Sony 135mm F/18 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* Za Alpha Mount Autofocus Lens Reviews

review: Sony Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm f/1.8 ZA lens

1 of the pieces of photo gear that I accept lusted after ever since the first time I saw it, is the Sony Zeiss 135mm f/i.eight ZA lens  (B&H / Amazon). That combination of the Zeiss name tag and the sweet f/1.8 aperture on the telephoto lens, predicted this would exist a lens to experience. Nonetheless, since I by and large shoot Nikon (and also have a small Catechism organisation), and this is a Sony mount, it remained an unrequited dear.

So I had a photographer in Deutschland, Thomas, asked about doing an personal workshop on flash photography with me – but he shoots with the Sony A99 and Sony A7R 11. Instead of simply vaguely waving my hands around while explaining things, I thought it would be best for me to have some Sony gear in my hands during this workshop. So I rented and acquired the necessary pieces to shoot alongside Thomas. This was an interesting experience with new gear – the theory about wink photography made sense, and information technology all fell into place with a sure logical consistency – but the buttons and controls of the photographic camera were new.

Anyhow, I thought this would be a great opportunity to rent the Sony Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm f/1.8 ZA lens, and see if the lens stood up to expectations. I shot some available light portraits and off-camera flash portraits of our model, Claudia.  (Model Mayhem portfolio).

The photo above is an available calorie-free portrait of Claudia.

• camera settings:  1/500 @ f/two @ 200 ISO
• Sony A99 camera
• Sony Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 ZA lens  (B&H / Amazon)

Offset experience: Sony Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm f/1.8

So how did this lens hold up to my expectations? Well, I want this lens at present, more than always before. No, not desire … need!

The lens feels solid. A hefty clamper of glass and metallic. The focus ring is so shine. You but know this lens has been engineered to an exact degree.

The lens hood is deep, and disordered on the within. Fifty-fifty the lens hood felt solidly made!

The photos here will explicate just how amazingly smooth the bokeh of this lens is – no jittery edges. Nothing that intrudes from the groundwork elements. Just smooth smoothness. I beloved it!

The sharpness of this lens – I can't think of a lens that has given me sharper results than this. As sharp, yes. But not sharper. This really is the noon for optical quality that I have experienced.  You could count the middle-lashes in each photo.

With the congenital-in stabilization of the Sony camera bodies, camera shake isn't much of a trouble, and the images were consistently tack sharp. A few times I did focus on the wrong eye (instead of the centre closest to the photographic camera), but that is mostly operator fault or poor light.

I have to emphases again this lens' stellar optical quality. At 2.5 lbs, y'all know you have a solidly made lens. The filter bore is the usual 77mm, and with the non-rotating forepart element, a polarizer filter would be like shooting fish in a barrel to utilize.

I had this A-mount lens on the older Sony A99 camera. To use information technology with the new A7 series, you need the Sony LA-EA4 A-Mount to E-Mount FF Lens Adapter (chapter). This adapter allows Alpha mount lenses to be mounted to the new E-mount full-frame cameras, and yet permit continuous Phase Detection car focus.

• camera settings:  one/thou @ f/ane.8 @ 100 ISO  …  bachelor light

• Sony A99 camera
• Sony Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 ZA lens  (B&H / Amazon)

• camera settings:  1/2000 @ f/i.8 @ 100 ISO … off-photographic camera flash in TTL manner

• Sony A99 photographic camera
• Sony Zeiss 135mm f/1.eight ZA lens  (B&H / Amazon)
• Phottix Mitros+ wireless wink for Sony  (B&H / Amazon)
• Sony HVL-F60M Flash  (chapter)
• Clarification of the softbox setup: gear updated for wink photography workshops

• camera settings:  1/thou @ f/1.8 @ 200 ISO

• Sony A99 photographic camera
• Sony Zeiss 135mm f/i.8 ZA lens  (B&H / Amazon)
• Phottix Mitros+ wireless flash for Sony  (B&H / Amazon)
• Sony HVL-F60M Flash  (affiliate)
• Clarification of the softbox setup: gear updated for flash photography workshops

With this dual wink softbox, nosotros had ane flash (a Nikon SB-900) in transmission mode. The second flash was the Sony HVL-F60M Flash (affiliate), which we controlled equally a TTL flash or transmission flash with the Phottix Mitros+ wireless wink for Sony  (B&H / Amazon)

• photographic camera settings:  i/200 @ f/1.8 @ 400 ISO  … available lite but

• Sony A99 camera
• Sony Zeiss 135mm f/i.viii ZA lens  (B&H / Amazon)

In an entrance nether the Manhattan bridge, nosotros constitute some natural-liteChiaroscuro – that interplay between light and shade, when we await at the foreground subject area, and how the low-cal falls in the background.

The light on Claudia was from sunlight reflecting off a glass window. These two pull-back photos from my iPhone will explain it well.

• camera settings:  1/500 @ f/two @ 200 ISO  … available low-cal, augmented with gold reflector

• Sony A99 camera
• Sony Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 ZA lens  (B&H / Amazon)

With the late afternoon sun on the banks of the Due east River, the background merely blew out completely in the distance considering of the shallow depth-of-field. To bring a little more detail dorsum in the background, and to get more light on Claudia's face up, we used a pocket-sized gilded reflector.

Purchase the Sony Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 ZA

Sony Zeiss 135mm f/1.8 ZA lens:B&H /Amazon

Sony LA-EA4 A-Mount to E-Mount FF Lens Adapter:B&H /Amazon

Related articles

• Reviews of Sony photo gear
• Tips on working with models
• Effective on-location portraits  (model: Anelisa)
• More articles about off photographic camera flash photography

mathesonyouripasted.blogspot.com

Source: https://neilvn.com/tangents/review-sony-zeiss-135mm-f1-8-za-lens/

Share this post