[mst]

Hope you got the time and the funds soon to resume this initiative.

The main issue currently is time. The gear is already in the lab for a while.

And, mst, since you are still in Germany, once you start reviewing stuff again, could you politely ask Zeiss to give you some copies of the Milvus and Otus lines and have them tested on D850 or Z7?

That is, honestly, unlikely to happen. First of all, there is a huge pile of more mainstream stuff that I need to work on, first. Milvus and Otus lenses target a niche market, so have no high priority on our side. But at least for the Milvus lenses that still use the same optical design as the older ZE/ZF lenses, you can get an impression from our past reviews of those lenses.

In addition, we usually do not ask the manufacturers for loaners (with the exception of small brands) to avoid being accused of getting 'golden samples'.

However, I once got in touch with Zeiss quite a few years ago and asked if this was an option, maybe. Their answer was very clear and it was obvious between the lines they did not consider us to be a serious review business (such a small team, no professional background in photography, and we don't even publish on paper!).