Zeiss today woke up from a long slumber—their last lens was introduced in 2019—to introduce two new lenses for mirrorless cameras, the 50mm f/1.4 Otus, and 85mm f/1.4 Otus. These new manual focus lenses are available in the Z-mount, as well as the Canon RF and Sony FE mounts. Prices are US$2500 and US$3000, respectively, so not inexpensive for manual focus lenses. As usual, Zeiss is using Distagon/Sonnar optical designs.
Commentary: It's going to be interesting to see how well these lenses fare against the Chinese onslaught of primes. That may be one reason Zeiss opted to do whatever it took to get an RF mount license, as RF is still moated against the Chinese optic makers (and most Japanese, for that matter).
I am amused by the lengths that Zeiss went to in order to explain why a manual focus lens is relevant these days. For instance: "in low light conditions by manually adjusting focus one can have more control...and achieve sharpness exactly where they want."
Or perhaps: "Some photographers simply prefer the tactile experience and control that comes with manual focusing." While it was true that the early mirrorless cameras and lenses tended to not have fine user control over focus with their fly-by-wire systems, when Zeiss was taking their long nap that changed. With my f/1.2 Nikkors, for instance, it's auto subject detect to the eye, roll focus if I want it slightly fore or aft, and I not only feel in full control of that with my camera set properly, but have things like magnification and focus peaking at fingertip control, as well. I'm unclear how Zeiss thinks that will be different than what they provide.
The good news, at least for the Nikon Z-mount versions, is that recent cameras can even subject detect in manual focus, plus the full set of examination tools is available on a lens that supplies information to the camera, as do these new Oti.
It's nice that we once again have Zeiss in the lens market, but it feels like it's too little effort way too late to make a tangible difference. Back when the DSLR Otus lenses came out, they shined as examples of well disciplined, sharp, lenses. The 55mm f/1.4 ran rings around all the Nikkor F-mount lenses. Today in the Z-mount, we have three pretty incredible 50mm Nikkors and a pair of 85's. I'm betting that the f/1.2 Nikkors out Otus the new Oti.
