Last Updated on 04/29/2019 by Mark Beckenbach
No doubt the new Zeiss Otus 100mm f1.4 will produce gorgeous images, but so could the three Sigma Lenses you could buy in its place.
There is absolutely no doubt about the quality of Zeiss lenses. The Zeiss Otus line has continually wowed people with their performance and their astronomical prices, but so have Sigma lenses with their image quality and much more palatable price points. With the news that a new Zeiss Otus 100mm f1.4 has been announced, one has to wonder just how much longer Zeiss will be able to compete with offerings from Sigma that do just as good a job at a third of the price.
An article on Canon Watch spilled the beans about the new Zeiss Otus 100mm f1.4 lens the other day. The lens looks and sounds incredibly impressive, and it will more than likely produce jaw dropping images. The new lens features 14 elements in 11 groups, and will apparently be able to give Full Frame camera users (of the Canon EF and Nikon F varieties at least) the look and feel of Medium Format images. The apochromatic lens design with its aspherical lenses and special glass will supposedly prevent almost all aberrations, and the high-quality lens coatings should also be able to keep contrast high and minimize lens flare.
It all sounds rather lovely doesn’t it? It does until you realize you could probably buy a whole suite of exceptional Sigma lenses instead of just this one. We have noticed a trend here lately regarding Zeiss Otus lenses, and offerings from Sigma. It seems as though when Zeiss comes out with a nice new shiny lens, Sigma isn’t far behind with a lens that not only competes when it comes to image quality, it dominates the Zeiss Otus offerings because of things like weather sealing, autofocus, and price. As a reminder, previous Otus lenses haven’t been weather sealed–but the company’s Milvus lenses are!
Take the Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art for example. This Sigma lens produces some of the sharpest images we have seen from a 85mm lens. The colors it produces are wonderful, it has some weather sealing, the build quality is outstanding (as you would expect from an Art series lens), and autofocus is ridiculously fast. This Sigma 85mm f1.4 Art lens can be yours for around $950. The Zeiss Otus 85mm f1.4 produces images that are so sharp they will cut. It too is built incredibly well, and the images overall will wow you. Keep in mind though that there is no weather sealing, and no autofocus, yet this lens will set you back (wait for it) $4,490! You could buy at least four Sigma lenses for that price.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing Zeiss Otus lenses at all. I think we can all agree that they are seriously gorgeous lenses that can produce glorious images. But one has to wonder if they will continue to make lenses like the new 100mm f1.4 that do not have weather sealing and do not feature autofocus. Surely in 2019 these two features should be standard?
The market for lenses at prices that go deep into four figures is incredibly small, and when you have companies like Sigma and Tamron that are pumping out feature packed lenses, that can produce images that are pretty much neck and neck with those from Zeiss, you can’t help but think Zeiss will have to up their game, and lower their prices. The Otus line is supposed to be Zeiss’s top of the line gear and they don’t even offer a simple rubber gasket to protect it from the weather, and continue to leave out autofocus capabilities. No release date or price has been given for the new Zeiss Otus 100mm f1.4 yet.
What do you think about the new Zeiss Otus 100mm f1.4? Would you rather just pick up the Sigma 105mm f1.4 Art that’s just $1,438? If you would choose the Zeiss Otus over the Sigma why would that be? Let us know in the comment section below.