Nikon 85mm 1.8G AF-S Review

Restomage · Jun 19, 2012

Thinking of buying an 85mm 1.8G AF-S? Click here to read my review on it: http://seanlara.com/nikon-85mm-1-8g-af-s-review/
Let me know what you think!

For those that are lazy and don't want to read, I say buy it if you're on the fence.

MK3Brent · Jun 19, 2012

Thanks for the review.
I did read it, and it seems well worth it for a faster prime.
I'll have to check it out one day.

Mach0 · Jun 19, 2012

Nice. Thanks for the review.

Nikon_Josh · Jun 19, 2012

What a great review! I think I really will consider this lens now, it does seem to be pretty darn good! I had the AF-D version and I hated it.. the bokeh on this lens seems a huge improvement...

So no regrets about not choosing the 1.4? Interesting to also see that it performs much better than your mighty 70-200 vr lens. And your right, the bokeh seems to be better on the 85 than the 70-200.

Restomage · Jun 19, 2012

Nikon_Josh said:
What a great review! I think I really will consider this lens now, it does seem to be pretty darn good! I had the AF-D version and I hated it.. the bokeh on this lens seems a huge improvement...

So no regrets about not choosing the 1.4? Interesting to also see that it performs much better than your mighty 70-200 vr lens. And your right, the bokeh seems to be better on the 85 than the 70-200.

So far I haven't regretted it. Of course it's always nice to have the best of the best, but since i'm not using my 85mm as a primary lens on assignment I don't see a need to upgrade when the 85mm 1.8G is as amazing as it is. My rule of thumb is I only spend the extra money if the equipment is going to make my job easier, and an extra stop of light for 3x as much $$ isn't worth it for me.

BXPhoto · Jun 20, 2012

Restomage said:
So far I haven't regretted it. Of course it's always nice to have the best of the best, but since i'm not using my 85mm as a primary lens on assignment I don't see a need to upgrade when the 85mm 1.8G is as amazing as it is. My rule of thumb is I only spend the extra money if the equipment is going to make my job easier, and an extra stop of light for 3x as much $$ isn't worth it for me.

This was exactly why I didn't get the 85mm 1.4G. Although there is no lower cost equal to the 35 1.4g unfortunately. Great review, I share similar thoughts.

Restomage · Mar 12, 2013

A year later after buying the lens here's my update:

The thoughts I originally shared in my review have not changed. I find myself falling in love with this lens more and more every day! The bokeh is beautiful as always and the lens is much sharper than any lens I own (I provided examples in the review linked if you haven't seen it).

My only tiff about it is it does have more chromatic aberration than the 1.4 and it can be noticeable when shooting against a blown-out highlight, especially when you adjust exposure levels in post processing. But other than that I'd still highly recommend this lens.

A recent photo (taken off my facebook page):