[0.3 lb] This lens is just a replacement for my damaged one, love buying the original manufacture option. The felt interior is beautiful!

[0.3 lb] I said it all in the headline. Excellent product,

[Bayonet] Sharp, sharp, sharp. Did I say how sharp this lens is. Using on A7III and is fantastic. Super fast and silent auto focus. Got on Deal days and the price was great.

[0.3 lb] I purchased this lens to replace a Nikon 14-24, which I tended to stop carrying due to its bulk and difficult issues of focus shift and narrow DOF when used on high-resolution bodies. 18mm seemed a good compromise, and the Milvus 18mm is an updated optic design. Reviews online were scant, but I decided it was worth a try. The final copy I kept is a very impressive lens at f/2.8 across the field (center, DX circle, corners). But, surprisingly, it took three samples to get there. The first sample had softness on the left side in the DX circle, and the second copy had softness on the right side of the DX circle. This was determined with shots at infinity, as well as a carefully squared set of Zeiss modified Siemens Star Charts, and both approaches gave consistent results. Using defocus tests described by Roger Cicala on the lensrentals blog (May 20, 2012) suggested decentering in different directions for the first two samples. A bit discouraged, I called B&H Customer Service, and the rep suggested trying a third sample (I was feeling a bit bad buying and returning), no problem. This third sample showed no asymmetries and is truly a remarkable lens. One curious thing is that the field of focus seems quite flat at f/2.8 both close and at infinity (some field curvature toward the camera in extreme corners at close distances), but stopping down to f/8 moves the field of focus toward the camera on the edges, quite noticeably if using the DOF scales. On Lloyd Chambers Zeiss web site (subscription), he hints of something odd with this lens, but I am not sure if this is what he noted (I do not have a subscription). This is not a deal killer, but something to be aware of. High resolution bodies are so unforgiving.... Bottom line is I am very happy with this lens. The mechanics are superb, and manual focusing is easy. It is fairly small and takes 77m filters. Win-win. Only downside is vignetting wide open, but that can be accommodated in ACR.

[Bayonet] I mounted the lens on a Sony A-7R iii. The lens was very sharp in the center and maintained that sharpness except at the extreme edges if you were shooting a scene in the landscape mode. At 100%, the edges looked reasonably sharp but upon blowing the image up a bit more, I could see some fall-off. However, adding some additional sharpness at the extreme edges was easy with the adjustment brush in Adobe Camera Raw. Contrast and color renditions were excellent and I didn't find vignetting to be an issue at the time of day I was doing my tests. I chose mid-afternoon because I wanted to do my test shots in strong light. I know there can be some vignetting with this lens in lower light situations but that is also an easy fix in Adobe Camera Raw. In sum, this is a very fine lens and the slight fall-off in sharpness at the extreme edges was not a deal breaker for me, particularly at its price.

[Bayonet] I am really enjoying this lens. It is super wide with a very sharp image. I was afraid of it giving a fisheye view because of the convex lens, but it's perfect!

[0.3 lb] This lens is very sharp and a great addition for interior commercial shoots.

[0.3 lb] I bought this lens primarily to have a usably fast lens for night-sky photography. I use it with a 5D Mark IV, and it serves this purpose quite well great sharpness, wide open. It also has proven quite good for shooting waterfalls, and for more general landscape photography; it is an excellent lens, and I'm happy to have it among the ones I can pick from. Although I've used autofocus for 25 years, I've had no problem with the Zeiss's manual focus. In most instances, I've simply used the lens's scale to assure that the distance range I want in focus will be in focus at the selected aperture, and that has worked very well. When more precise focusing has been necessary, I have used Live View 10x with good results (except when looking toward bright light, such as late afternoon sun). As essentially all reviews of this and other Zeiss lenses have stated, Zeiss focusing action is very smooth; this and other manifestations of the outstanding build quality of the lens make it a pleasure to use. When a wide view is desired and manual focus might be problematic, I have the Canon EF 16-35 f/4L IS, which is also an excellent lens, except for night-sky shooting. However, I use the Zeiss for more than night-sky work for situations that could be handled well by the 16-35 because the Zeiss is so nice to use and gives great results. It definitely is expensive, a fact driven home when I compare it to my Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS II, an outstanding lens that includes great autofocus and image stabilization not found in the Zeiss, yet costs a bit less. But I knew that before buying the Milvus 2.8/18; using it has increased my certainty that it was a good purchase.

[0.3 lb] Using this lens on my Sony A7 3 and A7 R3.
The quality of the lens is top notch. Well Zeiss quality...

[Bayonet] An outstanding lens paired with the Nikon D850.