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The Medium Format 'Look'
One of the striking features of the Otus 55mm f/1.4 APO-Distagon is that it yields an image that is strikingly “medium format” in character, the implication being that one can use a camera such as the 36-megapixel Nikon D810 and obtain images of similar character (and resolution) as a comparable medium format camera.
But: there is no 'medium format look' when equivalent apertures and lens designs are used; the 'medium format look' is an erroneous belief that does not hold up to technical scrutiny (a Zeiss optical expert was consulted for this discussion):
The look of medium format versus 35mm DSLR images can be completely identical with respect to geometrical parameters (aberration character excluded).
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