Introduction
We were lucky to get Batis 135/2.8 for testing, prior to its official release. This comes at the cost however, since we had lens for less than 5 days, and we usually need three weeks for the full comparative review.
Batis 135/2.8 is one of the most anticipated lenses in the first half of 2017 however and thus there were no excuses, for not at least trying to put this review together.
I was lucky to get help from two friends, both very talented professional photographers – Petr Machan and Pavel Sinagl.
We made most of the images together and without their friendly help, I won’t be able to publish this article on time.
I also spent one great afternoon photo session with another friend photographer – Jan Tichy who reviewed Batis 135 too and has some great sample images on his review page – http://jantichyphotography.com/pages/clanek-carl-zeiss-t-batis-apo-sonnar-135mm-f28-neskutecna-skutecnost/
As I wrote above, Batis 135/2.8 was highly anticipated lens among Sony E mount photographers. It is so far, one of the very few tele-prime lenses, in fact the longest one with the full AF support of Sony E mount cameras. Going through few related forums, I have seen couple of questioning comments regarding maximum speed of f/2.8. In my humble opinion, for the focal length of 135mm f/2.8 is a great compromise between shallow depth of field and compact size. I won’t question speed at all, because with the recent generation of image sensors, High ISO performance pushed the limits significantly and it will be hard to find situation where f/2.8 won’t suffice.
More important I believe is how the lens perform. Does it have that unique combination of contrast, colors, sharpness and bokeh that creates its own look, sort of unique signature?
Let’s see what Batis 135/2.8 has to offer.
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Specification
Comparative table of main specification figures:
Zeiss Batis 135/2.8 |
Sony SAL 135/1.8 ZA |
Samyang 135mm f/2.0 ED UMC |
|
| Mount | Sony-E | Sony-A | Nikon-F |
| Focal Length (mm) | 135 | 135 | 135 |
| Lens Groups / Elements | 11/14 | 9/11 | 7/11 |
| Angle of View (35 mm) | 18° | 18,2° | 18,8° |
| Maximum aperture (F) | 1/2.8 | 1/1.8 | 1/2.0 |
| Minimum Aperture (F) | 1/22 | 1/22 | 1/22 |
| Aperture Blades | 9 | 9 | 9 |
| Minimum Focus Distance (mm) |
870 | 720 | 800 |
| Maximum Magnification ratio (x) | 0,19 | 0,25 | ? |
| Filter Diameter (mm) | 67 | 77 | 77 |
| Optical Image stabilization |
yes | no | no |
| Diameter x Length (mm) | 98 x 120 | 89.5 x 107.5 | 92 x 92 |
| Weight (g) |
614 | 1050 | 830 |
| Focusing | AF/EMF | AF/EMF* | MF |
| Price new/used March 2017 (EUR) | 1999/? | 1615/1000** | 489/400 |
* AF on Sony E-mount cameras is limited by the functionality of the adapter LA-EA4
** Using SAL135F18Z on Sony E-mount camera require special adapter – Sony LA-EA4 (250/150 EUR)
Build quality
Batis is based on the traditional Sonnar design and it uses not less than eight elements made of special glass with anomalous partial dispersion. Design also feature floating lens element for better performance across the focusing range.
With 14 elements in 11 groups it is one of the most complex designs that I have recently seen and it is incredible that it weighs only 614gr (considering that it incorporate AF and OIS too).
Lens comes in large paper box with the blue polyurethane filling, plastic lens hood is part of the package.
It’s not a big deal, but those plastic bags inside, seem to me inappropriate at this price level. I can imagine nice gray breathing paper bags, if not textile pouches. In the production version, you will also find warranty, hand signed quality control certificate and instructions.
All Batis lenses looks very similar, there is nothing new that will stand out.
Lens itself is made of a metal composite, with built-in OLED display which substitute for distance scale engraving as well as related DOF scale. Lens has rubberized focus ring, metal mount and plastic lens hood bayonet type. Being a native Sony E mount AF lens, it supports all advanced AF functions of the camera system and has electronically coupled manual focus feature. Implementation of manual focus is also very good and OLED display has some advantages, especially because it can be under-lit for better visibility in the dark surrounding. Unfortunately, displayed values have to be taken with some reserve and their accuracy is certainly not 100%.
Batis 135/2.8 is also weather (moisture and dust) protected (blue gasket ring is there to prevent any possible leakage for water or/and dust between lens and camera body. For the full weather protection it is advisable to use protection filter.
Rear element is well recessed and protected with the plastic baffle where electronic contacts are also integrated. Soft rubber grip for focusing is pleasing for operation but collects a lot of finger prints and scratch marks. Black matte finish of the metal housing is more resistant toward finger prints but even after a short, careful handling, the lens looks somewhat messy (metal part should be easy to clean though, rubber not).
Batis 135/2.8 is a “fat” lens, but not very long fortunately. It is rather light considering its specification and as such it is a joy to use on Sony E mount cameras. As per size, without lens hood it has a reasonable length, with a lens hood it is a “big” lens (fortunately still very light).
To give you a better idea about its size, I took comparative images with the Sony 55/1.8 Sonnar ZA on my Sony A7 camera
Lens hood is made of plastic and when mounted it looks like being integral part of the lens. While Batis 135/2.8 has excellent flare control, using lens hood with this type of lenses is always recommended. Mounting the hood is easy, two white marks (dot and line) should be aligned and hood should be twisted clock wise until it locks in the place. It fits very tight.
As usual, putting the lens cap on, (and taking it off) when hood is mounted is not exactly easy operation. I found it easier to use a plastic push on (in this case – push-in) cap from some giant lens that probably get lost in the dark of my cabinet.
67mm filter diameter is reasonable and common size and it is same as on Batis 85/1.8 and 25/2. Only Batis 18/2.8 has larger diameter – 77mm.
Production tolerances are very low, everything is assembled with the utmost precision and because every single lens is carefully checked by QC inspectors, chances to buy a bad sample are very low. This is one of many trademarks of Zeiss Brand.
Batis 135/2.8 have optical image stabilization that works in synergy with sensor stabilization to give best possible performance. We were able to achieve sharp results with speeds as low as 1/30s, but this greatly depends on the photographer skills.
Sharpness
Let’s start with the official Zeiss measurements:
In our studio test, I checked few other 135mm lenses, just to find out, that Zeis Batis 135/2.8 APO Sonnar is as sharp as My Samyang 135/2.0 at comparable apertures, and that lens is equally sharp if not sharper than Zeiss 135/2.0 APO.
Because I can’t upload original size images in this article, you should find them on our Flickr service album if you bother to browse a bit.
At small resolution, you can at least see, how even sharpness is across the frame and from wide open aperture. and you might notice barely visible pincushion distortion as well as great correction of lateral CA.
Here are few 100% crops from the test chart of Batis only at different apertures.
Bellows are some comparative crops from Lightroom that should give you idea about Batis 135/2.8 sharpness in comparison to other lenses.
Batis 135/2.8 vs Samyang 135/2.0
Batis 135/2.8 vs Sony SAL 135/1.8 ZA
Batis 135/2.8 vs Sony SAL 135/2.8 STF 135/2.0
Batis 135/2.8 vs Zeiss Sonnar 135/2.8 C/Y (Contax/Yashica Mount)
Batis 135/2.8 vs Carl zeiss Jena Sonnar 135/3.5 MC
Batis 135/2.8 vs Tair 11A 135/2.8 (Russian lens, known for nice performance stopped down, with smooth bokeh)
From the crops above, we can see that Batis 135/2.8 is really sharp lens. What stands out even more however is very good, perfect correction of the lateral chromatic aberration. This is apochromatic performance without a doubt. If you haven’t noticed yet 
now is time to mention it loudly – Zeiss Batis has APO signature in its name, and when Zeiss puts APO sign on the lens, that really means something.
I touched that in my previous review of Loxia, Batis and Sony FE 85mm – good correction of CA might have influence on the perceived acutance and positively affect subject isolation in some conditions. This is because removing color edges (color astigmatism) in the post processing, leaves luminescence component which soften the contrast edge. I am crazy about chromatic aberration and I really don’t like it. Whenever I find the lens that is (almost) color artifact free, I am excited and I start to consider to sell my kidney in order to buy it.
I will write later more about Batis brilliant optical correction of the chromatic aberration, but let’s take a look at the sharpness with subjects in focus at larger distances.
Bellows are two sets of images with focus set to infinity. While I made a 100% crops from the focus zone and from the image edge, bellow each exposure, you might want to look at large size images, which can be found on the Flickr album
Another set was captured within blue hour
If you are still not convinced about fantastic sharpness of the Zeiss Batis 135/2.8 APO Sonnar, look at few more images that I captured on purpose and couldn’t believe the result, when I saw images on my monitor.
There is nothing more to say about sharpness of this lens, than simply WOW. If you have been reading my previous reviews, you probably know that sharpness for me is usually not the most important aspect of the lens performance. I like to learn how lens deals with front light, how it manages to correct color aberration, especially purple fringing and how it renders out of focus areas.
You might notice small pincushion distortion (from the test chart images), but for this type of lens, it is nothing to worry about. Vignetting is visible but actually slightly better than what I have seen from Zeiss in the last couple of years. Some vignetting is usually nice for portraits in general.
Here are official Zeiss measurement for the light fall of and distortion
Chromatic aberration
As written above, Zeiss Batis 135/2.8 is apochromatic lens, reducing lateral color aberration to the minimum. There is however also longitudinal (axial) color aberration that plays important role in the lens performance, especially in the transitions between in focus and out of focus areas.
As you should see, LoCA is also corrected very, very well. This correction is equal or slightly better than Samyang 135/2.0 and clearly better than other tested lenses. I was surprised to see Canon EF 135/2 L holding quite well in this respect. LoCA festival can be seen with old Zeiss Sonnar 135/2.8 in CA mount and nothing less than fireworks with Sony SAL 135/1.8 ZA.
Bellows are few images from the real life, where I tried to push Batis 135/2.8 to its correction limits. After real torture, I was able to find a traces of yellowish color shift, but in the practice I doubt you will ever sees it.
There are very few lenses all around that will render this type of images without pronounced color aberration (usually purple fringing). This is stellar performance of the new Batis.
Flare Resistance
So far, Batis 135/2.8 passed with 10 out of 10 stars (if I would have any, which I don’t). Flare resistance is another field where Batis excels. I made tons of images trying to capture some flares before I actually spotted them. It is possible to create flares, it is also possible to get some contrast loss, but only in the very extreme conditions. Normally you can shot directly toward sun, or you can put the sun at the edge of your frame and you will hardly see evidence of flaring or contrast loss. Judge for yourself.
I really needed to force the lens to show its colors. Shooting old Polaroid was a bit like shooting mirror since its edges are highly reflective. That was the only situation where I succeeded in finding some flares…
Bokeh
Zeiss Batis has nice neutral bokeh without significant aberrations. Typical for all Zeiss lenses is rather large mechanical vignetting, resulting in the cat eye shaped deformation of the circular highlights toward image edges. This aberration creates sometimes swirling illusion effect. Apart of that, there is insignificant monochromatic outline of the highlight circles and nothing more. Bokeh is thus neutral, smooth and in most cases very pleasing.
Minimum focus distance could have been slightly shorter (870mm) and max magnification slightly larger (0.19x), but it is fairly comparable with most other lenses in this category except the Sony SAL 135/1.8 which is winner here (720mm, 0.25x)
In practice, I never had a problem with Batis 135 and its max f/2.8 aperture, resulting in a presumable narrower DOF. I found it easy to separate subjects from the background, being it a portrait model or something smaller, like flower e.g. In one or two images, you might notice gentle swirly effect, that I mentioned earlier.
There are more images to judge bokeh in the portrait and sample gallery.
Auto Focus
Since there are not many lenses that can be used for sport and action in the Sony E mount line, I was curious to see how Batis 135/2.8 will perform in that regard. It is very hard to properly test AF speed and accuracy, because there is no general method that will serve as a standard reference. I simply tried to make a two series of shots in multi shot drive mode, using continuous auto focus (AF-C) and middle zone focus area.
Batis 135/2.8 is a fast focusing lens (and very silent) and in this particular BIF test it didn’t disappoint for sure.
You can judge by images how accurate it was, but consider also very difficult lighting and background for any auto focus system.
There is one problem however, which I believe is related to the early firmware of the lens. Lens focuses quite behind the infinity and auto focus tend to miss focus distant subjects especially those further away. I didn’t notice this problem when shooting portraits, it was Jan Tichy who pointed to it, when we were shooting city scape.
Bellows are images that should make differences between auto focus and manual focus, more apparent.
We hope that this was pre-production firmware glitch and that it will be fixed with the official release. (I will try to get some info from Zeiss regarding it).
Manual focus is, as usual for Batis line, electronically coupled. Both Jan Tichy and I agreed, that it is not our favorite system, because it reacts dynamically to the speed of the focus ring rotation. Sometimes when you want to act fast and you need just slight fine tuning of the focus plane, lens simply jumps too far, because ring was shifted too fast. This might be good for macro lens with its very long throw, but for this type of the lens it was rather frustrating.
At the medium (portrait) distances, lens auto focused fast and mostly accurate on Sony A7R II and A7 II. We didn’t test it on other bodies.
Portrait
Thinking of what will be best way to show you comparative images at this focal length, we decided to go for standard portraits. This section is meant to serve as an overview of the rendering differences between comparable lenses in the partially controlled conditions. We tried to replicate composition and aperture in most scenarios. There is no sense to look for the sharpness in this comparison, but bokeh and lens ability to isolate subjects, as well as colors and overall rendering character are sort of comparable. Since this was a huge amount of work, you’ll find inconsistent white balance adjustment and probably more differences in the composition that we wanted, but it should still give you an idea, what you can expect from each lens in variety of the situations.
This particular job was the most demanding and expensive part of this review and Petr Machan and Pavel Sinagl really helped me out. Each one of us, captured 5 images of each scenario, while other two helped with lighting. Even so, we had to work fast and some mistakes were certainly possible.
Please understand that all rights to the images bellow belongs to verybiglobo.com, and it si strictly forbidden to use them without our written permission.
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Conclusion
Zeiss Batis 135/2.8 APO Sonnar is optically brilliant lens. Sharp with pleasing bokeh and without disturbing color aberrations. It auto focuses fast, silent and hopefully accurate in all conditions. It is neither too big or heavy in comparison to its closest peers and it is recently only 135mm prime with AF for Sony E mount. Optical image stabilization help to use slower speeds, resulting in better image quality (it allows use of lower ISO setting in comparison to non stabilized lens).
Truth is however, that 135mm focal length is the one where most lenses are very good. It is also the focal length that all four of us who have been testing Batis recently, don’t use often. For the portrait it is great choice for full frame cameras, if you have enough space to move at least 1-1.5 m from your subject.
When we tested it in the streets of Prague, we found rather difficult to get used to 135mm as the only lens on the camera, but that is very subjective of course. Through the history, 135mm was very popular focal length though.
If you need something longer than 90mm, reasonable fast with breathtaking image quality, optical stabilization, fast AF, sophisticated design and weatherproof protection, legendary build quality and most of all – prestigious blue Z, Batis 135/2.8 APO Sonnar is the lens for you.
It is great for portraits, landscape end I would dare to say (for the first time for Sony E mount) with Sony A7r II (and probably new APS-C cameras) also for the faster moving subjects (sport). Chasing kids in the garden or shooting Grizzly on the run should be also possible (but not advisable, especially that Grizzly thing).
I won’t pick it up for flower and astro-photography, but otherwise it is hard to find genre, in which this lens won’t excel.
Sell your car, your house, and your kidney and go for it till it last, because there is nothing better that you can find for Sony E within specification!
Alternatives:
If you have only one kidney left and yours finances are in the after divorce mode, here are a couple of potential replacements.
Samyang 135/2.0 – This is my lens of choice for the given focal length. It is hard to believe image quality for the price. It is however manual focus lens with reported sample variation problems (I never had bad experience with Samyang lenses though), it is not weather sealed, it has shift toward warm yellowish tones and its build quality is not top-notch (but not bad either). If you are not sure that 135mm is for you, or if you are on the budget, consider Samyang 135/2.0, before you spend more money for something else. Not for sport for sure, but it can be great lens for portraits as well as for the landscape use.
Sony SAL 135/1.8 – If you don’t have a problem with CA, size and weight and LA-EA4 (I do with all three), Sonny Zeiss is fantastic lens too. It is the lens with more distinctive rendering style from the bunch and when you nail the focus it produces very sharp images even wide open. At Batis maximum speed, Sony SAL 135/1.8 ZA is equally sharp in the center (it is weaker toward edges). It has less of light fall of and mechanical vignetting. Quite short minimum focusing distance makes it interesting options for the smaller subjects too. This lens is great for portraits in controlled lighting conditions and not bad for flowers.
Canon EF 135/2 L USM – With Metabones or Sigma MC-11 (I think) it is valid option for Sony E. Especially second-hand prices are very affordable (if you already have adapter) and the lens optical performance is very good, even if its design is quite old. This is valid option for those who needs AF on Sony E.
Legacy lens – There are hundreds of legacy 135mm lenses and that means that most of them are dirty cheap. In terms of optical qualities, don’t expect anything that will come close to modern lenses such as Batis, Samyang, Milvus etc. But for barely 100 USD you can have Carl Zeiss Jena 135/3.5 MC and it is surprisingly sharp lens with good contrast and neutral, smooth bokeh. I would suggest anyone who is starting with longer lenses and is not sure what would be preferable focal length, to buy one of those legacy 135 and try them out. Among best legacy 135 lenses that I tried, Sonnar 135/2.8 C/Y and above mentioned Carl Zeiss Jena Sonnar 135/3.5 MC are certainly high on the list.
Interview
I asked Petr Machan and Pavel Sinagl to answer few questions related to Zeiss Batis 135/2.8 APO Sonnar. Here is what they think about tested lens.
VBL: How do you like 135mm focal length in general, how often do you use it?
Petr Machan: I use it rarely, my most used lenses are much wider. However there are times when 135mm suits the purpose and I have such a lens in my arsenal.
Pavel Sinagl: Not my preferred focal length for sure but I use it occasionally
VBL: What do you think of the Zeiss Batis 135/2.8 build quality?
Petr Machan: Quality perception is very good, handling even better. Feel of the soft rubber focus ring is a bit unusual, but the lens fits nicely in the hand, has good grip, it’s not heavy and it balances well on the camera.
Pavel Sinagl: Top notch build quality. Lens feel robust just enough, design is simple, minimalist with clean lines. I like it.
VBL: How did you found its optical qualities after this testing?
Petr Machan: Sharpness is superior, within short testing time I didn’t notice any significant aberrations, colors are pleasing. Rendered images have sort of uniqueness in appearance, I was very pleasantly surprised.
Pavel Sinagl: Optical quality is IMHO its biggest strength. For my purpose, sharpness is exemplary (even at f/2.8). I haven’t noticed any aberrations and colors are nicely neutral. Bokeh at the same time is very smooth and in combination with great sharpness and micro contrast, it render images that are unobtrusive but technically clean.
VBL: How did you find AF?
Petr Machan: We didn’t test it for the sport application but AF responded well. Focusing was fast and reliable, at least for the portraiture session.
Pavel Sinagl: AF can be on Sony A7II quite fast, but with decreasing light and contrast it starts hunting. It happened to me repeatedly, that at close distances, with flexible spot placed on my subject, lens goes through entire focusing range without locking-up. So at the end, instead of AF speed I have problems with AF reliability.
VBL: What do you think of the maximum aperture and related depth of field. Did you find subject separation sufficient within casual use?
Petr Machan: Subject isolation abilities in combination with minimum focusing distance is more than enough and moderate speed allowed designers to create perfectly balanced lens IMHO.
Pavel Sinagl: Aperture f/2.8 is adequate for this type of the lens, but if I were looking for more distinctive shallow DOF character, I would probably look elsewhere.
VBL: Which one of compared lenses would you buy for yourself? a) Sony SAL 135/1.8 ZA, b) Batis 135/2.8, c) Samyang 135/2.0, d) another lens
Petr Machan: I don’t have Sony E system, so for me this is difficult question, but If I do switch to Sony E, Batis would be great choice.
Pavel Sinagl: As I said earlier, If I would look for the universal 135mm lens for its combination of really nice and clean rendering , low weight and with AF, Batis 135/2.8 will be clear choice. For the more distinctive character, especially for the shallow DOF, I would choose Sony SAL 135/1.8 ZA.
VBL: Who would you recommend Batis 135/2.8, to what type of photographers, and why?
Petr Machan: To anyone who wants medium tele lens and has enough space in studio or at home for not only tight head shots. Hmm I think it is ideal for shooting glamour on the beach
Pavel Sinagl: Batis is great all around 135mm lens for portraits and landscape. I can also see it as a journalist or event medium tele-lens, but to recommend for that, I will need to test AF thoroughly.
VBL: Thank you guys and good luck with tax officer and horny ducks!
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My special thanks goes to Evey Krejcova from Sony and Foto Skoda – the best camera store in Europe IMHO, for lending us Sony A7r II, Mr. Ales Mejdrech, marketing manager of Zeiss Lenses Czech, for lending us Batis 135/2.8 APO Sonnar, my dear friend Thea for hers never to be forgotten support, Mr. Radek Tesik who is running this web with me, and all of you who read this review this far :-).
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Sample Gallery
All images bellow where post processed to our liking. They should not be considered as a merit for the lens pure optical performance, but they should help you to recognize, what can be achieved as a final output.
