Canon EOS owners who are Carl Zeiss lens fans can rejoice: Carl Zeiss announced an EF-mount version of its 18mm f/3.5 lens. The Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 3.5/18 ZE super wide lens will go on sale this fall for €1049, or about $1,500.
The 18mm f/3.5 lens has been on the market for several months with F- and K-bayonet mounts, making it compatible with Nikon and Pentax DSLRs. The Canon EF-mount version was announced today. According to Carl Zeiss’ Sept. 14 press release, the 99-degree angle of view makes the wide lens optimal for full-frame image sensors. That would include the 36 x 24mm 21.1-megapixel CMOS sensor on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II.
The lens can focus as close as 0.3 meters (11.8 inches) and as far as the eye can see. It is equipped with 13 elements in 11 groups that are arranged in a “floating elements design,” as Carl Zeiss calls it. This design allows the groups to be repositioned during focusing and thus prevent image aberrations.
