Just a few years ago, I had never reviewed a Sirui lens. I had reviewed a few tripods from the company, but I didn’t think of them as a lensmaker. They then approached me about covering a few of their cine lenses, and while that isn’t my forte, I agreed to do so out of some interest in the unique materials they were using in their lens design (carbon fiber, in this case). Since that point I’ve reviewed about a dozen lenses from them, including cine lenses, their Nightwalker series, an anamorphic lens, and all five lenses in their Sniper autofocus series. But I’ve never been more excited to do a Sirui review than the one I’m doing today, for a number of reasons. First of all, this is their first full frame autofocus lens, and I would presume that the Aurora 85mm F1.4 is the first in a new series of Aurora lenses. Secondly, while Sirui has always utilized some really cool materials in their designs (they know how to make a unique lens!), the Aurora series if the first time they’ve really kicked up the feature set, with the Aurora 85mm sporting a set of features that would compete with Sigma or even a first party lens. Thirdly, they’ve managed to make a full frame 85mm F1.4 lens that is smaller and lighter than what anyone else has done. Finally, I was a bit slow getting my review copy, so a few reviews are already out, and I found that I really, really liked the look of the rendering from the lens. Add to that the fact that Sirui is discounting the already inexpensive price of $600 down to $500 for the holidays…and throwing in a few bonus filters, and they’ve definitely got my attention. Did they pull off the value 85mm on Sony, Nikon, and Fuji? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review, reading the text review, or just enjoying the photos below.
Thanks to Sirui 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 my Sony a7RV or Sony Alpha 1 cameras.
One other area that I was interested in was being able to evaluate Sirui’s autofocus on a platform other than Fuji, which is where I’ve reviewed the Sniper series. Fuji’s autofocus is quite a bit behind that of other major brands like Sony, Canon, or Nikon, so I feel like my impression of Sirui’s autofocus has been held back a bit by the limitations of the camera. I’m doing this review on Sony, where no such limitations exist, and it will give me a more accurate view of the “state of play” with Sirui’s autofocus.
I’ll give Sirui high marks for presentation. There’s a clever little tab made of material that allows the box to be easily opened, and inside they packed the lens in a zippered and padded nylon case (like Sigma’s lenses), which actually adds real protection value, unlike, say, a Canon L series drawstring pouch. The lens is shrinkwrapped inside to help it to be perfectly sealed during shipment. I’m not a big “unboxing” kind of reviewer, but I was impressed as I unboxed the Aurora 85mm.
It’s great to see another 85mm F1.4 option on the market, particularly one that does have a number of nice strengths. It’s probably not going to dethrone my Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN for me personally, but I’ll also note that it costs half as much.
This is a very nice full frame portrait lens for $500. Check out the photos to see if it checks the boxes for you.
Keywords: Sirui, Aurora, 85mm, F1.4, Sirui Aurora Review, Sirui 85mm Review, Aurora 85mm F1.4 Review, f/1.4, Review, Sony alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Wireless, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Just a few years ago, I had never reviewed a Sirui lens. I had reviewed a few tripods from the company, but I didn’t think of them as a lensmaker. They then approached me about covering a few of their cine lenses, and while that isn’t my forte, I agreed to do so out of some interest in the unique materials they were using in their lens design (carbon fiber, in this case). Since that point I’ve reviewed about a dozen lenses from them, including cine lenses, their Nightwalker series, an anamorphic lens, and all five lenses in their Sniper autofocus series. But I’ve never been more excited to do a Sirui review than the one I’m doing today, for a number of reasons. First of all, this is their first full frame autofocus lens, and I would presume that the Aurora 85mm F1.4 is the first in a new series of Aurora lenses. Secondly, while Sirui has always utilized some really cool materials in their designs (they know how to make a unique lens!), the Aurora series if the first time they’ve really kicked up the feature set, with the Aurora 85mm sporting a set of features that would compete with Sigma or even a first party lens. Thirdly, they’ve managed to make a full frame 85mm F1.4 lens that is smaller and lighter than what anyone else has done. Finally, I was a bit slow getting my review copy, so a few reviews are already out, and I found that I really, really liked the look of the rendering from the lens. Add to that the fact that Sirui is discounting the already inexpensive price of $600 down to $500 for the holidays…and throwing in a few bonus filters, and they’ve definitely got my attention. Did they pull off the value 85mm on Sony, Nikon, and Fuji? You can find out my full thoughts by watching the video review below…or reading on.
Thanks to Sirui 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 my Sony a7RV or Sony Alpha 1 cameras.
One other area that I was interested in was being able to evaluate Sirui’s autofocus on a platform other than Fuji, which is where I’ve reviewed the Sniper series. Fuji’s autofocus is quite a bit behind that of other major brands like Sony, Canon, or Nikon, so I feel like my impression of Sirui’s autofocus has been held back a bit by the limitations of the camera. I’m doing this review on Sony, where no such limitations exist, and it will give me a more accurate view of the “state of play” with Sirui’s autofocus.
I’ll give Sirui high marks for presentation. There’s a clever little tab made of material that allows the box to be easily opened, and inside they packed the lens in a zippered and padded nylon case (like Sigma’s lenses), which actually adds real protection value, unlike, say, a Canon L series drawstring pouch. The lens is shrinkwrapped inside to help it to be perfectly sealed during shipment. I’m not a big “unboxing” kind of reviewer, but I was impressed as I unboxed the Aurora 85mm.
It’s great to see another 85mm F1.4 option on the market, particularly one that does have a number of nice strengths. It’s probably not going to dethrone my Simga 85mm F1.4 DN for me personally, but I’ll also note that it costs half as much.
This is a very nice full frame portrait lens for $500…so let’s dive in and get the details.
Aurora 85mm Build and Handling
As noted in the intro, the Aurora series is a step up for Sirui in build quality and feature set. In some ways, however, the design language of the Aurora series is more stereotypical than their typical recent designs. Thus far the only color scheme seems to be black, so no white or silver. The overall appearance is nicely clean though with bolder fonts and bigger writing than most lenses. They want you to understand that this is a full frame lens, for example. How do I know that? Because they wrote it right on the barrel.
The fonts on the side, too, are quite bold. This is like the “large print” edition of lenses.
The Sirui badge on the right side of the barrel is probably the most subtle thing here.
The front face is more clean and simple. I always like when there is lens information on the front of a lens.
The lens itself is definitely on the small side for an 85mm F1.4. Not as small as the Sony FE 85mm F1.8, but definitely smaller and lighter than any of the F1.4 options save the Samyang Series II (which I reviewed here). The lens is 80.3 (3.2″) in diameter x 102 mm (4″) in length. It manages to get by with a 67mm front filter thread compared to the 77mm of the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN or the 72mm of the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II. It weighs 540g (1.4lb), which is slightly more than the 509g of the Samyang but less than the 625g of the Sigma. You can see that while the two lenses are similar in length, the Sigma lens is definitely wider in diameter.
The included lens hood (pictured above) is fairly plain. It is a cheaper feeling plastic (relative to the more robust aluminum alloy housing of the lens) that is distinguished mostly by a ribbed grip ring. It bayonets on a little tighter (the tolerances could be a little better here) but at least won’t be jarred free.
This is a fairly feature rich lens. It has a robust approach to aperture control, including a manual aperture ring that can be controlled with clicks (at one third stop detents) or clickless by changing the position of the switch on the right side of the lens.
You also have the option of switching into A (automatic) mode if you prefer to control aperture from within the camera. This isn’t an iris lock, but there is a nice long detent in between F16 and A mode that should keep you from accidentally straying in either direction.
The aperture iris itself is beautiful, with 15 rounded blades, which is well more than any of the competitors.
On the left side of the barrel there is a Function button that can be programmed to a wide range of functions from within the camera along with an AF | MF switch.
The manual focus ring has a nice feel to it overall. The damping is good, and focus smooths well without any apparent lag between input on the ring and the actual focus action. The active focus area will be automatically magnified if you have that setting enabled.
At the rear of the lens you’ll find a USB-C port that allows for quick and easy firmware updates.
You’ll also find a weathersealing gasket located there, and Sirui adds that there is a fluorine coating on the front element. There seems to be some other seals as well. Sirui actually used the word “waterproof” in their marketing, but I’m not aware of any lens actually being waterproof. Weathersealed is probably a better term, meaning that you can use it when it is raining, but don’t drop it in a pool or the ocean and expect all to be well!
Right now Sirui is including two filters as a bonus. One is UV protection filter, which I personally don’t use but some photographers swear by.
The second is more interesting to me, as it is a “Black Mist” filter. This gives you a little more of a glow to an image, a slightly more dreamy look that can be interesting in certain situations. Here’s a quick comparison of a scene with and without the filter. Note that it affects not only the subject but also the bokeh, too.
It’s a nice bonus on a portrait oriented lens, and we’ll come back to that in the image quality section.
The lens barrel is made of metal (aluminum alloy), and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. Overall I would call it a nice looking lens even if I do find the badging/writing a little overwrought.
85mm lenses are rarely known for great levels of magnification, and that’s true here. Minimum focus distance is 85cm, which is pretty much dead on with what the Sigma and Samyang allow. That will give maximum magnification figure of right at 0.12x, which is obviously very average.
While the Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 isn’t precisely the smallest and lightest 85mm F1.4 lens out there, it is very close, and unlike the Samyang, it gives you a metal body and more features, which feels like a nice tradeoff for the additional 31g of weight. Overall I’m happy about what we have here. I love to see when companies “level up” in their lens design.
Stills Autofocus
Sirui has equipped the Aurora 85mm with an STM or stepping motor. While I consider STM motors to be the lower tier of modern mirrorless AF motors (with Linear and Voice Coil motors in an upper tier), the truth of the matter is that there’s a pretty broad range of performance with STM motors. The Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN also has an STM motor, for example, and it costs twice as much. Obviously the Sirui won’t be able to compete with the Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II, which has incredibly fast autofocus thanks to having two XD Linear motors, and those are the largest of their kind that Sony has made to this point. If your plans for an 85mm prime include capturing sports action, you’ll probably want to stick with something like the Sony or, if you’re shooting Nikon, perhaps consider the Z 85mm F1.8 S instead. But for most people in most situations, the autofocus performance on the Aurora 85mm is going to work just fine.
You can see from the shots above that the lens delivered nicely accurate results on either my Sony a7RV or my Alpha 1, with good precision on any kind of trackable subject even if the subject (like Ferrari here) was in profile.
Focus is very accurate on the eye itself, not anything else.
There is almost no noise to be heard even if I put my ear next to the lens barrel. There is the slightest buzz from the motor, but so quiet as to be nearly undetectable. Focus speed is good in most situations, too, though I did notice a little lag when going from a very close to a very distant subject. I would say that in most ordinary situations focus speed will be sufficient. It’s nowhere near as fast as the Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II, but probably only a hair slower than the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN.
I used the Aurora 85mm to record a birthday celebration for my assistant, Craig, and I got well focused results throughout.
I shot a series of portraits with the Aurora 85mm, and it proved very capable of accurate focus in that setting, whether I was shooting through branches:
Shooting at a closer distance:
…or shooting from further away.
Focus was also good for holiday type celebrations.
Focus for general purpose subjects was just good, delivering good accuracy with no drama.
As with most third party lenses, if your goal is tracking fast action, you might want to go with a first party lens, but for most people in most situations, autofocus for stills was pretty great.
Video AF
On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth and quick with no visible steps. Focus breathing is fairly obvious, but not unusually so for an 85mm lens.
The Aurora 85mm did fine with my “hand test” as well, where I alternately block the view to my face with my hand and then remove it. Focus transitioned nicely from my hand to my face every time with no lag or misses.
Video footage generally looked good. The Aurora has a different look to the optical glass than competing lenses, including lower contrast and a different color signature. If you like it, you like it, but it isn’t quite like other full frame 85mm F1.4 lenses.
I also had fairly good results with video clips where I slowly moved the camera to force change from one subject to another at varying depths of field. Focus transitions were fairly well damped, and overall autofocus feels pretty capable.
Aurora 85mm F1.4 Image Quality Breakdown
The Aurora 85mm has an optical design of 14 elements in 9 groups, which includes some exotic elements like high refractive elements, extra low dispersion elements, and a aspherical element.
The MTF chart shows a fairly consistent performance across the frame with a dip right past midframe, a correction after than, and than a drop right in the very corners. The stopped down performance is almost flat on the sagittal plane, but the tangential plane shows a big dip, speaking to a bit less contrast.
My optical tests are on the 61MP a7RV, which is currently the most demanding resolution point for a full frame camera. I suspect that my testing results will be a little more punishing than a few of the reviews I’ve seen on lower resolution platforms, as you can see from the blue lines in the MTF chart above that the lens looks great on lower resolution points and a little weaker on higher resolution platforms.
There’s one other clue in the MTF chart that may help you to understand my results. Their MTF chargts were developed at 3.4 meters, which is a little over 11 feet. That’s a bit further than standard. The distance to my test chart, for example, would have been more like 2 meters. This is relevant because I really felt like this was a lens that is optimized for portrait distances. I felt like the lens was less impressive at close focus distances, like here at roughly minimum focus distance (F1.4):
…or at infinity/landscape distances (here at F2.8):
But put it in that sweet spot of 8-20 feet (2.5-5 meters) and it is very sharp even at F1.4:
You may have noticed the real strength of the lens in my first and third examples above. This lens has gorgeous rendering and bokeh. It isn’t the sharpest 85mm out there, but it compensates by having really gorgeous bokeh rendering. And, if you are shooting either in A) the optimized shooting distance or B) on a lower resolution camera, you will also get really great sharpness and contrast as well. This doesn’t surprise me, though, as I felt like this was also the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Sniper series as well.
The Aurora 85mm shows some light color fringing before and after the plane of focus (LoCA, or Longitudinal Chromatic Aberrations), though nothing excessive in my standard tests. You can see some fringing on my chart, but nothing too bad.
One of the key areas that I see fringing is in the imprinting on lenses and cameras, and this only Pentax combination of my Dad’s often will show major fringing if this is an area a lens struggles with. The Aurora 85mm does surprisingly good in this test even at F1.4.
I didn’t see any fringing around the bright specular highlights here (bokeh balls) either.
But this shot at distance was a different story. I see fringing around bare branches, around the geese on the water, and on a few other textures. It’s as if the colors are not quite properly focusing together, and the result is lost contrast and definition on the textures.
This style of fringing is called lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA), and after what I saw in some real world shots, I was unsurprised to see it pretty strongly on my test chart as well.
Reducing the color fringing isn’t tough (the “Remove Chromatic Aberration” button on your favorite editing software should take care of that without problem), but what you won’t see restored is the lost detail in your images. That makes this a slightly underwhelming lens for landscapes. In many ways the Aurora 85mm F1.4 is the optical polar opposite of the recent Sony 85mm F1.4 GM II. That lens has some of the best microcontrast that I’ve ever seen, able to resolve amazing detail at both close and distance (some of my landscape images at F1.4 amazed me on that lens). But I was bit underwhelmed by the overall rendering and quality of the bokeh. The Aurora is the opposite. I’m completely underwhelmed by the fine detail rendering in many situations, but absolutely love the overall rendering of the bokeh from lens.
There’s a case to be made for both approaches, but if you’re making the case for the Aurora’s approach, it is that clients and viewers will rarely see the pixel peeping results, but they will always see the big picture rendering results.
The Aurora 85mm is a bit like the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN in that there is a lot more pincushion distortion than expected. It’s as if both companies left some uncorrected distortion as a engineering trick to reduce the size of the lens. The Sirui isn’t as bad as the Sigma, however, as I used a -7 to correct the nicely linear pincushion distortion and only a +38 to correct the vignette (I needed to max out the vignette slider with the Sigma).
A bit of pincushion distortion can be flattering to portrait subjects, but this is probably excessive. You’ll want to correct at least some of it, though you can probably get away with not correcting the vignette.
Unfortunately the Aurora 85mm does not seem to be getting in-camera correction support. I pulled the JPEG file of the chart test above off my second card and it looked just like the RAW file.
So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 61MP Sony a7RV, and crops are typically shown at 200% magnification. Here’s the test chart:
Here are F1.4 crops at roughly 200% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).
I see mostly good detail across most of the frame (a bit of a drop in the corners, as predicted), but contrast is unexceptional. This is mirrors my findings in real world shots, too, though again the contrast results are better in the “sweet spot” of 2.5-5 meters (8-20 feet).
Stopping down even to F1.8 produces more contrast, particularly in the black levels.
You can see that in this real world example comparing F1.4 and F2 as well.
This is one of those lenses that offers you some choice in how you want things rendered. It’s a nice option at F1.4, as it is still sharp enough for portrait work, but still has a flattering quality to the rendering.
For portrait work I felt that there was plenty of sharpness. Even a fairly deep crop at F1.4 shows nice detail.
You can see that there is a very noticeable bump in sharpness and contrast at F2.8:
From 2.8 to F4 is an even bigger jump, and you can see that now even the corners look impressively sharp.
Peak performance in terms of consistency will be from F4 to F8, where sharpness is most consistent for landscape style work (even if that isn’t the lens’ greatest forte.)
Diffraction will start to soften the image after that, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16:
But the absolute strength of this lens is in the overall rendering. Images just look really fantastic, with enough sharpness and contrast to be compelling, but it is all complimented by very soft, very creamy bokeh.
Geometry is pretty decent, with some geometric deformation near the edges of the frame, but overall the impression is of big, soft bokeh circles.
There is a bit of swirly busyness in those specular highlights, however, which is probably the biggest negative about the bokeh.
I found the backgrounds nice and creamy in a wide variety of situations, however.
This image has a lot in the transition zone, but it still looks pretty good.
Even the foreground bokeh is nice, which is really important for when you want to use out of focus elements to create natural frames for your subjects.
Flare resistance is mostly good. I had good results where the sun was very brightly right out of frame. You can’t really tell it from this image, but this scene was flooded with window light from a bright, directional sun.
This wide open F1.4 shot was shot into very bright sun around this tree, and while you can see some localized veiling at the epicenter of the sun, contrast has held up well in the image.
Stopping down to F11 reduced the veiling but adding just a little ghosting spot.
With the sun right out of frame and at a certain angle, you will get a glowing veil effect, which fortunately is extremely artistic. Here’s a freeze frame from a video clip:
I’ve added that exact effect to a LOT of images in post because I love the warm glow effect.
The Aurora 85mm is a pretty easy lens to get nice looking images with.
I’m also partial to the rendering from the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II, leaving us with two pretty great options. Looking back at my review results, I would argue that the Samyang is a hair sharper, but I think the Sirui has nicer bokeh. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.
Conclusion
The Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 is an interesting step forward for Sirui, as it covers a lot of new territory. It moves into covering the full frame sensor, adds weather sealing, more features, and even ups the included accessories to include filters and a case. Doing all of this at the current price of $499 USD is impressive. And it seems like this lens is getting a lot of glowing reviews from those in the target audience – portrait photographers. The optics are optimized for portrait zones, and the gorgeous rendering/bokeh helps make images really look great. There are sharper options if you are just looking for pure sharpness for landscapes or general purpose, but if your priority is the look of images and having great bokeh, then the Aurora 85mm checks a lot of boxes.
It doesn’t hurt that this becomes the least expensive full frame 85mm F1.4 option on Sony and Nikon, and also offers a more feature rich lens than competitors on Fuji.
Sirui is clearly upping their game and moving into a more mainstream market with the Aurora series. There is perhaps the least amount of competition on the Nikon Z space, but here on a Sony there are a lot of alternatives. Some of them are sharper, but none of them are cheaper, and I’m not sure that any have quite as nice of rendering, so if that matters to you, the Sirui Aurora 85mm F1.4 is a winner. It’s a lot of lens for $500!
Keywords: Sirui, Aurora, 85mm, F1.4, Sirui Aurora Review, Sirui 85mm Review, Aurora 85mm F1.4 Review, f/1.4, Review, Sony alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Wireless, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
People have been waiting for the Mark II version of the Sony 85mm G Master lens for a long time. There has been a lot of conjecture over whether or not it will be an 85mm F1.2 lens to match the 50mm F1.2 GM that I reviewed here and to compete with similar lenses from Canon or Nikon. But Sony has done their internal calculations and determined that the best way forward for them is a less extreme F1.4 design that will instead be a match for the 24mm F1.4, 35mm F1.4, and 50mm F1.4 GM lenses, and the new Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II is a definite match in terms of size, design, and aesthetic to those lenses. This also allowed them to keep the price at a more moderate level at $1799 USD, which will almost certainly result in higher sales. But the market is also pretty saturated at the 85mm focal length on Sony E-mount, so will the 85GM II (as we’ll call it for brevity here) be able to stand out amongst the competing lenses at lower price points…most notably the excellent Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN? That’s what I explore in detail in this video…or just can read my summary below.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a review loaner of the GM II 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.
Similar feature set (click, declick, iris lock, function, AF | MF)
Both weather sealed
Both have a 77mm filter thread
Both come with lens hood and case
Reasons to Choose Sigma
Price: $1070 (normal $1200) vs $1800
Smaller – Sigma is 2mm narrower and 11mm shorter
Lighter – Sigma is 17g lighter
Has softer bokeh
Slightly better magnification
Reasons to Choose Sony
Slightly more features (extra focus hold)
Faster, more confident autofocus
Lower focus breathing
Less distortion
Less vignette
Better microcontrast and rendering of fine details
Conclusion
The Sony 85GM II has two definite strengths: better autofocus and a better microcontrast and delivery of the details. But is that enough to offset the over 50% price difference between the two lenses? I think that depends on your actual needs and whether they stray into the areas where the GM’s advantages will actually make a difference. If not, then the Sigma is probably still the better option.
Keywords: 85mm F1.4 GM II, Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II, 85 GM II, GM, II, F1.4, 85mm, Sigma, DN, VS, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
People have been waiting for the Mark II version of the Sony 85mm G Master lens for a long time. There has been a lot of conjecture over whether or not it will be an 85mm F1.2 lens to match the 50mm F1.2 GM that I reviewed here and to compete with similar lenses from Canon or Nikon. But Sony has done their internal calculations and determined that the best way forward for them is a less extreme F1.4 design that will instead be a match for the 24mm F1.4, 35mm F1.4, and 50mm F1.4 GM lenses, and the new Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II is a definite match in terms of size, design, and aesthetic to those lenses. This also allowed them to keep the price at a more moderate level at $1799 USD, which will almost certainly result in higher sales. But the market is also pretty saturated at the 85mm focal length on Sony E-mount, so will the 85GM II (as we’ll call it for brevity here) be able to stand out amongst the competing lenses at lower price points? We’ll do our best to explore that amongst other things in our review today. You can watch the video review, read the text review, or just enjoy the photos below.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a review loaner 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.
The original Sony 85mm GM (standing for Gold Master, Sony’s premium line of lenses), was released very early on in Sony’s mirrorless journey (early 2016), and while it was a very good lens (I reviewed it in 2019 here), it definitely showed some clear flaws even when compared to the competition of the day. Autofocus in particular showed some lack of refinement and was outclassed in my tests by the much less expensive Sony FE 85mm F1.8. After 8 1/2 years it was clearly time for an update, and Sony has returned with a smaller, lighter, faster, and optically superior lens.
The big challenge is going to be the competition. Samyang has released a MK II version of their 85mm F1.4 lens (my review here), and an even more direct competitor now exists in Sigma’s 85mm F1.4 DN (my review here). There are also a number of 85mm F1.8 options, many of which are very good. I purchased the Sigma years ago and value its strong performance, and because I have it on hand, I will do some direct comparisons to that lens.
So has Sony done enough with the 85GM II to set it apart from the competition?
Keywords: 85mm F1.4 GM II, Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II, 85 GM II, GM, II, F1.4, 85mm, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
People have been waiting for the Mark II version of the Sony 85mm G Master lens for a long time. There has been a lot of conjecture over whether or not it will be an 85mm F1.2 lens to match the 50mm F1.2 GM that I reviewed here and to compete with similar lenses from Canon or Nikon. But Sony has done their internal calculations and determined that the best way forward for them is a less extreme F1.4 design that will instead be a match for the 24mm F1.4, 35mm F1.4, and 50mm F1.4 GM lenses, and the new Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II is a definite match in terms of size, design, and aesthetic to those lenses. This also allowed them to keep the price at a more moderate level at $1799 USD, which will almost certainly result in higher sales. But the market is also pretty saturated at the 85mm focal length on Sony E-mount, so will the 85GM II (as we’ll call it for brevity here) be able to stand out amongst the competing lenses at lower price points? We’ll do our best to explore that amongst other things in our review today. You can watch the video review below or just keep reading.
Thanks to Sony USA for sending me a review loaner 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.
The original Sony 85mm GM (standing for Gold Master, Sony’s premium line of lenses), was released very early on in Sony’s mirrorless journey (early 2016), and while it was a very good lens (I reviewed it in 2019 here), it definitely showed some clear flaws even when compared to the competition of the day. Autofocus in particular showed some lack of refinement and was outclassed in my tests by the much less expensive Sony FE 85mm F1.8. After 8 1/2 years it was clearly time for an update, and Sony has returned with a smaller, lighter, faster, and optically superior lens.
The big challenge is going to be the competition. Samyang has released a MK II version of their 85mm F1.4 lens (my review here), and an even more direct competitor now exists in Sigma’s 85mm F1.4 DN (my review here). There are also a number of 85mm F1.8 options, many of which are very good. I purchased the Sigma years ago and value its strong performance, and because I have it on hand, I will do some direct comparisons to that lens.
So has Sony done enough with the 85GM II to set it apart from the competition? We’ll do our best to unravel that mystery in our review.
Build and Handling
Clearly one of Sony’s priorities was to reduce the size and weight from the original GM lens. Sony has been very successful in this regard in recent years largely because they have had some optical design breakthroughs (the ability to craft certain glass elements that were previously impossible) and by also reducing the size of the focus motors and making them more efficient in design. Sony is touting the fact that the new 85GM II is 20% lighter than the previous generation lens and 13% smaller. That’s obviously a significant size reduction. The overall dimensions of the 85GM II are 84.7 x 107.3mm, or 3.3 x 4.2”. The weight is 642g (22.7oz), which is a full 180g less than the first generation lens.
This is still a little heavier (though only by 17g) and longer (by about 11mm) than the Sigma DN, though now this previous Sigma advantage is significantly reduced. Neither of these differences is big enough to be a deterrent for potential buyers, as the lenses are roughly the same size and weight.
The filter threads up front remain 77mm, which is typically the standard size for many 85mm F1.4 lenses.
Sony’s GM lenses have always been feature rich, though their recent standard has added a couple of new features that are present here and were missing on the previous lens. A lot of the GM features are designed around aperture control in an attempt to make lenses useful for both photo and video capture. There is an aperture ring that gives you the option of having clicks at one third aperture stops, with full stops marked on the aperture ring.
You can also choose a declick option from a switch on the right side of the lens, and this will allow you to smoothly move through the aperture without any preset stops. This is most useful for doing aperture racks during video.
What’s new here is the inclusion of an “Iris Lock” switch that will allow you to either lock into or out of the manual aperture ring. Some people prefer using the aperture ring and don’t want to mistakenly go past F16 (minimum aperture) and into the “Auto” position. This might be most common when doing aperture racks. Other people don’t particularly like using an aperture ring, and the iris lock can assure that they don’t get inadvertently bumped into the manual aperture ring.
Moving a little further up the barrel and you’ll find an AF | MF switch along with two Focus Hold/Function buttons whose function can be defined in camera. One button is on the left side of the barrel, and the other on top to allow a button to be close to hand whether shooting in landscape or portrait orientation.
The aperture iris itself has eleven rounded blades, ensuring that specular highlights remain rounded when the aperture is closed down.
The manual focus ring does have a linear response (focus distances will be repeatable), though I find the damping on the ring itself to be too light. There isn’t a lot of feel during manual focus, and thus it doesn’t feel like a true manual focus emulation to me.
·The 85GM II has a thorough weather sealing including rear gasket, internal seals on all seams, buttons, and switches, and a fluorine coating on the front.
The minimum focus distance = 85cm (AF) or 80cm (MF), and the maximum magnification is just 0.12x, which is on the low side of average for an 85mm lens (and is tied with the Sigma)
I already own the Sony 35mm and 50mm F1.4 GM lenses, and the new 85GM II feels like a very natural extension of that series in terms of size, features, and handling.
Autofocus and Video
One of the greatest areas of weakness for the original 85mm F1.4 GM lens was its autofocus. I wasn’t covering Sony when it was released in 2016, but I did do a big six way comparison in 2019 where I compared six auto focusing 85mm E-mount options, including the GM, Sony 85mm F1.8, Sigma 85mm F1.4 ART (the big one), Samyang AF 85mm F1.4, Zeiss Batis 85mm F1.8, and Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8. The GM lens surprised me due to its rather rough autofocus performance. The focus motor didn’t feel particularly refined or fast. It turns out that this was because it had a carryover SSM focus motor, a DSLR era focus motor technology. But Sony has really upped their game since that point, and now we have a radically different focus situation.
The new focus system employs two XD Linear motors, and Sony reports that these are the largest, most powerful XD focus motors every. This results in focus speed that is up to 3x faster than the original GM lens and with subject tracking that is nearly 7x more effective. Focus has been optimized for the 120FPS burst rate of the a9III, which means that this is the rare large aperture prime lens that sports ready.
I shot in a wide variety of situations, and found that I had plenty of focus speed regardless of what I was shooting. I could track these ducks flying over a pond without issue, for example:
If we punch into one of those shots (all shot at F1.4, by the way), we can see that each frame is perfectly focused despite the fast moving subject and complex background.
I shot exclusively with the lens at a 50th wedding anniversary celebration for friends, and I had flawless results in mixed indoor lighting
I shot a photo of a caterpillar walking on concrete, and even when shooting at F1.4 you can see the great detail and focus accuracy when viewing at high magnification.
Sony wants to be sure that their whole G Master lineup is ready to capture action, and the 85GM II joins the ranks of fast and accurately focusing premium lenses. We’re a long way from the Canon EF 85mm F1.2L II that was extremely “leisurely” in focus speed; how quickly we forget what the standard was like in the not very distant past. Autofocus for stills is vastly improved here in every way over the first generation GM lens. I was actually able to acquire bees in flight and focus on them, and if you know how quickly they are moving, and how small they are, that’s truly mind blowing.
Sony also recognizes that the modern mirrorless camera market is a hybrid one. It is just as important that lenses be able to function well in a video environment. I found that the 85GM II was a stable and effective video companion. Focus pulls were confident, smooth, and well damped.
I also found that my hand test (where I alternatively block the camera’s view of my face with my hand and then move it out of the way) went well, with smooth transitions to and from my hand.
Focus breathing is well controlled for a longer focal length. I also found that real world transitions from one subject to another were well damped. They are fairly quick, but not abrupt. They have a reasonably cinematic feel to them, and the low focus breathing helps those transitions to not feel jarring.
Video footage, as you would expect, is very sharp and detailed. I’ve been secretly using the lens to film my YouTube videos over the past month, and it has been perfectly reliable in filming in those situations.
Autofocus is a huge area of improvement here, and it is safe to say that this is the best focusing 85mm lens that I’ve ever used. Even Canon’s current premium RF 85mm F1.2L feels pretty rough in comparison.
Image Quality Breakdown
The original Sony 85mm F1.4 GM had an optical design of 11 elements in 8 groups, with one XA (Sony’s special eXtreme Aspherical element) and three ED (Extra low Dispersion) elements. The new 85GM II has a more complex optical design with 14 elements in 11 groups. There is a new XA element (bringing the total to two) and two ED elements in the design.
This is a very high resolution lens, producing highly detailed images that hold up even at high levels of magnification. I shot primarily on a 61MP a7RV body, and this lens had zero problems resolving that level of resolution…even at F1.4:
As you might expect, Sony had worked hard to correct for the typical aberrations and optical flaws, though hopefully without also eliminating all the character of the lens. Here’s a look at how the lens handles vignette and distortion.
Distortion is one clear area of advantage versus the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN, which suffers from a surprisingly severe amount of pincushion distortion (a -11 to correct). The 85GM II needed only a -3 to correct a tiny amount of pincushion distortion, and for portraits it would probably be more flattering to leave it uncorrected.
Vignette is also fairly well managed, needing only a +30 to correct. That’s just around one stop, which as you can see from the original is so minimal as to not really need correction either.
I also found that longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) were well controlled, with very little color fringing before or after the plane of focus.
This combined with high levels of resolution and contrast allow for fine textures to really pop in images even at F1.4:
The same was true of lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) that show up near the edges of the frame in transition zones. I see a clean transition from black to white near the edge of the frame here.
So far so good. How about resolution? I’m using a 61MP Sony a7RV here and will show results at or near 200% magnification levels. Here’s a look at the test chart that the crops will come from:
And here at the F1.4 crops from the center, mid-frame, and bottom right corner.
You can see very consistent sharpness from the center out to the very edge of the frame.
As soon as I saw that the USPS was releasing a set of Ansel Adams commemorative stamps, I knew that I needed to get them for my test charts. They are both small and have good print quality (of timeless images), so I thought they would make a nice addition to my test chart. If I choose one of the stamps near the center of the frame and compare to the far left side (the right side is represented in the crops above), we can see that other than a bit less contrast, the resolution level looks pretty similar between the two extremes.
Stopping down to F2 introduces even more sharpness and contrast. You can see that the resolution in the mid-frame is just exceptionally good.
Real world images show awesome detail.
Even when shooting a difficult landscape scene at F1.4 on 61MP you can see that the lens is capable of producing incredible levels of detail. You can see tiny golf carts at various places in the crop of this shot.
Landscape images are just as detailed as you would expect at apertures of F4-F8. Here’s a lovely shot at F5.6:
Resolution is never going to be problem here. It is basically flawless from F1.4 on.
Diffraction on a high resolution body will typically begin by F8 and becomes slightly more apparent by F11. After F11, however, diffraction becomes much more noticeable, with the effects of diffraction being very obvious by the minimum aperture of F16.
The challenge for highly corrected lenses with high contrast is to not lose the character of the lens due to overcorrection. Often the lenses with the most “magical” rendering are not perfectly corrected and retain a few flaws. There are, however, rare exceptions to this rule. Some lenses manage to find the sweet spot between high contrast and beautiful rendering. The 85GM II does fairly well in this regard, but I would say that the overall rendering is more technically excellent than artistic.
This image felt like there was nicer bokeh than some others, as it handled the foreground bokeh quite well.
But it was rare that I found the bokeh just purely creamy. I felt like there was often a little more outlining than what I would like.
So I would say that background bokeh is good:
…but foreground bokeh is nicer than average.
I would say that this is still an area where I would slightly favor the Sigma DN, however, as I feel like the bokeh is just a little softer.
Often large aperture lenses struggle with flare, but the 85GM II is not one of them. It handled direct shots into the sun without issue. The F1.4 image (first in series) is overexposed (because F1.4 in direct sunlight doesn’t work too well!), but you can see an absence of ghosting or veiling issues in the series.
In general, the most egregious thing I can come up with optically is that I don’t always find the rendering as “magical” as some 85mm lenses I’ve tested, but that’s probably still stretching things. And a lens that is this sharp at F1.4 is probably going to endear itself to a LOT of people.
The Sony FE 85mm F1.4 G Master II lens has been long anticipated. It is replacing the oldest G Master prime lens in the lineup, a lens that was under serious threat from many new competitors along the way. And while the 85GM II is a lens improved in every way, I think that Sony might have missed an opportunity to create a standout lens by swinging for the fences with an F1.2 lens. There are some really solid 85mm lenses optically available for far less, with both the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 II and the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DN ART being the standouts. The Sigma, in particular, isn’t really much behind in performance or features, but happens to cost a good $600+ less. And while there once was a time when certain photographers were a little “snobbish” towards third party brands like Sigma, I think that Sigma has largely overcome that. That makes the $1800 USD price tag of the new GM lens a bit of a harder sell, no matter how good it is.
In fact, there is only one clear area that I think the GM II lens distinguishes itself, and that is in terms of autofocus. Much like the Samyang AF 135mm F1.8 vs the Sony 135mm F1.8 GM, when the subject is still, there’s not a lot of advantage to the Sony over the third party lens. But when a subject is in motion, the high end autofocus system of the 85GM II (or the 135GM) means that you are going to get a lot more keepers. Take a look at this shot, literally taken with the camera held low while trying to scuttle backwards away from a cat who wouldn’t stay still long enough for me to get in place.
But look at that focus, and thus the resulting detail that perhaps exceeds what other lenses could achieve even if the target were standing still.
And that is the main thing that sets the Sony 85GM II apart. If you want to be able to capture amazing images on the edges (fast moving subjects, low light, etc…), then the Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II might just be worth the extra money. And for those who own the original GM, the new lens is smaller, lighter, faster, sharper, and better corrected. If you can get good value for your original GM, it is probably well worth the upgrade. For everyone else, the choice is more convoluted, because in all of the history of photography, no one has ever been more spoiled for choice than Sony E-mount shooters.
Keywords: 85mm F1.4 GM II, Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II, 85 GM II, GM, II, F1.4, 85mm, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
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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 or by reading on…
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.
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.
Build and Handling
When 7artisans introduced the 50mm F1.8, the most common question was centered around the size of the lens, namely, “why is it so big?” The 85mm is very slightly smaller, though it is actually a bit heavier due to the larger glass elements in this focal length. The 85mm measures 72mm (2.83″) in diameter and 96mm (3.77″) in length, or about 8mm shorter than the 50mm. It weighs 421g (14.85oz). The front filter threads are the same relatively uncommon 62mm size as the 50mm, though I do applaud keeping a consistent filter size between these lenses. It encourages people to buy multiple lenses with the idea that they can share filters across them.
The most obvious competitor is the Viltrox AF 85mm F1.8 STM II, which I reviewed back in 2020. That lens was also very good optically, though it has fewer features and yet still weighs about 60g more. That, combined with the age of the Viltrox, might make the 7artisans lens a more compelling buy in 2024.
The lens barrel is made of metal, and it has a nice, anodized black satin finish. The lens design is very clean and elegant.
The lens hood is improved from what I saw on the 50mm F1.8. I complained that the finish of the plastic hood didn’t quite match the finish of the lens’ barrel (the hood was more matte, while the lens’ barrel was satin). The 85mm’s hood is a better match, and the look of the lens is more cohesive now. I also feel like the precision of the bayoneting and locking is improved. 7artisans is starting to nail the little details, which is a sign of maturation.
The 50mm F1.8 had an AF | MF switch and an aperture ring, and the 7artisans 85mm adds a function button as well.
I also felt like the action of the AF | MF switch was improved. There’s a more definite “click” into the selected mode, and the switch doesn’t feel like it can be inadvertently bumped out of position anymore.
The new function button is well placed and clicks with nice precision. It doesn’t feel rubbery or unresponsive at all.
Also included is a declicked aperture ring, though this is one area where some of the quirks from the 50mm F1.8 unfortunately remain. The aperture iris is fairly noisy as you change aperture settings, so this is something that still needs refining. The aperture ring shows the one third stop markings, which is great, but it shows a full three one-third stops between F1.8 and F2, which is a bit odd since F2 is only one third stop past F1.8. There are also one third stop markings from F16 to A, though F16 is actually the minimum aperture. It’s not a real issue, but there shouldn’t be any markings there.
These feel like easy things to clean up, and I hope 7artisans does before their next release.
The aperture iris itself is lovely, with 11 rounded blades that create a nice, circular aperture.
Fortunately one excellent trait carried over from the 50mm to the 85mm lens. The manual focus ring is nice and wide and is made of metal with fine ribbing. The damping is firm and the focus simulation is excellent (mirrorless lenses are “focus-by-wire”, where input from the focus ring passes through the focus motor). It feels like a real manual focus experience. The damping is firm but feels very precise. The action and feel reminds me a lot of the Sony Zeiss Planar 50mm F1.4, which is a good thing. It takes about 600° of rotation (two full wrist rotations) to get from minimum to infinity focus.
The feel of the lens and focus action is premium; there’s nothing cheap about this action!
7Artisans has adopted the important standard of building in a USB-C port to the lens mount that will allow for future firmware updates. The firmware update process is very similar to that on Viltrox lenses and isn’t complicated at all.
What is missing from that lens mount is any weather sealing gasket. This is not a weather sealed lens.
The minimum focus distance is 80cm, which is the same as Sony’s own 85mm F1.8. I estimate the maximum magnification figure to be roughly 0.13x, which looks like this:
That’s about middle of the pack for 85mm lenses, and better than many. While the magnification level isn’t high, the ability to strongly blur out the background is there due to having a longer focal length and relatively fast maximum aperture.
At first glance, the 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 feels very similar to the AF 50mm F1.8, but after spending some time with the lens, I can appreciate that the attention to detail has improved here. The feeling of the switch, the better execution of the lens hood, and the inclusion of a function button allow the 7artisans 85mm to compete fairly directly with the Sony FE 85mm F1.8 with the exception of not having weather sealing. This is a pretty impressive package for the money.
Autofocus and Video
The 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 features the ubiquitous STM motor that you are most likely to find in lenses under $500 that are designed for mirrorless. This motor feels relatively smooth and quiet. I can faintly hear a little scratching and whirring during focus if I listen closely. Focus smoothness and general accuracy is all good.
Focus speed is about average for an STM focus motor, which is to say quick but noticeably slower than a top notch linear focus motor.
A few of the AF problems from the 50mm have been solved, though a significant one persists.
You are able to focus on a moving object and nail precise focus…for one shot.
But if the subject is moving towards you, the autofocus motor simply doesn’t keep up with even slow movement. Focus seems to stick on the original point of focus and doesn’t continuously autofocus. In this burst of Nala, focus is impeccable in the first frame (though she was already in motion), but focus doesn’t seem to change from that first focus point in the burst (I’ve selected a few other from the sequence).
This is clearly not a lens to purchase if you intend to capture action in bursts.
Fortunately a secondary issue has been solved. With the 50mm F1.8, I observed a quirk where a burst of photos with a still subject (a posed human, for example) would experience focus drift as the focus moved away from the subject throughout the burst. That is no longer the case, as I had my wife shoot a burst of photos of me, and even when critically evaluating focus at 100%, it remains accurate throughout the burst.
You see that focus is indeed very accurate on the iris rather than the eyelash, brow, or something else.
I had excellent focus accuracy across a series of shots detailing a friend’s wedding. I had good results both during their civil ceremony and with posed photos afterward, which I shot exclusively with this lens.
So autofocus for stills works just fine so long as you aren’t trying to capture action in bursts. If you don’t want to do that, you probably need to look elsewhere. Focus precision for non action shots was excellent.
On the video front I found mostly good results. Focus pulls were smooth and quick in the initial transition, with no visible steps. I didn’t see any pulsing or settling like I did with the 50mm. Focus breathing is fairly strong, however.
The 7artisans 85mm did well with my “hand test” however, where I alternately block the view to my face with my hand and then remove it. Focus transitioned nicely from my hand to my face with good precision.
In summation, I see some clear areas of improvement in autofocus. Focus is pretty much excellent outside of bursts during action sequences.
7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8 Image Quality Breakdown
The 7Artisans AF 50mm F1.8 has an optical design of 10 elements in 7 groups, and this includes some ED (low dispersion) and HRI (high refractive index) elements. Like the AF 50mm F1.8, this is a very impressive optical instrument for the money.
This is a sharp lens all across the frame even at F1.8, and I was immediately impressed by the real world performance. Here’s a real world shot at F2, and you can see that the detail is strong right across the frame (shot on a 50MP Sony Alpha 1). Note also my shot…which almost rolled in for a hole-in-one!
This is a lens that shows a very nice mix of sharpness and bokeh, and provides images that look much more expensive than the price tag of the lens.
We’ll break down the performance on a more technical level. One area where the 85mm trumps the 50mm is when it comes to longitudinal chromatic aberrations, or LoCA. Fringing on my test chart is extremely low.
But real world results were also nice and neutral, and I never really saw any issues with fringing.
There’s a bit more of lateral chromatic aberrations that are visible in the transitions from black to white at the edges of the frame.
Both distortion and vignette are well controlled on the 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8.
I corrected a tiny amount pincushion distortion (-2 to correct) and just a hair over one stop of vignette (+35). Both of these were mild enough that I didn’t notice them in real world shots. Interestingly, those two figures are EXACTLY the same as I recorded with the 50mm.
That’s a very strong start optically!
So how about resolution and contrast? My tests have been done on a 61MP Sony a7RV. Here’s the test chart:
Here are F1.8 crops at roughly 180% from across the frame (center, mid-frame, and lower right corner).
That’s a great performance at F1.8, and when I looked back over the last six 85mm lenses I’ve reviewed on Sony E-mount, I found that only the Sigma 85mm F1.4 ART (which costs 3.5x as much) was sharper, though the 7artisans is actually better in the corners than the Sigma. The Viltrox lens is close, but the only cheaper option (Meike 85mm F1.8) looks absolutely terrible by comparison. Very impressive!
There is only a minor improvement to contrast at F2, but there is a more obvious improvement from F2 to F2.8.
Landscape apertures (F4-8) look great. There’s plenty of information there to deeply crop on a high resolution camera.
But real world contrast and detail is high enough at F1.8 already that you probably can just use stopping down to control depth of field rather than for a need for more sharpness.
Diffraction will start to soften the image after F8, with a mild amount at F11 but a more obvious amount by F16:
Despite having excellent sharpness, the 7artisans 85mm manages to deliver really gorgeous bokeh as well.
A shot of the early morning dew shows some geometric deformation, but the look of it is pretty pleasing to me.
Look at how softly blurred the background is on this shot of unripe blackberries.
Colors were also good for such an inexpensive lens. Images just look great, period.
I did notice a bit of flashing with the sun right out of the frame.
Shooting into the sun in the evening went fine, however, with nothing destructive.
Nothing too extreme to me, however. I didn’t particularly notice anything obvious about flare issues during ordinary use, so I’m not not too concerned.
In general, I just thought images looked great for this kind of price tag.
This is a very impressive optical performance in general. I don’t think I’ve ever used a 7artisans lens that compares to this lens optically. If you’d like to see more image samples, check out the image gallery here.
Conclusion
7artisans has only been making autofocus lenses for about four months, but I already see a tremendous amount of growth in their products. I felt like the AF 50mm F1.8 STM was a solid lens with real strengths, but it also had a few rough edges. The 7artisans AF 85mm F1.8 STM shows definite refinements in areas like build, autofocus, and even the optical performance. This is a LOT of lens for just $299!
Even autofocus is fairly good here, though focus speed isn’t top tier and obvious the ability to capture moving action is limited. Still, for most people the autofocus will provide everything that they need (just don’t buy this lens to take photos of toddlers or young children who are constantly on the move!)
Yes, there are already a number of 85mm options available for Sony E-mount, but I can safely say that none are providing this level of performance at this kind of price. I already own a premium 85mm lens, personally, but, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t mind using this lens myself. It’s that good.
Pros:
Nice looking lens with nice build
Includes aperture ring, function button, and AF/MF switch
USB-C port for firmware updates
Good manual focus ring and experience
High aperture blade count
Autofocus motor is quiet and accurate
Excellent sharpness wide open
Very low vignette and distortion
Good control of fringing
Nice bokeh
Good colors
Excellent price to performance ratio
Cons:
No weather sealing
Aperture makes some lot of noise while opening and closing
Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 85mm, AF, 85mm, F1.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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.
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.
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.
Keywords: 7Artisans, 7Artisans 85mm, AF, 85mm, F1.8, STM, 7Artisans AF 85mm F1.8, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7RV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, let the light in, weathersealing, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
I’ve previously spent time reviewing 5 different 7Artisans lenses, most all of them relatively inexpensive manual-everything lenses designed for APS-C and smaller sensors. But recently the company reached out to me and asked about the possibility of my reviewing a very different kind of lens from them – the higher end Spectrum line-up of full frame Cinema lenses. At the moment these come in three varieties – a 35mm T2.0, a 50mm T2.0 (being reviewed today), and an 85mm T2.0. Each of these is available in Sony E (which I’m reviewing on), Canon RF, Lumix (or Leica) L, and Nikon Z. I first reviewed the 50mm T2.0 and liked it well enough to review another in the series, which, in this case, is what I’ll call the Spectrum 85 for brevity.
I typically focus on lenses built designed primarily for stills photography, as I am a photographer first and essentially dabble in cinematography. Cameras are increasingly designed as hybrid devices for which video is nearly as important as photos. Cine lenses tend to be extremely expensive, however, often costing thousands of dollars. Companies like 7Artisans have a chance to fill a gap for either amateurs or lower-budget professionals who cannot afford to spend tens of thousands on their equipment. The Spectrum lenses effectively fill that gap with lenses that range from $379 to $459 USD – this 85mm lens being the high end of the lineup.
This will certainly be an interesting option for those on a tight budget, but is the lens worth using? Find out the full picture in my video review below or by reading the text review that follows.
Thanks to 7Artisans for sending me a review sample of the 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 a7IV along with the Sony Alpha 1 which will serve as my benchmark camera for the foreseeable future (my review here).
7Artisans Spectrum 85 Build and Handling
Cine lenses have different priorities than stills lenses, and one of the main ones is uniformity. They are designed to be “geared” or used with focus follow equipment, and that equipment has to attach to the focus and aperture rings. That means that A) those rings need to have a specific design where the teeth of the gearing equipment will line up with the ridges in the rings and B) they need to have a uniform diameter and distance between them so that you can switch lenses without having to change all the settings on your equipment. As you can see from this promotional photo, all three of the Spectrum lenses are designed to be precisely “swappable”.
All three lenses are precisely 89.6mm in diameter, though the length of the lenses vary. The Spectrum 85 we are testing here is 106.8mm in length and weighs in at 832g. You’ll note the weight is fairly heavy due the lens having a very high grade of construction where everything is metal and glass. All three lenses have a front filter size of 82mm, which is large but standard. There are plenty of filter options in this size, and 7Artisans actually will package a number of them with the lens, from Circular Polarizers to Neutral Density filters and a few unique filters like a Black Mist filter or White Soft filter that will change the look of footage like this. Here’s a screen shot from the standard footage:
Contrast that with the Black Mist Filter.
Here’s the same shot contrasted with the White Soft Filter:
There are 10 aperture blades in the iris of the Spectrum 85, which makes for a very circular shape even when the aperture is stopped down. The aperture range is T2-T16 and is of the “declicked” variety so that you can do aperture racking.
Cine lenses are not measured by the size of their physical aperture (reported in F-stops) but rather by their light transmission (measured in T-stops). Typically the T-stop value is lower than the physical aperture size due to some loss of light through the glass elements in the lens. Often an F1.4 lens will have a T-stop value of T1.5 or T1.6, though some lenses with poorer light transmission will have even a larger variation between the two measurements. It is very rare that a lens has an identical F-stop and T-stop value. These being cine lenses, the maximum F-stop is not mentioned, though I suspect that it would probably be somewhere around F1.8. The Spectrum 85 is fairly bright, and can deliver nicely shallow depth of field shots.
Mechanically the two most important components on a cine lens are the focus ring and the aperture ring. Most cine lenses are manual focus in order to give the cinematographer full control over what is in focus and how quickly focus transitions happen. The focus throw here is very long (270°) to allow for precision, but it does mean that making major “run and gun” focus changes manually could be tough. Gearing is going to work best, though I get better handheld results by using something like this “FocusShifter” that I’ve used for years to allow me to rotate the ring without the limitations of my wrist’s rotations.
The focus ring moves with perfect smoothness and damping, though the aperture ring is a little stiffer than what I would like – the Spectrum 50mm was better. In general, though the rings are a joy to use, and, as noted already, they are deeply ribbed to accept gearing. Focus throws are easy to control and there is little to no focus breathing.
The minimum focus distance of the Spectrum 85 is 79cm, so the resulting magnification level isn’t exceptional. Here’s a look at what MFD looks like:
There are a variety of locations on the lens where a threaded hole awaits the use of included screws to use in conjunction with a stabilizer. My 7Artisans rep told me that these are used infrequently.
The front lens cap slips over the front assembly of the lens and isn’t too deep (fortunately), so it isn’t difficult to store.
There are no electronics in the lens and no weather sealing, though frankly you’re already getting a LOT of lens for this price ($459 USD).
Overall I’m quite impressed with the build quality – it is high quality metals and feels very pro-grade, which is surprising considering the price point. I’ll also note that these are very attractive lenses. They lookexpensive…even if they aren’t.
7Artisans Spectrum 85 Image Quality
The Spectrum 85 has an optical formula with 9 elements in 8 groups. I found the lens to be very sharp wide open in the center of the frame, fairly good in the mid-frame, and somewhat soft in the corners.
You can find more details in my video review, as my review is more focused on video performance than stills performance, but I will explore a bit of the optical performance briefly here.
7Artisans has worked to control distortion and vignette reasonably well here, with some very, very minor pincushion distortion (-3 to correct) and a moderate amount of vignette (+58 to correct, or slightly over two stops).
Longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA) typically show up as purple/magenta fringing before the plane of focus and blue/green fringing beyond the plane of focus due to colors not being perfectly focused together. They typically diminish as the lens is stopped down to smaller apertures. I saw only minimal fringing in my footage.
This real world image with out of focus bokeh highlights shows little damage from chromatic aberrations.
Lateral chromatic aberrations (LaCA) show up as fringing on either side of contrast areas (like tree trunks, for example) along the edges of the frame. Unlike LoCA, they do not improve when stopping the aperture down, but are much easier to correct for (typically a one click “remove chromatic aberrations” box in editing software). There’s very little LaCA to be seen here:
So how about sharpness? We’ll do our formal test on the full frame (35mm) image circle that the lens is designed for, using the 50MP Sony Alpha 1 for this series of tests. Here’s a look at the test chart:
And here are the T2.0 crops at nearly 200% magnification, taken from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:
I see a very good center result, still very good mid-frame result, but softer corners.
My real world results focused in more typical spots look great, with good detail and contrast:
The midframe started to sharpen nicely by F2.8, but the corners weren’t sharp until F8.
I liked the quality of the bokeh much better with the Spectrum 85 than what I did with the Spectrum 50.
Colors seems pretty good, and I particularly like what I can get when shooting in SLOG and then grading. Here’s a frame from a graded shot of Nala, which looks great:
The Spectrum 85 has minimal veiling issues, but overall flare resistance was quite good. Here the bright reflected sun has not destroyed contrast at all.
In general, however, I do like the look of footage from the Spectrum 85 and think that is provides very good value for a cine lens at this price point.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I’m fairly impressed with the 7Artisans Spectrum 85mm T2.0 cine lens. Everything from the packaging to the build quality to even the image quality suggests a more expensive lens than what the $379 USD price tag projects. The lens is functionally excellent, and 7Artisans has done their homework in designing a series of lenses that can be quickly swapped by cinematographers.
The image quality is quite good and I’m much more partial to the bokeh quality here than on the Spectrum 50mm.
Those that are interested in filmmaking or cinema lenses but have a tight budget will surely find the Spectrum series from 7Artisans of interest. This Spectrum 85mm T2.0 is well made, nicely performing, and, perhaps most importantly, affordable.
Pros:
Very nice build quality
Shared design elements for hot swapping
Well damped focus ring
Excellent price
Little focus breathing
Good resolution and contrast over most of the frame
Good flare resistance
Nice bokeh
Cons:
Corners lag a bit behind the center unless focused on
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Keywords: 7Artisans, Spectrum, 7Artisans Spectrum Review, 7Artisans Spectrum 85mm, 50mm, 35mm, 85mm, T2.0. T2, Spectrum 85 review, Cine, Cinematography, Cinematic, Full Frame, Review, Sony Alpha 1, Sony a7IV, Review, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a9, Sony a7IV, Sony Alpha 1, Sony A1, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA
DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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