Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 Review

Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 Performance

Sharpness is amazing, and well up to anything we could expect from a classy 85mm lens. At the centre, results are already excellent wide open at f/1.8. Also excellent at f/2.8, the lens pushes into being outstanding from f/4 to f/8. It is still excellent at f/11 and f/16, reducing slightly but very good at f/22.

The edges give the centre a run for its money, being excellent from f/1.8 through to f/11. It is still very good at f/16 and only drops at f/22 where edge sharpness is fairly soft.

Clearly, sharpness is up there with the best and the simpler optical design has involved no obvious compromises at all.

CA (Chromatic Aberration) is very well controlled at the centre of the field but is visible at the edges. For many subjects, this is hardly noticeable, but if necessary it can, of course, be handled in software.

Flare is perhaps the Achilles heel of the lens. Shooting into the light, contrast falls off dramatically and quite easily. There are no particular signs of internal reflections or image artefacts, but certainly, against the light, we lose the quality and the image becomes hazy.

The lack of distortion is amazing, with the drawing of the lens being virtually perfect. If we are being ultra picky, then distortion can be measured at 0.01% pincushion, but this is as near to zero as makes no difference. Architectural photographers will be well served indeed.

Bokeh is the quality of the out of focus areas in an image. Portraits, flower studies, any subject where a sharp object can be enhanced by a smooth out of focus background. All of these areas are well served as the lens performs so well, with a gorgeously smooth bokeh.

There is no Steady Shot employed within the lens as this is catered for in the latest Sony camera bodies. With this lens and the Sony Alpha A7R II body only a couple of stops advantage seems reliable and predictable. 85mm is a fairly modest telephoto, so most of the review did not use Steady Shot, but did use a tripod where appropriate.

Value For Money

Most of the 85mm lenses on the market are f/1.4 designs, which are big, heavy and expensive. Sony has produced here a much lower cost option, the FE 85mm f/1.8 being priced at £599. By comparison, the Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 costs £909.

If we look at what the DSLR users have available, there are few 85mm f/1.8 designs. Canon offers the Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM (£339), Nikon the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G (£430) and Tamron the SP 85mm f/1.8 Di VC USD with image stabilisation (£749).

The new Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 looks good value against most of these, especially when we consider the excellence of its performance.

For more options have a look at the Best Sony E / FE Mount Lenses, or have a look at the Top 27 Best Portrait Lenses.

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