# Zeiss Announces Otus 28mm f/1.4



## Canon Rumors Guy (Oct 14, 2015)

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<p>The ZEISS Otus family continues to grow</p>
<p><em>ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: the new focal length in the wide-angle range augments ZEISS’s most powerful family of SLR lenses</em></p>
<p>OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 14 October 2015</p>
<p>With the new ZEISS Otus 1.4/28, users of shorter focal lengths can now also take advantage of the uncompromising quality of the ZEISS Otus family, whether for landscapes, architectural photography or any other images they take with a wide-angle lens. Where details count, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 with ZE or ZF.2 mount for DSLR cameras from Canon1) and Nikon1) is the lens of choice. When used with modern, high-resolution DSLR cameras, it offers unrivalled image quality unseen until now in wide-angle photography, even with a wide-open aperture.</p>
<p>The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28, a moderate wide-angle lens, particularly shows off its strengths in landscape photography. Even with a maximum aperture, the corners of the image are completely usable, so there are no limits to composition. In poor light combined with fast-moving objects, the lens also excels due to its high speed of f/1.4. While other lenses reveal their shortcomings in correction in night photography, especially when lots of open light sources dominate an image, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 boasts a stellar performance. Finally, the latest member of the ZEISS Otus family is excellent for taking pictures of image elements in the foreground, as they take on a greater feeling of depth to the scene due to the wide background and the open aperture; here, the lens’s harmonious bokeh ensures a 3D effect.</p>
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<p><strong>For professional photographers

</strong>Developed to meet the high demands of professional photographers, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 has – like the two other focal lengths in the ZEISS Otus family – inner focusing, a dial window and the well-known yellow labeling of the dials for easy legibility, all of which are already known from professional cine lenses (for example ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime).</p>
<p>The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 also stands out for its mechanical quality: the soft focus operation with the large rotation angle allows for the finest variations when focusing – something that is only possible with a metal construction. In every focusing situation, the user is given freedom to compose – one of the most important creative factors in photography. An artistic tool is literally put in the photographer’s hands. The robust all-metal barrel with its easy-to-grip focus ring is well suited for a photographer’s demanding everyday work; this ensures a long product life. The optical performance of the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 is outstanding thanks to its high image contrast all the way into the edges of the image – already at an open aperture. Its consistent performance at all distances (minimum working distance of 0.15 m or 5.19”), the highly detailed images it creates without any bothersome artifacts, and the neutral bokeh in the background round out the excellent image quality of the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28. “With these features the ZEISS Otus lenses set themselves apart from the other ZEISS SLR lenses, such as the ZEISS Milvus family, which we recently presented,” said Christophe Casenave, Product Manager with ZEISS Camera Lenses.</p>
<p>Thanks to these characteristics, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 offers users who use a modern high-resolution 35-mm DSLR camera a quality that corresponds to the level of the medium format – without having to invest in large and expensive medium-format equipment.</p>
<p><strong>Intricate construction for uncompromising imaging performance

</strong>The lens consists of 16 elements in 13 groups. One of the lens elements has an aspheric optical surface and one element is aspheric on both sides. Eight other lens elements are made of special glass. The basis of the optical design is a Distagon. The special glass has anomalous partial dispersion, as is typical for an apochromatic lens. This corrects the longitudinal chromatic aberrations superbly, which therefore lie considerably below the tightly defined boundaries.  Bright-dark transitions in the image, in particular highlights, are depicted almost completely free of color artifacts. The floating elements design (the change of distances between certain lens elements when focusing) allows for unrivalled imaging performance along the entire focusing range, from 0.3 m (11.81”) to infinity.</p>
<p><strong>The ZEISS Otus lens family

</strong>When ZEISS introduced the ZEISS Otus 1.4/55 in 2013, creating a new family of high-end SLR lenses, the trade press and users alike were enthusiastic. The ZEISS Otus 1.4/55 has exceeded its promises up to this day. The second member of the family, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/85, which was presented at photokina 2014, continued this success story in the short telephoto range. It enables photographers to express their creativity in a unique way – and that with the unsurpassed high imaging performance for which the lenses in the ZEISS Otus family are known. “The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 continues the tradition of its lens family. It is the best wide-angle that has ever existed. Now we can offer three outstanding lenses for the widest variety of applications,” added Casenave.</p>
<p><strong>Price and availability

</strong>The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 ZF.2 and ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 ZE will be available worldwide starting in the second quarter of 2016. The lens shade is included with delivery. The retail sales price is unknown to date.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Camera mounts

</strong>EF-mount (ZE), F-mount (ZF.2)</p>
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## Sabaki (Oct 14, 2015)

What an impressive family of lenses this Otus crew is.

Just curious; what type of photography would be the driver behind engineering a 28mm lens? I get the 24mm, 35mm focal length but what are Zeiss envisioning the photographer would take with 28mm?


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## Sator (Oct 14, 2015)

Both William Klein and Jeanloup Sieff did a lot of fashion photography at 28mm. It's a difficult focal length to master for this purpose, but when done well it can be quite striking. It's a touch more environmental in its view than 35mm.


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## Sabaki (Oct 14, 2015)

Sator said:


> Both William Klein and Jeanloup Sieff did a lot of fashion photography at 28mm. It's a difficult focal length to master for this purpose, but when done well it can be quite striking. It's a touch more environmental in its view than 35mm.



Thanks Sator  I enjoy knowing these things


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## 9VIII (Oct 14, 2015)

If they can get the same IQ as 35mm out of 28mm, but not 24mm, then I think it makes sense to go for 28mm and just forget about 24mm and 35mm.
Then the next Otus can just go straight to ultrawide.


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## vscd (Oct 14, 2015)

The 28mm ist *THE* Streetphotographylense... it's an famous Leicarange and the Ricoh GR should also equiv 28mm. Nikon Ti 28 is also quite known. The only thing which is strange... no one would go to streetphotography with such an intrusive and long OTUS


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## tianxiaozhang (Oct 14, 2015)

Sabaki said:


> What an impressive family of lenses this Otus crew is.
> 
> Just curious; what type of photography would be the driver behind engineering a 28mm lens? I get the 24mm, 35mm focal length but what are Zeiss envisioning the photographer would take with 28mm?



I use 28mm a lot 

http://www.tianxiaozhangphoto.com/x4kdjlxq93g4wsbcbihuhis7dlx0m5
http://www.tianxiaozhangphoto.com/vwnbdbh3u42o1limu832mvwe8bj97m
http://www.tianxiaozhangphoto.com/afw20z7s0le8illf0sk0a23284jec1
http://www.tianxiaozhangphoto.com/mspitr2ga3sga5xe83jc9avc6tikjb

And 16/7mm on a crop body
http://www.tianxiaozhangphoto.com/0hiblqo6f4pgppzqgb4yumkbisks4r

etc..


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## NancyP (Oct 14, 2015)

Not that I am spending that kind of money, but the well-heeled astrophotographer might go for a bulky Otus 28mm f/1.4 if it had no coma at f/1.4.


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## douglaurent (Oct 14, 2015)

The only one of the 10 pics Zeiss has released that is wide open at 1.4 has only one corner that can be judged (bottom left), and this doesnt look sharp at all:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlzeisslenses/21512479303/in/album-72157657249840463/lightbox/


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## NWPhil (Oct 14, 2015)

douglaurent said:


> The only one of the 10 pics Zeiss has released that is wide open at 1.4 has only one corner that can be judged (bottom left), and this doesnt look sharp at all:
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlzeisslenses/21512479303/in/album-72157657249840463/lightbox/



True, and the 30 second exposure does not explain that - however, the lens specifications does:
the infinity DOF @1.4 is pretty shallow - 18.7meters to infinity
http://www.zeiss.com/content/dam/Photography/new/pdf/en/downloadcenter/datasheets_otus/otus_1428.pdf

Assuming the focus point was maybe 150 feet away, the DOF range should be even shallower - at 2 meters it's still only half meter. Someone might be able to figure those numbers.
Actually to me, all the rocks in the foreground, even the one's the meadow edge don't look sharp


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## leGreve (Oct 14, 2015)

douglaurent said:


> The only one of the 10 pics Zeiss has released that is wide open at 1.4 has only one corner that can be judged (bottom left), and this doesnt look sharp at all:
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/carlzeisslenses/21512479303/in/album-72157657249840463/lightbox/



You wanna judge the corner on 1.4 where the focus is 100metres away and the corner is 30 metres away?
If anything you could just the edge in the middle part of the photo.


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## Antono Refa (Oct 14, 2015)

I wonder whether Canon will follow suit with an EF 28mm f/1.4L to compete with the Otus, and an EF 20mm f/1.4L to compete with the Sigma 20mm Art.


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## Sator (Oct 15, 2015)

The timing of yesterday's announcement was certainly a little bizarre! Why keep people waiting for 6 months. It would have made more sense to unveil at around Christmas while accepting pre-orders, perhaps along with a cash-back incentive for those who get in early.


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## leGreve (Oct 15, 2015)

Sator said:


> The timing of yesterday's announcement was certainly a little bizarre! Why keep people waiting for 6 months. It would have made more sense to unveil at around Christmas while accepting pre-orders, perhaps along with a cash-back incentive for those who get in early.



Depends... if they knew that the rival lenses of Canon and Sigma were on their way, they have to sway people off from buying them. In this day and age I would expect most photographers not to buy all three or even two of them, but only fork out for one. In other words, if people had their mind set on Sigma or Canon because they were announced before the Otus, then it would hurt sales.

Having said that... I'm in doubt that the Otus line is selling that well anyways (yet?).


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## tiltshift (Oct 15, 2015)

I think in a way it makes sense to announce it so early. we know that it will be expensive so if someone is interested it gives them some time to save for it


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## meywd (Oct 15, 2015)

tiltshift said:


> I think in a way it makes sense to announce it so early. we know that it will be expensive so if someone is interested it gives them some time to save for it



+1 lol


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## NWPhil (Oct 15, 2015)

[[/quote](...)
having said that... I'm in doubt that the Otus line is selling that well anyways (yet?).
[/quote]

well, the 55mm is the most popular so far, and don't see many being sold as used (both 85 and 55)...
not sure if that is an indication of anything, but if the line was not selling, why then make a third one?


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## vscd (Oct 16, 2015)

NWPhil said:


> well, the 55mm is the most popular so far, and don't see many being sold as used (both 85 and 55)...
> not sure if that is an indication of anything, but if the line was not selling, why then make a third one?



There is much more to a product than pure income. For example: Do you think any racingcar will every be in a positive Cashflow? Mostly not. They are all products to show what's possible with the aim to reflect the technology down to the rest of the products.

The blue badge of Zeiss on Sonylense makes more money than the Otus together, I think  The glory of Zeiss is build from a few LOOK-WHATWECANDO lenses. Afterwards no one cares that the Sony FE 24-70F4 is quite subpar. The Zeiss-badge alone stand for quality and therefor for at least 200$ bucks more.


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