PWPhotography wrote:
Just bought Batis 135mm recently on a sweet deal. Love it, one of main reasons is its relative compact size and light weight, half of Sigma 135/1.8 Art. Also it's my very first pure Zeiss lens. I can see Zeiss contrast and color. Despite it's a f2.8 lens but still has great background rendition and good bokeh due to 135mm FL.
Preaching to the converted then. The seven AF Zeiss lenses are great draw for e-mount in my opinion. I just wish they had metal focussing rings.
85mm is a different story. I'd prefer faster aperture. 85 GM is fantastic with one of the best (if not the best) bokeh and smoothness, but it's a bit slow in AF from what I have read and generates a bit AF noise. Will wait to see Sigma 85/1.4 Art e-mount as it's great in EF/F mount. But will choose one of them, just not in high priority.
If you want/need 1.4 then the GM seems worth it. I think the aperture ring would tip me towards the Sony over the Sigma, plus I still struggle with the concept of them as a high quality manufacturer, having owned their lenses in the 1980s and 90s.
I have seen sunstars from FE 24-70 GM, not very impressive compared to Canon's version. Actually this is a general issue that Sony lenses so far are still not very good in sunstars which happen important to me as I shoot many evening cityscape photos, but some FE lenses are great in sunstars such as Zeiss Loxia 21 and CV 15mm primes. One of reasons I will keep EF 24-70L/2.8 II and likely will be the only EF lens keep after one or two years. Will replace EF 16-35L/4.0 IS with FE 16-35 GM and eventually will sell 500L/4.0 IS.
Rishi has praised the FE16-35/2.8 for its sunstars - and he was formally a 16-35LIII user. Maybe PM him about it - he might reply.
I will get FE 16-35/2.8 GM soon to replace EF 16-35L/4.0 IS. One stop faster and native e-mount are big deals. I am very impressed in its optical quality.
Although personally I have a concern in its sunstars due to 11-blade design so it generates 22 light rays that is a bit too many, and prefer 9-blade (18 rays). Also it seems you need to stop down to F16 and beyond to get good quality sunstars.
Here's a link to the Lens Rental MTFs on the 16-35/2.8. It's an impressive lens alright.
https://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2017/08/sony-fe-16-35mm-f2-8-gm-sharpness-tests/
from EF 24-70L/2.8 II at F9