The 85mm shootout: comparing seven lenses from $99 to $4,500

We love the 85mm for portraiture, and so do lens manufacturers it seems, with literally dozens of different 85mm prime lenses on the market.

It can be bewildering to know which is the best option, so this new video from Matt Granger is particularly useful. He compares seven 85mm lenses from different manufacturers. All offer apertures between f/1.4 and f/1.8, and they range in price from the entry-level to the seemingly astronomical.

The lenses tested include:

• Opteka 85mm f/1.8 ($99.95USD)
• Lensbaby Velvet 85mm f/1.8 ($499.95USD)
• Mitakon Zhongyi Speedmaster 85mm f/1.2 ($739.95USD)
• Tamron SP 85mm f/1.8 Di VC USD ($749USD)
• Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art ($1,199USD)
• Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G ($1,596.95USD)
• ZEISS Otus 85mm f/1.4 Apo Planar T* ZF.2 ($4,490USD)

All lenses were tested on a Nikon D850 both indoors and out. The test started indoors with a stripbox on the left and a softbox on the right, before moving outdoors. All images indoors were shot at f4 except for the lensbaby where the aperture couldn't be changed, and all images outdoors were shot at the widest aperture of each lens. Here are the results from the outdoors shoot:

If you want to check out the results for yourself in high res, you can get the full-res JPEG images on Granger's website here.