[dave9t5]

 

I'm curious how Otus owners do regular pictures - or do you always use a tripod and LiveView?

 

I'm not an Otii owner, but Ming Thein's reviews have the answers:

 

http://blog.mingthein.com/2013/12/17/zei...55-part-i/

http://blog.mingthein.com/2013/12/18/zei...5-part-ii/

http://blog.mingthein.com/2014/09/09/len...po-planar/

 

In short, he concludes:

 

On the 55:

 

"If you have the means and opportunity to own one, do it. Learning the shot discipline to extract its full potential can come later. [...] No other brand has anything that comes close, especially on the 36MP+ cameras; that said, you really do need to have outstanding shot discipline, good eyesight and a D800E or better to appreciate the full difference."

 

On the 85:

 

"However, note that it’s not a lens for everybody: dedication to technique and vision are required to extract the most from it. [...] If you cannot see the difference (and no web image is going to do it justice; full resolution on a high grade monitor as a minimum, a print ideally), then don’t bother – buy a cheaper AF alternative and not have to deal with manual focus. Extremely shallow depth of field wide open plus that beautifully crisp transition between in and out of focus areas makes achieving critical focus both necessary (missed focus is obvious) and challenging; beyond that, if you don’t have a camera that can make full use of the resolving power and color rendition of the lens, or the skill to deploy all of that potential, it’s somewhat wasted. I honestly feel that the lens still has more to give – but we don’t have the sensors for it yet. I suppose that’s future-proofing. [...]

 

Coda: I’ve solved the focusing issue with a Zacuto pro finder and live view – stability, magnification, real DOF – just makes the whole thing a bit bulkier, unfortunately."