I have been waiting for several months, like much of the rest of the Sony Alpha world, for the release of the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8. The frustration has been tangible online. There were so many reviews from the lucky few bloggers out there who were given advanced copies you could throw a rock and hit one.
Several months passed without any indication from Zeiss when the lens would finally be delivered. This didn’t stop anyone from taking preorders mind you. I had mine in for a long time. Well, recently Sony then announced it was starting its new GMaster line of lenses. I guess it would be their professional lens category. I would compare it to the L glass line for Canon. Unlike the Batis, it seemed that the arrival of this lens was going to leave me with a short wait. I canceled the Batis preorder and pivoted over to the Batis. Within a few days, I had it! Here was the box opening.
Soon after getting it however, I noticed it was very noisy on startup. Now bear in mind I’ve never owned an 85mm 1.4 of any brand in the past. I’ve never had a lens that had autofocus with as large a diameter and heavy a lens element as this. I could only compare it to my other Sony Lenses which are quite a bit smaller. I made a video of the sounds here.
Soon after noticing the sounds, I did what every google nut does. I searched the phrase “Noise Autofocus G Master”. Immediately I was hit with three threads already. They were on sonyalpharumors.com, fredmiranda.com, and dpreview.com
The speculation was already at a fever pitch. People were reporting scratches inside the lens that could be seen. I was swept up in this panic as it seemed dozens of us early adopters were worried we just shelled out a ton of cash for a shoddy product. Here is a video I made showing the alleged “scratches”.
Well I was starting to have my doubts but I realized I should have better information before returning the purchase. I made posted these videos to the forums and they were used in some cases to spur on discussion. Sonyalpharumors even used my video in one of there update posts!
I was feeding the paranoid beast apparently. Many people started to return their purchases. I held on..hoping for some seasoned expert to weigh in. Well I got it. These guys are superheroes as far as I’m concerned. This “Emergency” Breakdown by lensrentals.com brought me back down to earth.
I’m glad I waited. I’ve loved the lens so far. I’m still very new to this level of glass. Apparently piezo motors are just louder that’s all.
Stay tuned for some G Master 85mm adventures!
Studio G in the DMV 