Review on 📷 VILTROX 85mm F/1.8 Mark II STM: AF Auto Focus Lens for Sony E-Mount Cameras A7III, A7RIII, A7SII, A7II, a6500, a6400, a6300 by Phillip Hoover

I don't know how the hell Viltrox did it, but with this lens they have created a real gem. It looks well made, mostly metal (as far as I can tell) and feels pretty solid. It's also fairly heavy, but not so heavy that the A7-series chassis feels unbalanced. Autofocus is fast, generally fairly accurate, and quiet. It tends to yaw a bit in low light, especially at small apertures, but in most cases this isn't a huge issue. The picture quality is much better than I expected, especially in terms of the sharpness in the center of the picture. Wide open the image is pretty sharp, but cranking the aperture down to f/2.8 really gets super sharp. Even f/2.2 is significantly better than f/1.8. The color rendering suits me, but I don't attach much importance to it. Vignetting is noticeable up to around f/4 (or maybe 5.6), but it's not critical and can easily be corrected in post. Chromatic aberrations are surprisingly well controlled, even wide open. I bought this instead of the Sony 85mm and I'm damn glad I did.