Nikon 85mm f1.8 D AF Lens - Advice please

DoctorJ

DoctorJ

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Anyone have any experience of this lens? I am looking for a fast portrait lens to use on my D90. I have seen it for sale in various places (including Jessops) but can't see it on the Nikon UK website :thinking:

Is it a current product and much more importantly how is the IQ and is it sharp when wide open?

Any help gratefully received, I don't know anyone who owns this (and that in itself slightly worries me!)
 
I have one, and although it`s a tad soft at 1.8, f2 or 2.2 is fine. I use it along with my 35, for street/candid stuff. It`s a AF-D, so been around a while, but still a current product.

I got a bunch on flickr in the "people watching" set if you wanna hunt the exif. Mainly the last lot in the section, or the tp xmas set.
 
Thanks Paulie, those are exactly the types of portraits I want this for, nice set on flickr by the way
 
DoctorJ said:
Thanks Paulie, those are exactly the types of portraits I want this for, nice set on flickr by the way
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No worries :thumbs:
I really like it for that sort of shot. Great little lens in IMHO
 
thats the lens i want to add to my bag as well, but always fight between this Nikon and the samyang manual lens.

Is one of those, Nikon will give me good optic most of the time and have AF and the Samyang is well know for the good optic that is on level with the nikon 85 1.4D but is manual focus.
 
With my eyesight manual focus is out of the question, unless I want an "arty" shot :lol:
 
I have one of these and find it very useful for portraits (I use it much more than my 35mm) and also for indoor sports. I agree with the above that it works best from F2 upwards.
 
Thanks Luke, I also have a 35mm which I use for portraits currently but am looking for a different approach - a pro friend of mine recommended 85mm as the best portrait lens, unfortunately he uses Canon full frame so I couldn't try his out.
 
Ahh 85 on full frame is a different matter though, dont forget the crop factor.
 
Hmmm...I remain to be convinced of the great benefit of FF, no-one has ever explained it to me adequately (and I haven't tried to be fair). It smacks of being a lot of clever hype to charge more for something, but that may be because I work in marketing! We didn't have crop and full frame SLR's did we...
 
DoctorJ said:
We didn't have crop and full frame SLR's did we...
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No, but we did have 35mm, 6x6, 5x4, 10x8, etc, and that's on top of the 126, 110 formats etc. :lol:

Seriously though, have you considered a 50mm 1.8 G. This is roughly equivalent to a 75mm lens, and it is a lot cheaper, fast focussing, and awesome Image quality.
 
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Gary - good points both of them, I hadn't thought of the 50mm on the crop sensor but it would do what I am looking for and as you say much less expensive.

Oh, and polaroid too!
 
I picked a 50mm f1.8G yesterday, whilst out Christmas shopping !
1st impressions are it's superquick to focus, and if you do a search on Flickr for images taken with this lens, the bokeh is superb. In fact it gets a much higher rating than the 1.4, as it appears to be sharper wide open, and because the aperture blades are rounded (unlike the 1.8 D), the out of focus areas are nicely rounded.
Well, that was my excuse for getting one, I will get a chance to try it soon !!
 
I find the 85mm is harder to shoot with than the 50mm - both are very good, but 50mm I find more useful and sharper.
 
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