Press Releases

ZEISS: New Otus 1.4/28 Wide-Angle Lens With ZE or ZF.2 Mount for DSLR Cameras: For Professional Photographers Shooting Images of Landscape, Architecture and Fast-Moving Subjects in Poor Light

The following video presents Carl Zeiss Lenses – NEW Otus 1.4/28:

The world’s best wide-angle lens – ZEISS Otus 1.4/28

Uncompromising performance across the entire image field makes this full-frame lens unique and sets new standards among wide-angle focal lengths. Raise your photos to a totally new dimension by capturing even the tiniest details of your subject.

PRESS RELEASE

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28

The ZEISS Otus family continues to grow

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: the new focal length in the wide-angle range augments ZEISS’s most powerful family of SLR lenses

OBERKOCHEN, 14/10/2015.

With the new ZEISS Otus 1.4/28, users of shorter focal lengths can now also take advantage of the uncompromising quality of the ZEISS Otus family, whether for landscapes, architectural photography or any other images they take with a wide-angle lens. Where details count, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 with ZE or ZF.2 mount for DSLR cameras from Canon¹ and Nikon¹ is the lens of choice. When used with modern, high-resolution DSLR cameras, it offers unrivalled image quality unseen until now in wide-angle photography, even with a wide-open aperture.

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: © Dany Eid

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: © Dany Eid

The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28, a moderate wide-angle lens, particularly shows off its strengths in landscape photography. Even with a maximum aperture, the corners of the image are completely usable, so there are no limits to composition. In poor light combined with fast-moving objects, the lens also excels due to its high speed of f/1.4. While other lenses reveal their shortcomings in correction in night photography, especially when lots of open light sources dominate an image, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 boasts a stellar performance. Finally, the latest member of the ZEISS Otus family is excellent for taking pictures of image elements in the foreground, as they take on a greater feeling of depth to the scene due to the wide background and the open aperture; here, the lens’s harmonious bokeh ensures a 3D effect.

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: © Dany Eid

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: © Dany Eid

For professional photographers

Developed to meet the high demands of professional photographers, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 has – like the two other focal lengths in the ZEISS Otus family – inner focusing, a dial window and the well-known yellow labeling of the dials for easy legibility, all of which are already known from professional cine lenses (for example ARRI/ZEISS Master Prime).

The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 also stands out for its mechanical quality: the soft focus operation with the large rotation angle allows for the finest variations when focusing – something that is only possible with a metal construction. In every focusing situation, the user is given freedom to compose – one of the most important creative factors in photography. An artistic tool is literally put in the photographer’s hands. The robust all-metal barrel with its easy-to-grip focus ring is well suited for a photographer’s demanding everyday work; this ensures a long product life. The optical performance of the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 is outstanding thanks to its high image contrast all the way into the edges of the image – already at an open aperture. Its consistent performance at all distances (minimum working distance of 0.15 m or 5.19”), the highly detailed images it creates without any bothersome artifacts, and the neutral bokeh in the background round out the excellent image quality of the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28. “With these features the ZEISS Otus lenses set themselves apart from the other ZEISS SLR lenses, such as the ZEISS Milvus family, which we recently presented,” said Christophe Casenave, Product Manager with ZEISS Camera Lenses.

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: The medium format look. Image Courtesy of Zeiss

ZEISS Otus 1.4/28: The medium format look. Image Courtesy of Zeiss

Thanks to these characteristics, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 offers users who use a modern high-resolution 35-mm DSLR camera a quality that corresponds to the level of the medium format – without having to invest in large and expensive medium-format equipment.

Intricate construction for uncompromising imaging performance

The lens consists of 16 elements in 13 groups. One of the lens elements has an aspheric optical surface and one element is aspheric on both sides. Eight other lens elements are made of special glass. The basis of the optical design is a Distagon. The special glass has anomalous partial dispersion, as is typical for an apochromatic lens. This corrects the longitudinal chromatic aberrations superbly, which therefore lie considerably below the tightly defined boundaries. Bright-dark transitions in the image, in particular highlights, are depicted almost completely free of color artifacts. The floating elements design (the change of distances between certain lens elements when focusing) allows for unrivalled imaging performance along the entire focusing range, from 0.3 m (11.81”) to infinity.

The ZEISS Otus lens family

When ZEISS introduced the ZEISS Otus 1.4/55 in 2013, creating a new family of high-end SLR lenses, the trade press and users alike were enthusiastic. The ZEISS Otus 1.4/55 has exceeded its promises up to this day. The second member of the family, the ZEISS Otus 1.4/85, which was presented at photokina 2014, continued this success story in the short telephoto range. It enables photographers to express their creativity in a unique way – and that with the unsurpassed high imaging performance for which the lenses in the ZEISS Otus family are known. “The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 continues the tradition of its lens family. It is the best wide-angle that has ever existed. Now we can offer three outstanding lenses for the widest variety of applications,” added Casenave.

Price and availability

The ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 ZF.2 and ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 ZE will be available worldwide starting in the second quarter of 2016. The lens shade is included with delivery. The retail sales price is unknown to date.

Technical data ZEISS Otus 1.4/28

Focal length 28 mm
Aperture range f/1.4 – f/16
Lens elements/groups 16 / 13
Focusing range 0.3 m (11.81″)– infinity
Working distance 0.15 m (5.91“) – infinity
Image field² (diag. / horiz. / vert.) 75° / 65°/ 46°
Object field at minimum working distance² 225 mm x 150 mm (8.89 x 5.91“)
Image ratio at MOD 1 : 6.25
Rotation angle of focus ring (inf – MOD) 120°
Filter thread M95 x 1.00
Diameter (max.) ZF.2: 108.9 mm (4.29“)
ZE: 108.9 mm (4.29“)
Diameter of the focusing ring ZF.2: 87.7 mm (3.45“)
ZE: 87.7 mm (3.45“)
Length (without lens caps) ZF.2: 135.0 mm (5.31“)
ZE: 137.0 mm (5.39“)
Length (with lens caps) ZF.2: 152.0 mm (5.98“)
ZE: 154.0 mm (6.06“)
Weight ZF.2: 1350 g (47.62 oz)
ZE: 1390 g (49.03 oz)
Camera mounts EF-mount (ZE), F-mount (ZF.2)
¹Nikon is a registered trademark of Nikon Corporation. Canon is a trademark or registered trademark of Canon Inc. and/or other members of the Canon Group.

²relates to 24x36mm format

Tobias Brandstetter
Camera and Cine Lenses
Carl Zeiss AG
Phone: +49 7364 20-4694
Fax: +49 7364 20-4045
tobias.brandstetter@zeiss.com

ZEISS

ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the optics and optoelectronics industries. ZEISS develops and distributes lithography optics, measuring technology, microscopes, medical technology, eyeglass lenses, camera and cine lenses, binoculars and planetarium technology. With its solutions, the company constantly advances the world of optics and helps shape technological progress. The company is divided up into the six business groups Industrial Metrology, Microscopy, Medical Technology, Vision Care, Consumer Optics and Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology. ZEISS is represented in over 40 countries – with around 30 production sites, over 50 sales and service locations and about 25 research and development facilities.

In fiscal year 2013/14 the company generated revenue approximating 4.3 billion euros with just under 25,000 employees. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. Carl Zeiss AG is the strategic management holding company that manages the ZEISS Group. The company is wholly owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation).

Further information at www.zeiss.com

Consumer Optics

The Consumer Optics business group combines the company’s business with camera and movie lenses, binoculars, spotting scopes, hunting optics and planetarium technology. It is represented at the Oberkochen, Wetzlar and Jena sites. A total of around 750 employees work for the business group which generated revenue of 185 million euros in fiscal year 2013/14.

Further Information


You can pre-order / buy the ZEISS Otus 1.4/28 at B&H: