2024 has been a new seasons for relatively new lensmaker 7artisans. Until this point, 7artisans had largely produced inexpensive manual focus lenses along with a few cine lenses, which were also manual focus only. But in 2024, 7Artisans has made the jump to autofocus, and this is the third autofocusing lens that I’ve reviewed from them over the past 4 months! They are serious about getting into the game! Thus far the AF lenses from 7artisans seem to fall into two baskets. One is very small, lightweight budget lenses for APS-C like the AF 27mm F2.8 that I reviewed here. The second tier are slightly more upscale lenses that are for full frame, physically larger, have more features, and also have higher (but still inexpensive) price tag. The 7artisans AF 50mm F1.8 lens was the first in that category, and this new lens is a natural extension of that series, adding the essential 85mm focal length to the equation. The new 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM is a very strong lens optically, and is fairly reasonably priced at $299 USD. But it also comes into a market full of viable 85mm F1.8 options. Is there a reason to choose the 7artisans 85mm over the others? Find out my thoughts in the video review below, by reading my text review linked here, or by enjoying the photos below.

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Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of this lens. As always, this is a completely independent review. *The tests and most of the photos that I share as a part of my review cycle have been done with the Sony a7RV along with the Sony Alpha 1 that serve as my benchmark cameras for Sony lenses.

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In times past, 7Artisans has supported a wide variety of lens mounts as with manual lenses it is just a matter of changing the mounts so that the lenses will mount on the various cameras, but when you introduce autofocus it means developing the various focus algorithms necessary to make autofocus work correctly each camera platform. 7artisans initially brought out the AF 50mm F1.8 only for Sony E-mount, but they have already expanded that to include Nikon Z-mount as well, so I suspect that we’ll see the same here. I’m doing this review on Sony E-mount as before.

As with the 50mm F1.8, this is a fairly large lens, which will probably limit interested parties, though, as before, 7artisans’ focus seems to be on optical quality rather than compact size. Think of these lenses as being akin to a budget Sigma ART alternative. Now, to be fair, it is considerably smaller an lighter than the Sigma ART 85mm F1.4 DN, and while that lens is an F1.4 lens, I also consider it to be fairly compact for an 85mm F1.4.

The 7artisans 85mm comes to market at an MSRP of $299 USD, which is roughly $70 higher than the 50mm F1.8. When I look at alternative lenses I find that prices vary from $350 (Yongnuo) to $1250 (Zeiss Batis), with options from Viltrox and Sony coming at $399 and $598 respectively. The only cheaper autofocusing 85mm lens that I can point to on Sony E-mount is the Meike AF 85mm F1.8, which I reviewed here, but I can safely say that even though the Meike lens is cheaper at $199 USD, it isn’t anywhere near as nice or functional lens as the 7artisans lens. I feel like I can safely say that the 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM represents a pretty strong value.

So is this a lens that you should seriously consider? We’ll explore whether or not that is the case in this review.

Images of the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM

Images taken with the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 @ Vitopal (use code DUSTINABBOTT for 10% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

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Purchase the Sony a7RV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany 

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Purchase the Sony a7IV @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany 

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Purchase the Sony Alpha 1 @ Camera Canada | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Sony Canada | Amazon Canada |  Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

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