Zeiss Milvus Distagon 18mm f/2.8 Final Review + IQ

Summary

Dustin Abbott reviews the Zeiss Milvus 18mm f/2.8 lens, praising its beautiful design and construction but finding its optics to be good but not exceptional compared to less expensive options. He compares it directly to the Tamron 15-30mm and Rokinon 12mm lenses, showing similar sharpness and performance despite higher cost. He concludes it produces great images but the extra cost may not yield better optical quality over other lenses.

Takeaways

• 😀 The Zeiss Milvus 18mm f/2.8 is a beautifully built and high-quality wide angle lens, with great weather sealing and handling.
• 👍🏻 It has a common 77mm filter thread, allowing the use of more accessible and affordable filters like ND filters for long exposures.
• 🌠 It performs very well for night sky and astro photography, with good control over coma and star stretching in the corners.
• 🔎 Optically, it does not clearly outperform cheaper lenses like the Tamron 15-30mm or Rokinon 12mm in sharpness and resolution.
• 😕 There is noticeable vignetting when shooting video, which could be an issue.
• 💡 It transmits more light than the Tamron, needing over a stop less exposure for equivalent brightness.
• 🌈 Chromatic aberrations are extremely well controlled.
• 👍 It has very low distortion, keeping lines straight even shooting up staircases.
• 🔬 Center sharpness seems on par with cheaper lenses, but edge sharpness falls behind slightly.
• 💰 The high cost may not bring a meaningful jump in optical quality over cheaper lenses.

Q & A

What lens is being reviewed in the video?

The Zeiss Milvus 18mm f/2.8 lens is being reviewed.

How does the image quality of the Zeiss lens compare to other cheaper lenses?

The Zeiss lens produces great images but does not necessarily outperform cheaper options like the Tamron or Rokinon lenses in terms of sharpness, especially in the corners.

What is the law of diminishing returns in regards to lenses?

As lenses have gotten much better in recent years across all price ranges, spending more money does not necessarily get you a more highly performing lens over cheaper alternatives.

What is a benefit of the 77mm filter thread on the Zeiss 18mm lens?

The 77mm filter thread allows the use of more accessible and affordable filters like neutral density filters to enable long exposure photography.

How does the Zeiss lens perform for astrophotography?

It has well controlled coma and renders star points sharply, performing as well as or better than the 15mm Distagon and Tamron.

What is a disadvantage of the Zeiss 18mm lens?

It has fairly heavy vignetting, which could be problematic for video work.

How does the Zeiss lens handle chromatic aberrations?

It handles chromatic aberrations extremely well and has basically no visible color fringing.

How does the manual focus experience compare to other Zeiss lenses?

The focus ring is perfectly damped and glides beautifully, similar to other Zeiss manual focus lenses.

What type of photographer would this lens work well for?

Landscape, architecture, and astrophotographers would appreciate the high image quality, weather sealing, and manual focus experience.

What is an alternative lens recommendation for a cheaper option?

The Tamron 15-30mm f/2.8 is sharp across the frame when stopped down and costs significantly less while allowing zoom flexibility.

Outlines

00:00

📸 Zeiss Milvus 18mm F2.8レンズの最終レビュー

このパラグラフでは、ダスティン・アボットがZeiss Milvus 18mm F2.8レンズの最終レビューを行います。このレンズは、Zeiss Milvusシリーズの中で15mmおよび21mmのDistagon設計レンズと同様の設計を持ち、価格と焦点距離の面でこれらの間に位置します。米国市場での価格は2,199ドルと高価ですが、その優れた構造、美しいデザイン、気密性能、そして操作性の良さが強調されています。また、フォーカスリングの動きが滑らかであり、ハイパーフォーカス距離の使用が推奨されています。このレンズは、10インチまでの近接撮影が可能で、良好な再現率を持っています。さらに、77mmの一般的なフロントフィルタースレッドを持っており、フィルターがより手軽に使用できる点もメリットです。画質に関しては、色収差がほとんど見られず、フレアやゴーストの抵抗性が高く、歪みが少ないことが特徴です。ただし、ビネットが強いことが欠点として挙げられています。アストロフォトグラフィーにも適しており、星の点が鮮明に描写され、コマ収差がよく制御されています。

05:00

🔍 比較テスト：Zeiss Milvus 18mmと他のレンズ

ダスティンは、Canon 5D Mark IVを使用し、Zeiss Milvus 18mm F2.8、Tamron 15-30mm、およびRokinon 12mm F2（APS-C用のため、実質的な焦点距離は類似）のレンズを三脚上で比較します。彼はまず、コマ性能を比較し、その後、画像の解像度、色収差、およびビネットを評価します。Zeissレンズは色収差において他のレンズよりも優れているが、解像度とビネットに関しては、特にコーナー部分でTamronやRokinonに劣っている場合があることを発見しました。さらに、光の伝達率が高いため、同じ露出設定で撮影した場合、Zeissレンズの方が画像が明るくなることが観察されました。

10:02

🔬 画質の詳細な比較と結論

このセクションでは、ダスティンはZeiss Milvus 18mmとTamronレンズの画質を更に詳細に比較し、F2.8とF5.6の絞りでのテストを行います。彼は、中央部の解像度が両レンズでほぼ同等であるものの、画像の端の部分でTamronレンズがより優れていることを見出しました。また、Zeissレンズは、同じ露出設定でより多くの光を捉えるため、Tamronレンズよりも1.5ストップ程度明るい画像を生成することが判明しました。ダスティンは、長時間露光を用いた撮影例をいくつか紹介し、77mmフロントフィルタースレッドの利点を示しました。しかし、最終的には、Zeiss Milvus 18mmが他の比較したレンズよりも顕著に優れているわけではなく、価格の差を正当化するほどの性能差は見られないと結論付けています。

15:03

🧐 レンズ選択における考察と総評

最後のパラグラフでは、ダスティンは、最近のレンズの品質が全般的に向上しているため、高価なレンズと安価なレンズの間の性能差が縮小していると指摘しています。この「次元の減少法則」により、Zeiss Milvus 18mmのような高価なレンズが、解像度の面で安価なレンズに明確な優位性を持たない場合があることを示しています。ダスティンは、このレンズが素晴らしい画質を提供するものの、他の類似のレンズと比較して特別に優れているわけではないと結論づけ、購入を検討する際にはその点を考慮する必要があると述べています。

Keywords

💡lens

The main topic of the video is reviewing a specific camera lens - the Zeiss Milvus 18mm f/2.8 lens. The video examines the build quality, specifications, performance and image quality of this lens in detail.

💡image quality

A key aspect analyzed in the lens review is its image quality - including resolution, sharpness, contrast, flare resistance, chromatic aberration, distortion etc. Comparisons are made to other lenses like the Tamron 15-30mm.

💡astrophotography

The Zeiss Milvus lens's utility for astrophotography is discussed - examining performance parameters like coma and ability to render sharp and well-controlled star points across the frame.

💡distagon design

The Zeiss Milvus 18mm is said to use a Distagon optical design, known for excellent sharpness and performance across the frame. This design type is compared to lenses like the Zeiss 15mm Distagon.

💡weather sealing

The video highlights the excellent weather sealing of the Zeiss Milvus 18mm lens, making it suitable for outdoor and adventure use. This sealing protects the lens in challenging environments.

💡optical quality

While the Zeiss Milvus produces great images, the video concludes it does not necessarily exceed cheaper lenses optically. Parameters like resolution and sharpness are on par with cheaper Tamron and Rokinon lenses.

💡diminishing returns

With lens technology advancing rapidly, the benefit of expensive lenses over cheaper lenses is reducing in terms of pure optical quality. The video labels this as the "law of diminishing returns".

💡filter thread

The Zeiss Milvus 18mm accepts common 77mm screw-in filters. This allows the use of cheaper ND filters to achieve long exposure photography.

💡manual focus

As a manual focus lens, learning techniques like hyperfocal distance focusing is recommended to get sharp images with the Zeiss 18mm especially for landscape work.

💡vignette

A weakness highlighted about the Zeiss 18mm is significant vignette or darkening of corners, especially when shooting video. This could be bothersome for videography uses.

Highlights

レンズは美しく設計され、非常に高品質だが、他の似たレンズと比べて必ずしもシャープではない

コマ収差と歪みは良好に制御されている

フレアとゴーストがほとんどない

77mmのフロントフィルタースレッドは便利

長時間露光撮影に適している

中心部のシャープネスは同等だが、端部のシャープネスはTamronのほうが良い

明るさはZeissのほうが上回っている

高価なレンズが必ずしも高性能というわけではない

素晴らしいレンズだが、他の安価なレンズと比べて際立った点はない

高価なレンズを買う必要性が薄れつつある

最近のレンズ開発で格差がなくなりつつある

大きな技術革新がない限り当前は変わらない

ファイルリンク: 写真サンプル、イメージギャラリー

他のレビューもチェック

購入を検討するならリンクを参照

Transcripts

[Music]

hi i'm dustin abbott and i'm here today

to do my final review my final verdict

on the zeiss milvis 18 millimeter f 2.8

this is a distagon design like the two

other lenses now in the milvis lineup

for wide angle and that is the 15

millimeter distagon and then the 21

millimeter distagon and it slots right

between them in terms of price and of

course in terms of focal length it's not

an inexpensive lens in the u.s market it

has an msrp of

2199

which makes it pretty pricey if you

haven't already i'd encourage you to

take a look at this episode here where i

broke down the overall build the design

the specifications and cover those

things in detail in that i will just sum

that up to say that this is obviously a

beautifully built lens it's in fact one

of the most beautiful lenses that i've

ever seen it has great weather sealing

and it handles beautifully in the field

if you like using quality things you're

going to enjoy using the milvis 18

millimeter it's just a beautifully

crafted lens period beyond that in the

field it has a very nice moving uh focus

ring you know it's in that sense it's

very zeiss and very nil this it's

perfectly damped and it glides along

beautifully you'll find that

learning to use hyper focus distance is

going to help you a lot if you're not

accustomed to

focusing because i do find that with a

wider angle trying to achieve visual

focus even with a body setup like mine

with an egs focus screen it takes a

little bit more practice and so if you

learn to use the hyper focusing

markers it makes it easy you just keep

everything in focus until those certain

situations where you want to get really

close to something for example this lens

will focus down to a close 10 inches and

has a decent reproduction value to it

beyond that however we're going to break

down the overall

image quality and performance in the

field

um one thing that i really liked using

about it is the fact that it has a very

common 77 millimeter front filter thread

that's certainly smaller than its its

two brothers siblings in the milvis

lineup and it means the filters are more

accessible i used a haida pro

nd 1000 filter that i paid i think no

more than 70 dollars for and i was able

to get gorgeous long exposure images

i'll throw a couple of them up here for

you to see and and so that certainly is

much more convenient than the tamron 15

to 30 that i'm using right now that has

a curved front element and thus you

can't use traditional filters so my

filter system is big and it's bulky and

it's expensive and so that's certainly a

plus and something to consider if you're

looking at a lens like this beyond that

it checks a lot of the right boxes it

has basically no chromatic aberrations

that i've been able to see in the field

it handles that very very well

it's very flare resistant and and holds

contrast very well and has just the

barest minimum of ghosting and actually

i would say does better than the

exceptional distagon 15 millimeter in

that regard and certainly better than

what my tamron does because that bulbous

front element does tend to catch the

light a little bit um with the tamron

and so it's great in in that regard the

distortion is very low which is

certainly a plus for this i find that it

doesn't really need much correction and

uh you know one thing that's important

to me that if you're going to use it

like for shooting groups or shooting in

a bridal situation i noticed that when i

shot in a staircase that

there wasn't a lot of distortion there

the line stayed nice and straight and so

um that's it's good in that regard as

well the one area that it doesn't excel

is when it comes to vignette and that

also makes it somewhat similar to the 15

millimeter distagon it vignettes fairly

heavily and while that's not necessarily

a big deal in most situations if you're

shooting stills it can be more of a deal

if you are

shooting video with the lens and of

course zeiss lenses are often very

desirable for video shooters and so

that's something to watch out for

another plus is it is a great

astrophotography lens it does a great

job at night and star points are

rendered nice and sharp and if you look

along the edges coma is well controlled

there's no ufos or flying ducks there

but rather star points stay pretty

natural maybe just a little bit of

stretching in the corner but it's a

great performance and actually it holds

up very well when compared to the dista

distagon 15 millimeter or the tamron

that i'm shooting with that i think is

really good in that regard so it's a

great performer there we're going to

take a few minutes and break down the

image quality and in particular compare

how the resolution compares to

options like the tamron that i've been

alluding to i'll put that at 18

millimeters also f 2.8 and then similar

apertures we'll mount it on a tripod

with the 5d mark iv body and see how

they compare

side by side and just for the fun of it

i'm going to throw in a much less

expensive lens the rokinon 12 millimeter

f2 which is for mirrorless so i'll shoot

it on an eos m3 body but because it's on

aps-c

with the crop factor it's pretty similar

to the focal length of the uh millvis 18

millimeter

so let's jump in and let's take a look

at how they compare

okay first we'll uh just take a quick

look at some coma performance i've got

an image i shot a

almost two years ago on the distagon 15

millimeters over here at the corner and

then one i shot more recently with the

milvis 18 millimeter and so as you can

see and obviously they're two different

kinds of images in some ways but we're

mostly looking for this kind of thing

and so you can see just a little hint of

you know kind of the odd shape and the

extreme corner here um on the

milvis uh 18 millimeter but at the same

time the overall stars are are nice and

crisp and the image is smooth and so

there's not a lot of stretching here in

the corners and you know it's about the

same as the dyston 15 millimeter as far

as the actual coma shape in some

situations and the distagon 15

millimeter is

known to be one of the best um

lenses for shooting astro and so i mean

that's a strong performer there i also

want to give you a quick comparison to

the tamron 15 millimeter and i'll use a

um well we'll use the same kind of image

here for a second and then maybe a

second one also

and so uh here both of these are same

kind of thing this is 20 millimeters f

2.8 and so if we look towards the center

of the frame

we see a pretty similar looking result

and if we look out towards the corners

we see also a pretty similar looking

result this is the tamron and so you can

see

you know

some of the the little bits of coma

taking shape there same kind of thing

here it's really a pretty similar

result which is great for the milvis

because i've done a shootout with the

tamron and it was the lens that i

thought was one of the best for

shooting the night sky and so this is

actually a very good performance from

this and then just to compare another

more recent image from the

milvis that i just took here and so

we'll just again look at the stars you

know again a similar performance

okay so here as promised we're going to

compare side by side the zeiss which is

on the right and the rokinon which is on

the left and so we start out here on the

edge we're going to see the only

advantage really that the zeiss has is

there's you know quite obviously some

color fringing here both purple and

green fringing that just isn't there

chromatic aberrations are pretty much

perfect on the zeiss lens and uh but as

we look here and go on into the image we

can tell that despite the fact that this

ice is working with a superior sensor

the 5d mark iv

there's just you know overall more

sharpness and contrast or certainly no

more

sharpness and contrast for the zeiss

than there is for the rokinon and

you know if we just look here there's

just a nice amount of contrast and

detail here and i just think more so

maybe than what's showing up there on

the zeiss and if we look down towards

this corner here and in these grasses

we can see that you know once again

there's really not any more resolution

there for the zeiss and so we'll take

another quick look at f 5.6 and see if

that has uh cleared up so again we have

uh rokinon on the left we have zeiss on

the right and so if we look on this side

we see that

um number one chromatic aberrations

still haven't really cleared up on the

rokinon and so that's certainly an

advantage for zeiss but at the same time

our results are pretty much the same i

would say that they're pretty close to

being similar in terms of overall

sharpness here but neither are you

seeing a you know clear advantage for

the zeiss either and if we look up into

this kind of corner in the foreground i

would say that the rokinon is delivering

the stronger image

so now we're going to compare the tamron

with the zeiss this is both shot at 18

millimeters f 2.8 so zeiss on the right

tamron on the left and so number one you

can see that the tamron has far less

vignette here than what the zeiss does

so that's one advantage for

the tamron now if we look towards the

center of the image and i live view

focused on this rock right here to give

us a kind of a middle distance that

should allow for a lot of everything

else to be in focus we can find that

while the look is not similar there

appears to me to be a bit more contrast

on the tamron and a little bit more

definition in the tree these are both

shot on the 5d mark iv

and and so once again as we kind of pan

this way the image looks pretty similar

um however on these rocks there's

probably just a hint more resolution for

the tamron they're pretty close i mean

we'll call them

equal if we look at these chairs that

are hidden up in here they're also

looking pretty much similar as we move

towards the edge of the frame though i

look at this sign and i definitely see

an advantage for the tamron it's just a

little bit sharper

and

here in these rocks and of course we're

getting close to a depth of field issue

here but um for the vignettes kind of

hurting the zeiss image but overall here

the uh the tamron um looks just a hint

better

so here we're stopped down to f 5.6 and

here's something interesting begins to

emerge um number one we see that while

they're both the

the same basic basic exposure that one

400th of a second at 5.6 iso 100 exact

same body they're shot within just a few

minutes of each other you see that the

exposure value is radically different in

that the zeiss looks overexposed but in

reality it's needing far less light than

the tamron and so the light transmission

is clearly favors the zeiss lens here

and uh and so here if we actually look

it's it's kind of hard to compare with

that much exposure on there so what i'm

going to do is i have actually

tried to equalize exposure and by the

way i needed about a stop and a half to

get the histograms relatively close

on each one and so what we're going to

do now is we're going to jump in here

and take a look now that they're a

little bit more balanced and so here in

the middle um you know there's still

actually a little bit more exposure for

the zeiss than there is for the tamron

even after all of that

i'm not really necessarily seeing an

advantage for either lens if we look at

these chairs they're both nicely

rendered i would say that there's

perhaps a hint more definition in the

leaves over here if we pull over this

way it definitely looks like the tamron

is sharper in this little area of rock

here

and and here on this rock too so i would

say and definitely on the sign i mean

it's a clear advantage and clear

advantage here um along this fence that

there's just more definition there and

in these rocks over here so i would say

that um certainly the the center

sharpness may be about equal but the

edge sharpness that definitely goes to

the tamron

and finally i'm not really going to

compare these two images but more just

to show again that that

exposure difference this is the exact

same exposure shot four minutes apart

but look how much more light um the

zeiss is sucking in and so um if that's

something that's important to you that

certainly is a factor that the zeiss

needs far less light than what the

tamron does to

um to to produce the the image and so

that's something to take under

consideration as a part of this

here just want to quickly show you that

with a very inexpensive

height of filter

i was able to throw on their long

exposure and so then with just a little

bit of post-processing i was able to

produce a really dynamic

image there and similarly here

this is

just a 10 second exposure middle of the

day

but you know with some processing able

to produce a really cool result and then

to crop in that a bit

and

you know change the look up to you know

emphasize the movement of the water

along the rocks so that's one advantage

of that little 77 millimeter front

filter thread this is straight out of

camera here just shows the lens is very

dynamic here's a lot of light coming

towards the sensor all of these cars

passing by but you'll notice the

it's it's held up very very well against

that flare similarly here and a lot of

movement in the sky another long

exposure shot here but a great result

there

finally just you know this is an f4 shot

you know kind of a more traditional

look and if you look up it here there's

just great definition but look in the

transition

from the leaves moving up to the sky or

from the branches no chromatic

aberration at all that's a flawless

performance right there so as you can

see while the milvis produces beautiful

images it doesn't necessarily blow away

either the tamron or the rokinon

optically and in fact in some ways i

think it gives up some to them

particularly in the corners i think what

you're seeing is the result of what i

call a law of diminishing returns that

in recent years lenses have gotten so

much better across the field it used to

be that first party were up here and

third party were way down here it used

to be that

you know that expensive lenses were way

up here and inexpensive lenses were way

down here but we've seen a leveling of

the playing field due to advances that

are trickling down to other

manufacturers and to less expensive

lenses and so until there's another huge

optical breakthrough i think that you're

going to see a lot of parity and in fact

that's what i've been seeing in recent

years that particularly in the last two

years that there have been so many good

lenses released often at the same um

focal length that really you have to

kind of turn to other measures to make

your buying decision and and i think

that that's going to be true with the

milvis 18 millimeter is it a great lens

it absolutely is and i've been really

thrilled with the images i've been able

to produce with it

at the same time when you measure it

head to head with less expensive options

it isn't necessarily a sharper lens

compared to them

and then so that's just something to

take into consideration if you're

looking for a zeiss lens and looking for

this focal length it's a great option

and if you're looking for a great

landscape lens it is a great option but

at the same time know that spending the

more money to get this lens isn't

necessarily going to get you a more

highly performing lens than some of the

less expensive alternatives and i have

to confess that that cools my enthusiasm

somewhat for it it's a great lens i love

using it it's beautiful to look at and

it's beautiful to use and it creates

great images but at the same time i

wouldn't necessarily call it exceptional

in the sense of being better than other

similar lenses

i'm dustin abbott if you look down below

you will find

linkage to follow me on social media you

can also find a link to my full written

review that has a lot more image samples

also a link to an image gallery and also

a place to go and do some shopping if

you want to take a further look if you

haven't already please subscribe thanks

for watching

have a great day

[Music]