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Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

NJPhotographer
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

A few reviewers complained about the flare ... but they didn't use a lens hood.

Aug 28, 2024 at 07:44 PM

JohnJ
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Where are the MTF tests and comparison with the first version?

Where's Roger Cicala when we need him?

By the way, price in Australia, $2999 at DigiDirect

Edited on Aug 28, 2024 at 08:36 PM · View previous versions

Aug 28, 2024 at 08:18 PM

gocolts
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Tempting...but I couldn't justify this and the 50 1.2. They're both basically the same size, but the 50 gives me more flexibility and f/1.2 for low-light situations I sometimes use it in. Still tempting though...

Aug 28, 2024 at 08:25 PM

sonofjesse2010
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Any good comparisons with this vs the DG DN 1.4 and the 1.8 FE? Be a cool comparison.

Aug 28, 2024 at 10:34 PM

mojoh
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Does this new lens require software correction profiles (from the manufacturer) to look its best?

Aug 28, 2024 at 11:26 PM

LiveShots
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Tony Northrop compares GM1, GM2 and the Sigma here:

Aug 28, 2024 at 11:44 PM

PixiPhotography
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p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Aug 29, 2024 at 12:01 AM

PixiPhotography
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p.3 #8 · p.3 #8 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

LiveShots wrote:
Tony Northrop compares GM1, GM2 and the Sigma here:

Lol, I don't think anyone should take advice from that numpty. He has brand bias, might as well have it written on his forehead. His comparison videos are an absolute joke. I watched his video of the Z6 III vs A7IV vs R6II, and he was going over the video comparison. Never mentioned waveforms, codecs, zebras or anything relevant to video shooters. He never mentioned that unlike the Sony and Canon, the Nikon does not apply noise reduction to their RAW format hence the grainer/noiser file. Him and his wife have no technical inclination. Right after Northrups is Jared Polin, once again, another brand biased reviewer that makes no technical references, he just says "this one focuses better, thus its better". The reason I like PetaPixel, is because Chris goes in depth with the stills, AF, etc.. then Jordan gets into video and gives a pretty decent review about video. They don't hold back on criticizing any brand. If its got a flaw, they tell it as it is.

Edited on Aug 29, 2024 at 01:50 PM · View previous versions

Aug 29, 2024 at 12:03 AM

Daran
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p.3 #9 · p.3 #9 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

NJPhotographer wrote:
A few reviewers complained about the flare ... but they didn't use a lens hood.
The hood reduces the angles from which flare can happen, but it does not eliminate the issue. Some folks like shooting backlit subjects and the backlight can be very strong.

Aug 29, 2024 at 12:28 AM

Alan Parker
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p.3 #10 · p.3 #10 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

sonofjesse2010 wrote:
Any good comparisons with this vs the DG DN 1.4 and the 1.8 FE? Be a cool comparison.

I feel like videos are trying quite hard not to make that comparison at the moment

Edit: Found something in Spanish
Biggest difference seems to be a yellowish color cast on the Sigma and a slight difference in terms of FL. Looks like about a 2mm difference between the two.
By far the biggest perk of this new 85GMII is the XD linear motors that none of the competition have. If you want the fastest AF and the highest hit rate, I guess the 85GMII is the only option. I'm guessing for indoor sports? But if you just want to take portraits you can certaintly do that with other lenses. I recently saw an 85/1.8 listed for 250 euros, so no need to spend 2099 euros on this 85GMII if that's what you are after.

Aug 29, 2024 at 03:01 AM

Sundial
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p.3 #11 · p.3 #11 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

A quick look at samples shows that the lens is exceptionally sharp, but also reveals that it has less smooth bokeh than its predecessor.

I think Sony made an understandable trade-off here. It's possible they're saving the smoother and more bokehlicious rendering for an upcoming 85 1.2.

85 f/1.2 GM:

- Same size, volume and weight as the original 85 GM
- 77mm filter size
- 4 XD motors for blazingly fast AF
- Excellent sharpness wide open
- Magical smooth rendering
- $2,800 MSRP

Aug 29, 2024 at 06:20 AM

Alan Parker
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p.3 #12 · p.3 #12 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Sundial wrote:
85 f/1.2 GM:
- 77mm filter size

Wouldn't that have to be an 82mm? Nikon and Canon both have 82mm.

Aug 29, 2024 at 06:28 AM

j4nu
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p.3 #13 · p.3 #13 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Nice bokeh balls comparison / vignetting at:
https://youtu.be/q-r-lu2Escs?t=440

Aug 29, 2024 at 07:10 AM

Steve Spencer
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p.3 #14 · p.3 #14 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Sundial wrote:
A quick look at samples shows that the lens is exceptionally sharp, but also reveals that it has less smooth bokeh than its predecessor.

I think Sony made an understandable trade-off here. It's possible they're saving the smoother and more bokehlicious rendering for an upcoming 85 1.2.

85 f/1.2 GM:

- Same size, volume and weight as the original 85 GM
- 77mm filter size
- 4 XD motors for blazingly fast AF
- Excellent sharpness wide open
- Magical smooth rendering
- $2,800 MSRP

This would be the new 85 f/1.4 II but just more extreme. Take everything it does and turn it up to 11. In my view, that doesn't make sense, but it might be what they do. Who knows? I would prefer they take a different approach and at this focal length emphasize portraiture. I think that would be:

Perhaps even a bit bigger than current 85 f/1.4 but still under 900g/2 lbs.
82mm filter size at least and maybe even 86mm
4 XD motors is fine especially if they have to move big elements, but maybe they can get away with 2 XD motors
Not emphasizing sharpness wide open and allow some spherical aberrations, but still fairly sharp (MTFs at 90/80/60 percent contrast for 10, 20, & 40 lp/mm).
Lots of ED/anomolous partial dispersion glass to reduce axial CA
A fairly flat field (at least at portrait distances) out to at least 15mm from the center
A floating element design so that there is little loss in sharpness even approaching MFD for closer portraits
$2,400 price tag

Aug 29, 2024 at 07:15 AM

Sundial
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p.3 #15 · p.3 #15 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Alan Parker wrote:
Wouldn't that have to be an 82mm? Nikon and Canon both have 82mm.

Honestly I am not well educated on lens design and physical limitations, but I have read somewhere that having a 82mm front element is not a strict requirement for achieving f/1.2 aperture. Presumably, it all depends on the optical design.

For example, the Sony 50mm 1.2/GM has a 72mm filter size, while Canon and Nikon counterparts have 77mm and 82mm.

Aug 29, 2024 at 07:30 AM

Steve Spencer
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p.3 #16 · p.3 #16 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Sundial wrote:
Honestly I am not well educated on lens design and physical limitations, but I have read somewhere that having a 82mm front element is not a strict requirement for achieving f/1.2 aperture. Presumably, it all depends on the optical design.

For example, the Sony 50mm 1.2/GM has a 72mm filter size, while Canon and Nikon counterparts have 77mm and 82mm.

They could build an 85 f/1.2 with a 77mm filter size, but the smaller the opening at the front of the lens (and to some extent the longer the lens) the farther cat's eye shaped bokeh will extend towards the center of the frame. So if you want the bokeh circles in highlights to be rounder for more of the frame then you want a front element with a bigger diameter. This is a physical restraint you can't really get around, so it is a trade off between a smaller diameter for the front element and rounder bokeh circles for more of the frame.

Aug 29, 2024 at 07:41 AM

Justin Stone
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p.3 #17 · p.3 #17 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

If they could engineer the under corrected SA smooth transition dynamics at f1.2 that “flip” to a more clinical rendering by 1.8 or 2.0 I think that they’d have made the holy grail.

That’s a lot of waiting for a lens that probably won’t come though.

Still I think, as it stands, the rendering of this new lens is quite nice and the trade off for sharpness across the field (look at that center) is well worth it. The AF is a bonus.

Steve Spencer wrote:
This would be the new 85 f/1.4 II but just more extreme. Take everything it does and turn it up to 11. In my view, that doesn't make sense, but it might be what they do. Who knows? I would prefer they take a different approach and at this focal length emphasize portraiture. I think that would be:

Perhaps even a bit bigger than current 85 f/1.4 but still under 900g/2 lbs.
82mm filter size at least and maybe even 86mm
4 XD motors is fine especially if they have to move big elements, but maybe they can get away with 2...Show more →

Aug 29, 2024 at 07:50 AM

Steve Spencer
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p.3 #18 · p.3 #18 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

Justin Stone wrote:
If they could engineer the under corrected SA smooth transition dynamics at f1.2 that “flip” to a more clinical rendering by 1.8 or 2.0 I think that they’d have made the holy grail.

That’s a lot of waiting for a lens that probably won’t come though.

Still I think, as it stands, the rendering of this new lens is quite nice and the trade off for sharpness across the field (look at that center) is well worth it. The AF is a bonus.

I agree that such a lens may never be built and I am not waiting for it, but keep in mind SA is reduced as you stop down, so there should be less at f/1.8 or f/2.0 than at f/1.2. In terms of MTF a lens that is 90/80/60 percent contrast for 10/20/40 lp/mm at f/1.2 could be designed to be 95/88/75 percent contrast for 10/20/40 lp/mm at f/2, but could you do that while keeping distortion low, while keeping axial CA low, while keeping a flat filed, etc.? There are always a lot of balls to juggle when designing lenses, so I don't know if they can do it, but I would like to see it happen. To my eyes, Nikon has basically done what I am asking for with the Z mount 135 f/1.8 Plena, so I think it may be possible for Sony to do something similar with an 85 f/1.2 GM.

As for me, I will be pretty happy with the 85 f/1.4 GM version I for portraits. I have had the lens and really liked the output. I also have the Sony/Zeiss A mount 135 f/1.8 that I use on an LAEA-5 adapter instead of the 135 f/1.8 GM, and I am thinking about getting the Sigma 35 f/1.2 DG DN rather than the 35 f/1.4 GM. In all three cases I am making a similar decision and that would be fine with me. I do wish all three lenses had less axial CA and better AF, but otherwise they are very much what I am looking for.

Aug 29, 2024 at 08:05 AM

j4nu
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p.3 #19 · p.3 #19 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

So, looking at magic's and gerald's comparison to the first GM, optical vignetting / cats eyes are similar, aren't they?

Aug 29, 2024 at 09:16 AM

Ayoul
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p.3 #20 · p.3 #20 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!

j4nu wrote:
So, looking at magic's and gerald's comparison to the first GM, optical vignetting / cats eyes are similar, aren't they?

Looking at magic's video (what I was looking for), it's not entirely true. The new one has slightly more cat's eye than the old one. Not by a mile, but it visible in his short comparison.

Aug 29, 2024 at 09:35 AM

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