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85mm lens for Nikon SLR cameras
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Technical Details
- Portable medium telephoto lens that is ideal for indoor and outdoor portraits- Rear Focusing system for fast and smooth optical performance
- Subtle blurring of background for beautifully natural and evocative portraits
- High-speed f1.8 aperture
- Compact and lightweight at 13.2 ounces
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By G. Witenske
This is an excellent lens for portrait and low light photography. I used it to shoot a cheerleading group at a night stadium game - the portraits of the cheerleaders were sublime!!!
While I am better using my F2.8 70-200mm lens for football action photos, this lens was perfect for closeups and group shots of the cheerleaders.
I hope to use this lens for high school basketball. Can't wait.
Very pleased!!!!
By Aimee Starr (Kansas City, Missouri, USA)
Great contrast, bokeh, and speed! Only wish you didn't have to be 3' from the subject. This lens is a keeper.
By Erik H. (Orange County, CA)
This is a solid performer on any Nikon, although the old-school screw-drive AF system will render it less useful on less compatible models. The depth of field is so narrow at f/1.8, that users will have hard time nailing sharp focus on moving objects if they're limited to manual focus mode (as you would on a D60 or D5000 for instance).
On my D90, this lens is awesome -- razor sharp with professional-looking bokeh. I never liked the built-in flash using my other lens (16-85mm Nikon), but I find that shots taken with my 85mm look totally different -- the bokeh is so rich that the harsh background shadows otherwise captured with lesser lenses just disappear in the blur.
Even with functional AF on my D90, accurate focus tracking can be tricky on moving subjects. I suspect that if this lens was updated to AF-S, it might focus a tad quicker (and not drain my battery so fast). But overall, this is a great lens for the price. Flawless optical quality.
By Marchelle R. Mosley (Indianapolis)
i really struggled over whether or not to drop the extra $1000 and get the 85 1.4. i decided to save my money for now, and i must say i am really pleased with this lens. it's by far my favorite lens i own, and i have rarely taken it off my camera. the clarity is great, and the colors even seem more vibrant. beautiful DoF, sparkly bokeh, and sharp. a definite must-have for portraits!
By Sam (USA)
Whenever I try or buy a lens, I perform a simple but fairly objective test on the lens: I photograph a bar code from a glass bottle on a tripod. Why a bar code from a glass bottle? Because the definition of the lines are very sharp.
I photograph the bottle's bar code with the aperture wide open then stop down an f-stop at a time.
With the 85mm 1.8 lens at f1.8 aperture, the contrast is poor and bar code is fuzzy. At around f5.6, the bar code is perfectly sharp and the contrast is excellent.
I've also owned the 85mm 1.4 lens and it's perfectly sharp at 1.4 but it is nearly 3x the price and a lot heavier. All of my $1000+ Nikon lenses are astonishingly sharp wide-open. You do get what you pay for.
I also own the Nikon 50mm 1.4 lens and it too is fuzzy and has poor contrast wide open. Only when the aperture is closed down several stops does one obtain very good sharpness and contrast.
I wish reviewers wouldn't arbitrarily state that a lens is perfectly sharp wide-open without stating how they arrived at that conclusion.
If I could, I'd post my results as proof but Amazon won't allow links and I can't include images.
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Buy Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras Now
