Introduction

The Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM is my favorite portrait lens out of the almost 300 lenses I have used so far. Being one of the first GM lenses, it features a comparably slow autofocus and some of the recent competitors offer higher contrast and resolution at f/1.4, so Sony decided to update this lens. Does it still have the bokeh qualities of the first generation 85mm 1.4 while making it smaller and sharper? Let’s find out in this review.

Sample Images

You can find many of the sample images in full resolution here.

Specifications / Version History

There have been two 85mm 1.4 GM E-mount lenses from Sony so far, on paper their main differences are their weight and a more complex optical design of the MK II version:

• Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM
  825g, 11/8 design, 2016-2023
• Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II
  640g, 14/11 design, 2024-

This is the review of the updated Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II, its full specifications are:

• • Diameter: 85 mm
  • Field of view: 29° (diagonally)
  • Length: 107 mm
  • Weight: 640g (without hood [59g], without caps)
  • Filter Diameter: 77 mm
  • Number of Aperture Blades: 11 (rounded)
  • Elements/Groups: 14/11
    
  • Close Focusing Distance: 0.80 m
  • Maximum Magnification: 1:8.0 (measured)
  • Mount: Sony E

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Disclosure

This Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II was kindly provided by our reader Olaf Leismann for review purposes. Thanks a lot!

Handling/Build quality

The rubberized focus ring has decent damping and as is typical for recent Sony lenses the coupling is linear, so it doesn’t matter how fast you turn the focus ring, it always takes 180° from the minimum focus distance of 0.8 m to infinity.
When you turn your camera off the lens will remember the last focus position and will still be there when you turn the camera on again.

The aperture ring has 1/3 of a stop click stops (which you can declick by using a lever on the lens).
You can also set the ring to “A”(utomatic) and let the camera choose the aperture value or use the camera dial to change the aperture value when it is set to “A”.
Compared to the first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM the click stops are more distinct, especially the “A” setting.

On the left side of the lens there is a programmable button and an AF-MF switch. The first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM only features a lens button on the side, here you can also find one on the top.

The outer casing seems to be made from a high quality polycarbonate and all markings are engraved and filled with paint.

Another difference is the addition of an “iris lock” swith on the right side of the lens which can be used to lock the aperture ring.

The hood looks exactly the same as that of the predecessor, but it is slightly different, so they are not interchangeable. It has a rubberized front bumper and felt on the inside to counteract stray light. Furthermore there is also a button which you have to press to remove the hood.

This MK II version is a bit thinner and also 185g lighter compare to the first generation. Quite the engineering achievement on paper, but it didn’t feel like a big difference in the field to me.

This lens also works surprisingly well adapted to Nikon Z cameras via the Megadap ETZ21pro adapter as shown above.

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.

The AF is definitely much faster than that of the first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM though.

Vignetting

light falloff

No surprises here, the vignetting figures are almost exactly the same as those of the predecessor. Actualy pretty much all the modern 85mm 1.4 perform the same here, only the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN shows about half a stop more vignetting in the corners stopped down.

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 shoot both lenses side by side and with a test target it was ensured that the focus distance is indeed identical. Therefore the sizes of the circles are directly comparable.

I was very curious how the MK II compares to the first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM in this category, especially as the new lens is smaller than the old one.

First thing we see is that the MK I has a higher f/Stop – at least at the 1.5 m distance I had a look at here – leading to about 5% bigger circles at f/1.4.

The amount of optical vignetting of the MK II version is also slightly higher, especially in the midframe area. Stopped down to f/2.0 the MK I version already creates a circle whereas the MK II’s highlights are still truncated.

I kinda expected this, the new MK II version does a bit worse in this category. The differences are smaller than I had anticipated though and for most people probably not relevant.

Sharpness

MTF-Graphs

We see some interesting things here. The obvious one is, that this new MK II version shows higher contrast and higher resolution at f/1.4 – which kinda was to be expected. Interestingly the MK II’s resolution does not peak in the center though. Stopped down to f/8.0 the new lens is also supposed to show a better performance, but that difference looks hardly field relevant to me.

These MTF graphs were measured for infinity, so in the field and shooting at different distances a noticeable variation may be visible.

Focus Shift

Because this is an AF lens and at wider apertures the modern Sony bodies focus at working aperture anyway it would hardly matter if there was any focus shift, but I still checked and I am happy to report I didn’t find any.

infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)

Midzone and corner are slightly softer at f/1.4, latest by f/2.0 we see an amazing across frame performance.

The original Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM was softer at f/1.4 with a bit of residual spherical aberration (“glow”). From f/2.0 the differences might be measurable, but they are hardly field relevant.

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

While the original Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM was noticeably softer at f/1.4 compared to f/2.0, there is hardly a difference anymore with this Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II. It is so well corrected, already at f/1.4 we can see Moiré everywhere in the frame.

close (0.8 m, 1:8.0, 42mp Sony A7rII)

At the minimum focus distance this MK II is a bit softer at f/1.4 and here stopping down to f/2.0 actually makes a difference.

Similar to the situation in the two previous sections the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM is softer at f/1.4, but from f/2.0 there is hardly a difference.

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.

None of the fast tele lenses I tried fared particularly well in this category. I guess with the big glass elements this is just something that cannot be achieved.

As is typical we see a loss of contrast in backlit scenes and also some faint ghosts at f/1.4.

Stopped down to f/11 those ghosts become a bit more noticeable.

When it comes to veiling flare this MK II version seems to show an improvement over the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM, but ghosting stopped down is more pronounced. From what I have seen in my direct comparisons, I prefer the lower amount of veiling flare of the MK II version here.

Coma

We only see small artefacts at f/1.4 and by f/2.0 hardly any Coma is left. This is about a one stop improvement over the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM MK I.

Distortion

The Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II only shows a very low amount of pincushion distortion. There was no Lightroom profile available when I reviewed this lens, so I dialed in -2 to correct the distortion. The lens has since been included though. The Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM MK I showed a similarly low amount of distortion.

Bokeh

None of Sony’s GM primes disappoints in this category and I don’t expect this one to. Let’s check what things look like at different distances as usual and then answer the actual question: how does it compare to the original Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM?

Close distance

At close distances this Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II renders a beautiful bokeh, as we would expect from a lens with these parameters. These samples also illustrate that there are barely any issues with bokeh fringing.

Mid distance

The lens performs exactly as you would expect a modern 85mm 1.4 to. creating a clean, smooth and unobtrusive background bokeh, even in complex situations.

Long distance

At longer focus distances where many lenses start to struggle this Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II still looks very good to me.

But the question is: does it look as good as the original Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM? Let’s find out in the next section.

Compared to: Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM MK I

A comparison to the first generation of the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM is obviously inevitable. Soon I found out, that the new lens is noticeably wider than the old one, therefore you will always find the uncropped and the cropped version of the GM II’s pictures. The camera used for these comparisons was the Sony A7III.

Scene 1: Forest 4.0 m

Scene 2: Forest 4.7 m

Scene 3: Forest 4.5 m

Scene 4: Forest 4.8 m

Scene 5: Forest 3.7 m

Scene 6: City Lights 2.3 m

Scene 7: City Lights 5.3 m

Scene 8: City Lights 4.7 m

Observations

There are some things to talk about here, let’s start with the obvious ones.

In all the scenes the MK II clearly shows higher contrast, going by what we have seen in the sharpness section this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise though. When having a look at the focal point 100% crops we also see that the MK II reveals way more details, especially at longer distances.

In scene 6 (and also 7) the point light source led to veiling flare with the MK I, whereas there are no such issues in the MK II’s picture to be found.

After getting those things out of the way, let’s talk about the actual bokeh differences.

Generally, the differences are not huge, to most people these lenses will look the same. When looking more closely, the old MK I creates a smoother bokeh with less harsh transitions though. In scenes 6 and 7 we can also see that the MK I indeed has less optical vignetting. Both these things do not come as a surprise to me, they are the price to be paid for a sharper yet smaller lens.

I was wondering if I am alone with that opinion, so on our Discord Server I also conducted a blind test: a picture of the same scene taken with the Samyang 85mm 1.2 XP, the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM and this Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II. Most people preferred the look from the Samyang, the original GM followed not far behind and only a low percentage of people preferred the look from this latest GM II. Go figure…

Sunstars

As most of the recent GM primes also this Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II features 11 rounded aperture blades. With that configuration you will only rarely see distinct sunstars, between f/11 and f/16 they do look nice (meaning equidistant spacing between and same length of the rays) and unobstrusive though. If you want to learn more about this topic have a look at this article.

Chromatic aberration

lateral

Lateral CA are already corrected by the built in lens correction profile in most raw converters, so in the end: you won’t see any.

longitudinal

• background f/1.4
• f/2.0
• foreground f/1.4
• f/2.0

• 
• 
• 
• 

Sony A7rII | Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II | 100% crops

I can’t say that the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM MK I had a severe problem with bokeh fringing, but you still see some notable color aberrations in the out of focus areas in high contrast and backlit scenes. This new MK II version definitely shows an improvement here though with near APO performance. 

Also purple fringing is pretty much non existent.

Conclusion

good excellent sharpness from f/1.4 under any condition bokeh (mostly) Coma correction CA correction low distortion build quality/handling fast AF size/weight

average flare resistance vignetting

not good

If you were looking forward to this improved MK II version because you weren’t happy with the lower contrast at f/1.4 or the slow AF or the weight – especially compared to the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN – of the first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM, you can get your credit card out now and buy this new version, as your prayers have been answered. This new lens has better contrast, better resolution, corrects most aberrations better and all that while being 20% lighter than the previous version.

Only 10 years before this Sony 85mm 1.4 GM II was released, Zeiss made us believe for this level of performance you need a Zeiss Otus 85mm 1.4, which is almost double as heavy, manual focus only and features a ridiculous 86mm filter thread. How far we have come in such a short time – of course also thanks to mirrorless cameras offering new possibilities to lens designers.

There is no free lunch though, and the price for these improvements to pay is, that the bokeh rendering is different. And for me personally, different is not better here. For me, an 85mm 1.4 lens is a portrait lens. I don’t care about record breaking contrast and resolution, heck, I even find it counterproductive, as it gives me more work in post. I care about the bokeh rendering. And in my direct comparisons, I prefered the MK I’s bokeh, simple as that. The MK II’s faster AF might be helpful if I was shooting sports with an 85mm 1.4 lens, but I am not and I cannot think of even one time I missed a portrait shot because of the MK I’s slower AF.

So personally, I am not buying this Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II and will keep using my first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM. That switch would cost me around 1.4 grand though, and if money was no object, I might have second thoughts because of the MK II’s better handling of veiling flare.

If you are a fan of the Sony 35mm 1.4 GM or the Sony FE 135mm 1.8 GM you will feel right at home with this updated 85mm 1.4 GM II, so if you were hoping for an update bringing the 85mm 1.4 GM up to their standard, Sony definitely delivered.

buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $1.798

Sample Images

You can find many of the sample images in full resolution here.

Further Reading

• Guide to 85-135mm portrait lenses for Sony FE cameras
• The best lenses for Brenizer/Bokehpanoramas
• Review: Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G
• Review: Laowa 35mm 0.95 – The World’s fastest 35mm lens
• Review: Nikon AF 85mm 1.4D

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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.

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