A Superlative Ultra Wide Angle Lens!

Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 Milvus Lens Rs. 1,99,950 Ashok Kandimalla

This lens from Zeiss, is the widest in their current range. While a lens with the same focal length was offered by Zeiss earlier, this is a new iteration introduced as a part of the new Milvus range. As with all Zeiss D-SLR, this is a manual focus only lens but with electronic contacts. This particular model is available in Canon and Nikon mounts. Zeiss is one of the few manufacturers who deliver their lenses with a signed inspection card, indicating that the lenses have been inspected individually.

Design and Build

The Zeiss 15mm f/2.8 lens is built like a main battle tank. The Milvus series of lenses take their external design cues from the famed Otus range. The construction is all metal but the machined focussing and aperture rings of the earlier design have been replaced by rubber covered ones. The exterior is finished beautifully in satin black. The supplied metal lens hood is petal shaped and is excellent – strong, with good flocking. The shape of hood has been designed to blend nicely with the lens body contours making the lens plus hood combination look like a single piece. It is perhaps even a bit sexy to look at with curvy lines! While it is a MF lens, the electronic contacts make it behave in all other respects like an AF lens with focus confirmation. It retains full compatibility with all exposure modes and meter patterns. The lens is large and flares out enormously in the front resulting in a huge filter size 95mm! While not mentioned anywhere, the previous 15mm lens from Zeiss was based on the legendary Distagon design and we have reason to believe that this lens too is of the same lineage.