Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony SAL-85F14Z 85mm f1.4 Carl Zeiss Planar T Coated Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera

The sharpness creamy bokeh are unmatched by any other alpha mount lens. The auto clutch is a fine addition, since this lens has some heft to it, so you'll find yourself balancing the camera by the lens with your left hand. When it is in AF, the focusing ring doesnt turn. Nice. The colors are reproduced as true as any glass on the market. My only issue is minor, I wish the lens hood had a filter window, similar to the 70200SSM.
Very fast focusing even in low light, but to really get the most out of it, mount it on the A700. It does tend to lag a tad in low light when mounted on the KM 7D.

You'll forget the hit to your pocketbook as soon as you print your first shot!

I am astonished by this lens, as well as its sibling the 135mm f/1.8 lens Sony SAL-135F18Z 135mm f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera. Each lens is razor sharp at its widest aperture. A discussion of this lens, as well as of the Minolta 85mm f1.4 lens, may be found at the Photozone site. Compared to the Minolta lens, this lens is sharper and exhibits less vignetting, although it does exhibit slightly more chromatic aberration but to no serious extent.

This lens is phenomenal. I was a bit hesitant about purchasing it simply due to price tag, but with a daughter on the way and with the sale of some other equipment, I was able to make it happen. This lens is amazing. My daughter is 3 months old now and I have taken 100s of professional quality photos.

Pros:
- Razor sharp.
- Fantastic colors.
- Amazing bokeh.

Cons:
- Heavy (which I consider a pro, due to the excellent build quality)

I highly recommend this lens. I also have the zeiss 16-80mm, and the sony 100mm 2.8. While both are great lenses, the 85mm zeiss rarely leaves my camera anymore.

Sony's Zeiss Planar 85mm/1.4 is among the sharpest lenses I've ever seen. I've long been a fan of Zeiss medium format glass - particularly the Zeiss lenses for the Contax 645. Not only is this lens incredibly sharp, but somehow even captures a "medium format" look and feel.

Also recommended are Sony's Zeiss 24-70mm f2.8 Sony 24 -70mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T Zoom Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Cameras and Zeiss 135/1.8 lenses Sony SAL-135F18Z 135mm f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar T Telephoto Lens for Sony Alpha Digital SLR Camera in an growing line-up of amazing Sony flagship lenses.

Although this fine lens is optically based on the famous Contax Carl Zeiss 85mm f1.4, its digital performance is more reminiscent of a medium telephoto lens, than that of a fast portrait (short telephoto) lens since its 35mm equivalent focal length is nearly 130mm. I was able to handle it at this year's Photo Plus East, the annual photography and digital imaging trade show held at New York City's Javitts Center, and was impressed with its overall handling, especially its swift, almost silent, autofocusing. Having used Zeiss lenses for more than fifteen years, I have no doubt that this new lens is as optically superb as its manual focus equivalent that's available now for Nikon F-Mount 35mm SLR cameras (The new Zeiss ZF (Nikon F-Mount) 85mm f1.4 Planar lens is optically superior to the earlier Contax version that I own.). This lens - and other current and future Zeiss lenses for the Sony Alpha system - is most likely being assembled by Sony at either its own lens manufacturing plant - or Tamron's (a wholly owned subsidary of Sony) - at least some of the components, especially its lens elements are being shipped from Zeiss's Oberkochen, Germany headquarters - under strict Zeiss supervision, including quality control.