Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Lens Officially Announced for $4,490

Zeiss has officially announced the new high-quality Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 lens to expand its high-end lens family. The Otus 1.4/85 Lens will be displayed to the public for the first time at Photokina 2014 in Cologne from September 16 to 21.

Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Lens Price and Availability

The new Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 lens is priced at $4,490, available for Canon EF mount and Nikon F mount. And it will be released in mid-September. Now you can pre-order Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 lens on B&H Photo Video and Adorama.com.

Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Lens Specifications

Focal length	85 mm
Aperture range	f/1.4 – f/16
Focusing range	0,8 m (31.50’’) – ∞
Number of elements/groups	11 / 9
Angular field, diag./horiz./vert.	28.24° / 23.71° / 15.97°
Coverage at close range	278,85 mm x 185,61 mm (10.97‘‘ x 7.31‘‘)
Filter thread	M86 x 1.00
Dimensions (with caps)	ZF.2: 138 mm (5.43‘‘) ZE: 141 mm (5.55‘‘)
Diameter of focusing ring	ZF.2: 101 mm (3.98‘‘) ZE: 101 mm (3.98‘‘)
Weight	ZF.2: 1140g ZE: 1200g
Camera mounts	F Mount (ZF.2) EF Mount (ZE)

Otus 1.4/85: the new world-class lens (Via Blog.Zeiss)

The Otus 1.4/85 offers peerless image quality, even with an open aperture. As a short telephoto lens with an 85-millimeter focal length, this new member of the Otus family shows its strengths especially when people are center stage. Thanks to the longer focal length of this lens, photographers can keep a decent distance from the subject. At the same time, the lens is highly versatile: it excels in general studio work, as well as for fashion, advertising, product and architectural photography. Even photographers who are looking for a powerful companion for nature photography will find it in the Otus 1.4/85 – the edges of the picture can be used for compositional purposes at all f-stops. Photographers who had a chance to test exclusively this new flagship from Germany’s leading optics specialist were enthusiastic. Using the Otus 1.4/85 in combination with a full-frame SLR lets a photographer master all shooting situations and achieve effects that until now have only been known from the medium-format range: unusually high contrast, unusually high depth of field, impressive three-dimensional effects and sensational quality.

Just like its older ‘brother’, the Otus 1.4/55, the new Otus has been designed to meet professional photographers’ most rigorous demands. Internal focusing, the dial window, and the dials‘ clearly recognizable yellow labeling, familiar from professional cine lenses like ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime, are just a few of the characteristics of the Otus 1.4/85. The smooth manual focus operation with the large angle of rotation of 261 degrees combined with the easy-to-grip focus ring enables the finest variations in focusing. The freedom to focus — one of the most important creative elements in photography — has literally been put into the hands of the photographer as an artistic tool. Both the extra-fine haptics and the precision of the focusing mechanism can only be achieved with the metal design of the Otus range. The robust all-metal barrel is also well equipped to deal with the rough daily work of a professional photographer, ensuring a long product life. And for all photographers who in addition to the actual optics also rely on screw-on filters in their work, matching T* UV and POL filters with a diameter of 86 millimeters will be available from ZEISS for the Otus 1.4/85.

Optically, the Otus 1.4/85 stands out for its high image quality, even with an open aperture — as is true for the entire Otus range. Specifically, that means a neutral bokeh in the background, highly detailed images without any bothersome optical artifacts, consistently high resolution power across the entire image field, no color fringing or distortion, and an extremely high image contrast all the way into the edges. The imaging performance remains entirely consistent for all shooting distances. High apertures can be used even for close-ups right down to a working distance of 0.65 meters. This freedom offers the photographer new opportunities to compose his or her subjects, without having to waste time thinking about a possible loss of quality This is one of the reasons why the photographers who tested the new Otus 1.4/85 lens exclusively beforehand returned it only reluctantly.