Nikon AF-S NIKKOR f/1.8G ED Lens - 85 mm

Product Information

Sharpness in the centre of the image is already very good at f/1.8, and although the clarity drops off quite significantly towards the edges, this shouldn't be to much of an issue for portraits and similar photography at wide apertures. As is the case with many lenses, stopping down improves clarity across the frame. Peak sharpness across the frame is achieved between f/5.6 and f/8 where sharpness in the centre is outstanding and excellent towards thee edges of the frame. The image from this Nikon Z 85 1.8 gets visibly bigger as focused more closely. This isn't a good choice for movies where you're pulling focus between actors as the dialog progresses. Autofocus speed is moderate. It takes a moment to motor (hum) quietly from infinity to close distances or vice versa. It's not instantaneous.

This Nikon 85mm f/1.8 G is the sharpest 85mm lens ever made by Nikon, sharper on the D800 than even the extraordinary 85mm f/1.4 G, and Nikon's been making 85mm lenses since 1949. On the D800 in the laboratory, it's also slightly sharper than the original and still current 85mm f/1.8 AF-D. The minimum focus distance of 80cm isn't overly special for a lens in this focal range and is perfectly suited for portraiture, although not so much for frame filling detail close-ups. With its straight 6-bladed diaphragm, it should beget bright 6-pointed sunstars on bright points of light.

Compared to Other 85mm Lenses

As a rear-focus lens, nothing moves externally as it focuses except the focus ring. The all-metal filter ring stays put! I love any 85/1.8 as a fast prime portrait lens or general-purpose fast, short tele at a reasonable price. It's the one fixed tele I'd grab along with a wide lens for day-to-day shooting.

This lens has no Optical Image Stabilization (OIS, IS or VR (Vibration Reduction)), but it is designed to work with the built-in stabilization of Nikon's cameras. For me, it’s always in my camera bag for my wedding and portrait work. The 85mm focal length is perfect for portraits and you can get some nice shallow depth of field shots with this lens.

The Nikon AF-S 85mm f/1.8G brings portraiture to the masses

The wider the aperture for camera lenses, the more difficult it is for lens manufacturers to make them fast focusing.

See the same sample images for comparison made with my 1976 85mm f/1.8 AI at it's review. Both images made at f/8 are just as insanely sharp at 45 megapixels, but the shots made with the older manual lenses are more purple in this case because auto white balance was fooled by all the green. Of course if you're crazy enough to shoot at f/1.8 in broad daylight and then look in the corners at large magnification the new lens is much sharper, too, but that's not that important: both are super sharp at f/1.8 in the center where it matters. Also remember that the 1984~1977 85mm f/1.8 was the softest 85mm ever made by Nikon for it's 35mm SLR cameras; the 85mm f/2 AI-s and 85mm f/1.4 AI-s are much better. There’s even a few areas where this lens outperforms the three-times-as-expensive Nikkor 85mm f 1.4. Nikon calls this the NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8, and as shown in History, uses some extra words depending on age. In the corners at wider apertures there’s some expected softness but stopped down to f/2.8 and smaller, the lens does really well in terms of sharpness. From its widest aperture to f/5.6, central performance is sharper than the corners.The newer 85mm f/2 AI-s sells for about the same price used, and is smaller, lighter and better optically. Chromatic aberration overall is controlled well by the Nikon 85mm 1.8 G. Color fringing is prevalent in certain lighting situations. Spherochromatism, sometimes mistakenly called "color bokeh" by laymen, is a minor aberration which can add slight color fringes to out-of focus highlights.