Carl Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 vs Samyang/Rokinon 85/1.4 comparison test pictures

Tomasg71 · Nov 8, 2014

Hi

A friend of mine convinced me to go to a presentation for the Otus 85 an 55 in a local photo shop, personally i don t like those events, but since he never used a MF lens i accepted to help him focusing. Those are really some quick and dirty samples, most because it s difficult to take pictures when you have a bunch of other photographers that follow you and can t wait to use the lens. Second the light was really bad, overcast clouds, with moments of sun, so please understand the not overly nice test pictures, it was the best i could do.
Camera settings where equal for both, i used CNX2 to convert the raws, settings where: NEUTRAL which is a very low contrast, soft, dull, low saturation on a D700, auto WB, sharpening set to 2 out of 9 (also a low setting).
I took a series of hand held pics between the two and one on a bench, using live view to focus.

First Otus than Samyang, then Otus and so on, just in case it s needed

f1.4

f1.4

f2

f2.8

f2.8

100% crop Otus 1.4

100% crop Samyang f1.4 and so on...

f2 Otus

f2 Samyang

f2.8

f2.8

more samples here:http://www.pbase.com/tomasg_71/otus__samyang

Tomas

JJ168 · Nov 8, 2014

From my noob hobby eyes, other than the samyang being slightly brighter it also nearly 4 grand as sharp and render as nice.

Thank you for sharing.

Tomasg71 · Nov 8, 2014

JJ168 said:
From my noob hobby eyes, other than the samyang being slightly brighter it also nearly 4 grand as sharp and render as nice.

Thank you for sharing.

Otus is first than Samyang than Otus and so on. At f1.4 the Samyang is brighter but form then on the Otus is brighter. Are you sure you got it right? But this is really a matter of how the camera meters with the two lenses.

Tomas

ruifonikon · Nov 8, 2014

Samyang is impressing many people, a lot...

Tomasg71 · Nov 8, 2014

ruifonikon said:
Samyang is impressing many people, a lot...

scrane · Nov 8, 2014

Samyang looks very good. I'll have to take mine out of the closet.

I wonder how things compare on the edge and corner.

Tomasg71 · Nov 8, 2014

scrane said:
Samyang looks very good. I'll have to take mine out of the closet.

I wonder how things compare on the edge and corner.

Didn t had the time to test that unfortunately, my guess is that the difference is grater in favour of the Otus of course. In the gallery on pbase there are two pics taken with each one that have a sign on the left that is in focus (the people sitting at the tables).

snellius · Nov 8, 2014

Tomasg71 said:
JJ168 said:

From my noob hobby eyes, other than the samyang being slightly brighter it also nearly 4 grand as sharp and render as nice.

Thank you for sharing.

Click to expand...

Otus is first than Samyang than Otus and so on. At f1.4 the Samyang is brighter but form then on the Otus is brighter. Are you sure you got it right? But this is really a matter of how the camera meters with the two lenses.

There is also a big difference in background blur, I think there is something wrong with the aperture.

sfnikon · Nov 8, 2014

Wow! To my eyes the Samsung/Rokinon is keeping up with the Otus.

It looks like the flying bargain for 85mm primes.

JJ168 · Nov 8, 2014

Tomasg71 said:
JJ168 said:

From my noob hobby eyes, other than the samyang being slightly brighter it also nearly 4 grand as sharp and render as nice.

Thank you for sharing.

Click to expand...

Otus is first than Samyang than Otus and so on. At f1.4 the Samyang is brighter but form then on the Otus is brighter. Are you sure you got it right? But this is really a matter of how the camera meters with the two lenses.

Tomas

Thanks for the correction, regardless, the sharpness and out of focus rendering look very close to me which is really a big surprise considering they are nearly $4,000 apart.

JJ168 · Nov 8, 2014

snellius said:
Tomasg71 said:

JJ168 said:

From my noob hobby eyes, other than the samyang being slightly brighter it also nearly 4 grand as sharp and render as nice.

Thank you for sharing.

Click to expand...

Otus is first than Samyang than Otus and so on. At f1.4 the Samyang is brighter but form then on the Otus is brighter. Are you sure you got it right? But this is really a matter of how the camera meters with the two lenses.

Click to expand...

There is also a big difference in background blur, I think there is something wrong with the aperture.

Now thats interesting thats you see a big different in rendering between the two. Apart from exposure different...they are almost identical in sharpness and rendering (to me and seems to be majority of the commentators so far). Of course this is in a 12MP body. It may show the different in a d800 series body.

JJ168 · Nov 8, 2014

sfnikon said:
Wow! To my eyes the Samsung/Rokinon is keeping up with the Otus.

It looks like the flying bargain for 85mm primes.

--
Jake

Yupe, now i am really tempted to pick one up used.

Tomasg71 · Nov 8, 2014

snellius said:
Tomasg71 said:

JJ168 said:

From my noob hobby eyes, other than the samyang being slightly brighter it also nearly 4 grand as sharp and render as nice.

Thank you for sharing.

Click to expand...

Otus is first than Samyang than Otus and so on. At f1.4 the Samyang is brighter but form then on the Otus is brighter. Are you sure you got it right? But this is really a matter of how the camera meters with the two lenses.

Click to expand...

There is also a big difference in background blur, I think there is something wrong with the aperture.

The camera took exactly the same exposure times for both lenses, the difference in brightness is consistent on both series, check the pbase gallery to see the exposure times and the second hand held series. My guess is that the Otus has a better light tramission.

Tomas

ImageAmateur · Nov 8, 2014

Well, the Samyang has always batted far above its price. Likely why Nikon came out with the 1.8G at less than USD 500, to try to compete.

Only a bit more and one gets AF as well.

Tomasg71 · Nov 9, 2014

ImageAmateur said:
Well, the Samyang has always batted far above its price. Likely why Nikon came out with the 1.8G at less than USD 500, to try to compete.

Only a bit more and one gets AF as well.

--
Wishing You Good Light.

The Nikkor 85/1.8 is very good and a better choice for 99% of Nikon users, MF is really a niche part of photography these days.

Tomas

Rick_Hunter · Nov 9, 2014

So much that in fact I'm about to order the 135/2 Apo-Sonnar.

I don't think the test says much because 12mpx is not a particularly demanding sensor, my guess is that both lenses are actually outresolving the sensor, thus there is no big difference to be seen. It would be interesting to do the same test on a 36mpix body

Apart from that: as much as I love Zeiss glass and even when price is of no concern, there is one thing that bothers me A LOT about these 55/85 Otus lenses, and it's their size and weight, trust me, when you see these lenses in person they're bloody MASSIVE. As big as your Nikon 24-70 and even heavier, frankly I don't care if they have super-duper IQ, there's no way I'm lugging around 50 and 85 primes each of which weighs as much as a 2.8 zoom and take up all the space in my bag... (and also empty my wallet at the speed of light!)

When I tried the Otus 55 for the first time in a shop, it was optically marvelous but just too big, too heavy, no way. I've gotten the Voigtlander 58/1.4 instead, at 1/8 of the price, 1/3 of the weight and 1/5 of the size. Sure it ain't nowhere near as sharp as the Zeiss at 1.4, but it is useable wide open, and very sharp once stopped down to F2, certainly better than the Nikkor 58 which costs 3 times as much. I think the tradeoff in size and weight for these Otus lenses could be too much to swallow even for guys who actually could afford them but won't, because of their size.

Tomasg71 · Nov 9, 2014

Rick_Hunter said:
So much that in fact I'm about to order the 135/2 Apo-Sonnar.

I don't think the test says much because 12mpx is not a particularly demanding sensor, my guess is that both lenses are actually outresolving the sensor, thus there is no big difference to be seen. It would be interesting to do the same test on a 36mpix body

Apart from that: as much as I love Zeiss glass and even when price is of no concern, there is one thing that bothers me A LOT about these 55/85 Otus lenses, and it's their size and weight, trust me, when you see these lenses in person they're bloody MASSIVE. As big as your Nikon 24-70 and even heavier, frankly I don't care if they have super-duper IQ, there's no way I'm lugging around 50 and 85 primes each of which weighs as much as a 2.8 zoom and take up all the space in my bag... (and also empty my wallet at the speed of light!)

When I tried the Otus 55 for the first time in a shop, it was optically marvelous but just too big, too heavy, no way. I've gotten the Voigtlander 58/1.4 instead, at 1/8 of the price, 1/3 of the weight and 1/5 of the size. Sure it ain't nowhere near as sharp as the Zeiss at 1.4, but it is useable wide open, and very sharp once stopped down to F2, certainly better than the Nikkor 58 which costs 3 times as much. I think the tradeoff in size and weight for these Otus lenses could be too much to swallow even for guys who actually could afford them but won't, because of their size.

Yes as i said in an earlier response, 12 mp won t do justice to the Otus, which is of course a superior lens, the best i ever tried, my post was not meant to prove it s the other way around. The friend that was with me has a D800 i am waiting for his pics, i ll post some here.

Both lenses are massive as you say, i was surprised about the weight though, to me they didn t feel heavy at all, but that could be because they are so huge that the brain is excepting something heavy

But of course they are not really portable, i don t like it when the lens size and weight limit my photography in any way. They are a fantastic combo for studio though!

I am waiting for the Samyang 50/1.4 to test it and compare it with the Otus 55 with which i also took some samples. The shop also has the CZ 135/2 to test, i am just scared that i ll be too tempted after i try it.

Tomas

mlewan · Nov 9, 2014

sfnikon said:
Wow! To my eyes the Samsung/Rokinon is keeping up with the Otus.

It looks like the flying bargain for 85mm primes.

As the OP already said, this is not a perfect test by far. You will not be able to properly tell the difference in centre sharpness with a D700 sensor. Something more like the D800 series is needed.

Besides, the place where the the Otus supposedly excels is the corner sharpness wide open, and the shots do not show that at all.

I'm sure the Samyang is an ok lens which can give excellent results, but so is for example the 50mm f/1.8D in the right hands.

What the test photos really show is that there are situations when a ridiculously expensive lens is not visibly much better than other lenses.

mlewan · Nov 9, 2014

Rick_Hunter said:
Apart from that: as much as I love Zeiss glass and even when price is of no concern, there is one thing that bothers me A LOT about these 55/85 Otus lenses, and it's their size and weight,

Agree. An Otus lens does not replace a "normal" lens for most of us, especially not as a walk-around lens. It is worth reminding people as well that the lack of auto-focus can be very limiting for some kinds of photography.

Besides, the lack of weather sealing is ridiculous. I would not dare to take out an Otus when there is a lot of dust in the air.

That said, if one can afford an Otus, and if one has opportunities to use it where it excels, the photos can be terrific.

Tomasg71 · Nov 9, 2014

mlewan said:
sfnikon said:

Wow! To my eyes the Samsung/Rokinon is keeping up with the Otus.

It looks like the flying bargain for 85mm primes.

Click to expand...

As the OP already said, this is not a perfect test by far. You will not be able to properly tell the difference in centre sharpness with a D700 sensor. Something more like the D800 series is needed.

Besides, the place where the the Otus supposedly excels is the corner sharpness wide open, and the shots do not show that at all.

I'm sure the Samyang is an ok lens which can give excellent results, but so is for example the 50mm f/1.8D in the right hands.

What the test photos really show is that there are situations when a ridiculously expensive lens is not visibly much better than other lenses.

I completely agree with what you say in the last sentence, the Otus is a waste on a low res (by today standards) sensor, you need top camera for a top lens, nothing new here. Like in high end audio as you move up in the performance one has to invest huge money for smaller and smaller improvements, if there are any at all the end.

It was a pleasure to use it, from the feel to the results, in the right circumstanses i would swap it with the more than just ok Samyang in a heartbeat

Carl Zeiss Otus 85/1.4 vs Samyang/Rokinon 85/1.4 comparison test pictures

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