On Tuesday I was lucky enough to get my hands on the new ZEISS Batis 40mm lens for a short while and take it for a walk along Brighton seafront. The first thing you notice about the lens is the size and weight. It is a very similar size to the Batis 85mm and the weight is just about right to give it a very balanced feel with the Sony A7R3. On the side of the lens is a focus limiter so you can limit the range that the lens will try when you are focusing. One thing I did notice was the speed and accuracy of the focus even in quite dark surroundings.
The minimum focus distance is 24cm so whilst this is not a true macro lens it does allow a very close focus and when you match this with an aperture of f2 you can get a VERY shallow depth of field. ZEISS are advertising this as a very versatile lens that is suited for a wide range of applications. I haven’t had enough time with it yet to give it a full workout (I’m hoping to get hold of one again soon 🙂 ) but I’m excited about this lens, the focus length should be great in the studio for families and at the same time work well for street photography and some landscapes. I also haven’t tried filming with it yet but it does fit the gap in the Batis range VERY nicely indeed !
From the testing I’ve done this lens is very sharp (not a scientific measurement, just from using it and looking at the images !)
The first image below shows the full scene, the second is a crop in to the eye of the carousel horse. This was shot at ISO100 1/1000 sec f2
Anyway, when I have had more time to use the lens I’ll be able to write a full review but for now these are a few images from my short walk with it 🙂
