Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/1.4 Review

Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/1.4 Performance

Central sharpness starts off at a very good level at f/1.4, rising to excellent between f/2 and f/8. At f/11 and f/16 results are very good. The edges are good at f/1.4, sharpening up to very good at f/2. From f/2.8 to f/8 results are excellent, and then very good from f/11 to f/16. There is also a very even balance between centre and edge, so results are crisp over the whole image field.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is controlled to generally less than one-half of a pixel. This results in very little fringing and further corrections in software, although possible, will likely not be needed.

Barrel distortion might be expected in a fast 35mm lens, and here it measures a reasonable -1.29%. Again, this can be tackled in software if necessary, but apart from the most demanding architectural shots, this will probably not be needed.

Flare is well controlled and not generally a problem. In the most demanding of situations, perhaps where the sun is encroaching on the image, it is possible to induce a small amount of flare, but this is an extreme case.

Bokeh is the quality of the out of focus areas in an image. Sometimes with very high-resolution lenses, it can result in the bokeh being a bit harsh. The Milvus 35mm f/1.4 has excellent resolution but also has a very smooth bokeh. The image is extremely clean without becoming too fussy. This could be useful for many types of image. Portraits, provided the camera is not too close, landscapes, architecture and flower studies might all have a requirement for smoothly gradated backgrounds, to name a few.

Performance can be summed up as a very well balanced, high-resolution lens with smooth bokeh, low flare and well controlled CA.

Value For Money

The Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/1.4 is priced at £1699, in Nikon and Canon mounts. It is probably unlikely that the lens would be purchased for use on a crop sensor, so looking at full frame 35mm lenses we have a few possible competitors.

There are the Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (£449), Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM (£469), Tamron SP 35mm f/1.8 Di VC USD (£599), Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 T* Distagon (FE-Mount £1399) and Zeiss Milvus 35mm f/2 (£969).

For Nikon, we have the Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.8 G ED (DX, £449) and the Nikon AF-S 35mm f/1.4 G (£1599). There is also a low-cost Nikon AF 35mm f/2 D at £289.

Sony offers the 35mm f/1.4 G at £1129 and Pentax have the SMC Pentax-FA 35mm f/2 at £529. These figures are included to complete the generally pricing across all marques, but the Milvus lens is only available for Canon and Nikon.

For more options have a look at the Top 10 Best Zeiss Lenses.

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