Viltrox FE 85mm f/1.4 Pro Review: Sharpness and Character at a Low Cost

An 85mm f/1.4 lens is my all-time favorite piece of glass. If I only had to pick one lens, it would be this focal length and aperture. The field of view feels natural to me as a walk-around lens, and the shallow depth of field and good low-light performance make it quite versatile. Sure, the f/1.2 versions are very dynamic, but I prefer the smaller size and lighter weight that an 85mm f/1.4 gives me. All this is to say that when the Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 Pro came into my possession, I was excited to try it out.

Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 Pro Review: How It Feels

Unlike the Lab lenses from Viltrox, this 85mm Pro has a much more basic and traditional body design, and I much prefer it. The Lab lenses use an LCD panel that shows aperture and distance to focus which is visually impressive but they also have a poorly indexed aperture ring. The Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 Pro goes back to a classic aperture ring that changes in third-stop increments. It can also be set for smooth rotation if you prefer it for video work.

The front of the lens has a standard bayonet-style lens hood and takes 77mm filters. There is a smooth-turning manual focus ring and a customizable button on the lens as well. The lens also has an AF/MF selector switch and is ruggedly built with full-weather sealing. There is also a built-in USB-C port under the lens mount for any needed firmware updates.

This particular 85mm weighs about 28.2 ounces (800 grams), so it is in keeping with my desire for a compact walk-around lens but is slightly heavier than the competition. There is a dual voice-coil motor that drives the lens elements quickly and I didn’t have any issues keeping up with the action.

Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 Pro Review: How It Shoots

Flare resistance is very good on the Viltrox 85mm, with only a little bit of ghosting in the scene, which is present even when the aperture is stopped down. I did not notice any washed-out areas, and when shooting toward bright lights for backlit portraits and sunsets, the lens performed well. There is a little bit of longitudinal chromatic aberration (LoCA) when shooting at wider apertures that needs to be looked out for. This causes a color fringing in the foreground and background areas that fall out of focus. It’s not a terrible result by any stretch, but you will see a little bit.

The bokeh is going to be a big consideration for a fast 85mm lens like this. This lens can achieve a very shallow depth of field, and cheaper lenses tend to sacrifice nice bokeh in order to come under budget. The Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 has some very interesting bokeh and in some situations, it even has a very classic-looking character to it. At f/1.4, there is a strong cat’s eye effect to the specular highlights and it creates a swirly kind of look to the images. This is almost a pseudo-Petzval effect, and it’s quite lovely.

Stopping the lens down gives us smooth transitions across the planes of focus, and backgrounds don’t have an overly harsh look to them. Specular highlights do have a slight soap bubble character but are clean and free of onion rings. Overall, the Viltrox isn’t going to give the refined experience of the Sony G-Master 85mm f/1.4 II, but it does have some interesting character, and I really like the results for the money.

This also happens to be an incredibly sharp lens. Detail at f/1.4 is excellent and only gets slightly better in terms of contrast when stopping down the aperture. The corners are also impressive: at f/1.4, there is a little bit of vignetting, but the detail is excellent, even in the more extreme corners. Stopping the lens down brought a little more contrast and exposure out of the corners, but the lens is sharp regardless of where you focus it. I also checked the lens breathing, which manifests as a change in the field of view when focusing from near to far. There is definitely some present, but if you were doing video work at regular portrait distances and pulled from one subject to another, you wouldn’t notice much shift.

The Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 Pro Is My New Favorite on E-Mount

So we have a lens that focuses quickly and delivers sharp results. It is also well-corrected and has interesting bokeh. I traveled with this lens to Santiago, Chile, and appreciated how compact it was, too. The weight isn’t off-putting but it is a little heftier than the Sony 85mm f/1.4 G-Master. I’m pretty excited about a lens that has few flaws, an interesting look, a rugged build, and all for only $599.

The value for the dollar is amazing here in a time when prices just seem to only go up and the “Pro” moniker on this lens certainly lives up to its name. The only thing I don’t like about this lens is the fact that it is only available for Sony E-mount. I think many RF and Z users would love to get this kind of quality for this low of a price.

Are There Alternatives?

The Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 is an awesome lens, but it gives up a stop of light and costs the exact same money. The G Master 85mm f/1.4 II is unparalleled in this range with some of the best optics and bokeh you can buy. However, you really have to pay a big price to get it. The Sigma 85mm f/1.4 gives similar results with very clean bokeh, but it will also run you more than twice the price.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. If you have an E-mount camera and want a good 85mm portrait lens, the Viltrox 85mm f/1.4 Pro is a no-brainer for the price.