Sony FE 85/1.4 GM

The Sony FE 85/1.4 GM is the new big boy in town for portrait in the Sony land.

Let’s see how it fares against the well respected A-mount Sony Zeiss 85/1.4 ZA on a Sony A7R II body.

Physical dimensions

The 85 GM is obviously a large lens but it’s about the same length and weight as the 85 ZA with LA-EA4 adapter. On the other side, the 85 GM is much thicker and uses 77mm filters instead of 72mm for the 85 ZA.

Pictures below are with the LA-EA3. As the 85 ZA has screw-driven AF, you need the LA-EA4 adapter to maintain AF.

Weight

• 85 GM: 854 g
• 85 ZA + LA-EA4: 833 g
• 85 ZA: 673 g

85 GM front and rear

The front element takes all the front space and the rear element goes all the way down to the lens mount. No empty tube at the bottom, so it’s NOT an SLR lens quickly adapted to the FE Mount.

85 ZA front and rear

Ergonomics

The lenses both have a focus hold button. Th 85GM lacks the distance scale but adds an (electronic) aperture ring. The focus ring is mechanical on the 85ZA and « by-wire » on the 85GM. Focus by-wire is surprisingly smooth on the 85GM.

Autofocus

Although it is slower than smaller lenses like the 55/1.8, AF is vastly faster on the 85GM than with the 85ZA+LA-EA4 combo. Please note that AF performance without the adapter also depends on the camera and older cameras such A7r might be slower.

But unlike other FE lenses, AF is operated at real aperture instead of a progressive step down from full aperture. That is, if you set F4, AF is done at F4 only. That can be a problem at smaller apertures (Phase detect AF does not work beyond F9) or in low light. Also, turning off Liveview effects does not affect the aperture.

Lens composition (85GM first)

Test layout

As usual, the test was in the gardens of « Palais Royal » in Paris.

F1.4 to 2.0

Wide open, the 85GM has a bit more contrast on the whole frame.

 

F2.8

Things mostly evens out at F2.8 except in the corner where the 85GM is a bit sharper.

F4.0

Sharpness is basically the same between the 85GM & 85ZA at F4.0

LoCA

Wide open, the 85GM (1st pic) show improvement over the 85ZA.

Some 100% crops

Bokeh

Wide open, they both have smooth bokeh, no onion ring structures or bubble outlines, but the 85GM (1st pic) has clearly less cats-eyes.

At F2.0, cats-eyes are basically gone on the 85GM.

Conclusion

The 85GM is probably the upgrade that A-mount users have been begging for a long time. It’s not a huge step forward because the 85ZA was already very good, but it’s showing clear improvements at large apertures, less LoCA, and less cats-eyes effect .