Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT.

The very first review of the new Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 FE lens has been posted by Marc Alhadeff on SonyAlphaBlog. And the lens is surprisingly good:

The Viltrox 85mm F1.8 PFU RMBH (265 euros) is an excellent surprise and a superb lens for portrait :

Pros

• Very good to Excellent sharpness
• Beautiful color rendition 
• Very pleasing and soft blurry background ,
• Very good bokeh,
• Very low price ,
• Very good build quality,
• EXIF transmitted to the body,
• Aperture control via the body
• Strong vignetting but corrected via the Lightroom Zeiss Batis 85mm profile
• Good resistance to flare

Cons

• Manual lens, so not for fast action portrait
• CA when facing sun

For 265 euros , highly recommended !

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The new Viltrox Full Frame and manual focusing E-mount lenses are now available here:
Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT.
Viltrox 20mm f/1.8 at Amazon US, Amazon DE, Amazon UK, Amazon FR, Amazon ES, Amazon IT.

Marc Alhadeff from SonyAlphaBlog tested the new Sigma 56mm f/1.4 and concludes:

“The Sigma 56mm F1.4 DC DN Contemporary (430 euros) is (one of) the best lens available on Sony APSC and will do superb job for portraits. It is the equivalent of an 85mm F1.4 on a full frame cameras. During a blind test most people to whom I showed results thought photos were taken on a full frame cameras with an 85mm!”

Get the lens at [shopcountry 77454].

Lenstip also tested the lens and concludes:

It is another excellent optical instrument, offered at a sensible price; it shows that pricing of other producers of mirrorless devices is really over the top.

And here is the video review from Digidirect and Dunna Did It

The new and super razor sharp Voigtlander 110mm f/2.5 FE lens is in Stock for the first time at BHphoto.

Deals roundup:
Aurora HDR (Click here) for only US$89 and get a bonus of 1 year SmugMug Portfolio plan during this limited time offer.
Til January 1st you save 10% on the new Capture One 12 software (Click here) when using our code “AMBSAR“. Grab it now before it ends!

Up to $225 off on Zeiss Batis-Loxia-Touit E-mount lenses (full list here at BHphoto):
$300 off on the Zeiss Batis 135mm FE lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.
$180 off on the Zeiss Batis 85mm FE lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.
$195 off on the Zeiss Batis 25mm FE lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.
$225 off on the Zeiss Batis 18mm FE lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.
$195 off on the Zeiss Loxia 35mm lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.
$210 off on the Zeiss Loxia 85mm lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.
$225 off on the Zeiss Loxia 21mm lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.
$140 off on the Zeiss Loxia 50mm lens at BHphoto, Amazon and Adorama.

Still running: $1,000 rebates on Sony gear at BHphoto, Amazon, FocusCamera and Adorama.

Introducing Sabrina Weniger: A professional photographer based in Düsseldorf and Berlin and part of our very select group of early ZX1 testers. Join us as she talks about her first weeks with the new ZEISS ZX1 and how the camera affected her personal photography flow, all while walking the streets of Düsseldorf’s Little Tokyo in pursuit of that perfect picture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgBCINPV1u8

Botht the new A7III and 24mm GM make it into the list of the best gear of the year.

These are the first images of the real world and final production Nikon 58mm f/0,95 Z lens shared by Nikon photographer Yusuf Kathawala. As you know their whole marketing machine runs on this Z-mount size argument. And they need this lens to show of their serious intentions. But despite all these slogans the truth remains that this is going to be:

1) A huge lens (below you can see it compared with the already very big 105mm f/1.4 F-mount lens)
2) Manual focus only lens (good luck focusing with a few cm of depth of field)
3) The price is rumored to be around $6,000

Don’t get me wrong, this Nikon lens is a stunning piece of glass. But I am pretty sure Sony could so such an f/0,95 lens too. But I agree with Sony’s manager statement when he said that making an autofocus f/1.2 FE lens would be the more sensible choice.

via Nikoneye via Petapixel.

Marc Alhedeff from Sonyalpha.blog tested the new version of the world’s fastest native E-mount lens. He writes:

The Kipon Ibelux 40mm F0.85 Mark II (1800 euros) is a nice upgrade of the Handevision 40mm F0.85 with mainly better color rendering and better resistance to flare which were 2 flaws of the V1 . I wished they had strengthen the dampening of the focusing ring but it has remained as it it

Pros

• Very good build quality
• Excellent sharpness in the centre as of F1.4, good at F0.85 and F1
• Spectacular portrait with creamy background at F0.85 / F1
• Superb background blur
• good color rendition
• good resistance to flare
• correct contrast at F0.85 (V1 was weaker)

Cons

• Difficult to focus at F0.85
• extremely heavy and unbalanced on Sony A6000
• very expensive (1800 euros)
• CA up to F1.4
• Long min focusing distance : 75 cm

You are supposed to use this lens most of the time at F0.85 / F1 as you have many options starting at F1.2.

Wide open and at F1 , this lens can produce very beautiful portrait and half body photos with a very smooth blurry background and sufficient sharpness but it requires some patience and a lot of trials/errors in the beginning, but you quickly improve to focus at F0.85

With the improved coating and better color rendition I would not hesitate to use it at F0.85 whereas for V1 as was closing down to F1.4 to neutralise the color cast