According to Canon Rumors, the next addition to the Zeiss Otus line of high performance, manual primes is going to be an 85mm. The 85mm Otus will be like the 55mm in that no corners will have been cut in optical design and build. As of yesterday, the Otus 55mm is still the king of all 50-ish-mm lenses according to DxO (even the Sigma).
Hopefully we'll see Sigma retaliate with a 85 f/1.4 of their own, the current model is looking a little long-in-the-tooth.
For more information about the current Otus offerings from Zeiss you can check out our coverage of it here or over at B&H.
[Via Canon Rumors]
It would be wise for Sigma to do it and ride the coattails of the success/hype that it may get. One of the main reasons why the Sigma 50 art is getting so much press and is such a great value proposition for perspective buyers is the constant comparison to the acclaimed holy grail of optics. Once the 85 Otus is released, I'd expect an announcement from Sigma probably not too long after...
Who would have thought we'd see Zeiss and Sigma battling it out for lens supieriority?
The ball's in Sigma's court...
I could be wrong but I think Sigmas current 85 1.4 was released right before Sigmas rebranding and focus on quality. Although it was released before the re-focus it was the start of their brand new lens line even though it didn't get the new tagging scheme badge. It bested the Canon 85 1.2 equivalent by 3 points in the DxO score and is less than half the price (around $970). It's an amazing lens. I doubt we'll see an update to the 85 1.4 so soon, but I hope I'm wrong.
You are correct, it is a pre-new Sigma lens.
Please sigma give the people what they want
I bet it's going to be the size of a 135 judging from how big the 55 is.