Zeiss Otus ML 35mm f/1.4 Review: Old-Fashioned Excellence

7 hours ago 5

Zeiss is nothing if not consistent. The Otus ML lenses bearing the illustrious blue Zeiss badge have always unapologetically strived to make optical lenses the old-fashioned way.

This is to say that Zeiss eschews relying on digital corrections of issues like distortion and vignetting, something which almost every modern lens manufacturer now relies on. The latest $2,299 Otus ML 35mm f/1.4 is a perfect example of this mindset.

A Zeiss Otus 1.4/35 camera lens with a lens hood, standing upright on a wooden surface with a blurred wooden background. Yellow and white text with specifications is visible on the lens barrel.

Zeiss Otus ML 35mm f/1.4 Review: How It Feels

Make no mistake, though, because these lenses are modern mirrorless designs available in Sony E-mount, Canon RF-mount, and Nikon Z-mount. They are built to a very solid and exacting standard with perfectly-tuned manual focus helicoids and aperture rings.

The metal construction feels premium, but it does add some weight, making the 35mm f/1.4 tip the scales at around 24.7 ounces (700 grams). The heavier weight does stem from the larger glass elements, and the lens diameter requires 67mm filters. There are no customizable buttons or other switches to be found.

I have to mention that the manual focus does have an incredibly long throw to get from minimum to maximum focus, which has been common among Zeiss’s new Otus lenses. As good as this is for accurate focusing in fixed situations, I found it tricky to use for fast acquisition of subjects when shooting more dynamically.

Close-up of a camera lens showing focus distance markings in feet and meters, and an aperture ring with f-stop values ranging from f/1.4 to f/16. The background is blurred wood paneling.

A close-up of a camera lens facing backward, showing the electronic contacts and rear glass element. The lens sits on a dark surface with its rear lens cap removed and placed beside it. The background is blurred wood paneling.

You get a nice metal petal-shaped hood to protect the lens, and the rubber gasket on the rear of the lens is very substantial, ensuring that no dust or moisture should sneak past it. I also appreciate that the lens does provide an electronic connection with the camera body, even though the action is manual focus. This means that the proper focal length will be accommodated by the camera body and that EXIF data will be transferred to the images properly.

A close-up of a black camera lens hood featuring yellow text that reads "Otus 1.4/35" against a blurred wooden background.

A close-up of a Zeiss camera lens, model Apo Distagon 1.4/35, placed vertically on a dark surface with a wooden background. The lens glass reflects light, and branding details are clearly visible.

A black Zeiss camera lens with a blue accent ring and the Zeiss logo sits on a dark surface against a blurred wooden background.

Zeiss Otus ML 35mm f/1.4 Review: How It Shoots

So, if Zeiss makes serious optical engineering choices to correct as much as possible in the lens, how does the 35mm Otus fare? In most cases, quite well.

Flare resistance is excellent thanks to the famous Zeiss T* coatings. I didn’t notice any major loss of contrast at the widest apertures or ghosting at the tighter ones.

Black and white photo of a modern glass building reflecting another building with a crane on top, with the sun shining through a cloudy sky and a round object in the upper right foreground.

Black and white photo looking up at four tall skyscrapers with glass windows, set against a cloudy sky, creating a dramatic and geometric perspective.

Large white letters spelling "The" are in the foreground, with a giant ampersand (&) sculpture in the background, both set against a modern building in a black and white photo.

A snow-covered tennis court with patches of melted ice and reflections of trees in the puddles, seen through a chain-link fence on a cold winter day.

The bokeh is luscious, with smooth transitions throughout the focusing plane and smooth backgrounds. There is a nice cat’s eye effect at f/1.4 and fairly round specular highlights as you stop the lens down. I didn’t see any onion rings or string soap bubble effect to the bokeh either.

A dried rose hangs in the foreground with warm, out-of-focus string lights and blurred bookshelves in the background, creating a cozy, atmospheric scene.

A row of assorted hardcover and paperback books on a wooden shelf, illuminated by a green desk lamp, with blurred plants and warm lighting in the background, creating a cozy reading atmosphere.

A cozy reading nook with wooden shelves full of books, a wooden chair, plants, and colorful glowing lamps by a window with dark curtains. Some books and framed photos are displayed on the shelves and table.

A snow-covered path lined with bare trees, featuring a rusty metal post with graffiti in the foreground and patches of dry grass poking through the snow.

Chromatic aberrations are very well controlled by the Zeiss apochromatic design, so there is no need to be concerned about lateral chromatic aberration. However, the other Zeiss Otus lenses suffered from severe longitudinal chromatic aberration, or LoCA, and this 35mm does, too.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations cause color fringing in the foreground and background out-of-focus areas, and this is really hard to correct in post. If you shoot at wider apertures with any sort of contrasty subject outside of the focus plane, there will be clearly visible pink and cyan color tones on every edge. Stopping down to about f/4 made this go away, but no matter how you look at it, the result is poor.

Bare tree branches in the foreground with tall modern buildings towering above, viewed from below against a pale, overcast sky.

A modern glass skyscraper with a crisscross pattern rises toward a pale sky, framed by bare tree branches extending from the top and sides of the image.

Large icicles hang from black cables against a red brick wall, with the icicles pointing downward in various lengths and shapes.

A yellow traffic light hangs horizontally against a pale, cloudy sky. Two birds are flying in the distance near the upper center of the image.

At least the sharpness is excellent, with really nice detail in the center of the image at f/1.4. Things sharpen up even a little more in the center at tighter apertures. Corners are also quite nice at f/1.4, and vignetting is almost non-existent thanks to all the optical corrections being made. You’ll be satisfied with the level of detail that the 35mm offers, at any chosen aperture.

Side-by-side comparison of two color and sharpness test charts, labeled f/1.4 and f/2.8, featuring grayscale, color patches, geometric patterns, and images of currency and a woman's portrait.

A Canadian one-dollar bill, eye chart, and geometric shapes are shown in two side-by-side images labeled f/1.4 (left) and f/2.8 (right), comparing image sharpness at different aperture settings.

Zeiss Otus ML 35mm f/1.4 Review: The Same Approach

Zeiss sticks to its guns once again by making a beautifully-designed lens that does a great job at correcting optical deficiencies the old-fashioned way. However, although it may do a great job at preventing vignetting and eliminating distortion, these are good examples of issues that are easily corrected for in photo editing software.

Although that level of correction would be very helpful on an analog platform, they are not as useful on digital cameras, and the resulting exorbitant prices will leave many users out of the loop.

A snow-covered path runs beside a chain-link fence with graffiti. Two people stand near the gate at the end of the path. A large, windowed building and a metal-roofed structure are in the background.

A worn, black-and-white acoustic guitar with chipped paint leans against a concrete wall near snowy steps in an outdoor setting.

A glass door and surrounding wall are covered with various graffiti tags and scribbles in black and white spray paint. The door has a metal frame and handle, and the ground is concrete.

A man in a gray coat walks alone on a city sidewalk toward tall downtown buildings, carrying a black shoulder bag. The day is overcast, and there are patches of snow on the ground.

A man with gray hair and a beard is standing on a city street, holding a camera up to his face and taking a photo, with tall buildings blurred in the background.

I recently reviewed the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art II and found it to be sharper, similarly resistant to flare, and with beautiful overall bokeh. It also features autofocus in a much smaller chassis than the Zeiss Otus has and, of course, costs way less.

This makes it difficult for me to imagine a market for the Otus lenses, as great as they are to shoot with. There will be users who like the purist approach to lens design and are not turned off by the $2,299 asking price, but for the rest of us, there are far more practical options.

Side-by-side comparison of two test charts showing image sharpness and color accuracy; left labeled "Zeiss @ f/1.4," right labeled "Sigma @ f/1.4," both featuring grayscale, color bars, and currency details.

A long wooden staircase descends toward a road, flanked by leafless trees and patches of snow. A lone person is walking at the bottom of the stairs near a river in the background.

A bare tree in winter with a black bird perched high and a squirrel on a lower branch. In the background, city buildings and snow-covered ground are visible under a cloudy sky.

Are There Alternatives?

The aforementioned Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art II will do a lot more for about half the price.

The Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4 might not be able to match the overall image quality, but it is a bargain with its low price tag. You could also spend a little more than the Zeiss and get the excellent Nikon 35mm f/1.2 S with its dramatically shallow depth of field.