Sony 85mm F/1.8 vs Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM

Is the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM worth it?

Sony produces a very good 85mm F/1.8 lens (reviewed here) which sells for under $600. Sony also produces a premium 85mm F/1.4 G Master lens (reviewed here) which sells for almost $$1800. The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is a spectacular lens, a special lens in the Sony line up. But is it worth spending triple the price of the 85mm F/1.8?

Let’s add to the consideration that the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM isn’t just triple the price, it is also more than double the weight (820 grams compared to 371 grams). Finally, the autofocus is actually slower and louder than on the Sony 85mm F/1.8.  With the disadvantages of size, weight and autofocus, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM better have some serious image quality advantages.

F 1.4 Aperture

The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM can immediately do something that the Sony 85mm F/1.8 cannot do: Shoot at apertures wider than 1.8, specifically as large as 1.4.

In theory, the larger aperture can give advantages in low light. In real world shooting, you’re unlikely to really need wider than 1.8.  (the best low light zooms only go to f2.8).

The bigger advantage of the 1.4 aperture comes down to background blur. The term bokeh is used to describe the quality of the blur especially the quality of the out-of-focus highlights. In addition to the 1.4 aperture, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is designed with 11 rounded aperture blades, with the goal of leaving the out-of-focus highlights especially round and smooth.  Taking a look at the Sony 85mm F/1.4 showing off the 1.4 aperture in real world shots (click for larger):

Quite simply, shot at the same distances, the Sony 85mm F/1.8 isn’t capable of producing a depth of field as narrow as you see above.

The Differences at Equivalent Apertures

Just because the lens has a 1.4 aperture doesn’t mean we are going to use it. Many of your shots, perhaps even most of your shots (or all of your shots) may be shot at smaller aperture. So putting aside the availability of a 1.4 aperture, there are some other differences in image quality between the Sony 85mm F/1.8 and Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM.

Having tested both lenses extensively, I’ll vouch that there are not meaningful differences in distortion, flare, chromatic aberration, vignetting. The noticeable differences are in sharpness and bokeh.

As I’ll demonstrate below, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is a bit sharper. Perhaps some will claim the more critical difference is in the bokeh. In theory, both lenses will give the same amount of background blur when shot at the same aperture, but the design of the GM lens may give better bokeh — better quality to the blur.  There is an important footnote: The two lenses are not actually the identical focal length, they are not both exactly 85mm. The GM lens actually has a slightly longer focal length, and this longer focal length will result in slightly narrower depth of field.

Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM Rounded Bokeh

Look at the above examples. The first two examples come from the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM. Notice the bokeh balls are smooth and round, even at the edges of the frame, even at small aperture (F7.1). Then look at the bokeh in the final two images from the Sony 85mm F/1.8 and you will notice that as you move to the edge of the frame, the bokeh becomes “cat’s eyes.”

Sharpness Comparisons:

Center Sharpness tests:

It’s fair to say that there are no noticeable differences in center sharpness even when looking at 100% crops. Both lenses are pretty much tack sharp in the center at F1.8.

Corner sharpness:

In the corners, a sharpness difference becomes more obvious. At F1.8 and F2.8, the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is noticeably sharper than the 85mm F/1.8.  The 85mm F/1.8 isn’t bad — you need to pixel peep to notice the difference, but the difference is real. Meanwhile, when you reach F4, the corners are basically equivalent between the two lenses.

So what’s the sharpness lesson?  If you’re shooting wide aperture portraits, corner sharpness is going to be irrelevant to you.  You’re not putting eyes in the extreme corners.  Quite the opposite — you’ll expect the corners to become blurred backgrounds. Corner to corner sharpness becomes more important when looking at landscapes.  Let’s take a look at the effect in real world shots:

Sony 85mm lens Landscapes at F1.8:

Click to download the images.  Please look at them at normal sizes before you start to pixel peep.

Viewed at normal sizes, it is almost impossible to tell the difference, except that the 85mm F/1.4 GM is actually a bit longer than the 85mm F/1.8. As noted above, neither lens is exactly 85mm, and the GM lens is slightly more telephoto.

These images were shot with the A9, so you get 24mp of resolution just as you would with the Sony A7iii. Even at the wide aperture of 1.8, neither lens has difficulty producing a fairly acceptable image from corner to corner.

As you pixel peep, note that the focus point was the stone tunnel, which is around the aps-c border of the frame.

Upon pixel peeping, especially as you move towards the edges, the GM is sharper. But it takes extreme pixel peeping to make out this tiny difference.

Sony 85mm Landscapes at F8:

You’re unlikely to shoot your landscapes at F 1.8.  So click and take a look at the landscapes at F8. Once again, the GM image is slightly more zoomed in, with the slightly longer focal length. Other than that, you can’t tell a difference.  The images are identical, even when pixel peeping.

Some people may gush about superior colors or contrast from the GM lens. But as shown in these samples, the colors and contrast are indistinguishable between the lenses.

Of course, most people aren’t buying 85mm prime lenses for landscapes. These are primarily portrait lenses. The selling point of the 85mm F/1.4 GM is the breathtaking bokeh…

Is Bokeh Overrated?

Enthusiasts have become obsessed with bokeh, defined as the quality of the blur in the out-of-focus area.  Special attention is paid to the out of focus highlights, with a desire for soft perfectly round large bokeh balls.  There is no question that the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM can deliver the goods on bokeh.

But do people looking at our photos really care about the bokeh? As I was preparing this post, petapixel.com posted this article, “Bokeh is Overrated: Blurry Isn’t Best.”

For the article, people were surveyed and asked to pick their preferred image between two choices. The majority of the viewers, the majority of the time, chose the images with more depth of field (less background blur). Viewers were more interested in sharp subjects than in soft blurred backgrounds. Also critically, viewers didn’t notice minor differences in background blur, as in the difference from F1.4 to F1.8.

With the aperture of F1.4, there is no question that the 85mm F/1.4 GM can create a level of background blur that you just can’t achieve with the 85mm F/1.8. But for many of us, there really is limited value in obtaining that level of blur. At such wide apertures, it is very difficult to keep your entire portrait subject in sharp focus. If shooting more than one person, you will almost always need to stop down if you want everyone to appear sharp. Even when shooting a solo portrait, excessively wide aperture will often result in photos with blurred ears, or even one eye sharp and one blurred eye.

Stopping down slightly will ensure getting the entire face of your subject(s) sharp. The unscientific petapixel study suggests viewers will notice the sharpening of the subject and won’t even notice that there is slightly less background blur.

Let’s take a look at a couple examples from a real session I did with the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM:

Viewed at small sizes, I love both these images and don’t see many differences in the focus or background blur. Bokeh balls are bit larger in the first image, shot at F1.6 while the second image is shot at F2.5. But I doubt many people are going to be extremely moved by the size of the bokeh balls. If you pixel peep the images (click for large) or print pretty large, you will note that there isn’t enough depth of field in the first image:  The male’s eyes are sharp but the female’s eyes are out of focus. In the F2.5 image, both the male’s and female’s face is perfectly sharp. To me, this is far more important than having larger bokeh balls.

So some photographers will still cherish the thinnest possible depth of field. (And Canon and Nikon are certainly taking aim at these photographers with some ultra fast glass like the upcoming Nikon Noct 58mm F 0.95).  But for many photographers of all levels, there is no reason to ever go with depth of field that narrow.  An 85mm F/1.8 lens can produce plenty of background blur for practical purposes.

Which leads to the question of, at identical aperture, whether the 85mm F/1.4 GM produces superior portraits with superior bokeh?

Bokeh Portrait Comparison

Two portraits of the same couple, both taken at F2.2, a fairly fast aperture but stopped down a bit to ensure sufficient depth of field.

First, I encourage you to look at both portraits without pixel peeping.  Now, I admit to being a bit unscientific — I may not have been the exact same distance from the couple for the two photographs and they did move a bit so the background is not identical.

When looking at the photograph, your eyes go to the couple. The viewer is unlikely to be making any note, even on a subconscious level, of any slight differences to the background blur. Furthermore, without pixel peeping, it’s extremely difficult to even see any difference in the background blur. The GM photo does have very slightly more background blur, because I’m slightly closer to the couple and because the lens focal length may be just slightly larger. So in this pair of images, the GM lens is just a tiny bit more blurred.

Now go ahead and pixel peep, and the results are still basically the same. Remember, if you are sharing this photo with clients or framing it on your wall, nobody is going to be looking at the out of focus areas with a microscope. But even looking with a microscope, the differences are extremely minor. With pixel peeping, I do note the 85mm F/1.4 GM bokeh is just a tiny bit softer. But if not for this blog post, nobody would ever be looking at the bokeh that carefully.

Brilliant Bokeh of the 85mm F/1.8

I began this post by showing off the admittedly gorgeous bokeh of the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM. Now let’s give the 85mm F/1.8 a chance to show off:

Not too shabby. In fact, I’d call the bokeh pretty spectacular even if the 85mm F/1.8 is a relatively cheap “consumer” lens.

Final Thoughts

The Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is a special lens, truly spectacular. Yes, it is better than the Sony 85mm F/1.8 in terms of pure image quality. If looking at all of the above “real world” images, you find the Sony 85mm F/1.4 noticeably better, then perhaps you should purchase the Sony 85mm F/1.4 for your portrait needs. 

But the ways in which the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM is better are ways that most viewers will never notice. Meanwhile, the photographer will notice that the 85mm F/1.4 GM is much more expensive, much heavier, and with louder slower autofocus. In other words, you’re making a lot of sacrifices for IQ upgrades that nobody will notice. To me, it’s like a $500 bottle of wine versus a $5,000 bottle of wine. A wine connoisseur may truly appreciate the super expensive bottle of wine, but both wines will be fantastic. Looking at my own images, I conclude that the Sony 85mm F/1.8 is capable of producing professional looking bokeh, even if the Sony of the 85mm F/1.4 may be slightly better in some ways.

If you are the type of photographer who does value the thinnest possible depth of field, you will get real value out of Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM which can produce lovely images wide open.

But if you’re the type that stops down a bit to get some depth of field (as perhaps you should), then the differences are really minor. In a blind tasting, that $5,000 bottle of wine probably won’t taste any better than the $500 bottle of wine with your steak dinner.

Whether you are a new photographer, enthusiast or even a professional, there are significant reasons to choose the 85mm F/1.8 over the 85mm F/1.4 GM. If weight and price were entirely meaningless, I’d go with the 85mm F/1.4 GM. It’s special, there is no question about it.

But I’m more practical on a day to day basis. Price matters.  And weight matters even more — I like lenses that are comfortable to carry all day.  Fast silent autofocus is also valued above some slight pixel peeping IQ differences.  Speaking purely for myself, I’ll take the Sony 85mm F/1.8.

If you found this post helpful and are planning to purchase one of the lenses discussed from Amazon, please use one of our links. At no additional cost to yourself, you will help support this site. You can purchase the Sony 85mm F/1.8 here and the Sony 85mm F/1.4 GM (with useful free add-ons) here.

With eye-af, Sony mirrorless cameras really shine for portraits. Sony has a number of lenses that make great specialized portrait lenses and I do believe every Sony shooter should own one of them.  Whether the 85mm F/1.8, the 85mm F/1.4 GM, or the Sony 90mm F/2.8 macro (reviewed here) or Sony 100mm STF lens (reviewed here).