Introduction

Released in 2019, the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 AF was one of Viltrox’ first fullframe lenses and has been an easy recommendation to anyone looking for an affordable 85mm 1.8 AF lens with great bokeh since. Six years later, in 2025, Viltrox released this Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro aimed at the higher end market. Will it also be an easy recommendation like the f/1.8 version? Let’s find out in this review!
Update June 17th, 2025: Bokeh comparison to Sirui 85mm 1.4 Aurora and Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM added

Sample Images

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

Specifications

This Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro has the following specifications:

• • Diameter: 84 mm
  • Field of view: 28° (diagonally)
  • Length: 106 mm
  • Weight: 792g (without hood [56g], without caps)
  • Filter Diameter: 77 mm
  • Number of Aperture Blades: 11 (rounded)
  • Elements/Groups: 15/11
    
  • Close Focusing Distance: 0.80 m
  • Maximum Magnification: 1:7.5 (measured)
  • Mount: Sony E

buy from manufacturer’s shop (use the code “BK85145OFF” for 5% discount) | amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $598

Disclosure

The Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro was kindly provided free of charge by Viltrox for reviewing purpose prior to release.

Handling/Build quality

Released in mid 2023 the Viltrox AF 75mm 1.2 E Pro was the first lens of Viltrox’ “Pro” lineup, while this Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro released in 2025 is the first fullframe lens of the series. In terms of handling these lenses are very similar: they feature a dedicated de-clickable aperture ring similar in style and function to Sony’s GM and later G lenses, an AF/MF switch and a lens button.

The aperture ring has 1/3 of a stop click stops – which you can declick by using a lever on the right side of the lens.
You can also set the ring to “A”(utomatic) and let the camera choose the aperture value or to be able to use the camera dial to change the aperture value instead of using the aperture ring.

The focus ring has decent damping and a linear coupling. No matter how fast you turn the focus ring it always takes ~270° from the minimum focus distance (0.8 m) to infinity.
The lens does feature a focus-by-wire system and compared to the Viltrox 75mm 1.2 Pro for APS-C it has been improved as it feels very natural now.
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.

As is the case for many modern AF lenses the focus group moves freely when without power, so when shaking the lens you will notice that focus group moving around. This is normal. Don’t annoy your dealer with complaints that “there is something moving in the lens”.

Unlike the lenses of Viltrox’ LAB series the lenses of the Pro series do not feature a display. Personally I don’t find that display particularly useful and I also prefer the aperture ring design of the Pro series as it always shows you what aperture is set right now without having to look at that display. It also allows to preset the desired aperture when the camera is not turned on yet, which can save crucial time in the heat of the moment.

A plasticky bayonet style lens hood is also part of the package. Compared to the lens’ casing it feels a bit cheap though.

This Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 AF Pro is about the same size as Sony’s second generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 MK II, but about 150g heavier, so its weight is closer to the first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM.

On the Nikon Zf I also tried it with three different E->Z adapters, the Megadap ETZ21, the Neewer ETZ and Viltrox own E to Z. At the time of this review none of them worked properly. Lens or adapter firmwares can of course change that in the future.

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. Compared to Sony’s own 85mm 1.4 lenses, I tend to say it is closer to the GM MK II than the original GM.

Vignetting

light falloff

No surprises here, the vignetting figures are very typical for a modern 85mm 1.4 lens designed for mirrorless cameras and almost identical to the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II and its 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 not shoot these lenses side by side, therefore the sizes of the circles are not directly comparable.

This Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro shows a similar amount of optical vignetting as the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II and a little more than the original Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM.

Comparing the optical vignetting at f/2.0 I have the feeling the f/2.0 aperture stop is not very well calibrated here, as the Viltrox’ circles are much bigger at f/2.0 than those of both the Sony lenses.

All these lenses feature at least one aspherical element but their polishig is really good as I don’t see any onion ring structures here.

Sharpness

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)

The Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro shows a very good performance in this category. In a direct comparison the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II looks even better in the corners at f/1.4, but I have some doubts if that is actually a field relevant difference.

Stopped down to f/2.8 we start seeing Moiré patterns even in the extreme corners.

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

Also here this Viltrox’ performance at f/1.4 sits inbetween the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II and the older Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM. The latest Sony shows Moirè everywhere in the frame from f/1.4, this Viltrox has a slightly softer rendering.

For portrait applications I actually prefer the Viltrox’ (or Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM’s) slightly softer rendering, but depending on your personal preferences and applications you may come to a different conclusion here.

close (0.8 m, 1:7.5, 42mp Sony A7rII)

At the minimum focus distance this Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro is a bit softer at f/1.4. This performance is more in line with the first Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM, the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II shows at least a one stop improvement.

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. I guess with the big glass elements this is just something that cannot easily be achieved.

At f/1.4 we can only see some minor veiling flare here.

Stopped down to f/11 I only managed to create a small ghost and some veiling flare with the sun in a very specific just outside of the frame, which is the case for most lenses and which can easily avoided by minimal reframing.

Already the Viltrox AF 35mm 1.2 FE LAB surprised me in this category and so does this Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro. This is one of the best performances I have seen from a fast tele lens in this category – noticeably better than the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II – and I wasn’t even using the hood here.

Coma

We can see some Coma artefacts at f/1.4 and still a very small amount at f/2.0. For typical portrait applications this hardly matters, but if you are looking for a fast 85mm lens to be used for astro photography at wider apertures the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II and the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN are better options.

Distortion

The Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro 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 Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II shows an extremely similarly distortion pattern.

Bokeh

I can’t say I have come across an 85mm 1.4 lens with actually bad bokeh rendering, but as usual let’s check how this lens performs at different distances.

Close distance

At close distances this Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro renders really nice bokeh, as we would expect from a lens with these parameters.

Mid distance

At mid distances I liked this lens’ bokeh rendering the most. It also looks quite similar to the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II to me, creating a clean, smooth and unobtrusive background bokeh, even in complex situations.

Long distance

Also at long distances this Viltrox reminds me a lot of the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II. It lacks the softness and the lower amount of cat’s eyes of the first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM, but it also has a bit higher contrast.

But let’s be honest here, the differences between all these modern 85mm 1.4 are pretty small. If you don’t manage to take nice portraits with any of them, it certainly ain’t the lens’ fault.

Compared to: Sirui AF 85mm 1.4 FE and Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM MK I

The Sirui is the widest of these three lenses and the Viltrox the longest, so the Sirui’s and Sony’s pictures have been cropped slightly.

Scene 1: Forest Close

Scene 2: Forest Mid

Scene 3: Forest Mid 

Scene 4: Forest Far

Scene 5: Forest Far

Scene 6: Forest Far

Observations

What can we learn from these comparisons?

As we have already seen in previous comparisons, the first generation Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM has some issues with veiling flare reducing the contrast. This is most obvious in Scene 4, where the light seems to have come from a rather unfortunate angle. When looking at the bokeh crops it does render the smoothest though, obliterating more structures than the others.

The Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro has the highest contrast and resolution out of these lenses. When it comes to bokeh it is my least favorite here though, looking less smooth than the others.

The Sirus 85mm 1.4 Aurora, at close distances shows even less optical vignetting than the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM and is almost as sharp and contrasty as the Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro. Quite impressive for being the smallest lens in this comparison. It is also the widest of these three and has been cropped a bit, putting it at a disadvantage here.

Don’t try to read too much into these tiny differences. To most people these lenses will look just the same and I wouldn’t mind shooting a wedding with either of these.

Sunstars

As most of the recent GM primes also this Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro features 11 rounded aperture blades. With that configuration you will only rarely see distinct sunstars, between f/11 and f/16 they do look rather nice (meaning equidistant spacing between and same length of the rays) and unobstrusive though – again very similar to the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II. 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.

Looking at these affordable 85mm 1.4 lenses, I cannot help but notice what a great time it is to be a photographer, as just a decade ago you had to pay three times as much for actually worse performance.

This Viltrox AF 85mm 1.4 FE Pro shows a performance which in many categories is on par with the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM II. The Sony shows even higher resolution at f/1.4 and it corrects Coma a bit better, but I really wonder who will notice those differences in typical portrait applications. I have severe doubts that I would be able to – even in a direct side-by-side comparison. And in the important flare resistance category this Viltrox even outperforms pretty much all of the fast tele lenses I have used so far.

The actual differences between these modern 85mm 1.4 lenses are really small – they are all more than capable lenses – which I think makes it really hard to justify spending a lot of money for the first party options, we will still be having a look at those in the alternatives section.

buy from manufacturer’s shop (use the code “BK85145OFF” for 5% discount) | amazon.com | amazon.de | B&H | ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) for $598

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
• The best lenses for Brenizer/Bokehpanoramas
• Review: Viltrox AF 16mm 1.8 FE
• Review: Sony FE 20mm 1.8 G
• Review: Laowa 35mm 0.95 – The World’s fastest 35mm lens
• Review: Sigma 105mm 1.4 Art

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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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