Great lens, fast and lighweight. I Could not be happier with the pictures, verry sharp.

I'm mostly a prime lens shooter and my last remaining zoom was the Sony FE 16-35 f/4, an excellent piece of glass. Since my collection of primes had grown to include the Zeiss Loxia 35 and Batis 25, I found most of my work with the FE 16-35mm to be in the 16-20mm range. When the reviews were so positive after the release of the Batis 18mm, I decided to give the lens a try knowing that it would really have to deliver in order to dethrone my wide-angle zoom. It did. Seeing is believing came to mind my first time out with this lens on a Sony a7R II. Across-the-frame sharpness is already decent wide open at f/2.8, but it gets amazing between f/4 and 8. When I compare images from the wide-angle zoom, the difference is striking. From individual blades of grass in the foreground or the wood grain of a weathered park bench, the details reach another level of sharpness. Distortion is very well controlled, but as with any ultra wide-angle lens, it's best to keep people and vertical lines (trees, buildings, etc.) away from the edges of the frame when possible. An Adobe LR profile for this lens is now available when needed. Did I mention the color rendering? The Batis 18mm has beautiful rich colors that you expect from a Zeiss lens and were also a notch above the very competent FE 16-35, IMHO. Yes, this lens is a bit larger in diameter than the Sony wide-angle zoom requiring a 77mm filter size instead of a 72mm, but the Batis 18mm is 36% lighter and very well balanced on the Sony a7R II or a7 II, both on and off a tripod. I also found the manual focus of the Batis to be very responsive and accurate. I'm partial to the OLED display and overall design of the Batis lenses and speculate that a former Audi design guru is working at Zeiss. Pros: incredible IQ, color pop, responsive AF, balance on camera, stylish build, weather sealing, Cons: none, other than I had to purchase 77mm filters Many thanks to B&H customer service for their excellent support

Very sharp lens, and discovered that the lens hood will work with the UV Filter.

I'm an amateur and have nothing technical to say.... I have Sony's GM 24-70 lens which I thought gave me some good landscape shots. So I was on the fence getting a wider lens. Wow. What a difference. Gives a much bigger field of view. It's not a struggle to use in lower light conditions.

Clarity not seen since shooting Hasselblad with film. Shooting with a Sony a6300 and this lens yields edge to edge resolution than shames the results from a Canon 6D with the 17-40L , or 24-105L. No contest. Night ? perfect, non color disposed results corner to corner. Best WA i have used. Buyers note, as mentioned by others, the front lens cap has insufficient tension to stay in place with nearly any lateral bump. Many other adjectives come to mind. I wrote to Zeiss to point out the problem, the respondent denied the problem based on how many people have used the lens... so we leave it at they are great at optics, but plan on replacing the lens cap.

This is truly a great lens. When using manual focus the OLED display on the lens lets me set the hyper focal distance with night time photography. The lens is very well build other than the cheap lens cap that comes with it. And I do mean cheap. How Zeiss could let this lens out the door with this cap is a mystery. If you are smart you will buy a generic lens cap along with the lens. Trust me, the Zeiss cap won't stay on and who needs a scratch on a new lens. It is a nice lens and you won't be disappointed.

I am an amateur, so I will leave the technical details to those more qualified. I have a Sony A7s ii, and I have all three Zeiss Batis lenses which I use with the camera. The 85mm is great, and the 25mm is a fantastic lens as well, but this has become my walking around lens. The pictures are clear and sharp. It is very fast for auto focus, although I do use manual focus sometimes when the subject is complicated such as the night sky or crowded city streets where the camera has to guess its subject. The photos from this lens seem to match what the eye sees, so that photos look more true to life. If I had only one lens, this would be it for the type of photography that I do. My wife is a realtor. I have used this lens to take interior pictures of homes she has listed for sale. The pictures capture the room size and layout much better than anything she has used in the past. Zeiss lenses are pricey, but in my opinion they are worth the money.

I just received my Batis 18mm lens. It is a very imprssive lens and of great design. The sad thing is the lens cap for this very expensive lens is the chapest thing I have ever seen in my forty years of buying camera equipment. It just spells Cheap. I will be using one of my old Canon lens caps on this beautiful lens so I can protect the front element. How did they let this lens out the door with such a cheap cap is beyound me. The lens itseft is of great quailty and will probably be one of my best.

I have had the lens for about a week now and so far so good. The lens is more solid than I was expecting, but still very lightweight. It feels right on my A7rII. The images so far are super sharp. The OLED display is a neat feature and autofocus is pretty quick. I have managed some nice closeup shots too thanks to its 25cm minimum focus.

I wouldn't say no distortion, but the best I've seen at this level.