Direct comparison between Y-band magnitudes from optical and infrared surveys, in the AB reference system, for objects with reliable photometry in an overlap of VISTA and DES/PanSTARRS. The thick dashed lines follow Y_PS/DES = Y_VISTA, and the dotted lines delimit offsets of one magnitude, enclosing > 95% of the sources. A small systematic difference can also be attributed to the slightly different filters used in the different surveys. The comparison between DES and VISTA magnitude (upper panel) shows ≈15 000 bright saturated objects with Y_DES >  Y_VISTA + 1. This is less apparent in PS1, due to its smaller primary mirror and hence fewer saturation issues. The grey (resp. magenta) objects have Y_VISTA magnitude errors larger (resp. smaller) than 0.5 mag.