Zeiss Otus 85mm f/1.4 Lens Image Quality Comparison

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Following is an f/1.4 image quality/sharpness comparison between the Otus 85 and the Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM Lens (use the mouseover links below the image). The Otus crop was taken from the extreme left side of the frame. Because the Canon lens has a slightly wider angle of view, the Canon crop was taken from just inside of the left edge (a small advantage). These images were captured in full shade and processed using the "Standard" Picture Style with a sharpness setting of "1" (very low).

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At this location in the frame, the Zeiss has a considerable image quality advantage over the Canon. The difference in sharpness between these two lenses is significantly less in the center of the frame, but the Zeiss shows another significant advantage in the next center-of-the-frame comparison. That advantage is the lack of purple fringing that is common in wide aperture lenses used at wide apertures with high contrast subjects.

Again, use the mouseover links below the following image to see the results captured with the specified lens and aperture.

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I don't typically run into the purple fringing problem with the Canon 85 L II, but this scenario, with the intentionally blown/overexposed white flowers against a darker background, really brought out this aberration at wide apertures.