Product Reviews

Great picture quality but poor minimum focusing distance.

My first "portrait" lens. At 85mm, allows me to take close photos without being close. The lens is superb for a standard product (non G, GM or GM2); sharp, focus speed isn't lightning but fast enough to keep up with kids skating around. Had my best grandkids at play photos.

I love this lens, light weight good quality for both build and images. perfect for portraiture. I recommend this lens for portrait also street photography. I feel Auto focus is little bit slow at night time but it work fine if under good ambient light.

Super lens for the price, very sharp with nice bokeh. Minimum focus distance could be improved but overall very pleased.

Brilliant optics, robust and more important a joy to use. A must have in your kit bag

barely used no more than 10 times, suddenly lens totally out of order, cannot focus, camera cannot turn off once lens on, and it's exactly passed 1 year warranty.

This is one of the light weight and compact portrait lens in the market. Don’t be fool by the size and the price of this lens. The images quality are excellent. This lens is always in my camera bag. Attached are some images taken by this lens. All images shot at wide open. Look at the sharpness, 3D pop and the background rendering. It is amazing.

I brought this lens 3 weeks ago and have used it on three jobs now, I can say the quality is incredible, both optically and build.

First Lens i bought (apart from kit lens) because i wanted something Sony, with awesome Bokeh, to shoot portrait and at a relatively low price. I really enjoy learning how to take photos with this lens on my APSC A6400. Whilst learning i also realised i like to take videos as well. Wish this lens had oss!

I was satisfied using lenses/ but unfortunally my all Sony equipment and lens were stolen. This FE 85mm F1.8 has serial number: S013054149C To my suprise, unfortunate that unlike other cameras brands, Sony does not support the search function by image and serial number. What would make it much more difficult to use stolen equipment

Buying this lens for 2nd time. Exchanged the first one for a 90mm Macro and while the 90mm is a superb macro lens, the bokeh for portraiture can't match the 85mm f1.8 The lens is so compact and super sharp and a joy to use for street photography where you get to maintain your distance and still shot your subject.

Excellent premium build portrait lens. This would have been a G lens if it had an aperture ring.

Focus speed and bokeh comparable g master. Weight was way lighter than g master. Only con is the weather seal and paint tooeasy scratch

the lens is good value for money and it is really suitable for A 9 camera, great results, with quick focus.

I love my new 85mm lens, it looks heavy, but it's surprisingly light, my images come out sharp and vibrant in color. It's a great lens for portraits, and when I took it to a car show, my images came out almost magazine like quality. Works great with my a7iv

fast AF, sharp, nice bokeh, light. well-packed and fast delivery.

I got this around Christmas (great deals) usually around then and instead of the normal MSRP of around 500 I got a steal of a deal at around 300.. For that price it's unbeaten 85mm lens. The lens is unbelievably sharp. I shoot photos mostly as a hobby as I'm not currently paid so I'd say more as a "prosumer"... For that the lens is amazing Granted a GM or even G lenses are going to be much much better glass but for the price this is perfect and in APSC mode you even have a 135mm or close to lens to use. I've used it for portraits and also as a lens for some action shots. So I'm very pleased with it

This lens has super quick focus and really sharp images.

Amazing bokeh, very fast and accurate (and near silent) autofocus, perfect sharpness wide open (and sharp on corners as well), great rendering of colours and near perfect compression! Handy custom button on the side! Very well-built quality! Highly recommended!

This is my first prime lens for my A7RII and I wish I'd bought it earlier. Have only used zooms on it previously, I really appreciate the small size and simplicity of use. Just point and shoot. The focal length is perfect for portrait and people photography and the results are stunning. Sharp and crisp where it's needed with soft focus background. This will stay on the camera 90% of the time.

Although this lens has been designed with Full Frame cameras in mind I have been using it with my a6500, and a6400 cameras. It’s a joy to use because of the way the otpics renders colours and detail. On my apps-c cameras it has an effective focal length of 127.5mm which I have found useful for both my photography and when I am filming. Defocused background looks great.

Contrary to the more than capable 85mm, I personally prefer JUPITER-9 2/85. Why? Better bokeh, easy manual focusing and stellar results, has character and is superior to the Sony 85mm (my opinion). The Sony 85mm maybe more than capable but the results are 'staid' - in the fact that practcally all modern lenses will produce pretty much the same characteristics (lack of characteristics) and will not elevate your photography. In a word - MEH...

Although far from inexpensive it is acutally great value, solidly built, lovely bokeh and will push your sensor to the limit in terms of resolving power. Bright but not heavy, fast and accurate to focus. I can't really come up with a downside. Not as flexible as a zoom, but a stop and a half brighter, a no-brainer for portraiture.

I bought this lens about two months ago and I've been using it even for street photography. Is very sharp and I really enjoy it.

This lens is excellent. The focus is fast and the sharpness wide open is really good. Theres no OSS in this lens, with my old A7 I would occasionally get some motion blur but with the IBIS in the A7RII I no longer have an issue. Not a big or heavy lens either, so balances well on the small A7 bodies. Having borrowed a friends 85mm Zeiss Batis to compare, I'm glad I didn't spend the extra money and go for the Batis because theres virtually no difference in the performance of these 2 lenses.

Absolutely stunning lens. Nice boca, decent compression and surprisingly sharp

Great lens for portraits, gets the most out of the Full Frame system with really shallow depth of field, nice bokeh and excellent sharpness. Must buy if you're after a nice portrait lens but don't have the budget for the Sony F1.4 (it's also quite compact).

I liked this lens until it simply stopped working during a shoot on location. It was a complete electrical failure, nothing physical. Sony repair said it would cost more to fix than it was worth. I now own a $600 paper weight!

I have this lens for almost three months now and love it! Photos taken with it are sharp and the bokeh is very nice! In some light conditions I can see a chromatic aberration but otherwise I am very satisfied!

Great lens and build quality better than some of the Canon L lenses I have had.

F 1.8 makes the difference when you shoot a portrait. Previously I used lenses 2.8 or darker. The lens is sharp, small and light. The only downside is a bit of purple fringing on a very contrasty white - black subjects. Software should help with this.

No regret to finally decided to buy this lens for its quality

Bought this lens when I was in the middle of switching over to Sony and I was looking for fast glass that would be good to cover poorly light basketball arenas. The f/1.8 lets in a lot of light, the lens is fast focusing and able to handle fast action sports, it also doubles as a wonderful portrait lens. You can't go wrong with this lens and the price can't be beat.

Haven't had it long enough to use it much yet. Time will tell.

I exchanged my 85mm GM with this beautiful compact lens to fit with my A7C Note: the GM 85mm is amazing. Thanks sony I am waiting the Version 2 of 85mm GM

I've had this lens a few weeks and been really impressed with it. The lens is a nice weight and easy to use, I really like the af mf switch which I use alot and the programmable lens button which is great because you can change the button to work how you want it to. Mine is set to get focus which is my favorite use for it. The image quality is excellent im seriously impressed with it. For the price I didn't expect the lens to perform as good as it has even wide open at F1.8 the lens is sharp but stopped down to F4 its razor sharp. The bokeh is nice but for me bokeh is really subjective and not something I put huge amounts of stock into. I've used the lens for a lot of video work as well and its sharpness is excellent and it focuses very quickly on the subject and its quiet when in use so a great lens for video. I use this lens on my A7iii

This 85mm Sony lens used on my A7Rlll is a great partnership, sharp and fast, definite thumbs up for this Sony-branded lens more than happy.

The easiest way to created creative photo is to make use of bokeh and this lens is the perfect tool for it.

I wanted to like this lens as I own several other Sony lenses, but the 85mm 1.8 just fell short of being good on several fronts. First, there were two large dust specs inside the lens that I noticed the first time I mounted the lens (Quality Control?). Second, the Chromatic Aboration was excessive when shooting anything with a silver-tone next to a dark background or any dark item with sharp lines. Third, when shooting F2.8 or below, the sharpness drops heavy just outside the center, and vignetting is heavier than I expected. For these reasons, I returned the lens. The camera store was understanding and took it back without a problem. I put the money toward a different lens.

The first photo was amazing, I looked at the lease and said were gonna be close friends.

Fabulous lens for the 500£ paid. I am a new user of mirrorless/dslr camera. I was oscillating between the 50mm 1.8f and 85mm 1.8f. I have decided to go with the 85mm as it "forces" you to move and find the composition that you need. I use this lens for portraits and broll (any subject basically). I recommend this lens as it has a very fast autofocus, a fast aperture and you will get a very nice blurred background when wide open. I use this lens on the a7c body. Great combo!

I love this lens for its sharpness and weight, its easy to walk around without hurting your back

Had it for a little over a month and it’s not left my camera. So stoked with its ability. Incredible value for money!

Finally after long research I've got my 1st lens and I couldn't be happier. Paired with Sony a7iii these two work amazingly together. Very sharp picture quality with aperture of f1.8-f22. 85mm is mostly recommended for portraits but this won't stop you from taking some amazing pictures. This will give you great distance in street photography and you won't need to come awkwardly close to your subject. If you're a new into photography it could be challenging to get used to camera and this lens itself but after couple of days you will get good feeling and handle of it. Build quality is high and sturdy and everything works really smooth.

Been using this lens as my prime for street photography the past week, and it does the job very well. Nice button on barrel of lens that I use as custom (Eye AF)

Great image Quality super sharp Portraits very light weight absolutely loving this lens

Bought this around 3 months ago. It has no G, GM or Zeiss mark. Therefore, the price is more affordable. And yet optic quality is quite good. Wish there is an aperture ring too.

If you are looking for a good portrait or landscape lens, then this could be an obvious choice

Brilliant portrait lens Brilliant portrait lens Brilliant portrait lens

Bought it a couple of weeks ago, and it just keeps blowing me away. I did a photo shoot recently and also did some interiors, and oh boy I have never been more hyped about doing photos than now.

This lens is sharp and focus is fast and spot on the DOF is out of this world. a really good lens

Love using this lens at wide open fabulous feel and superb quality at an excellent price

Bought it this month. Excellent lens. Ease of use. The sharpness at 1.8f at min focus length... is a wow factor. Focus is fast and smooth. Love the lens

The Sony FE 85 is my bread and butter and i could not be so happy after purchasing it.

Excellent portrait lens for reasonable cost. Very sharp images and good bokeh

Really sharp lens. AF with my A7R2 is really fast. I use it primarily to photograph my kid and it does a great job. Eye AF works great.

I have had the lens for one month now. Primary use is shooting high school indoor sports. Focus is quick, silent, good tracking, nice build and image quality is nice. I am pleased with the lens performance on my A9.

Great lens for the price. Sharp and light. Good for portraits

Bought this late Nov as Christmas present to myself. Thank you Santa! So far it is providing very sharp photos covering varying subjects. Might end up being my fav lens which I now have 3 off.

purchased for portrait photos and am happy with the results

The lens focuses fast and accurately and good value for the price.

Brought this lens half a year ago and it is creating stunning images for both my own collections & customers.

Great lens and excellent value for the money. I’ve used a lot of portrait lenses over the years and this is one of the best.

Extremely sharp and fast! I’ve gotten my best pictures with this lens probably. Produces a really nice bokeh.