Viltrox 85mm F1.4 Pro Z Review: Fast, Sharp, and Surprisingly Refined

I’ve owned a Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.8 for a few years now, and it’s been one of two lenses I take everywhere with me, the other being a 35mm f/1.8. I’ve found f/1.8 to be a very handy aperture for low light shooting, but I still encounter a few situations where I need to crank up my ISO, as it’s not quite fast enough. Therefore, I was very curious when Viltrox announced a new f/1.4 85mm in their Pro line.

The first thing I did was stand the new 85mm f/1.4 next to my f/1.8. It’s obviously going to be bigger and heavier, but by how much? Size-wise, the f/1.4 stands 7 inches tall with its lens hood on, whereas the f/1.8 version stands at 6 inches. Without a hood, the f.1.4 is just half an inch taller—4.75 inches versus the f/1.8’s 4.25 inches. Not a huge amount, really, although with the extra glass elements in the f/1.4, it weighs in at 835 g, compared to the f/1.8’s 540 g.

Why an f/1.4 Over an f/1.8?

The extra two-thirds of a stop of light the f/1.4 lens gives you doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s enough to make a difference between a noisy low light photo and a clean low light photo, for starters.

The Pro version has a manual focus/autofocus switch, and as someone who likes to set focus and shoot manually, this is quite a big deal. It’s very convenient. The aperture markings on the barrel were also appreciated, as it’s nice to simply glance at your lens instead of lifting your camera and looking through the viewfinder to check what aperture setting you’re using. There’s a function button, too, if you like to program custom settings. The f/1.4 has 11 aperture blades compared to the f/1.8’s 9 blades. Bokeh when shooting wide open is very pleasing.

Image Quality

The Pro f/1.4 has incredibly good image quality, providing very sharp results. There’s plenty of clarity and contrast, which appears to be consistent throughout Viltrox’s Pro and Lab lines. Edge-to-edge sharpness appears to be better than the f/1.8 version, but that’s purely academic and means nothing in real use situations.

I’m not going to do test shots in a studio of both lenses to check and compare aberration, vignetting, etc. It’s a pointless pixel-peeping exercise in my opinion. These things can be fixed during post and aren’t really important anyway, so I would rarely bother. I’m only interested in how a lens feels and performs out on a shoot, so I took it out for a day in the city to shoot on the streets. I like to let photos speak for themselves and make my judgment from there.

Many photographers are put off by a heavier lens, but it really comes down to what you’re used to lugging around. A couple of people have already asked me if it was too heavy to wander around the streets with. The answer is no. I use a comfy strap with good padding and had no issues spending 8 hours walking with it around my neck. For a multi-day travel adventure, however, I may revert back to the f/1.8 version. It depends on where I’m going and what I’m shooting.

Build Quality

The Viltrox AF 85mm f/1.4 Pro Z is superbly made. It features a stylish matte-finished metal casing with very good weather sealing. Seeing the bright red gaskets is very reassuring. Handling this lens feels good; it certainly feels premium.

The only thing that is rather disconcerting at first is that you can hear elements inside the lens moving around when it’s not on the camera and powered up. It feels like holding a metal cylinder with a golf ball inside when you tilt the lens 180 degrees and back. This is a characteristic of the new dual Hyper VCM motor autofocus system. When the camera is switched on, everything clicks into position—I’m guessing the power energizes magnets or something and locks the elements into place—and the rattling stops. It’s normal on many modern focus-by-wire lenses, but as someone who has used manual focus lenses for decades, this still feels weird and will take some getting used to.

When that autofocus system is powered up, it’s impressively quiet and snappy. The advantage of the motor system on this lens versus the older f/1.8 version is that autofocus eye tracking is faster and more reliable for both photography and video. So if you’re into sports and wildlife photography in particular, you’ll appreciate the improvements.

I used the lens on my Nikon Z6III, and I was shooting candid photos of people on the street. Focus lock was instant. I tried shooting people standing over a vent with steam billowing out, creating a very faint outline, and was surprised at how well the focus worked. Other autofocus lenses would have a problem and hunt for focus when presented with such a challenging scenario. Not this lens.

One small detail that I like is the 77mm filter thread. This is more of a pro standard, along with 82 mm, so I can use a step-down ring with my 82 mm filters on this lens, and it doesn’t look silly like they do on a 67mm, for example. It’s more practical, too.

Specs

• Mount: Z tested, E also available

• Lens elements: 15/11

• Focal length: 85mm

• Aperture: f/1.4–f/16

• Aperture blades: 11

• Minimum focus distance: 0.79 m

• Focus motor: VCM

• Focus modes: manual focus and autofocus

• Lens size: 84.5 x 110.6 mm

• Weight: approx. 835 g

• Filter size: 77mm

Why Choose an 85mm?

An 85mm focal length takes us away from the documentary style of a typical standard focal length like a 35mm or 50mm. We start to compress layers with an 85mm, bringing the background forward and isolating subjects if we choose a shallower depth of field.

An 85mm focal length feels more intentional and can give us a cleaner image. We can remove cluttered details and visual noise in the frame that doesn’t contribute to the story.

There’s an intimacy when we use an 85mm, sometimes even a voyeuristic feel to an image. Certainly, for those who are more introverted and feel more comfortable shooting in the street and traveling further back, an 85mm allows us to do that. We can grab candid moments more easily and remain unnoticed.

Conclusion

What I Loved

• Image quality can’t be faulted

• Great autofocus, with a manual override switch

• De-click switch for videography

• Overall premium feel of the lens

What I Liked the Least

• Slightly on the heavy side — but it depends on who you ask!
• The VCM when not activated rattles, but that’s normal.

This is an impressive lens that offers a very useful focal length for travel and street photography, low light shooting, and portraiture in particular. It retails for a very reasonable $598.

I’ve started to rate gear I get to test, and this lens gets an easy 9/10 from me.

I made a video of my street photography test shoot using the lens for candid, portraits, and street photography. You can watch it above.