Zeiss Batis 85mm F/1.8 Review

Photographer Matt Granger (aka ThatNikonGuy) had a chance to test the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 which was announced earlier this year for the Sony A7 series and seemed to be very impressed by it’s performance.

Yes, the Batis isn’t an Otus (we know – we did extensive testing of both the 55mm and 85mm versions of these superb lenses), but it also cost about 1/3 to 1/4 of these monsters . It does however have both image stabilization and more importantly AF which the Otus do not have and can be a real game changer – especially if you consider the A7R II new AF system which on paper at least should show some serious improvement over the A7R which Granger used for his review (and has very slow performance in terms of AF).

We had a quick official preview of the two Batis lenses when they were announced by Zeiss. Unlike the Loxia line of lenses for FE mount cameras which was introduced last year and includes manual focus lenses, the Batis are all AF lenses but also an interesting OLED display that will replace the depth of field indicator and the focusing distance and can actually show all sorts of information (Granger shows this early in the video).

Here is a quick reminder of the Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8 specs:

Focal length – 85mm.
Aperture – f/1.8.
Construction – 11 elements in 8 groups.
Min focusing distance – 71cm.
Maximum magnification – 1:7.9.
Mount – E-mount (FE coverage).
Filter – 67mm.
Length – 105mm.
Weight – 475 grams.
Price – just under $1200.

You can find many more previews and reviews on our Photography review section here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.