During Photokina 2016 we had a chance to talk to Bertram Honlinger from Zeiss who gave us a tour of the company’s current lines of lenses as well as the new products introduced for Photokina 2016.
Zeiss expended its offerings in recent years and now has quite a few distinct lines. For anybody who hasn’t been following Honlinger gave us quite an explanation of the differences between the different lines – here is the basics:
Otus lenses – The best of the best, fully sharp wide open. Made for Canon and Nikon, all FF and manual with a special design. There are currently 3 Otus lenses.
Milvus lenses – The new “regular” line for DSLR (Canon/Nikon), manual, with d-click option, weather proof, with the same image quality throughout the line. There are currently 9 lenses in this line.
Classic lenses – Zeiss still has its old SLR line. All manual, heavy metal lenses for Canon/Nikon cameras. There are still 6 lenses in this line.
Sony A mount – Honlinger actually didn’t mention these in the video but they also exist for those who still shoot with A mount Sony cameras (they are typically AF lenses and there are 7 at the moment including 3 zooms).
Mirrorless camera lines:
Batis lenses – the higher end, AF, FF lenses for Sony E-mount. The are weather proof and have an OLED display. There are currently 3 of those in the line.
Loxia lenses – different design, also FF for Sony E-mount, fully manual, also weather proof (but not as much) and have a d-click option and all have 52mm filters. There 4 lenses in this line.
Touit lenses – lenses for Sony E mount and Fuji X-mount (APS-C only), they have AF and the fuji versions have an aperture ring. There are 3 lenses in this line.
Sony/ZEISS E-mount lenses – just like with the A-mount lenses before, Honlinger didn’t really mention this line which is made as cooperation with Sony. There are 8 lenses in this line 3 are zooms (some are FF and others are APS-C only).
New lenses in Photokina 2016:
In Photokina 2016 Zeiss showcased 4 different lenses as well as one zoom cine lens. The lenses are:
- Milvus 2.8/15 (available mid October 2016)
- Milvus 2.8/18 (available mid October 2016)
- Milvus 2/135 (available mid October 2016)
- Loxia 2.4/85 (available mid December 2016)
- Lightweight Zoom LWZ.3 21-100mm/T2.9-3.9 T* (available in January 2017)
The 3 new Milvus lenses – official image
This video is just one of the first among over 20 videos and interviews that we took during the show (many more to come in the next days and weeks) and you can find them on our special channel on Youtube and on this link on LensVid.
Special thanks to Manfrotto – LensVid’s sponsors for Photokina 2016.
Iddo Genuth 
You can support LensVid by shopping with our affiliate partners
Affiliates: Amazon, B&H, Adorama and E-bay.
Why should you trust us?
