Zeiss ZE 85mm f/1.4

Newly released in Canon mount, the Zeiss 85mm f1.4 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 f1.4 was the first to be released and I was less excited about that since I already love the Canon 85 f1.2 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 extremely well: You focus the lens manually with the shutter button half-depressed and you get the ‘red box’ through the viewfinder confirming focus. Its very accurate, although I found it took a few minutes of practice to get used to it. Not as convenient or quick as motor driven autofocus, but worlds better than through-the-viewfinder manual focus.

The 85 f1.4 is not as sharp wide open as I’d hoped and I’d consider f1.4 for emergency use only. By f1.8 its sharp and at f2.8 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.
I know someone will ask this question, so no, its not ‘better’ than the Canon 85 f1.2 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

Zeiss ZF sales: We know that many of you are renting the ZE lenses considering purchase and have reached an agreement with Zeiss to become a dealer for ZE lenses only to our rental customers. If you like the copy of the Zeiss 85 f/1.4 you rent from us, you can purchase it for $1095 after rental, or we can get you a new copy for $1170.

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