Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Sony SEL85F18 85mm F/1.8-22 Medium-Telephoto Fixed Prime Camera Lens, Black

Solid, good image quality, best option for the price.

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2017

Review below Pros & Cons.

Pros -
Decent price point
Near silent focusing
Solid build (feels sturdy/solid)
Great image quality, great for portrait work with it's depth of field abilities.
Sharp, fast focus
Awesome low light performance + shadow recovery

Cons -
Lens is pretty big. It does look more "professional"(than 28-70mm), but might be a little bulky for walking around all day with.
NOT stabilized. No OSS in the lens. Wasn't a deal breaker for me, and I haven't noticed any unwanted motion blur yet, even in very low light.

Not really a con, (should be expected), but I feel it might be worth mentioning - This lens is fixed at 85mm, which is a flattering focal length for people's faces, but it's not going to allow you much flexibility. Won't ever effect you if you're shooting outside or in a place where you can take a few steps back from your subject. But I could see it becoming an issue trying to shoot in a tight space. This lens will definitely not work well for something like indoor real estate photography, which isn't it's intended use anyway. This shouldn't surprise anyone, but this is my first prime lens and it takes a little time to get used to.

Overall review - I wanted a prime lens, specifically to do portraits and low light photography with. Was looking for something I could get nice soft out of focus backgrounds, smooth bokeh, and sharp focus on my subject. I've been nothing but impressed with this lens's performance so far. If you want a lens around this focal length, and the Batis and G Master are out of your price range, this will be your best option.

Bought this as my first prime/fixed focal length lens for my Sony a7. Only been able to shoot with it a few times so far, but right away I was impressed with the sharpness and image quality. The other two lenses I own are the 28-70 kit lens that comes with the a7, and the 35mm macro lens. The 85mm f/1.8 is noticeably sharper throughout the frame than the 28-70. The 85mm allows you to blur backgrounds to a nice smooth, creamy out of focus. Great bokeh, pretty smooth and round. I did see that sometimes the bokeh will look more football shaped than round, but I've been able to capture perfectly circle bokehs as well. One of the main reasons I got this lens was for the f/1.8. The 28-70 is f/3.5, which really didn't allow me to do the style of low light photography I wanted to do. I've shot around/after sunset with the 85mm 3 times now, and the performance is great. I use Adobe Lightroom to edit, and I've been really impressed with the shadow recovery with the 85mm lens. I was able to expose to the darkening sky after sunset, with my subject almost completely black, and still recover that subject in post by bringing up the shadows.

I might upload some before/after images as examples if I get around to it.

5 people found this helpful

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Robert

What an Awesome Lens

Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2018

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I have read people write this is an awesome lens for the price. This is true, but it's an awesome lens period, even if it was priced much higher. I actually don't understand why Sony is pricing it so low. It produces fantastic images, has fast autofocus, is small, light, f1.8, and has a programmable focus hold button that the $999 Sony 55mm f1.8 doesn't even come with. This has quickly become my number one lens for my Sony A7III. I tend to gravitate toward the more telephoto side of things and this lens fits my style so perfectly. It is hard to imagine anyone who is going with primes as opposed to zooms for their E mount Sony system not to include this lens as part of their kit.

Sure there is the f1.4 GM lens, but it's 3x the price and even if you're rich that thing weighs 3lbs!!! 3lbs??? Now don't get me wrong, I'm sure it is an amazing lens. I'm sure it takes better quality images than this one, and of course it's f1.4 which is the real draw to that one, but do you really want to lug around an extra almost 2lbs? Well I'm sure some people do, and some people have to as photography is their living. If you can live with f1.8, which is wonderfully wide as it is you'll have a much more pleasant time with a lens that is almost 2lbs lighter and you can use the extra $1000 toward a nice vacation, or an additional lens (the 55mm f1.8 is basically free with the money you saved and it only weighs an extra 1/2 lb. Two lens for about half the weight of the single 85mm f1.4.

I'll be honest, I do lust after the 85mm f1.4, but I know I'd regret carrying around all of that extra weight. A big selling point of the Sony A7III is the size and weight. Adding that giant 85mm f1.4 to it just seems to defeat a lot of the purpose of this system.

In conclusion, buy this lens. I don't believe there is a better deal in photography right now than this quality lens at it's current price. Maybe the A7III itself is as good a deal as this lens, but this thing is selling for $548 at the time of writing this review. They even put it on sale for $50 off list. I have no idea why, but it makes me love Sony even more.

If anyone is still reading or interested I'm a long time Canon user. 15+ years with Canon. I sold it all and moved to Sony last month. I still have affection for Canon, but I'm a very happy mirrorless convert and this Sony stuff is just incredible and I have no regrets.

99 people found this helpful

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J. Donaldson

Great lens

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2020

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I shoot mainly portraits. Prior to buying this 85mm (127.5 on 35mm) I had been using a Sigma 56mm f1.4 and a Sigma 70-200mm f2.8.

The 70-200 f2.8 was a Sony A Mount lens with an adapter for use on my Sony a6500 E Mount camera body. Unfortunately the 70-200 does not focus well on the E Mount cameras so I'm selling it. That leaves a gap in my lens line. This 85mm is intended to fill that gap. Of course I will no longer have the reach of a 70-200 but it seems I have no choice, at least not in my price range.

So I found myself doing some research to see what was available and see that there are about 6 different 85mm lenses for Sony FF E Mount on the market. Three of them are well over $1,000 so too expensive for me. One was less expensive than this Sony SEL85F18 and I rejected it after learning of some potential weaknesses. The bottom line is I could buy slightly better lenses but for quite a bit higher price. Many reviewers said the actual differences between this Sony lens and the more expensive brands were not worth the 2x or 3x the price.

In fact most of the reviews suggested that not only is the Sony version less expensive than most, it also is a pretty worthy competitor. Pretty much all reviews said the Sony 85 is sharp. There was often mentioned chromatic aberration when wide open, but that could be corrected in post. It was certainly refreshing to find a less expensive offering with qualities that were higher than the price would suggest. So I ordered one.

Today it arrived and I immediately put it on my a6500 and took about 100 shots. Some of my son in his karate class, some outside in the night sky. All of the pictures came out sharp and I was very pleased with the contrast and color. The Sigma 56mm f1.4 I've been using is a very good lens. It appears that this Sony 85mm f1.8 is also a very good lens. I intend to use it for events like weddings or church events, and for family portraits.

I have only one gripe. I have a Sony a6500 body, and a Sony a6400 body. This lens, on the a6500, has room for my fingers between the camera grip and the lens. However on the a6400 that gap is just a bit smaller and my fingers do not fit so well. It's not a deal killer for me, but if you have fat fingers (mine are average) you may want to try the lens before buying it to see if it fits your hand.

I highly recommend this lens.

8 people found this helpful

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Rob

Fantastic lens for the price, it's worth the extra money to buy this over manual-only lenses

Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2018

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

First my wife and I had tried a Rokinon prime 85mm F1.4 e-mount lens which had nice quality glass and the pictures were sharp however it's exclusively manual, the camera has to be put in without lens mode to take a picture and the camera has no idea what settings the lenses actually on. So we returned it and bought this lens

My wife and I are avid photographers, though not professional. We're running this lens on a Sony α6000, which is an APS-C sensor so this full-frame 85mm actually functions like a 120mm or something around there. the reason we got a full frame lens with so that when we upgrade in the future to a full frame camera we will still be able to utilize the lenses.

The lens has auto focus, built-in stabilization (only usable with most Sony cameras, not all e-mount cameras), and some other features. The 67 mm lens is a good size and let's in ample light especially with an aperture of 1.8. The glass is very good quality pictures are sharp and the bokeh is smooth and symmetrical. If you're planning on taking pictures of subjects that are moving at any point in time having something where you can use continuous autofocus and stabilization, like this lens had, is absolutely worth the additional price you pay over other manual-only prime lenses. I've attached some photos so you can see the quality of the lens, there's a variety of dog photos and people photos both stills and in-action. We've only had it for a short time so I cannot speak to the long-term durability of it however the lens feels very sturdy and all the components feel tight, snug, and smooth. Sony definitely did a good job on this lens. Being able to lower the aperture 1.8 really does wonders for taking pictures in low-light scenarios, being able to keep your shutter speed fast and your ISO low compared to most standard lenses where their aperture only goes to 3.5 or 4.

47 people found this helpful

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Angela Chin

Great Portrait Lens

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2023

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

Another great lens by Sony. I use this for a lot of portrait photography, mostly outdoors. An awesome lens at a reasonable price. It's smaller and lighter than the Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM that costs three times as much, and this f/1.8 lens performs as well or better! The image sharpness is impressive, the AF system performs well including in low light and the size and weight of this lens invite long-term use. The low price seals the deal.

2 people found this helpful

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Tig

Excellent 85mm lens! 🙌

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2020

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

Though just an aspiring Sony Artisan (wink), I love photography and the thrill I’ve had utilizing this lens with my a6000. This review is my personal opinion based on my experience using this lens for about 6 months now.

I purchased it after reading through a lot of reviews to understand what this lens can deliver in terms of the scope of what I’m after: a riveting 85mm portrait lens that can also be pushed for beauty photography. I'm satisfied with its performance.

The A6000 has been my primary camera for nearly 3 years. In terms of lenses, the only other that has given me almost as much gratification in terms of portraits as this one, is the Sony E 50mm F/1.8 OSS.

Besides tech specs you’ll undoubtedly find in other reviews, I chose this because of my love for the effects it provides that I'll outline below.

Weight and Feel: This 85mm packs a powerful focus range and the ability to fit your entire subject and surrounding scene in the frame — yet it’s still relatively light and non-obtrusive on my a6000.

Buttery Bokeh or Crisp Dimension: Being a portrait photographer and content creator (@tigstudios on Instagram) there are many times where I’ll want to shift styles quickly for the same subject. This lens easily adapts to let the subject fill the frame with creamy smoothness even in tack-sharp focus. It can just as quickly fill out very round bokeh effects in the background that let your subject pop when you’d like to frame the surrounding and still punch up your subject right in-camera before you’ve ever culled to edit.

Its compression is flattering to the subject while still letting me work relatively close to them or pulled back for more of a scene. The benefit of this 85mm prime is its beautiful wider aperture, which paired with the a6000 is a killer combo for even low light situations. (*Surf shot is straight out of the camera.)

It’s also sharper and lighter than my zoom.

So far I have no cons. After 6 months of enjoying it I feel like I’m just getting started seeing what it can do.

Happy shooting!

12 people found this helpful

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Daniel R. Riggs

Great lens at a fair price

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2017

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I have been using this lens on a Sony a7 body.

After about a month with the lens, I want to add my name to the list of owners that are happy with this lens.

The lens is sharp from wide open with relatively neutral colors and contrast. It lacks the micro contrast that the Zeiss lenses are known for, but this can be added in post processing to a degree. I actually prefer this approach for portraits and feel that this makes this a better portrait lens than the Batis 85mm. I also think the broken is slightly better, but it is similar in look to the Batis in that regard from the photos I have seen.

The 85 GM is a better portrait lens if you need nicer rendering and bokeh, but I think this lens wins for versatility. Autofocus is very fast, even on the older bodies. It might be my fastest lens for focusing, even though my fe 28 and zeiss 55 are very close and focus great as well.

The only weakness seems to be in strong backlight, where the lens loses contrast, and with CA in certain situations.

It's not perfect, but a really strong performing lens and the best option for most shooters in this focal length in my opinion.

27 people found this helpful

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Lance

Excellent, competitive portrait lens at a great price.

Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2017

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I was pretty surprised by the quality of this lens after not being overly impressed with the other "budget" Sony FE offering, the 50mm F1.8. Very sharp wide open (not as "clinical" as lenses like the Sonnar 55mm, which is fine with me), and great color and contrast. Bokeh overall is very smooth, though if anything, it has a tendency to be just a little bit busy with a complex backdrop. The only real weakness that I've been able to find with this lens seems to be sun flare performance, which isn't great in most extreme conditions, as there is some ghosting at times. On the bright side, if you're using this as a portrait lens as many will, it shouldn't be too hard to avoid those extreme situations. That minor issue aside, I think this lens has made it much more difficult to justify twice the cost for the 85mm Batis or GM lenses. Though this lens still isn't exactly cheap, it's rated better than the Batis and close to the GM by many metrics. Do yourself a favor and save some money by getting this lens instead!

4 people found this helpful

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ct

Too much shallow depth of field for portraits, too little shallow depth of field for Art. And Not good for indoors with a6500.

Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2018

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

used on a a6500. intended for family photography.

An amazing lens for the price point, but Do you need it or really want it? I think the real answer is No for most cases, and specially No for APSC (1,537 crop factor thus a 2,361 smaller pixel array (sensor) area).

1) The Noise in an a6500:
The lens will have the field of view of a 130mm FF lens on a FF camera, that is: around 19 degrees (18,86). With that you will be far from your subject (and that's what I wanted so as to take natural family member photos) but the a6500 noise levels in indoors means that you have to use a flash in any case.

I was exposing wide open and having to use ISO 2500 without flash for 1/30 exposure-time with artificial lighting (cfl light in a house). My subject is very white skinned and the walls are painted with a light color too, anything darker and you will have tremendous noise at 2500 (ISO 3200 is already unusuable). With some day light I was trying with underexposing at ISO 320 1/60 f2 and then pumpin up in Phase One but it was simply not enough and I usually ended up with out of focus subject (af-s) and considerable noise after adding 3 EVs.

2) Too far away for the pop up flash (and even for a camera mounted flash) ... It'd require a more complex (and expensive) lighting setup:
Being too far away means that the bounced light from the pop up flash ( I was using bouncing cards) is only enough to expose at iso 1600, 1/60, f1.8, requiring iso2500 in some occasions. So no natural photographs, I mean you have to set the subject still and ready her for the flash (which is found annoying) and yet the noise levels were really not that much better.

The distance at which you have to place yourself means that if you want to keep the ISO at 800 or less and have your subject at ease (i.e no ultra powerful camera mounted flash that is annoying) you will have to use umbrellas with diffused lights and an HSS setup ! and that means the lens, in combination with a6500, is not a good option for indoor photography becasue it'd require much investment and equipment so as to just take normal family moments.

3) The depth of field at F1.8
On the screen (didn't print anything)
The eyes of the subject will be on focus; The tip of the nose, the ears won't be. The frontal part of the hair will be on focus but the backside of the hair (the hair over the shoulders) won't be. With that focal distance and that aperture you will have very little of your subject on focus, so for capturing the way your loved one is, 85mm F1.8 is a horrible choice; You would have to use 85mm F5.6 (or f4 at max) but like I said the noise levels will make that difficult for indoors with a crop camera.

Now, if you want to create artistic depictions, the shallow depth of field created by ANY 85mm f1.8 will be too little! the differences on focus are kind of there when you look at the image without zooming in, so if you want to make a point by exalting a human facial feature and that focusing/defocusing being apparent for a image being watched without zooming in, then you will have to: use a larger aperture. So I think you'd need (for an evident artistic depitction like the eyes on focus and the rest out of focus) an 85mm 1.2 or 1.0 and sit closer to the subject (I was capturing half the torso, the face and some surroundings... sitting closer will mean capturing only the face)... So, sony doesn't offer 1.2 or 1.0 in that focal length so you'd need metabones v and canon L lenses but then it works for photos only and not for video.

===================
So to sum up:
===================
1. Don't buy the 85mm 1.8 for crop cameras (like a6500) unlike what every one else says due to:
- High noise levels for an a6500 for indoors settings with absence of some natural light.
- Distance to the subject makes a complicated artificial lighting and HSS system mandatory. (leaving out options like pop up lash, camera mounted flash)
- Too little shallow depth of field for artistic portraits.
- Too much shallow depth of field for natural human portraits.

2. for Full frame (didn't have a ff body) I suppose you could cope with it only with a camera mounted flash at F4 (if your indoor subject is ok with flashing)
- If you didn't want too much shallow depth of field you could use it as an 2.8 (which is a waste because lens is sharp wide open) and raise the ISO to 5000 on your a9 (or upcoming a7iii ?) maybe even at F4 with iso 6400 without flash. High Megapixel cameras have very similar noise levels to the a6500, only 24MP (and less) FF cameras will provide better snr performance at iso 3200 - 6400 for indoor photography.
- For family member portrais I think the 55mm 1.8 (even a 50mm at 2.8) in a ff would be a better choice as the Shallow depth of field will be much much lower than the 85mm 1.8 mounted on the a6500...

- so this lens for full frame: I kind on lean towards not buying it but I might change my mind if an upcoming a7iii proves to be a performant at high ISO.

veridict: Item Returned for full refund to Amazon!
moral: Don't believe youtube reviewers that much. lens is really really good and silent AF nevertheless but I find No Real World Use for it! really! nor for portraits nor for astrophotography (yes that Focal length is used for astrophotography as there are nebulas and other things) ... (for astro I would pick a 1.4 manual instead which should be 300 USD cheaper)

22 people found this helpful

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Manu

Awesome!

Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2024

Style: Lens OnlyVerified Purchase

I got it for the best price. Have been looking out for this product for a while now and grabbed it with 15% off, which I think is pretty decent.

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