A couple more shots..and another crop....
This lens is awesome...Pretty much glued to my a7rii, Sold my Batis for $850...I prefer the FE and the $250..The AF is SOLID on the a7rii...The sharpness still wow's me...Very happy camper here.
Got home to Sony late today. Nice build and very light and nice size. I did check the AF in the dark and it seems to open up first to it looks like 2.8 than goes back to working aperture. So looks like what I'm after. Have to say the manual focus on it has some feel to it. So that for me is a big bonus. Hopefully I'll get out soon and run some tests
Well, the local pro shop has a few of the Sony 85/1.8 in stock, so I took some test pics with the display sample on my A7RII, and I must admit I was disappointed.
My shots were effectively focused at infinity (~50m) using 100 magnification LiveView and hand held (but the shutter speed was quite high).
Subject was a building back-lit by the bright high overcast sky.
Central sharpness wide open was pretty good, but anything off-center was not very good. I did not re-focus for the edges/corners.
Stopping down to f/4 improves things a lot, but the edges and far corners never really get excellent (or even very good).
Pulled out my 85/4 ZM for the same shots and the results were excellent at f/4. About equal to the Sony in the center, but way way way better in the edges and far corners.
Perhaps the display copy of the Sony 85/1.8 has some issues or this lens is optimized for shorter focus distances or there is a tremendous amount of field curvature or it didn't like the bright background of the sky.
Anyone else have test shots for subjects at farther distances?
- John
EDIT: Or I screwed up the focusing on the 85/1.8, but I doubt it.
Perhaps I'll go back and test a new from the box sample to see if I get the same results.
Pictures later
Yea don't sound right to me. I only shot a few images been processing all morning but it looks very good. Hope to get out soon to test. I have a lot of computer time and projects to get done.
First the overall scene:
Focused by 100% Live View on the louvers just below the top edge of the building.
Then f/1.8 Center, f/1.8 Left Edge, f/1.8 Upper Left Corner
Well, as you can see, in this not fully scientific test at 50m distance with strong/bright high contrast back-lighting, the Sony 85/1.8 is OK in the center wide open and not so hot off-center. Stopped down the center improves to super sharp while the edges and corners are not bad, but also not 100% sharp.
In contrast the 85ZM wide open is as good in the center, but noticeably better in the edges and far corners than the Sony at f/4.
Hopefully these tests are not the norm due to sample variation (or I've screwed them up someway) as I'd really like to have this lens for my low-light candid portrait lens, but it needs to be sharper than this off-center wide open for me to be satisfied. I'd also like it to be extremely sharp at f/4 for landscape uses, which for this test and particular copy it appears to not be super sharp.
Though slightly shorter than the 85ZM, it of course is much larger in diameter. Feels solid and the manual focus action was pretty darned good.
I may try this again tomorrow or sometime this week under different conditions. I may also try it with a person at much closer distances to see if things improve.
It is definitely sharper in the portrait range than it is at infinity at wide apertures. Mine is extremely sharp across most of the frame when focused from close up to around 5-10 feet, and then gets a touch softer further out, though it sharpens up very nicely at smaller apertures.
jhinkey wrote:
Well, as you can see, in this not fully scientific test at 50m distance with strong/bright high contrast back-lighting, the Sony 85/1.8 is OK in the center wide open and not so hot off-center. Stopped down the center improves to super sharp while the edges and corners are not bad, but also not 100% sharp.
In contrast the 85ZM wide open is as good in the center, but noticeably better in the edges and far corners than the Sony at f/4.
Hopefully these tests are not the norm due to sample variation (or I've screwed them up someway) as I'd really like to have this lens for my low-light candid portrait lens, but it needs to be sharper than this off-center wide open for me to be satisfied. I'd also like it to be extremely sharp at f/4 for landscape uses, which for this test and particular copy it appears to not be super sharp.
Though slightly shorter than the 85ZM, it of course is much larger in diameter. Feels solid and the manual focus action was pretty darned good.
I may try this again tomorrow or sometime this week under different conditions. I may also try it with a person at much closer distances to see if things improve.
Check out the infinity crops on Bastian's review at the Phillip Reeve blog; they seem sharper than this insofar as I can tell given different material etc. Certainly I would use the ZM for landscape ahead of the sample you have tested!. Hopefully it's damn sample variation again...
Did a quick session today with one of my sister's friends, who wanted a shot to use for business. The FE 85 didn't have any trouble. I think out of the 30 shots or so I took with the 85, only one missed focus (slightly to the rear). No issues with hunting.
Yeah, assuming all samples are like this one (which they may not be), I would not take this for travel as I tend to do a lot of landscapes as well as candids.
Will try another sample if I can.
Jeff I actually ran across two lenses that are really good at infinity corners My Firin 20 and the Tammy 35 1.8. But I agree F4 maybe more at F6.3 or 8. Fun to find out though.
To those who had major AF problems - quick question: is your camera on the latest firmware? I just read another account of someone who was having serious problems with the lens, and then they updated their camera firmware and all was fixed.
