Panasonic Lumix S 85 mm f/1.8 review - Summary

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Panasonic Lumix S 85 mm f/1.8

11 October 2025

Maciej Latałło

11. Summary

Pros:

solid, weather-sealed casing,
very good image quality in the frame centre,
good image quality on the edge of the APS-C sensor,
sensible image quality on the edge of full frame,
practically zero lateral chromatic aberration,
lack of problems with spherical aberration,
moderate distortion,
slight coma,
nice out-of-focus areas,
fast, accurate, and silent autofocus.

Cons:

a bit too high longitudinal chromatic aberration,
noticeable vignetting on full frame,
very high level of autofocus breathing.

The Panasonic Lumix S 85 mm f/1.8 is a very solid lens and it fares really well when compared to its direct rivals. It costs more or less as much as the Sony FE 85 mm f/1.8 but it is noticeably better. It wasn't able to compete on equal terms with the Nikkor Z 85 mm f/1.8 but, after all, the Nikkor is the biggest, the heaviest, and optically the most complex. It also costs about $300 more so nobody should be surprised that it dominates in this group.

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So far, the tested Panasonic didn't have serious rivals in the L system. After all Sigma offers here just a faster f/1.4 model and you have to pay for it over two times more. We also saw a not very understandable launch in shape of the Sigma C 90 mm f/2.8 DG DN (I still wonder why this lens is not as fast as f/2.0, especially that it costs half as much as faster Panasonic). Still, last few months brought us a very strong attack from Meike, a company that launched 1.4/85 and 1.8/85 L-mount lenses. Effective competition is beneficial for everyone and I hope that these launches will force some new, more attractive pricing. Perhaps it will make the Panasonic S 85 mm f/1.8 even a better choice for owner of full frame bodies from this manufacturer.