[Klaus]

... so Zeiss has spoiled one of Markus' upcoming reviews a bit ...

 

15mm f/2.8

http://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de...s2815.html

 

18mm f/2.8

http://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de...s2818.html

 

135mm f/2

http://www.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/en_de...s2135.html

[youpii]

I'd say only the 18mm is new

[Rover]

This way the "classic" ZE/ZF2 series looks like it's not long for this world. I guess most of the "new" lenses are updated only on the outside, and for a good reason - say, the 135 looked (judging by the Lenstip and Cameralabs tests) so good that it does not need any optical updates whatsoever. There were compelling reasons to update, say, the 50/1.4 and  85/1.4 (from the first batch of the Milvii), of course, because those were old designs (and did not do too well in testing). Not sure if there was anything wrong with the 18mm - maybe they felt that it was an odd one out due to its f/3.5 aperture.

[mst]

Not sure if there was anything wrong with the 18mm - maybe they felt that it was an odd one out due to its f/3.5 aperture.

Just by the specs, a 18/3.5 isn't all that exciting and competing with all sorts of wide angle zooms, "down" to the very affordable consumer ones (think of the Nikkor AF-S 18-35 for example). I guess they just can't price it so low that it will be an attractive option in this segment (no matter if it is optically superior or not).

-- Markus

[Rover]

Just by the specs, a 18/3.5 isn't all that exciting and competing with all sorts of wide angle zooms, "down" to the very affordable consumer ones (think of the Nikkor AF-S 18-35 for example). I guess they just can't price it so low that it will be an attractive option in this segment (no matter if it is optically superior or not).


-- Markus

That, and from what I could gather it was never as wildly popular as the 21/2.8 that everyone was raving about. Though I'm not sure a 2/3 stop difference would mean an about turn in that lens' popularity anyway... But time will tell. I'll keep my 16-35/4 IS forever and ever, thank you very much.