FE 85mm F1.4 GM II

I purchased this lens, twice, from amazon. I purchased it the first time at full price for a new lens, and I received a used one. It was dirty, and the person who returned it to amazon took no care in cleaning it. It looked like it was used at a beach, as it had beach sane in it. I returned it to amazon,, and told their customer service that it should not be resold. I then ordered it again. I received another used lens, but this time it had finger prints, dust, and hair on the lens. I called amazon to complain that I wanted a new lens. They could not guarantee me a new lens, and offered me a partial credit for buying this as used. Lens works fine, and I accepted the credit. This is the best portrait lens made by sony. Stunning pictures, sharp and fast focus, amazing subject compression that shrinks people’s noses into a cute bottom. It smooths out people’s faces from being fat into thin, hides imperfections in the face. It is a miracle lens. Then there is the magic from the 1.4, as it dissolves the background, so the the person is the only subject in the picture. Do not fret that this is not a F1.2, as the F1.4 from this lens does the job for depth of field. The lens is light, and compact for its features. You can trust this lens for perfect portraits. When I know that I will only be taking potraits of people, and that I have space to frame the image by walking around, this is my one-and-only lens for that shoot. I like to pair this with my 24-70 F2.8 GM2, and maybe my 50-150 F2 GM. I rarely use my 50MM F1,2 GM, or my 35MM F1.4 GM any more.

Absolutely love this lens! The quality of images, the weight and speed is all what’s needed.

This lens is incredible and was a huge upgrade over version 1 of this lens. The biggest upgrade was the focus speed and consistency. Typically with the v.1 lens I would have 10%+ of images out-of-focus, but with this lens it is very rare to have an image not tack-sharp. I can't recommend this lens enough!

Razor Sharp ! AF amazing now.

The lense is compact and works great. It should be a great lense for portrait and street photography. The shipment is really fast.

Expensive lens but in my opinion the quality justifies the price tag. I used it with a Sony A7rC and you can really see how sharp this lens is.

While I wish Sony would have put an 85 1.2 out there, there's probably not a better 85 1.4 out there. This was a good iteration of Sony's 85. Compared to the 85 1.4 GM1, it is everything they've marketed it to be. Believe the hype. However, if you don't need to max out on all of these - sharpness, weight, AF speed, then there are decent options out there. You have to decide. For my use case (sports), I wanted an 85 that could match the speed of 30 or 60fps on the a9III whilst as wide an aperture as possible for typically not so well lit gyms. If you're just shooting portraits though, and don't require that speed, you can certainly find other options that are nicer to your wallet. I owned the Sigma 85 1.4 art before this, and rented the Sony 85 1.4 GM 1. In order of (subjective) quality - I'd say the GMII is top, next would be the Sigma 85 1.4 Art (which can be had for far cheaper), then the Sony 85 1.4 GMI.

I waited for a few years for the new version of this amazing lens to come out. It didn't disappoint. Great quality, low weight and size. You won't regret your purchase.

qualité remarquable mais le sigma équivalent est un peu moins performant mais beaucoup moins cher. a confronter avec le cahier des charges

good

Summary: As Gerald Undone said “this is the lensiest of lenses”. I agree fully and will likely return it; having owned the previous gen 85mms from Sony, I’m just not seeing the value here give the price difference. If you buy this, it’s mostly to brag you have the newest and greatest sony lens at 85mm Review: It does exactly what you expect and nothing more. The AF is similar to the other GMs, the Bokeh is great (better than the older GM) but if you’re doing portraits and care that much about Bokeh just buy the son 90mm macro for half the price and more versatility, or the new sony 100mm macro and crank the bokeh protraits to the max (I find sharpness on the 100mm to come close and better than the 85mm older GM). Really, I think this lens was made to compete with third-parties like Sigma instead of competing with the older GM which I think led to Sony missing an opportunity to upsell their own customers here. There is very little reason you buy this over the old GM unless you absolutely love 80mm an can’t use larger AND you’re using this primarily for low light video (which is clearly what Sony tried to compete with the Sigma 85mm on here). That is such a narrow double use-case that I cannot recommend this lens to anyone and for the same price you can get the worlds best 100mm macro lens from Sony released this month (sep 2025). Zero flaws on this lens though, except the breathing we’ve all come to know and love (but breathes less than the older GM, but on par with the even older 1.8)

Das Objektiv ist eindeutig schärfer in der Abbildung als das Sony SEL-85F18, allerdings natürlich auch größer und schwerer. Ich besitze jetzt beide und konnte sie daher in Ruhe vergleichen. Dem Objektiv würde ich mindestens 4 Sterne, wenn nicht 5 geben, aber die Leistung von amazon war unterirdisch schlecht. Die Sendung kam aus England, was schon Wochen gedauert hat und dann war die Verpackung des Objektivs in einem Zustand, als ob sie jemand mutwillig zerrissen hate (bei einem eventuellem künftigen Verkauf extrem blöd). Ich habe mich wirklich sehr geärgert, wie ein so teurer Kauf abgewickelt wurde. Auch war ewiges Testen notwendig, dann wer weiß, in wessen Händen das Objektiv vorher war. Wäre das Objektiv überall und leicht zu beschaffen, hätte ich es wohl zurückgeschickt.