ZF.2 lenses are identical to the original ZF lenses, so if these functions aren’t important to you you save some money by getting the original ZF mount.
Zeiss Try and Buy: We are a registered Zeiss dealer and sell new-in-box, fully warrantied Zeiss ZF.2 lenses. With any ZF.2 lens rental of 4 days or longer, 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).
Roger's Take
Roger Cicala
President of LensRentals.com
The ZF.2 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 Nikon 85 f/1.4. Its a slightly different look in contrast and color that I personally love, but probably not quite as sharp wide open and requires manual focus so its less convenient. Its an excellent lens, but not my favorite among the Zeiss primes.
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
- Filter Size
- 72mm (nonrotating front element)
- Aperture
- f1.4-16
- Length
- 3.4”
- Diameter
- 3”
- Weight
- 1.25 lb
- Hood
- included
- Minimum Focusing Distance
- 3.5 feet
- Maximum Magnification
- .2x
- Angle of view: (full frame)
- 28.5 degrees
- Zoom method
- NA
- Image Stabilization
- None
- Focusing System
- Internal focusing, nonrotating, manual, floating element
- Aperture Blades
- 9 curved, circular shape
- Groups/Elements
- 5/6
- Low Dispersion Elements
- 0
- Fluorite Elements
- 0
- Aspherical Elements
- 0
- Weather Resistant
- No
- System
- Nikon F
- Compatibility
- DX, FX
- Specialty
- Video
- Autofocus
- No
LensRentals.com offers rentals ranging in length from 1 to 90 days. The shopping cart will automatically update the quoted price as you adjust the length of your rental. Our most common rental periods are shown below:
| Rental Period | Waiver Price | Rental Price | Total Price | Approximate Day Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 days | $4.00 | $43.00 | $47.00 | $15.67 |
| 4 days | $5.00 | $47.00 | $52.00 | $13.00 |
| 7 days | $6.00 | $62.00 | $68.00 | $9.71 |
| 10 days | $8.00 | $84.00 | $92.00 | $9.20 |
| 14 days | $11.00 | $109.00 | $120.00 | $8.57 |
| 21 days | $14.00 | $146.00 | $160.00 | $7.62 |
| 30 days | $18.00 | $183.00 | $201.00 | $6.70 |
| 45 days | $23.00 | $239.00 | $262.00 | $5.82 |
| 60 days | $27.00 | $279.00 | $306.00 | $5.10 |
| 90 days | $35.00 | $360.00 | $395.00 | $4.39 |
| Rental Period | Rental Price | Approximate Day Rate |
|---|---|---|
| 3 days | $43.00 | $14.33 |
| 4 days | $47.00 | $11.75 |
| 7 days | $62.00 | $8.86 |
| 10 days | $84.00 | $8.40 |
| 14 days | $109.00 | $7.79 |
| 21 days | $146.00 | $6.95 |
| 30 days | $183.00 | $6.10 |
| 45 days | $239.00 | $5.31 |
| 60 days | $279.00 | $4.65 |
| 90 days | $360.00 | $4.00 |
LensRentals.com ships via the appropriate FedEx service necessary to have your rental arrive on the date selected. Return shipping is included in the shipping price, and we include a prepaid return label with your order - all you need to do is bring it to a FedEx drop-off location when your rental is complete. If you prefer UPS shipping, you can select it during the checkout process for about 10% more.
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The shopping cart can automatically quote shipping, even for multi-item and oversize orders. Shipping multiple items together offers a significant savings over shipping them individually.