Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM Review

Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM Real world images (click for larger):

Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM lens review:

85mm is my favorite focal length and prime lens. I shoot portraits extensively and 85mm is the right focal length for a comfortable working distance from headshots to environmental portraits. I’ve shot with no fewer than five different 85mm lenses from Nikon, Tamron, Sony A-mount and the Sony FE system. The Sony FE 85mm F/1.8 is a really fantastic lens especially considering the $600 price tag. (Reviewed here).  Triple the price at $1,800 and bearing Sony’s premium “G Master” moniker, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM  should be a truly astonishing top of the line portrait lens.

As shown in the above images, an 85mm prime can certainly be used for landscapes and other purposes but it really shines as a portrait lens.  As a premium 85mm lens with 1.4 aperture, such a lens should be prized for beautiful background separation along with crisp sharpness and contrast.  To justify an $1,800 price tag for a prime lens, one may expect optical perfection.  Let’s see how the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM stacks up.

Body and Handling:

Build quality of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is nothing short of superb. It feels like a substantive precision instrument in the hand. But as shown above next to the Sony 85mm F/1.8, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is a big lens. At 820 grams, it is heavier than the Sony mirrorless bodies. Having handheld the lens for long sessions, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 balances nicely and doesn’t feel too heavy for me. Still, it will weigh down your camera bag and will make your camera more cumbersome.

Positives of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM include weather sealing, clickless aperture ring, MF/AF switch and a focus hold button which  I re-program  to be used for Eye-AF.  A rather large hood should offer some protection from flare.

Not everything is positive unfortunately. The aperture ring needs to be set to “A” if you want the camera body to control the aperture. Unfortunately, there is no click between “A” and F16, and the ring would sometimes drift. Thus, I’d suddenly find the aperture set to F16 when I was expecting to control the aperture with the camera. Further, while the lens has a quiet drive motor, the movement of the large lens elements is not whisper quiet: You really feel and hear the lens elements moving as the camera focuses, and focus speed can only be deemed fair.

The standout aspect of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is probably the use of 11 aperture blades, leading to a very round aperture as demonstrated in the above-photo. This should lead to lovely round bokeh even as the lens is stopped down.

Stabilization

There is no stabilization but the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM will work well with the internal stabilization system (IBIS) found on most Sony bodies.  The degree to which you can rely on IBIS will depend on your hand holding technique.  I found the lens played very well with the stabilization system. At 1/20th of a second, I had a very high percentage of keepers. Down to 1/8th of a second, I still got some keepers, though more images were blurred by shake.

Image Quality

The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is heavy and expensive. There would be no reason to even consider this lens unless the image quality is a cut above.

Vignetting

Vignetting is a non-issue on the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM. At wider apertures, there is some minor correctable vignette. For portraits, this is typically not undesirable. If you don’t want the vignette, it is easily correctable and virtually non-existent once stopped down to around F/2.8.

Flare

Flare and ghosting may be the Achilles’ heel of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM. With strong light in the frame, small apertures lead to significant flare. At wider apertures, there is some ghosting and loss of contrast. The large hood suggests Sony was aware that the lens was prone to flare and tried to prevent it.

In real world shooting, I didn’t lose a single shot to flare. Still, it’s something to be aware of.

Chromatic Aberration / Purple fringing

Fast aperture lenses are prone to some purple fringing in high contrast areas and the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is no exception. The good news is that it really is very mild compared to many other lenses.  As shown in the above crops, in the high contrast corner of the edge of the roof of the building, backlit by the bright sky, there is a very minor degree of purple fringing at F/1.4.  It is even less significant at F2.0 and totally gone by F/2.8. In real world shooting, I wouldn’t expect it to ruin any images.

Bokeh

Bokeh refers to the quality of the out of focus region of an image.  Most photographers especially look at the out of focus highlights, valuing soft smooth perfectly rounded circles.  The Sony 85mm F/1.4 has 11 rounded aperture blades to generate the smoothest possible bokeh.

In testing, the bokeh is impressive. Many lenses generate cat’s eye bokeh as you move away from the center but the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM retains nice circles across the frame. Even when stopped down to smaller aperture, as in the F7.1 image above, bokeh stays round and smooth.

For 85mm F/1.4 GM bokeh in real world shots, look below at the images between F/1.4 and F/2.8.  There is truly very smooth background blur with lovely soft rounded highlights.

Distortion:

Distortion is so minimal that correction doesn’t change the image.

Sharpness

I judge each lens independently without relying on reviews and testing by others but I’m not oblivious to testing by others.  DXOMark, known for strict lab testing of lenses and sensors, doesn’t rate the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM as among the very sharpest Sony lenses. So in all honesty, I had expectations that sharpness would be good but I wasn’t expecting to be blown away…

Center Sharpness

Starting with center crops (click for large):

Center crops from closer distance:

Center sharpness can only be described as exceptional. Even wide open at F/1.4, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is fairly sharp. I would call it pretty close to tack sharp except that it gets even sharper with stopping down slightly. The close images of the thermometer demonstrate some purple and green fringing at F/1.4 and F/1.8 apertures.  By the time you reach F/2.2, you get a truly phenomenal level of sharpness.

Great center sharpness isn’t rare in modern prime lenses.  Things should get more challenging in the borders and corners.

Border Sharpness

And borders from closer focus:

Most astonishing is that the performance is virtually the same as the center. Just a tiny bit of softness wide open and reaching incredible tack sharpness between F/1.8 and F/2.8.

Corner Sharpness:

My expectations were blown away. I never have seen any lens perform this evenly across the frame. The only lens I’ve tested from Sony with truly comparable sharpness is the Sony Zeiss 50mm F/1.4. 

Performance in the corners is almost the same as the center. The entire frame is completely usable at F/1.4 with softness you would only notice with extreme pixel peeping.  By F/2.2, the entire frame is super sharp from corner to corner.

Real world landscape sharpness:

Click the below images to pixel peep from corner to corner, focus placed on the bricks in the distance.

Corner to corner sharpness isn’t typically necessary for portraits but is prized by landscape shooters.  Most landscapes are shot at smaller aperture, where even more modest lenses may exhibit corner to corner sharpness.  As shown above, even at F/1.8, you achieve corner to corner sharpness in real world shooting. As these were shot handheld, the F8 shot resulted in higher ISO and some noise disrupting the image quality.  While you may not commonly shoot landscapes at wide aperture, it’s nice to have the option.

Overall:

The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is truly a special lens.  I enjoyed using it more than I thought I would. With the exception of some flare, the image quality is truly a cut above other lenses.

Yet, I’m not going to actually recommend the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM for most shooters. The greatest argument against the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is the existence of the Sony 85mm F/1.8.  Much lighter, one third the price, with quieter and faster autofocus, the Sony 85mm F/1.8 still delivers excellent image quality. I’ll do a future post comparing the two lenses but in summary, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM offers more even sharpness across the frame, the potential for narrower depth of field (when using the 1.4 aperture), weather sealing, and slightly better bokeh at all apertures. The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM also seems to offer slightly better contrast. In real world shooting, the most noticeable difference will be in the bokeh quality and narrower depth of field. Unless you’re an extreme pixel peeper, you won’t notice the slight differences in sharpness.

I shoot a lot of couples portraits and would almost never shoot such images at F/1.4 — depth of field would be too narrow. As someone generally shooting portraits between F2 and F4, the main advantage of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM for me would be slightly better bokeh. Is better bokeh worth all the extra weight, cost, along with louder and slower autofocus?

If you want something truly special, you won’t regret buying the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM. (Purchase here from Amazonwith filters and lens cleaning kit).  But for most people, ranging from hobbyists to professionals, the Sony 85mm F/1.8 may be the more practical choice.  (Buy on Amazon)

Rating (1-10):  Score: 8

(About my scoring:  9-10 is a superb lens which could have a place in the bag of almost every photographer.   6-8:  recommended with caveats.   3-5:  A compromised lens that may still be suitable for some shooters and situations.  1-2:  Just stick to your phone camera)

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Purchase the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM with free SD card from Amazon here.