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World’s first review of the new Yongnuo YN85mm F1.8 lens

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Yongnuo recently announced the new 85mm f/1.8 FE autofocus lens. This will be their second E-mount lens after the 50mm f/1.8 APS-C (here on Amazon).

And Marc Alhadeff posted the world’s first review of this new lens:

The Yongnuo YN 85mm F1.8S DF DSM (200$) is an excellent lens for the price. It is astonishing to have produced a lens with a very good AF and that can reach outstanding sharpness results on A7RIV at that price. On A7RIV The lens is already good in the centre at F1.8 but come excellent at F2.8 and outstanding at F4. Corners however are always lagging behind, If you transpose results to a A7III results will be excellent wide open. Color rendering and background blur is very good to excellent. Bokeh ball are very good wide open but as of F2.8 they exhibits heptagons due to only 7 Aperture blades. Video rendering is also very good.
There are also sacrifice on the build quality the lens being very “plastic” and very light, but you get a customizable focus hold button. I never had any focusing issues with firmware V5 of the lens with full compatibility with Sony real time tracking and eye AF. Highly recommended on A7III for small budget

Pros

Small and lighweight
Price
Very good AF
On 61Mpix : Good sharpness at F1.8, Excellent sharpness as of F2.8 ,Outstanding sharpness at F4
Smooth background blur
Very good color rendition
Very good in video
Very Good bokeh balls wide open
Very good rendering for portrait and skins
Good ergonomics with AF/MF button and focus hold button
Firmware upgrade possible via USB-C

Average

Moderate Distorsion
Low Chromatic aberrations but requiring sometimes a little correction
Average Bokeh Balls shapes: some cats eye and heptagon quickly visible as of F2.8 but not onion rings

Cons

High vignetting that decreases as you close the aperture but never dissapear
Build quality is cheap : plastic and flimsy focusing ring
Lens hood difficult to mount unmount
Sharpness in the corners only good

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