The ZEISS Batis 2/40 CF is the first Batis lens I’ve used ever since I acquired a full frame camera recently. A friend of mine loaned me this lens for a week, and this is my humble review.

What humble review? I am not a fanboy, nor I am paid to write reviews, I will be blunt if the product is not good. Some people might think that I am a keyboard warrior, and I don’t give a sh** about it. Anyways, let’s proceed with my thoughts, shall we?

The Batis lenses comprise the focal length of 18, 25, 85 and 135mm. The ZEISS Batis 2/40 CF bridge the gap between 25 and 85mm. But why 40mm? Why not 50mm? It is neither here nor there. But I guess the 10mm does not any much difference to me.

I found a seat at one of my usual “lepak” corners, sipping my cold beer and study this lens aesthetically. The first impression that it gave me was the weight, weighing at approximately 360 grams, the weight distribution feels good when I attached it on my Sony A7M3.


Design


The ZEISS Batis 2/40 CF has a very minimalistic design, love the fonts used for the labels on the lens. The clean and modest design gave me the feeling that it is easy to use, on the contrary to Sony’s camera menu, it is so complicated.

The lens body is very nicely made, it felt smooth and sexy while holding in my palm. The Batis lenses do not have groove rings, unlike other brands, instead, it has a single rubbery adjustable ring. It traps dust and fabric, but they can be removed easily.


Operation


The focal length is wide enough for taking indoor shots, especially capturing your model across the dining table or in cafes; not too tight and not too wide. If you are like the 50mm focal length lens, the 40mm doesn’t make much difference to you (in my opinion).

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The lens AF is smooth and fast; I didn’t observe any AF motor noise from the barrel.

Hey, you know what? This lens is dust and weather sealed, but I didn’t test the system, the lens is not mine.

After reviewing the images that I’ve taken on the desktop, I am pretty satisfied with the results; the picture quality is comparable to those taken with my GM; in my opinion.

The ZEISS Batis 2/40 CF covers close focusing distance: with a 40-millimeter fixed focal length, it is versatile and useful when you need to use it for close up shots like food photography. The only issue with me is that I always forget to switch back the focal back to infinity, and I thought why I can’t get my model in focus while capturing them at a distance.

ZEISS Batis 2/40 CF Review 6

 

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That’s not all, I have forgotten to mention that the ZEISS Batis 2/40 CF has an OLED display that reads the focus distance and depth of field; when you are in manual mode. But I usually shoot in AF mode since the Sony’s camera AF is pretty accurate; that’s good enough for me.


Summary


The ZEISS Batis 2/40 CF is a light-weight, easy to use, well crafted prime lens. It is suitable to use for travel, and street photography. Though the Zeiss Batis lenses may be cheaper than Sony’s GM lenses in general, I strongly feel that Batis series lenses can also deliver equally good or maybe even better image quality than the GMs.

You should try a Zeiss Batis Lens today!

 

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