Batis 135

[Guest all8]

Hi,

 

A Batis 135 arrived in the post today ... if anyone would like some kind of samples (not portraits) please let me know and I will see what I can manage in the next few days. Aside from the usual plants, trees and piles of rocks ...

 

Also, I have a Sony 70-200 G4 which I can compare it against, if that is interesting.

[christer]

Please post some samples and your observations with regard  to other lenses; also Batis 85, if you have one.

 

Judging from your images on 500px your samples and observations should be to the point.

[Guest all8]

Not really sure what to do with a 135mm lens ... to be honest. The weather is not so great at the moment; humid, hot and lots of haze; you might think that would create a nice sunset ... but it does not ... and most things you might take photos of are wilting in the heat, or damaged from the storms. Its very very green at the moment.

 

I've been taking photos of trees recently, and the 135mm will be particularly useful for that. This sample is at f11 with ISO1600, I'm going to do something similar with a flash, and that is where I think the combination will be particularly useful ... because the lens is further from the subject, the flash strength/reflection should be easier to control, for a more accurate reproduction. And with flash the ISO should be at 100 with these smaller apertures!

 

 

 

 

The lens is remarkable, like the rest of the Batis range, they are a good set IMO.

[Guest all8]

The Batis 135 replaces a 90mm Leica Elmarit (also f2.8) which lacked contrast/sharpness wide open, was tedious to focus, and seemed to have some colour casts. It was OK actually, for portraits ... but did not really match well with the other Zeiss lenses which I use. In all probability it will also replace a 70-200G4 zoom, that is the intention.

 

AF on this 135 is great, its really helpful to have on a long lens. Although in many cases I will switch to MF, for walking around and taking photos of things, the AF is great.

 

Here is a photo taken wide open, some PP, but no sharpening other than the new "Details" adjustment of ON Raw - which is almost unnoticeable ... quite a change from ON1 Raw who's effects are often too strong. This for me is what a telephoto lens is all about, near far compression, and I look forward to more of this.

 

 

Again .. wide open, really great! The lens is as sharp at f2.8 as it is at f8 or f11 ... more to come on that topic. Ultimately, the aperture is deciding how much you want in focus, the images are consistent in every other measure.

[Guest all8]

A quick note on indoor photography. I have my camera set with Auto ISO between 100 and 1600, typically with Aperture priority. With this lens the camera behaviour in reduced light is as follows; 

• first it lowers the shutter speed to 1/160 (good ol 1 over ef)
• then it increases the ISO as far as configured
• and then it lowers the shutter speed
• even with stabilisation slower shutter speeds are difficult, not impossible, just difficult.

Here, with f2.8, the camera selected 1/160 and ISO 1250. Its a good exposure and representative of the lighting conditions. Its certainly better than anything you would get from a smart phone! Also, in this setting, its much more discrete and comfortable pulling out the Batis 135 (minus lens hood) than it is when pulling out the black and white 70-200G4 ...

 

 

 

So, indoors, its OK, but really at the limit. I would guess someone taking photos of theatre might want a larger aperture, or more sensitive sensor. Still, I got the shot I wanted, right   

[Guest all8]

Compared to the Sony 70-200 G4 ...

 

OK, firstly, there is not much difference so far other than one zoom's and the other is a stop faster ... never-the-less, here are some observations:

1. AF on the Batis 135 is a bit faster and does less hunting than the 70200G4.
2. Stabilisation is better on the 70200G4.
3. Batis 135 can be used one handed, its nicely balanced to the A7ii, 70200G4 on the other hand requires the other hand.
4. WB grey card check, for light shade, Batis 135 set at 5700, 70200G4 at 6100 - which if I have it correct, means that the 70200G4 is a little warmer, and that is what I had suspected/observed.
5. I measured, when testing with a colour card, a bit more contrast on the Batis 135 ... but not much more.
6. The Batis 135 colours/vignetting/etc is consistent through the entire aperture range, until f16, where diffraction is observed. The 70200G4 has some slight variations (when at 135), which you would not notice, unless you shoot test images ...

So, aside from the size, zoom and f-stop ... they are the same       

Yeah .... not finished with that, but, basically the same.

 

 

And what is the 70200G4 for ... sports ... so, here is sports done with a Batis 135   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far my wife has not noticed the new lens        

benefit of Batis, they all look the same!

[Guest all8]

This focal length seems to have a lot of promise for "thing" photography, subject distance between 1,5 and 2,5 meters. There is a lot less distortion (not sure if that is the right term) than what comes from a wide angle lens. Anyway, this is taken after sunset, in available light, NO flash, wide open at f2.8, ISO fixed at 400 and with stabilisation active. Shutter speed 1/40 .... looks good.

 

Some PP, dark contrast + vignette, exposure push, awkward aspect ratio crop. No other adjustments.

 

 

 

 

I have a lot of photos today, taken with the same settings, focus was good in most cases at 1/30 - 1/60.

[Guest all8]

PS: the photo on 500px is sharper that the upload photo here looks ... precise focus was on the left middle corn flower thing.

[christer]

PS: the photo on 500px is sharper that the upload photo here looks ... precise focus was on the left middle corn flower thing.

 

 

Yes, 500 px ist the best choice for showing technical quality.

 

And portfoliobox.net for nice display and easy navigation.

[Guest all8]

I plan to take some photographs of light houses with this lens, and the Batis 18 (they will work well together I think) ... so I've done a bit of practice on something similar to understand the DOF for the Batis 135, and how I might use that. No PP aside from Auto Exposure and falloff correction for the F2.8 images.

 

F2.8 and focal point at 43 meters:

 

F2.8 and focal point at Infinity:

 

F11 and indicated DOF 40 to Infinity (recall that there is no diffraction at f11 on Sony A7ii):

 

[Guest all8]

This is a focus stack of the two F2.8 images. Here I think there is potential, particularly if I would stack two images at F11, on focused near Infinity and the other around 45 meters.

 

[Guest all8]

And I also created a 5 shot panorama from the same position, F11, Focus at Infinity. I did not use my Pano tripod head, so its not perfect, and the PP is rough ... main thing is to explore the potential ... and it seems pretty interesting. Its about 15000 x 6000 pixels ... about 90 MP    

 

 

 

Ah, now here is an observation ... if I had taken that shot with a single frame using a wide angle lens then I would have had difficulty keeping my shadow out of the frame. Therefore I think this technique may be more useful than I first expected.

[Guest all8]

This is a focus stack of the two F2.8 images. Here I think there is potential, particularly if I would stack two images at F11, on focused near Infinity and the other around 45 meters.

 

 

More on stacking images ...

 

 

I noticed that the background of the F11 shot looked a bit different than the F2.8 shot focused at infinity. The F11 is focused at 68 meters, with DOF from 40 to Infinity, whereas the F2.8 is focused at Infinity, which starts at around 200 meters for the Batis 135. The first set of trees in the background are at distance of 200 meters, the next set at 1000 meters and the tower is at 1200 meters. 

 

Therefore I put most of the difference down to "being in focus" (precise) or "being in acceptable focus" (depth of field).

 

That's OK, normal, so what happens if the F11 image is stacked with the F2.0 image focused at infinity?

 

 

 

 

 

I find this method most interesting and I have another idea where to apply it ...

[Guest all8]

I would like to use this Batis 135 for taking photographs of Lighthouses, combined with the 18mm I think it will be quite good at that. There are _no_ lighthouses where I live to practice on, so I practiced on the local church as you can see here:

 

http://www.sonyalphaforum.com/topic/7737-stephanuskirche-with-batis-135/

 

Its another example of stacking images taken with two different apertures and two different focal planes. The images is also a vertical panorama comprised of 4 images, giving an effective focal length of 90mm. The outcome is exceptional, even without using a Pano head on the tripod (which would have saved a lot of time in PP aligning the images).

 

These next two images are the stitched panoramas before stacking.

 

 

 

 

[Guest all8]

In this photo I guess you can get some idea of the challenge with this lens, which is DOF. Here, with f9, its OK but probably f11 would have been better. The subject distance is 1 meter, so its really pushing things a little ... shots taken at larger apertures (smaller f number) were useless, but probably would have worked with subject distance 2 meters.

 

Shot & PP notes are in the 500px description.

 

[Guest all8]

Its as close as I will ever get to taking a portrait with this lens. F2.8, about 2m subject distance, looks sweet.

 

Seem to find myself shooting one handed, which is nice in comparison to heavier lenses ... so its just under the limit I guess. The lens really is easy to work with.

 

[Guest all8]

Long exposure using the Lee 7 system Big Stopper. No problems at all!

 

Unfortunately there was nothing interesting to take photos of ... the vignetting was added in PP, so otherwise, it was even more boring.

 

 

[Guest all8]

Another example of the 135 at f2.8. Subject distance is 10 meters, and I think there is a useful amount of DOF here.