As expected ahead of Photokina, Carl Zeiss today added the Otus 1.4/85 telelens to its offerings of no-holds-barred manual focus lenses for Canon and Nikon DSLRs. The 85mm f/1.4 lens will be available mid-September for the recommended retail price of $4,490 (€3,360). It will also be shown at Photokina, starting September 16.

Zeiss calls it more than a traditional portrait lens. "This is a fast all-rounder for photographers who do not accept any limitations when it comes to detail – whether it is for general studio work, or fashion, advertising, product or architectural photography," the company's press release says.

The company says the 85mm Otus allows for top notch images, even under the most demanding lighting conditions, with sharp performance across the frame, "neutral boheh" and a lack of abberations or distortion.

The apochromatic lens counts eleven elements in nine groups. One of the lens elements has an aspheric optical surface. "Chromatic diagonal aberrations (longitudinal chromatic aberrations) are corrected with the help of lens elements made of special glass with anomalous partial dispersion. As a result, practically no perceptible color fringing appears on contrast-rich edges in front of and behind the focal plane. Bright-dark transitions in the image, and in particular highlights, are rendered free of color artifacts. In addition, the variable air spaces between certain lens groups (“floating elements design”) enable a consistently high imaging performance across the entire focusing range from 0.8 m to infinity," Zeiss says in its release.

The barrel is all-metal and allows for fine-tuning your focus. Filter diameter is a large 86 millimeters. The lens weighs 1200 grams for the Canon ZE version and 1140 grams for the Nikon ZF.2 version. Its diameter is 101 mm and length is about 140 mm. It's not water resistant.

The 85mm lens is the second lens in the Otus line. The first one was the 1.4/55, which got raving reviews on this site and others.

I received the 85mm Otus for review a few days ago and I'm using it on the Canon 5D Mark III and the Sony A7r. My impressions - swoon - and images taken with it will follow Thursday morning early are now live.

By John van Rosendaal

Location, Bird Photography

Photographing Bald Eagles along the Hudson

This time last year, the lower Hudson River shores were filled with bald eagles escaping the frozen waters further north. In their wake, photographers and sightseers spent hours watching the graceful birds and shooting the occasional show of eagles fighting over fish.

I wrote much of this last year, at the end of eagle season, after I had been out to the river almost every morning for much of February and March. I figured it would be a guide for this season and I'd publish it around the time the eagles would visit the area.

Photographing Bald Eagles at the Conowingo Dam

Once you fall for bird photography, the Conowingo Dam in Maryland beckons. The hydroelectric dam on the Susquehanna River is known to attract dozens of bald eagles in the fall. In their wake, an equal number of photographers and long, fast teles show up for an annual ritual of fishing, photographing and freezing.

The eagles, opportunists that they are, come for the fast food delivered to them courtesy of the Exelon Power Corporation which operates the dam several times a day, in the process stunning the fish that make the trip through the generators and making them easy prey for the big birds.

Like few other places, this predictable ritual allows photographers multiple spray-and-pray runs at fishing eagles and thus increases the chance for the money shot. One hour at Conowingo can deliver more payback than many freezing hours along the Hudson in mid-winter, as I can attest based on personal experience.

Zeiss Introduces Otus 1.4/85 for Canon, Nikon; Review to Follow

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