Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II Review

Introduction

Ease of Use

Weighing in at 642g, the Mark II version of the FE 85mm weighs a substantial 20% less than the original (820g), despite almost exactly the same length, thanks to a more modern hybrid metal and engineered plastic-body.

Along with a 13% reduction in overall volume thanks to a slimmer design, this makes it feel much better balanced on the A7S III camera that we tested it with, even with the large lens hood fitted that’s supplied as standard in the box.

The main third-party rivals of this lens include the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG DN Art, Samyang AF 85mm f/1.4 FE, and the Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG HSM. There’s also the slower Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 and the older Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM to consider.

The Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM II has a sealed dust and moisture resistant design that should withstand rain showers, but you’ll need to protect it in more inclement weather.

This lens does not feature built-in Optical SteadyShot image stabilisation, instead relying on the in-body stabilisation system that the majority of Sony camera bodies have.

The wide, ridged manual focus ring and the brand new aperture ring are the two main external controls of note. 

Manual focusing is possible via the textured focus ring at the end of the lens when it’s activated using the AF/MF switch on the side of the lens barrel.

There are no hard stops at either end of the focusing range, making it a little more difficult to set focus at infinity. Polariser users should be pleased that the 77mm filter thread doesn’t rotate on focus.

The lens utilizes two XD linear motors for fast, quiet quiet and smooth focusing, making it well-suited to shooting both stills and video, especially as focus breathing is suppressed both optically and in-camera.

When it comes to auto-focusing, it proved to be an almost silent, very quick performer on the Sony A7S III camera that we tested it with.

We didn’t experience very much “hunting” at all, either in good or bad light, with the lens accurately focusing almost all of the time.

Sony claims that this lens offers up to 3x faster auto-focus speed and up to 7x faster subject tracking than the original version, while the linear response AF is almost equivalent to mechanical manual focusing.

Sony’s near flawless Eye AF also works perfectly with this lens, quickly locking onto and tracking the subject’s eye, ideal for a portrait lens.

This lens features an aperture ring that has 1/3EV stops ranging from f/1.4 to f/16 and an Auto setting.

The Click switch on the bottom-right of the lens barrel lets you select whether the aperture ring clicks into place at each aperture stop or rotates smoothly for silent operation during movie recording.

Using the Iris Lock switch on the lens barrel, it can also be locked to either the Auto or F2.8-F22 settings to prevent accidental movement of the aperture ring.

The lens has two customisable focus hold buttons which keep the lens locked to the current focusing distance, useful if you’re auto-focusing and don’t want the lens to try and find focus again. It can also, amongst other options, be usefully set to Eye AF.

The Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II has a metal lens mount and it accepts 77mm filters via plastic threads.

It is commendably supplied with both a soft case and an improved, good quality plastic circular-shaped lens hood (ALC-SH180) that now locks into place and has an integrated release button. There’s no case included with this lens.

Focal Range

The 85mm focal length provides an angle of view of 29 degrees.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, were not very apparent in our test shots, only appearing in very high contrast areas.

Vignetting

With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/1.4, there is some obvious light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at least 2 f-stops to prevent it.

Distortion

There’s virtually no pin-cushion distortion evident either in the RAW files or the JPG files.

Macro

The Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM offers a minimum focusing distance of 80cm when manual focusing and 85cm when auto-focusing, with a maximum magnification of 0.12x.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

In the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM lens, Sony employed an iris diaphragm with 11 rounded blades, which has resulted in very appealing bokeh indeed.

We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we’ve included several examples for your perusal.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp the Sony FE 85mm F1.4 GM II lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.