p.5 #1 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
I bought one directly from Sirui about 3.5 weeks ago. They are still doing the early-bird pricing and two extra filters (diffusion and UV) plus I was able to use a coupon to knock another 5% off. I don’t (and never have) do all these tests like you guys do, however, I did use it during my family trip recently and I love every single picture taken with it. If I ever take any non-family picture, I will share them here.
p.5 #2 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
I was looking for a smaller fast 85mm with rendering similar to the original 85mm GM, so I bought Guy's off the B&S board. I've had the Samyang 85mm F1.4 v1 an v2 and the Sigma 85 and the Sirui is closest to the GM IMO. It's slightly sharper wide open with a little less contrast in certain situations, but for the most part has the smooth GM rendering I am looking for.
I took the Sirui and GM on a recent bike ride to make some comparisons. These are straight from the camera, just resized to give a little idea of how each render.
ILCE-1SIRUI 85mm F1.4 FE lens85mmf/1.41/500s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1FE 85mm F1.4 GM lens85mmf/1.41/400s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1SIRUI 85mm F1.4 FE lens85mmf/1.41/125s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1FE 85mm F1.4 GM lens85mmf/1.41/125s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1SIRUI 85mm F1.4 FE lens85mmf/1.41/125s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1FE 85mm F1.4 GM lens85mmf/1.41/160s400 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1SIRUI 85mm F1.4 FE lens85mmf/1.41/320s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1FE 85mm F1.4 GM lens85mmf/1.41/320s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1SIRUI 85mm F1.4 FE lens85mmf/1.41/800s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1FE 85mm F1.4 GM lens85mmf/1.41/800s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1SIRUI 85mm F1.4 FE lens85mmf/1.41/800s100 ISO0.0 EV
ILCE-1FE 85mm F1.4 GM lens85mmf/1.41/800s100 ISO0.0 EV
p.5 #4 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
These are great, thanks!
The interesting thing to me is that in the central area the GM still seems to have a slight advantage, but in the corners the situation is sometimes reversed.
I'd expect it the other way around .
p.5 #5 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
The Sirui is slightly sharper in the center than the GM wide open with my copies. The GM edges are a little better. The Sirui has a slightly warmer cast as well.
j4nu wrote:
These are great, thanks!
The interesting thing to me is that in the central area the GM still seems to have a slight advantage, but in the corners the situation is sometimes reversed.
I'd expect it the other way around .
p.5 #6 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
I have written a few words about my copy of the Aurora 85/1.4 here earlier. I sent the lens to them along qith a descriptin of the problem and a couple of images. Sirui Europe (Berlin) quickly sent a replacement.
Judging from the language and time of day the mails were exchamged I suspect the customer service woman is in China.)
I took some images at a dark venue when listening to the Swedish singer songwriter Elin Sundberg. OK, not wide open and the background is dark so not much to judge here.
p.5 #7 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
cameraman72 wrote:
The Sirui is slightly sharper in the center than the GM wide open with my copies. The GM edges are a little better. The Sirui has a slightly warmer cast as well.
To be honest at this size, I don't really see the difference in sharpness, but can notice slight differences in bokeh if I switch between the images.
That might be due to slightly different framing though .
p.5 #8 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
cameraman72 wrote:
I was looking for a smaller fast 85mm with rendering similar to the original 85mm GM, so I bought Guy's off the B&S board.[...]
I took the Sirui and GM on a recent bike ride to make some comparisons. These are straight from the camera, just resized to give a little idea of how each render.
Thank you, comparison shots are always great! The Sony seems half a notch smoother in some situations but not another USD 700 and 300 grams better.
Heh. I suspected GMPhotography should sell his copy. But he kept it for over a month, not bad.;-)
p.5 #9 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
j4nu wrote:
To be honest at this size, I don't really see the difference in sharpness, but can notice slight differences in bokeh if I switch between the images.
That might be due to slightly different framing though .
You can't really tell the sharpness difference at these smaller sizes. The bokeh differences are very minor, IMO although I have a shot or two that it's a little more obvious when viewed at 100%. I'll upload some examples when I get a chance at 100% and it will be more obvious. I also set the sharpness to the lowest value by default for my OOC JPGs, so I do not know how much the sharpness setting affects the comparisons.
p.5 #10 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
Jonas B wrote:
Thank you, comparison shots are always great! The Sony seems half a notch smoother in some situations but not another USD 700 and 300 grams better.
Heh. I suspected GMPhotography should sell his copy. But he kept it for over a month, not bad.;-)
Yes, the bokeh is quite similar between the two lenses but I did notice the GM slightly smoother in some images. Not enough for me to keep the GM over the Sirui as I value the smaller size an weight more. I'm still testing the AFC, but my initial tests on joggers, bikers and cars seem pretty good. As for Guy, I was hoping for him to put the lens on B&S as I was interested in the lens and preferred to buy with known performance. I lucked out this time.
p.5 #15 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
For my needs, to my taste and allt hat I can say the Aurora 85/1.4 passed the "rendering test" above.
The Sony 85/1.4 GM original is a tad softer at some situations but not that much and certainly not USD 700 and 300 grams softer/nicer. Sorry for repeating myself.
I'll check the repository for any saved AF test images. I can forego those and say that AF speed is certainly fast enough for the usual use which for me is about people and portraits.
Fast running people and cars close to the camera and such is a problem but can be done if you accept lower hit rate.
p.5 #16 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
Now some running faces. As any half decent city Gothenburg, Sweden is hosting a half marathon race. This year it was sunny and I thought it would be a fun to check the Aurora 85/1.4 AF.
As you cab see the AF works but perhaps it doesn't work wonder. In some images the AF isn't up to the speed and so misses the eyes but still manages to provide close enough focus if not peeping the way we are doing here.
And yes, they are running. At this time the runners were about half way through the race. later most of them will slow down but here they were all jogging towards me.
p.5 #17 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
Why trying the Sirui Aurora 85/1.4?
My story goes like this:
When looking for a new 85mm lens I put up some criterias.
One of them was not exactly un-biased but more related to an opinion /had the lens been mentioned here and gethered any interest?)
The other criterias, or features, I was looking for were:
• Full frame
• 85mm
• AF
• Aperture ring
• f/1.4
By filtering the current offers at B&H I got this list:
Sony FE 85/1.4 GM ii USD 1800
Sigma 85/1.4 DG DN Art USD 1320
Sony FE 85/1.4 GM USD 1300
--------------------------------
Sirui Aurora 85/1.4, USD 500, 540 gram
Meike 85/1.4 AF, MK-8514FFSTM-E, USD 450, 735 gram
Excluding anything over USD 1000 or 600 gram left me with the Sirui Aurora 85/1.4. OK, a man gotta try something new sometimes, Sirui is not only about tripods anymore.
p.5 #18 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
The Sirui images at page top are much nicer than Sony's, but I'm accustomed to and partial to the out-of-focus treatment (I believe it's the HRI they use). Others will get there too, it takes time to undo the bokeh form pushed at the market, now embedded in the popular consciousness - 'big separation'. The Sirui's bokeh has greater linearity, depth cues, whereas the others just blur too much of it all out.
Not only about tripods, indeed. How about a set of lenses with interchangeable mounts - E, Z, RF, L?
These guys actually care about photographers' needs. And they know how to present products and provide lots of information and style in their PR material:
Bastian does his normal thorough job of reviewing the lens with lots of bokeh comparisons.
From his conclusions:
"I didn’t have very high hopes here.
In fact, I noticed some compromises that had been made when reviewing this lens. But interestingly not in the categories I would have expected. There is some focus shift (which is irrelevant when relying on the AF), the distortion rather high (but easily corrected) and it doesn’t perform great at f/1.4 at its minimum focus distance.
However: vignetting is same as other 85mm 1.4 lenses. Optical vignetting (cat’s eyes) is actually surprisingly low. Sharpness is generally good – certainly more than good enough for portrait applications. And bokeh is really, really nice.
The only aspects I actually weren’t happy with were the AF speed and consistency as well as flare resistance."
p.5 #20 · SIRUI AURORA 85mm F1.4 lens THOUGHTS/Lens Test
Thank you Steve, I had not seen that review earlier. The final words you quote above can be complimented by another quote a bit earlier in the same review:
"The Sirus 85mm 1.4 Aurora, at close distances shows even less optical vignetting than the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM and sometimes even shows higher contrast. Quite impressive for being the smallest lens in this comparison.
Don’t try to read too much into these tiny differences. To most people these lenses will look just the same and I wouldn’t mind shooting a wedding with either of them."
(From the multi image comparison with the 84/1.4 GM part.)
Having discovered about the same I agree with Bastian.
.