Like Canon, Carl Zeiss has been teasing us for a couple of weeks with the presence of a mysterious ZE lens line on its website. Today, Carl Zeiss has unveiled the first two lenses of the ZE line, which are made for the Canon EF mount, with the promise of many more to come.

Press Release:

OBERKOCHEN/Germany, Carl Zeiss is expanding its successful line of SLR lenses: ZE lenses with EF bayonet for all analog and digital EOS camera models. As with all EF lenses, the new ZE lenses from Carl Zeiss transfer all information exclusively via electronic contacts. This means that all exposure modes such as programmed auto exposure, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual setting are supported.

The camera’s automatic focus confirmation also remains available to an unlimited extent with these manual focus lenses. With digital SLRs, the lens data and all exposure data can also be accessed via the camera’s EXIF file. Even E-TTL flash metering is supported. The first lenses to be available will be the Planar T* 1.4/50 ZE and the Planar T* 1.4/85 ZE in the last quarter of this year.

Further focal lengths will be added to the line within the next few months.

Recommended retail price of both lenses:
Planar T* 1.4/50 ZE
€ 579 (incl. 19% German VAT)
$ 660

Planar T* 1.4/85 ZE
€ 999 (incl. 19% German VAT)
$ 1,170