p.9 #1 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
Donbioh wrote:
I am a little bit surprise, Dustin found the bokeh from the Sigma 85 DN a little bit softer and better:
"I would say that this is still an area where I would slightly favor the Sigma DN, however, as I feel like the bokeh is just a little softer."
I am not sure, if I should switch from Sigma 85 DN to 85 GM II....
I think a reasonable approach to this is that if you need better AF and no distortion, then GM II is a worthy upgrade over the Sigma.
On the other hand, GM I with a current gen body did better on AF front then 50/1.4GM in a recent test here...
p.9 #7 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
Dj R wrote:
The GM II will be much appreciated (at minimum) by anyone shooting sport, video, portrait into the sun
For portraits in the sun, the glow of the mark I is really desirable. I have the mark ii on pre order just in time for fall portrait season but I'm super on the fence about canceling it and being $2k richer based on what I've seen thus far.
p.9 #8 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
I've been looking for comparisons between I and II to see if I'd want to buy a II lens (I don't own a I, but I rented one and really liked it, except for the AF speed). ?si=DidCFb1KHIrgSCj0&t=438 has one image for comparison, but the images aren't normalized to the same brightness, so it feels a bit like microphone audio comparisons that don't normalize the volume. Even so, I think I'd like the I image better even if they were the normalized to the same brightness. In the test image, I do like the sharpness of the II and don't like the fringing in the I, but if the background were busier, I think (?) the fringing would be a lot less noticeable to me personally and the things I like less about the II would be more apparent.
I watched a bunch of reviewers on YT and most said that the II is strictly better, but it doesn't seem like that to me from the few comparison images I've seen. The II seems technically superior and I'm sure it scores better when you look at lp/mm or whatever but I'm a pretty casual photographer and, except for the AF, the ways in which the II is superior aren't important to me and I wonder if the updated lens has lost the look I really loved in the original. I'm not in a rush to buy another lens, so I'll wait until there are more comparison images out there to decide if I want to pick up the updated version.
p.9 #10 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
cheapskate wrote:
I've been looking for comparisons between I and II to see if I'd want to buy a II lens (I don't own a I, but I rented one and really liked it, except for the AF speed). ?si=DidCFb1KHIrgSCj0&t=438 has one image for comparison, but the images aren't normalized to the same brightness, so it feels a bit like microphone audio comparisons that don't normalize the volume. Even so, I think I'd like the I image better even if they were the normalized to the same brightness.
I watched a bunch of reviewers on YT and most said that the II is strictly better, but it doesn't seem like that to me from the few comparison images I've seen. I'm not in a rush to buy another lens, so I'll wait until there are more comparison images out there....Show more →
The sad truth is that no youtuber can say that GM II is worse (in some regards) than GM I because they won't get any Sony lens to review anymore...
p.9 #12 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
j4nu wrote:
The sad truth is that no youtuber can say that GM II is worse (in some regards) than GM I because they won't get any Sony lens to review anymore...
It's been this way since the Ken Rockwell days lol. No such thing as a bad lens review.
This is why places like FM have always been so valuable.
p.9 #13 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
Not sure why everyone is so down on this lens lol 😂
Is it because it isn’t 1.2?
I own the original version. Does it render well? Yes. But in every other metric, it’s pretty average. Particularly in terms of AF and chromatic aberration
If this forum is any indication, those of you guys hoping to pick up the version one on the cheap, might not be able one that cheap since they seem to be so prized.
Personally, I’m looking forward to getting my version II
p.9 #16 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
robert614 wrote:
I own the original version. Does it render well? Yes. But in every other metric, it’s pretty average. Particularly in terms of AF and chromatic aberration. If this forum is any indication, those of you guys hoping to pick up the version one on the cheap, might not be able one that cheap since they seem to be so prized.
I suspect most people with agree with the YouTubers and won't be excited about the old version. I agree with you that the old version is average in many ways. The resolving power link that was just posted shows that the old GM lens isn't even that much better than the non-GM Sony 85. Ceteris paribus, I'll take a lens with better resolution, but considering how good an average lens is today, it just doesn't matter to me that much and that's true of all the technical improvements other than AF.
I still use an adapted Canon 200 f/2.8 that I picked up for $50 a few years ago. No doubt it's technically inferior to any native Sony lens I could get, but it's good enough for my pedestrian purposes (of course the AF is fairly poor, much worse than the original 85 GM, but it was $50 used and not $1000, so I'll give it a pass on that).
To me, this is a bit like car shopping. Modern cars are absurdly fast. Non-performance cars often post 5s 0-60 times (e.g., the X5 has a measured 5.1s 0-60 with rollout, 4.8s as usually reported, and the plug-in hybrid is 4.2s with rollout, 3.9s as usually reported). Someone might ask why I don't want one of the performance models, which is technically superior in almost every way, and they cost more and have worse gas mileage and worse reliability and the performance models. The performance of the boring old slow models is plenty for me and they're better in dimensions I really care about. Back when cars were posting 8s 0-60 times, I would go for the performance model of a car to get the technical improvements, but cars are now plenty fast for me. Likewise for the 85 GM II if it's technically superior in nearly every way but the rendering is, I won't even say worse, but let's say less to my taste.
p.9 #17 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
Fair enough. The original does render beautifully. I guess my follow up question would be how many of you guys that love the original lens still own one?
My impression from reading this thread is the majority have sold yours off. If you prize the rendering of the lens so much, I’m curious why you got rid of yours in the first place.
I’m really not that enamored with mine, but I still own the one I bought 5-6 years ago
p.9 #19 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
1. Why are so many people "down" on this lens here?
Half of the folks here will still buy it. Half will not, and that particular half makes a lot of noise.
2. Why are a fair amount of influencers on YT "down" on this lens?
>Well let's be honest, they are not saying anything bad about it.
>They are saying it's amazing, but it's not 1.2. And most folks in this space want a 1.2, it's not hard to figure that out. And cost isn't an issue for them anyway.
3. Everyone knew the rendering wouldn't be the same as the I. I'm not certain Sony intentionally made the version I to be a slow focusing, painterly lens. It just sort of happened. I don't think the 24/35/50/135 GM clan are painterly, like the 85 1.4 I or the 58G or the 104E. They just aren't. So why did folks believe the 85 1.4 II would be? Sony is putting out Sigma type glass, sort of clinical. Amazingly sharp. Insane AF ability. Great builds and features. Compact, for the most part smaller than the competition.
4. Sony will eventually give us an 85/105 that is $2,500 and bokehlicious. And it won't AF as well as the 85 GM II, and how many of you will buy it? Not sure. But it'll come. For now, they needed to give us an 85mm version of the 50 1.4 GM.
5. How many of you bought the 50 GM 1.2? How many of you complained that it wasn't 1.4 at that time? The majority of you are happily purchasing the 50 1.4 GM over the 50 1.2 GM.
I just feel as if you can't always please everyone. This reminds me of the 50 1.2 GM launch, everyone wanted it to be 1.4. So it's backwards. Perhaps it just makes more sense that so many are annoyed that the 85 isn't 1.2 b/c it's an 85? So the 85 should be 1.2 b/c it's a portrait lens, more of a specialty lens? I can see that. For me, I like an 85 for both portrait AND sport, so I'm psyched. I have heard this AF is like the 135 GM which is so good for sport.
Do we have any reason to believe that it will ship sooner than the promise date (USA)
p.9 #20 · Sony 85mm f/1.4 GM II Announced—Pre-Orders Now Open!
The price is just very high for an 85mm 1.4. The competition that didn't exist with the GM I back then is now there. And the comparatively high price may be a reason for some not to buy the 85 GM II.
The 85mm GM II I ordered will be delivered tomorrow, I'm curious to see whether it will prevail against my Sigma 85mm DN...
