I will show you the best portrait lens you probably never heard of: the Zeiss Otus 100mm. The Otus series for Zeiss is noteworthy because it’s one of only four lenses under the Otus umbrella. They have 28mm, 55mm, a 85mm, and 100mm. After a single conversation with Zeiss, Otus relayed that they wanted to make the best lenses possible, not concerned with a set, and to make them slow.
So here, we have the 100mm for EF Mount (also available for Nikon), which lists around $4,500. Not cheap by any means, and the barrel rotation is 315 degrees, with manual focus only. These factors make the lens easy to pass over on paper, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you use it and see the results!
