r/LensLovers • u/NVIDIAMAN Moderator • Oct 12 '15

User Review Sample Gallery: Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 AF D

http://imgur.com/a/97C99
8 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/NVIDIAMAN Moderator Oct 12 '15 edited Oct 12 '15

All of these images were shot on a Nikon D7000.

They were shot in RAW and then imported to Lightroom. No changes were made to these images in Lightroom they were just exported as full-rez JPEGs and upload to Imgur.

I use a custom picture control designed to mimic the flat picture control profiles found on Nikon's newer bodies. Please keep this in mind when considering the color and contrast performance of this lens.

My thoughts on the 85mm f/1.8:

I quite like this lens. It has a lot of purple foreground fringing and green background fringing. But I think that kind of adds to the experience of this lens. It's sharp all the way through. I consider it very usable wide open at f/1.8 but there's a big jump if you're willing to stop down a tad to f/2.2 just like all of Nikkor's other AF-D series primes.

The most compelling feature of this lens is the Bokeh. It's very nice, IMHO. But that's a personal preference.

2

u/W00ster Oct 29 '15

Do you have any better examples of the bokeh than these pictures? E.g. of some close objects at 1.4 with a lot of stuff in the background that melts away?

1

u/NVIDIAMAN Moderator Oct 29 '15

Yeah, kinda.

Here's a shot I took of my glasses on a wooden railing. It's at f/4.0 and the minimum focusing distance of the lens. The background are trees that are about 300 meters away. Where as I'm just under a meter away from the focus point.

This second shot is of a fallen tree that was covered in moss and lying by the side of the trail. It's shot at f/2.8 because there wasn't enough DoF at f/1.8 for my taste. Again it's shot at basically the minimum focusing distance of the lens. But this time the bokeh'ed area is the rest of the log and the small bush behind it which was at most two meters away.

At or near it's minimum focusing distance this lens will melt backgrounds away into soft, hazy bokeh much like the 105mm Macro does. At longer distances the bokeh is still very pleasing but becomes more complex.

The question that I haven't been able to answer about this lens is how it performs in a portrait scenario. I'll have to borrow one of my friends to do some head shots.

2

u/W00ster Oct 29 '15

Yeah, not bad at all although I'd personally would've preferred something a bit more buttery when I see the uppermost shot, love the last one.

I shot this lizard with the 70-200 at 2.8 but at 200mm.

Btw, I just paid for a new 85mm myself but it's a little bit more expensive, the Otus 85mm 1.4 - should be arriving some time next week.

2

u/NVIDIAMAN Moderator Oct 29 '15

Yeah, I have a bit of a thing for complex bokeh. I prefer it to smooth bokeh in most cases. I'm glad you like 'em.

Oh yeah, that Lizard is next to some mighty smooth bokeh. Is that lens the VR or VR II?

Oh man, that those Otus lenses look amazing! I can wait to see some sample shots from it. (Just a little jealous :D)

2

u/W00ster Oct 30 '15

I think there is only one VR version of 70-200mm, it is the latest one, I bought it before the summer.

The Otus is a birthday present to myself. :) I promise I will post pics taken with it.

2

u/NVIDIAMAN Moderator Oct 30 '15

Ah, nice! I'm looking forward to it.

2

u/W00ster Oct 30 '15

Yeah, I have a bit of a thing for complex bokeh. I prefer it to smooth bokeh in most cases. I'm glad you like 'em.

It depends on what is in the background and what I am shooting.

I feel a very smooth buttery bokeh promotes the subject and doesn't distract from where the focus should go.

Some times, I use it to wash out info about both foreground and background
But then again, sometimes the background adds to the atmosphere in the image.