Zeiss Milvus 25mm f/1.4 Review

Zeiss Milvus 25mm f/1.4 Performance

Sharpness is simply excellent at every aperture, centre and edge, peaking at around f/8. At especially the middle apertures the figures centre and edge are very close, resulting in a beautiful evenness across the frame.  

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is well under control both centre and edge. If further correction is needed, which is doubtful, then we can look at software solutions. This will for most applications be unnecessary.

Barrel distortion might be expected in a fast 25mm lens, and here it measures a reasonable -1.59%. Again, this can be tackled in software if necessary, but apart from the most demanding architectural shots this will probably not be needed. In any event, for general shots a slight barrelling tends to be accepted. It's what our eyes have become used to.

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, and the worst scenario is a slight haze or loss of contrast.

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. In this case the bokeh is very well gradated and gives a smooth result can could well be described as creamy. Because of the bright f/1.4 maximum aperture, pleasant out of focus backgrounds can be achieved, despite the naturally deep depth of field with a wide angle lens.

Value For Money

The Zeiss Milvus 25mm f/1.4 is priced at £1999 including VAT. Looking at what else is on offer in Canon and Nikon mounts, we have the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM (£1499), the Nikon AF-S 24mm f/1.4 G ED (£1829), and the Sigma 24mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art (£649).

For more options have a look at the Top 10 Best Zeiss Lenses, or have a look at the Top 28 Wide-angle Landscape Lenses.

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