Which 85mm lens?

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum and also to Sony (but not to photography).

I've got myself an A7R IVa with the 20mm 1.8G and 35mm 1.4GM and am considering which 85mm or 90mm I should get and this is where I hope you can help.

Firstly for context, I only ever use prime lenses, not zooms. Also, I like to be able to make really big prints and/or crop without (much) loss. Further my usual subject matter are landscapes and I usually shoot at f8.

I've been considering the 85mm 1.4GM which would go naturally with my existing lens choice but it seems optimised for wider apertures than I routinely use.

I've been looking principally at the OpticalLimits (photozone.de) site for technical data on lens performance as well as some others. Surprisingly although the 85mm 1.4GM records an impressive performance the less flashy 85mm 1.8 Sony betters it at f8, in fact according to OpticalLimits the 85mm f1.8 has the best f8 performance of all of the Sony FE fitting prime lenses that they have tested (albeit on an A7R II)!

So, the questions are:

1) Do I believe this data and go for the Sony FE 85mm 1.8 (bearing in mind that f8 is my usual aperture)? Is there a reason why I should go for something else?

and

2) Can anyone clarify what the resolution figures on the OpticalLimits site actually mean in real life on a Sony A7R IVa? For example the resolution for the centre for the Sony 85mm 1.4GM at f8 is 4471LW/PH but I don't really know if that is good, excellent or outstanding. Would perhaps a mere 4000LW/PH be more than I would ever need?

If you can help in any way it would be much appreciated, thanks!

Hi @Frankly

I think if you are shooting at f8 then all the 85mm lenses you look at will be so close in final performance, the biggest factors to impact your photos will be lighting and composition instead. The Sony FE 85 f1.8 is regarded as a very good lens that 'punches above its weight'(i.e. delivers great bang for buck) and at f8, any weaknesses it has at wider apertures will have vanished.

You can see from my line up I have two(!) 85mm lenses. The Loxia is my primary landscape lens for that focal length as like you, I shoot landscapes at smaller apertures. While both of them are excellent 85mm lenses, the Loxia is better for landscapes because of the ease of its manual focus.

So in short, either of the lenses you're considering should give you the shots you want, and perhaps other factors like size, weight and weather sealing might be worth taking into account.

Thanks Wetapunga you make a good point about all the Sony lenses being good choices if used at f8 and that the 85mm 1.8 being great value for money.
The Loxia is certainly a good alternative, maybe even better for landscapes. I like the old school look of the lens and from what I have seen, it certainly is a very sharp lens.
I was less drawn to the Batis 85mm because it is a bit too smooth to the touch compared to my Sony lenses and my concern is that I won't be able to get a good enough grip on it when changing lenses on a cold day. Optically great.
Thanks again!

The Sony FE 85mm F1.8 has a good amount of lateral chromatic aberration that certainly does not vanish at f/8. Electronic correction can reduce the color fringing, but it leaves some blur. The Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 has a similar amount of lateral CA. I haven't tried other native primes longer than 75mm. I have had many adapted primes that do better at F8 like the Canon EF 85mm F1.8 USM.

Edited by QuietOC - 26 January 2022 at 00:48

Frankly wrote: Thanks Wetapunga you make a good point about all the Sony lenses being good choices if used at f8 and that the 85mm 1.8 being great value for money. The Loxia is certainly a good alternative, maybe even better for landscapes. I like the old school look of the lens and from what I have seen, it certainly is a very sharp lens.

The Loxia is really good. I've written a review on Dyxum and it's largely in line with the review on Phillipreeve.

It's sharp edge to edge, and especially at landscape apertures. It's handling is great, and you never have to worry about the AF-motors breaking down in the field, because it doesn't have any! It's also weather sealed.

The handling is also wonderful and I agree, the aesthetic is nice. Obviously it's not a great lens for fast action or events but for a specialist landscape lens, it is really good to use. I prefer the old-school manual focus system it uses, rather than the modern electronic fly-by-wire.

I love the 85 1.8, fantastic images from a tiny package. Coming from the A mount zeiss 1.4 I don't feel it's a downgrade in any sense. One lens not mentioned here yet is the Sony 90mm f2.8 macro. I've only had mine a few weeks and it's not focused on anything further than 20cm away yet, but it could be an option. It also have focus limiters on either side of 50cm so can be locked into being a 'standard' lens. There's £100 cashback on it from Sony at present, which I think runs until either end of this month or next.

AudioDoc wrote: Welcome to Dyxum, Frank! I suppose the best advice might come from someone that shoots with the A7Riv, an 85mm @ f8, and prints big! ...

Well, I can do 2 out of 3 there . But if I want to go to a 72" wide print I have to upscale the image. Which is why I like to have oodles of detail and information to work with in my 42MP shot. But anything up to 48" across I'm good with 42MP.

If I had to make a large landscape print with an 85mm lens, I'd reach for my Loxia every time. I also like knowing that the superb manual focus means I can put the focal plane exactly where I want it in the shot.

What I like about the Batis 85/1.8 is its rendering and Zeiss-look at wide apertures. It was the lens I picked to shoot some commercial shots last year of people for a client.

Still, I doubt there is any FE lens at 85mm that doesn't produce great shots at f8. So perhaps the deciding factors should be other issues (price, sealing etc)