I was walking from a playground to fetch coffee for me, my wife and the parents of another couple when I was idly browsing the internet. I read a piece about affordable Sony primes and saw the 85mm being lauded.
I was a bit unsure about 85mm; to that point I’d been a 35mm-50mm man. But the reviews were great, and I fancied a change (plus I’m easily led).
| Mount | Sony E (full frame compatible) |
| Weight | 371g |
| Purchased | 12 June 2021 |
| From | Amazon |
| Price | £442 |
While not especially heavy, this feels like a chunk of lens and a lot of glass. There is something very pleasing feeling about the weight and balance of this lens on a full-frame Sony camera such as the A7R III that all of these were taken on.
85mm is an interesting focal length, and has, subsequent to me owning this lens, become one of my favourites. It’s a field of view you can use to take photos of people in your group who are nearby, but don’t feel like they have a camera right in their face. It’s a pleasing half-way house between the lovely 40mm focal length and the also lovely, but definitely telephoto, 135mm ish focal length.
At f/1.8 this has a very shallow depth of field for any near work. If the person is 1m away you have 1cm depth of field. 2m away and it’s 6cm. Even at 4m away you’ll only just get the whole of a person’s head in focus. This isn’t a criticism at all; quite the opposite – it means that this cheaper f/1.8 still gets you a lot.
For a medium focal length prime this lens isn’t that long, so it’s fairly easy to take with you and isn’t too conspicuous – although there’s a lot of glass so it’s far from invisible. It’s sharp – really sharp. This is one of those lenses where it’s usually user error (normally trying to use it at too slow a shutter speed and thus allowing subject motion) that leads to any blurring you see.
The wide maximum aperture coupled with sharp results makes it great for events photos where you can’t always avoid the crowds. The below four were all taken at the Canary Wharf Winter Lights festival, which is absolutely packed, but this lens has the reach to cut through the crowds while also being wide enough to get a sense of the scene.
Focusing is fast and generally dependable – I’ve had a few shots out of hundreds where the camera and lens should have been able to cope, but didn’t. It’s super quiet when focusing.
The colours from this lens are consistently excellent, some of the best I get with any Sony lens bar the absolutely stunning 24-70mm f/2.8 GM II. The transition from the in-focus areas to the out-of focus areas, and the look of the out-of-focus areas (bokeh) is just brilliant.
The trouble with really good lenses is there isn’t much to say. Chromatic aberrations (e.g. the purple fringing you get when you have very strong edges between light and dark regions) aren’t meaningfully present with the Sony 85mm. Yes it has some vignetting (darkening of the corners, especially at wider apertures), but this isn’t that bad and also is normally something I really like as it draws the viewer to the centre of the photo. There’s almost no geometric distortion from this lens.
In a desperate attempt for me to find something to complain about, the minimum focusing distance is 80cm. This means you’re not going to be using this lens for anything super close and so you can’t make anything like macro images. Macro just means that the item would be the same size on the camera sensor as it is in real life, which given we view images on screens normally way bigger than our camera sensors allows extreme close ups. Which you aren’t getting with this, but that really is a trivial concern and there are much better lenses if macro photography is your thing.
This is a plastic lens, but it feels solid – much more so than many other lenses. The mount is metal and the focus ring is really nice with just the right tension. There’s a large 67mm filter thread and even a custom button alongside the more common auto/manual focus switch. Even better it’s weather sealed. So although this doesn’t feel premium, top-of-the-line, it’s a really well-built and reassuring-feeling lens.
I absolutely recommend this lens. It’s one of my favourites. Having said that it doesn’t come out with me that often; it’s a little bit larger than ideal for a lens I won’t always get to use, especially as I quite like photos that are a bit wider. When the setting is right it’s just brilliant. Also it’s one of those focal lengths that if you’re coming from a phone or the (likely not terribly good) kit lens with your camera makes a huge difference – you get pin-sharp results from a different viewpoint than the wide-angle lens(es) on the back of your phone, and it really is fun to take out; so much more I should do some more often.
See the album of this lens’ photos on Flickr with the above photos.
Lens Flair 
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