Can This Affordable 85mm Lens Keep Up With Professional Photographers' Demands?

A wide-aperture 85mm lens is always a popular choice for portrait photography, but such lenses can often run well north of $2,000. However, the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 lens promises a classic optic at a much more affordable price, and this excellent video review takes a look at if it can provide the sort of performance and image quality professionals still demand. 

Coming to you from Christopher Frost, this great video review takes a look at the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 lens. At $399, the AF 85mm f/1.8 is highly affordable, particularly compared to many other 85mm options, but it still comes with a variety of useful features, including:

  • One extra-low dispersion element and four elements manufactured from highly transparent glass for reduced aberrations and better color accuracy
  • One large-diameter aspherical element for reduced distortion and increased sharpness
  • HD Nano Multi-Layer Coating for reduced flares and ghosting and increased contrast
  • USB port for upgrading firmware
  • Rounded nine-blade diaphragm for smoother bokeh

Altogether, it looks like as long as you do not need lightning-fast autofocus, the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 is quite a decent performer at a great price. Check out the video above for Frost's full thoughts on the lens. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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4 Comments

No. Unless you get that 1 in a million cheap lens where the temperature and humidity were just right the day it was made, he planets were aligned just so and the machine operater had his tongue out. In this case, and only this case, does your cheap lens meet up to the demands of a pro.

I'm not saying you can't take pro level pics with a cheap lens. What I am saying is that you can't expect a cheap lens to consistantly perform like a pro lens. You get what you pay for and good glass doesn't come cheap.

There's nothing wrong with your Viltrox or 7artisans or Samyang for amateurs but for professionals give me a break. I'm assuming these brands provide some sort of incentive to pump up their products.

The Sony E mount has a number of reasonably priced portrait length lenses

Viltrox is moving in to fill a vacuum that exists with other mounts