Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM Lens

I am appalled by reading the first handful of reviews on this lens -- a product that I labored over pre-ordering having used and loved the Zeiss Batis 85mm. At the end of the day, I've tried every one of Sony's best lenses and found that in aggregate, my favorite images come out of the 90mm G-Macro (that is prior to owning this lens). Even when compared to the Batis, with the trademark Zeiss warmth, micro-contrast and spiraling background bokeh -- the colors, sharpness, detail and overall beauty was better on the 90mm Sony. Understanding the technology that went into this lens and the trust in Sony visual products above all else, I took a chance and I've never been happier with any camera product than with this lens. The bokeh/sharpness juxtaposition is outstanding. With minimal effort, you can get OOC images that are spectacular. Overall, easily better than the Batis. For the first three reviewers on this page, go buy the Zeiss Batis 85mm. It's built to be an autofocus lens. Literally it has fewer features than any of my owned Sony lenses and is really really easy to get great OOC portraits or other shots from. The problem -- it's focal distance is pretty far from the subject and while the autofocus is lightning quick (though IMO not meaningfully quicker than this lens, which adds to the puzzling read of the previous reviews) it's prone to over emphasizing one element because of the speed and focal distance concerns -- meaning you'd have to bump the aperture up to 2.8 or whatever you think you can point-and-shoot if that's your goal. Realistically though, why are you getting a $1200 autofocus Zeiss lens? If you want a camera that takes effortless pictures without you doing anything then why even on a Sony a7rII or sII that would even be able to stand with a lens like this? Sony's products are for perfectionists, they allow for total control, have the best full-frame sensors in the world (Canon and Nikon flagship pro cameras use Sony sensors...) and now their glass is better than anything I've ever seen. If you want total control, thoughtful innovation (click-aperture ring is not only amazing but also dead silent in video post processing...) and products from a company that designs the most important visual elements for the world's most recognizable companies then you are crazy not to be using Sony's a7r/sII and these lenses. If you want something to shoot a soccer game or have some colorful 1080 video without having to think or be artistic about it -- listen to these first three reviews. If you care about your images and are obsessive about quality and detail, you will feel like this lens (and probably the other two G-master's though I haven't used them) was custom made for you. To support, here's a casual shot I took leaving a studio earlier today -- simply holding the camera and liked the backdrop. If you can get image quality like this effortlessly, what else do you need?

This is a great lens and I am sure that it will be on my camera more than my other lenses, although this is not a perfect lens. The image quality produced by this lens similar to Rokinon 85mmF1.4 and Nikon 85mF1.4G. May be it is sharper with more contrast at F1.4. However, this lens is still behind my Zeiss 135mmF1.8ZA which creates more "pop" photos due to higher micro contrast, and specialized Zeiss color, IMO. I've been happy with Rokinon 85mmF1.4. This lens does not make me happier or makes me say WOW. It just gives me little more convenience in some cases due to its auto focus capability. +SonyFE85mmF1.4 focuses fast than Ronikon (sure). +It also focuses faster and more accurate than Zeiss 135mmF1.8ZA ( with LAE4). During focusing, it also makes less noise than the Zeiss135mm. +It is not quiet or silent like Nikon85mmF1.4G, and it has about the same focus speed. +The confirmation beep from A7 is louder than the noise this lens makes during focusing. But yes, the focus noise is absolutely present. Only deaf photographer does not hear it and say this is lens is quiet when it focuses. When composing a photo, I pay more attention to the composition, focus point, light direction, etc rather than intentionally listening/detecting the noise coming from the lens. Moreover, the focus noise is not up to the level that really distracts or bothers me. If I take photos at wedding, specially in the church, I can always set the lens to manual focus mode and I will not miss anything. The image quality it produces truly made me keep the lens! The focus noise is not strong enough to convince me to give up this piece of art glass. The marketing department from Sony did not do a good job because the product does not make many of its costumer satisfied due to the focus noise, specially when they paid $1.8K for the lens. I believe if there is another similar version with better motor, quiet focus, with a few more hundred dollars, people will pay for that rather than this noisy product. Sony, please focus on the product quality first. I hope the reputation of this lens is more positive, but seems like it isnt. For those photographers who are interested in 85mmF1.4, I recommend to get this lens, relax and shoot. Forgive the focus noise, you will be happier when looking at the photos this lens produced. Good luck!

First, let's get the controversial "noise" and "slow autofocus" issues out of the way. Yes, the lens is louder than many other lenses, but for its size and weight and the amount of glass it contains, the noise the motor makes is kind of normal. When shooting videos, the autofocus is a lot quieter than in still image mode, because video autofocus has to be slower as to not be jarring when watching the video. And yes, the autofocus is slower than many other lenses, but again, this is because it has a lot of heavy glass to move, and 85mm lenses with fast apertures and very high quality glass has always been a bit slower to autofocus--that's just the limitations of the technology and physics. With those two issues out the way, I'll say that this is one of the best lenses I've ever owned, and I've owned/own three camera systems (Canon, Micro Four Thirds, and Sony), and have owned/own some of the best and most legendary lenses for each of those systems. The FE 85mm f/1.4 GM is very sharp even wide open at f/1.4, and it nails the autofocus perfectly, no matter what lighting condition. I use the Eye-AF of the A7RII all the time (I mainly shoot people), and this lens nails the focus on the closest eye of the subject almost every time. It's not the kind of lens you should use if you need lightening fast autofocus such as when shooting sports or wild life, but for posed portraits, more relaxed candids, landscape, architecture, still life, products, etc., it's just fine. One of the main selling points of this lens is the bokeh, and yes, it is gorgeous -- creamy, smooth, no "onion rings" or "cat's eye" bokeh balls. There's also flatter mico-contrast in the blurred areas that makes it even smoother than lenses that tend to render blurred areas with stronger mico-contrast (such as the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8). Also, this lens doesn't "swirl" the blurred background like other lenses sometimes do. I used to think my FE 55mm f/1.8 was really sharp wide-open, but this lens is even sharper wide-open! The detail, color rendering, and overall aesthetics are all excellent. The percentage of keepers I get with this lens really impressed me. But keep in mind that if you shoot wide-open, the depth-of-field is very thin, so if you or the subject just moves a little, your focus will be off, so you have to be extra vigilant when using this lens. The size and weight doesn't bother me at all, since my past experience with professional DSLR bodies and professional grade lenses have made me very used to large and heavy lenses, and this lens is nowhere near the heaviest lens I've used. With that said, I am deducting one star because this lens was advertised as being able to shoot videos very well and has a click-less toggle aperture ring design that's aimed at video shooters, yet if you try to shoot videos with this lens, you WILL record the autofocus noise, even if it's fairly faint--it's still audible. The only way you will get rid of the autofocus noise during recording is if you use an external mic, and in my opinion, that should be not a requirement, since there are plenty of other lenses that focus silently during video even when not using an external mic. Some people say that the type of folks who'd buy this lens will be more serious about shooting professional grade video, so they'll be using external mics by default, but that is not a good excuse. I happen to not be shooting mission critical videos -- I'm shooting casual home videos with it (mounted on an a7RII), so I have no need for external mic. But luckily I almost never shoot home videos with a longer lens and always use wide-angle lenses. My go-to lens for shooting video with the a7RII is the FE 28mm f/2, since it's tiny and very light, so it works perfectly with the Pilotfly H1+ 3-axis electronic gimbal stabilizer. a7RII + FE 28mm f/2 + Pilotfly H1+ is a match made in heaven, and the prefect rig for run & gun video shooting. This is a fairly expensive lens, and for me it was worth it, but I'm one of those people who do shoot it wide-open most of the time, so that f/1.4 was the main reason I bought this lens. If you don't really need f/1.4 or the click-less aperture ring, don't need round bokeh balls, and don't mind the ocassional "swirling" blurred background, you might want to save some money and get the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 instead -- it is also an excellent lens.

This is an expensive specialty lens. It is relatively heavier, has a faster aperture, a slower AF, and is more expensive than the Batis 85. This is not a "travel" lens. It is a great lens for portraits. The images are superb, with great perspective and image isolation. You may want to shoot in Aperture priority and set the minimum shutter speed to say 1/125 sec or higher. At wide apertures, the focus plane is so small, only one eye may be in sharp focus. Using eye focus, it is possible to capture a moving toddler indoors and the hit rate is understandably low. AF Speed: AF speed is relative. Someone's too slow AF is someone's fast enough AF. Here are test results comparing AF focus between the FE 55 and the GM 85, A7Rii, Firmware 3.2 indoors AF-S, AF-Wide, pre focus off, from 15 feet to 4 feet, in seconds: Ap. 85GM 55FE F1.4 .58 (3) <.3 F2.8 .63 (3) < .3 F4 .67 (3) < .3 F8 .69 (3) .44 (3) F11 .86 (3) .51 (3) F16 1.12 (3) .62 (3) The 85 GM focuses stopped down. The FE55 focuses near wide open. The data show that the FE55 AF is much faster at F11 and F16. I am unable to easily reproduce data in AF-C mode on moving subjects. AF Noise: There is some AF noise in my copy. An "N" of 1. Nothing that I find objectionable. Although the manual focus is focus by wire, I do not hear any focus motor noise in manual focus mode. Early models using early firmware may have had more AF noise. If your model makes AF noise with Firmware 3.2 in manual focus mode, I would return it. I have posted a clip shot in video mode with fast focus changes here: [...] The lens hood is an improvement over the FE55 as it has a press lock. I try to travel light with only a single lens. On the A7Rii my travel choice is the FE 35 2,8. If I wanted an 35/85 two lens travel kit, I would avoid this lens as it is too heavy.

One of the sharpest lenses I've ever shot with, and I've used quite a few. There is not much left to be said that other reviews haven't pointed out. In decent light, the lens focuses very quickly. In lower light, there is some hunting but not so much that it would ruin a majority of spontaneous shots. The auto focus is louder than the G Master 24-70 but it uses a different drive motor and the glass elements are substantially thicker (more weight) by comparison. Look online for the "G Master 85mm emergency tear down". A lens repair site tested 40 copies of this lens and tore down several. All of them exhibited near identical autofocus noise and the "scrapings" inside the barrel many are claiming to see weren't scrapings at all- they were lubricant streaks from the massive moving parts behind/around the sliding lens element and they have absolutely zero impact on image quality. In the teardown, you see the internal central moving glass elements are surrounded by a plastic and elastic material that would make it it impossible for the central lens element to scratch the metal- try scratching an aluminum plate with a bouncy-ball. Won't do it. I use this lens on my a7r2's and I have been in love with it. If you film video with the G Master 85mm, the autofocus motors slow down and make about 80% less noise. The internal microphones do pick up a little autofocus noise during video but an external shotgun mic mounted in the top hot shoe does not pick it up- who records video projects with the internal mic if audio is important? That's a non issue for me. Overall, a crazy sharp lens that is louder than the other G Master lens that I own (24-70 - if your ear is against the lens you can barely hear a hum, dead silent) but not near as bad as many lens owners are making it out to be. It uses a different focus motor technology than the 24-70, despite them both being classified as SSM- the lens tear down mentioned above also goes over Sony's written responses to inquiries about the autofocus noise and they explain why it's louder. My bet is that many people that are complaining about this lens' autofocus noise have very little lens experience - probably having used fewer than 5-6 lenses to compare this one to. I still have a Canon F1.2 prime that I actively use that is easily 2-3x louder. The autofocus of my G Master 85mm (I have 2) is audible to about 2-3 feet from the lens- audible, not loud. This lens is handily in my top 3 sharpest of all time and over the years I've probably used 300 lenses in every camera ecosystem imaginable. Highly recommended lens- don't let the complainers scare you off.

Great for portraits this is a flag ship Sony gmaster series. Pricing but this native lens is worth it. The quality is unmatched. IMO.

I own the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8, so wasn't sure this was a necessary addition. I also heard some complaints about the autofocus noise. But after seeing some amazing sample images, I decided to give it a try. As with the Sony 24-70 f/2.8 GM lens, image quality of the 85mm GM is incredible. Amazingly sharp and beautiful rendering. Two questions that can come up: 1. Is the autofocus noise a problem? In my opinion, no, absolutely not. Based on some other comments, I was expecting something loud and distracting. You can hear it, but it just sounds like a somewhat-louder-than-average autofocus system. I don't think it would have ever occurred to me to be concerned about it. 2. How does it compare to the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8? In overall quality, the two are very close. Both produce exceptionally beautiful images. The Batis is smaller and the autofocus is whisper silent. The colors on the Batis are more bluish, but that's easily adjusted in editing. It has image stabilization, but that's not as critical on Sony cameras as the body itself is stabilized. It's also $600 less than the GM. You will not be disappointed with the Batis. That said, the Sony 85mm GM is the choice if you want the absolute best prime the system has to offer. I've been in a lot of situations where the extra light from an f/1.4 lens makes a difference. The aperture ring is really nice. The GM has 11 aperture blades instead of 9 on the Batis, which makes for nicer out-of-focus effects. For portraits, I prefer the warmer colors before editing. And to my eye, it is sharper than the Batis. Cannot recommend this lens highly enough. It's a reason to own a Sony a7 series camera.

Ok so first off, I’ve been shooting with a canon t2i and 85mm1.8 lens for 6 years. I just upgraded to the a7iii a few months ago and wanted a new 85mm lens for it so I ordered this one. When it arrived, it was a lot bigger and a lot heavier than I expected it to be. But once I started using it....this thing blew my mind! It’s incredibly sharp, the bokeh is buttery smooth, and the overall image quality is amazing on this lens! When i autofocus, I do hear a little noise coming from the lens but I only notice it when I’m in a super quiet environment (like my bedroom or something) but once I’m out in the real world (on location or in studio), the noise becomes non existent. The noise only sounds loud because it’s close to your ears when you’re holding the camera to your eye, but people around you won’t even notice it, trust me. So if you’re looking for an 85mm lens, and you don’t mind it being big and heavy with a little focus noise, and the price, I’d recommend this one! It’s worth the money!