The Affordable Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro: Autofocus, Sharpness, and Real Portrait Results

An 85mm f/1.4 lens lives or dies by how it performs wide open, especially when faces fill the frame and focus errors have nowhere to hide. The Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro lens aims to deliver reliable sharpness, controlled background blur, and usable autofocus at a price that undercuts many familiar options.

Coming to you from Prince Meyson, this practical video covers the Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro lens after a few months of real use. He frames the 85mm focal length as a workhorse for portraits because it lets you move between tight and full-body shots without the face distortion you fight at shorter focal lengths. He also keeps the conversation grounded in handling and output, not spec-sheet flexing. You hear what feels premium in hand, what doesn’t, and where the money seems to show up when you’re actually shooting.

The build details get more attention than you might expect, and that’s useful if you shoot often and hate “almost good” controls. Meyson points out the clickable aperture ring and the overall metal construction, then compares the feel against another 85mm f/1.4 he owns, saying this one feels a bit better built. He calls out the 77mm front thread as a practical win if your filters already live on 77mm. He also runs through optical basics like the 11-blade aperture, then shifts quickly into what you probably care about more: what the background blur looks like when trees, leaves, and other busy shapes try to ruin a portrait. 

Key Specs

• Focal length: 85mm

• Maximum aperture: f/1.4

• Minimum aperture: f/16

• Mounts: Nikon Z, Sony E

• Format coverage: full frame

• Minimum focus distance: 2.6' / 79 cm

• Magnification: 0.13x (1:7.7)

• Optical design: 15 elements in 11 groups

• Diaphragm blades: 11

• Focus type: autofocus

• Image stabilization: no

• Filter size: 77 mm (front)

• Dimensions: ø 3.3 x L 4.4" / ø 84.5 x L 110.6 mm

• Weight: 1.8 lbs / 835 g

Autofocus is where Meyson gets honest in a way that helps you decide fast. He mentions his first copy was a pre-production model with autofocus that was “off,” then says the replacement copy has been reliable for roughly three months across studio work and events. He rates the lens’ autofocus an 8 out of 10, not because it fails constantly, but because he refuses to pretend perfection exists. He describes it sticking to the subject and following well, including a backlit example where some lenses start hunting or snapping to the background. If your work includes movement, mixed light, or quick moments at an event, that backlit scenario is the kind of stress test you should care about, because it is where missed focus becomes a pattern.

He opens images in Capture One and zooms in aggressively, showing what happens to fine detail when you’re at f/1.4, f/1.6, and f/1.8 instead of playing it safe at f/8 or f/11. He says the color holds up across the images he shows, and he repeatedly notes low chromatic aberration and fringing in the portrait examples. He shares enough outdoor and studio context to let you judge consistency. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Meyson.