Introduction

During their EX era Sigma released two f/1.4 primes, the Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX HSM and this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX HSM. The 50mm is a lens that can still be interesting today due to its good sharpness, appealing bokeh and very low price. Will the same hold true for this 85mm lens as well? Let’s find out in this review.

Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.

Specifications

The F-mount version of the Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX DG HSM has the following specifications:

• • Diameter: 86 mm
  • Field of view: 28.6° (diagonally)
  • Length: 86 mm
  • Weight: 722g (without hood [48g], without caps)
  • Filter Diameter: 77 mm
  • Number of Aperture Blades: 9 (rounded)
  • Elements/Groups: 11/8
    
  • Close Focusing Distance: 0.85 m
  • Maximum Magnification: 1:7.9 (measured)
  • Released: 2010
  • Mount: Nikon F, Canon EF, Sigma SA, Sony A, Pentax K

buy from ebay.com | ebay.de (advertisement/affiliate links) starting at $300

Handling/Build quality

If you already read my review of the Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX: all that has written there applies here as well.

There is a mechanical coupling between focus ring and helicoid and it takes exactly 90° from the minimum focus distance (0.85 m) to infinity. Considering this is an AF lens the resistance is actually quite nice. An AF/MF-switch can also be found on the lens.

For a short time Sigma included “lens hood extenders” offering additional protection for APS-C users. Already the normal lens hood doesn’t feel particularly nice and adding that flimsy extension doesn’t make it any better.

The dimensions of this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX DG HSM are very typical for an 85mm 1.4 lens from the (D)SLR era.

AF performance

I am not shooting sports or fast moving animals/humans so if you want to know if the lens is fast enough for this, or how it compares to other lenses in this segment, you may have to look for a different review with a more detailed assessment of this aspect.

Generally the AF worked well, was reasonably fast and snappy. It worked flawlessly via the Nikon FTZ II on my Nikon Zf and on my Nikon F80. On the Sony cameras it also worked with the Monster LA-FE2, but not the LA-FE1 for some strange reason.

Vignetting

light falloff

This Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX actualy shows a little less vignetting than the other 85mm 1.4 lenses I reviewed. Not a difference big enough to get excited about, but I take it.

It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.

optical vignetting

Fast lenses usually show a noticeable amount of optical vignetting. Without going too much into technical details optical vignetting leads to the truncation of light circles towards the borders of the frame.
In the center of the frame almost every lens will render a perfect circle, but only lenses with very low optical vignetting will keep this shape in the corners.
So in the following comparison we move from the center (left) to the extreme corner (right) and see how the shape of the light circle changes.

I did not shoot these lenses side by side, therefore the sizes of the circles are not directly comparable.

I included many other 85mm 1.4 lenses for comparison here and we can see this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX shows a very typical performance, especially compared to the two Nikon (D)SLR lenses.

This Sigma was actually one of the first 85mm 1.4 lenses to feature an aspherical element, luckily I don’t see any obvious onion rings here though.

Sharpness

Focus Shift

This Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX did not show any noteworthy focus shift in my tests. It also performs quite well at these closer distances – unlike the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G.

infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)

In the center of the frame this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX is not as soft at f/1.4 as the Nikon AF 85mm 1.4 D and it also seems to have a little less issues with color aberrations. Also similar to the Nikon AF 85mm 1.4 D the corners never look amazing. Peak across frame performance is probably reached at f/11. 

Modern high performance lenses like the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II or the Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro look better at f/1.4 than this older Sigma lens at any aperture value.

portrait distance (2.0 m, 42mp Sony A7rII)

For portraiture it isn’t so important how flat the field is, it is more interesting to see what the sharpness is like when focused at different parts of the frame to take field curvature out of the equation.

This is what I did here, I refocused for every shot and aperture to get the best possible result at different locations in the frame (center, inner midframe and outer midframe).
Focus distance was roughly 2.0 m and the circle of the dollar bill is more or less the size of a human eye.

f/1.4 <————> f/2.0

We can easily see that at portrait distances this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX is a bit softer at f/1.4 – very similar to the Nikon AF 85mm 1.4 D. In the outer midframe area this Sigma looks better when stopped down to f/2.0 though. The Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G is already less soft at f/1.4, whereas also here the better modern lenses like the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II or the Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro look better at f/1.4 than this Sigma at any aperture setting.

close (0.85 m, 1:7.9, 42mp Sony A7rII)

At its minimum focus distance this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX shows a decent performance and similar to many other 85mm 1.4 lenses. What is interesting: it performs noticeably better here than the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G.

Flare resistance

As always evaluating flare is a complex matter since you can get any lens to look bad if you push it hard enough and a slight change of scenario can affect results a lot.

Fast tele lenses have rarely performed well in this category and this being an older design I do not have particularly high hopes for it, but maybe we will be positively surprised?

At f/1.4 we see a general loss of contrast with the sun in the frame and some bigger ghosts. Not great, but also not terrible.

Stopped down to f/11 the situation is significantly worse. We can see all kinds of artefacts: ghosts all over the frame and a lot of veiling flare on top of that. Still a bit better than the Nikon AF 85mm 1.4 D.

To put things into perspective, best have a look at my review of the Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro to see how well a modern lens can perform in this category.

Coma

Unlike Nikon’s AF 85mm 1.4 D and AF-S 85mm 1.4G this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX features an aspherical and an ED element, so I was hoping it would also perform better, but that isn’t really the case. In terms of Coma these three lenses look similar, but the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4 G looks generally much better in the corners. Among the modern mirrorless 85mm 1.4 designs we can find lenses like the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II and the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN which hardly show any Coma – even at f/1.4.

Distortion

This Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX DG HSM is practically free from distortion.

Bokeh

Regular readers already know: when it comes to fast short tele lenses this is the category that is most important to me, so let’s check how this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX performs at different distances.

Close distance

It is hard to make an 85mm 1.4 lens look bad in these kind of scenarios, in the last sample above we can already see that the backgrounds don’t look as smooth as we are known to from many other lenses with these specifications though.

Mid distance

Resolution and contrast are good at mid distances and the in focus subjects well defined. Complex backgrounds are not rendered particularly smooth: the ouf of focus circles have clearly defined edges turning them into a busy mess that distracts from the actual subject. If you pay attention to your backgrounds (like in the samples with the rabbit or the goose) you can also create appealing backgrounds with this lens of course. 

Long distance

As is often the case: long focus distances are where things get interesting. And here interesting sure doesn’t mean good. Especially in the last sample above the corners look pretty awful to me, I actually haven’t seen this messy corners from another 85mm 1.4 lens yet.

You can of course take nice portrait pictures with this lens when you get the chance to pick your backgrounds carefully, but this is not a lens I would want to shoot a wedding with, as its bokeh rendering is too unpredictable and sometimes simply not nice to my eyes.

Sunstars

Same as the Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX, also this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX has 9 rounded aperture blades which are not perfecly aligned – as is often the case with Sigma lenses from that era – therefore the sunstars are not well defined. If you want to learn more about this topic have a look at this article.

Chromatic aberration

lateral

We see a low to medium amount of lateral CA which are easily corrected by just one click in a decent Raw converter.

I said it at the beginning: I have a soft spot for the Sigma 50mm 1.4 EX, but this Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX didn’t exactly knock it out of the park for me. I do mainly use lenses with these specifications for portraiture and here the bokeh quality is very important to me. Sadly this 85mm 1.4 EX leaves something to be desired in this regard, creating surprisingly busy and unappealing bokeh for an 85mm 1.4 lens – at leasat to my eyes.

Compared to Nikon’s 85mm 1.4 lenses of that era this Sigma lens features a more complex design, but despite this it doesn’t really improve on them in terms CA and Coma correction and the flare resistance ain’t great either.

This Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX is one of the more affordable 85mm 1.4 lenses out there, but my recommendation would be to either save a bit more and get one of the better mirrorless lenses (see alternatives section) if possible or if you are on a tight budget and definitely need an F-mount lens to have a closer look at the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G instead.

buy from ebay.com | ebay.de (advertisement/affiliate links) starting at $300

Sample Images

Most of the sample images in this review can be found in full resolution here.

Further Reading

• Guide to 85-135mm portrait lenses for Sony FE cameras
• Review: Sony FE 16mm 1.8 G
• Review: Sigma 35mm 1.2 DG DN Art
• Review: Sigma 105mm 1.4 DG Art
• Review: Sigma 135mm 1.4 DG DN Art

Support Us

Did you find this article useful or just liked reading it? Treat us to a coffee!
via Paypal

This site contains advertisement/affiliate links. If you make a purchase using any of the links marked as advertisement/affiliate links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. This helps support the creation of future content.

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

BastianK

My name is Bastian and I am your expert here when it comes to ultra wide angle lenses, super fast portrait lenses (ranging from a 50mm f/0.95 to a 200mm f/1.8) and I also have reviewed way too many 35mm lenses. Don't ask me anything about macro or wildlife shooting though.

Latest posts by BastianK (see all)

• Review: Sigma 85mm 1.4 EX DG HSM - July 22, 2026
• Review: Mandler 35mm 2.0 7e - July 18, 2026
• Review: Viltrox AF 26mm 2.8 Evo FE - July 15, 2026