In summary
A fast prime lens that’s ideal for portraiture and suits photographers who want to shoot at f/1.4.
Buy this lens if:
– You need a fast prime lens for portraiture.
– You want high resolution across a wide range of aperture settings.
– You require excellent build quality and good handling characteristics.
Don’t buy this lens if:
– You don’t have a ‘full frame’ Nikon camera body.
– You need macro capabilities.
Full review
Announced in August, 2010, the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G is a fast, medium-telephoto prime lens with a classic focal length for portraiture. Designed primarily for cameras with FX (‘full frame’) sensors, it can also be used on DX cameras, where it provides a focal length equivalent to 127.5mm in 35mm format.
Side view of the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G without end caps andlens hood. (Source: Nikon.)
This is a second-generation lens, replacing the AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D, which has been around since 1995. In January, 2012, Nikon also announced a significantly cheaper 85mm lens, the AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G, which weighs only 350 grams and provides an alternative for photographers with tighter budgets who don’t require the wide f/1.4 maximum aperture.
Weighing 595 grams, the F-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.4G is a substantial handful, thanks to a mainly metal body and pro-grade optical elements. The optical construction consists of nine elements in eight groups, interestingly with no exotic elements.
The diagram above shows the opticalconstruction of the lens. (Source: Nikon.)
It’s unfortunate that this lens lacks built-in stabilisation because you need it to ensure the viewfinder image remains steady so you canframe shots accurately; not just for counteracting camera shake. (On the D800, you can easily crank up the ISO to prevent the latter, solving the problem inall but the dimmest lighting.)
Nine iris blades close to a circular aperture. Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor (SWM) ensures quiet autofocusing and supports autofocusing when the lens is used with entry-level Nikon DSLR cameras that lack an AF drive motor. The lens is supplied with a 77mm LC-77 snap-onfront cap, LF-1 rear cap, HB-55 bayonet-mounting hood and CL-1118 flexible lens pouch.
Build and Ergonomics
The 85mm f/1.4 is an excellent match with the D800 body we used for our tests and would make a good partner for Nikon’s professional FX cameras. At a pinch it could be used with Nikon’s DX format DSLRs, although it may be a tad bulky and heavy for the lighter, entry-level models.
Because distance information is passed directly to thecamera, this lens is at its best with more sophisticated bodies like the D800’s (and the D4’s) which use distance information to set exposure levels. However, being a G-series lens, it has no aperture ring, which means it won’t work on older manual focus Nikon SLR cameras.
Build quality meets the expected high standards, asindicated by the not inconsiderable weight (almost 600 grams) of this lens. Unfortunately,it doesn’t include weatherproof sealing; a rubber ring around the lens mount isall you get. But since its main purpose is for portraiture, it will be usedmainly in a studio or outdoors in fine conditions.
Without the hood, this lens is only 84 mm long and ratherchunky in girth. Adding the cylindrical hood, extends the length byapproximately 50 mm. The hood reverses over the lens for storage.
There’s only one adjustment ring ““ for focusing ““ and it’slocated 15 mm back from the front of the lens. It’s about 17 mm wide and mostlycovered by an annular ridged, rubberised grip. This ring is well damped and turnsfreely with discrete resistance points roughly 90 degrees apart.
A scale is set into the lens barrel a little way behind thefocusing ring carrying distances in metres and feet from 0.85 metres (3 feet)to infinity. In the same section of the lens barrel and around to the left handside is a slider with M/A and M settings, enabling users to toggle between AF with Manual override andManual focusing.
Performance
Overall this lens isa winner for portrait photographers, particularly on the D800 body. Our Imatesttesting showed it provided superior resolution to the 24-70mm zoom we used forour D800 tests and was well able to match expectations for the D800’s sensor ataperture settings between f/4 and f/7.1, after which diffraction kicked in,causing resolution to deteriorate.
At apertures betweenf/1.4 and f/1.8, the edge softening that was evident would present few issuesfor portrait photographers. Peripheral sharpness improved from this point andwas maintained through the remaining apertures, as shown in the graph below.
Lateral chromaticaberration was negligible at all aperture settings, reaching very low figuresbetween f/2.5 and f/5. In the graph below, the red line marks the borderbetween ‘negligible’ and ‘low’ CA.
Interestingly, wefound the colour rendition of this lens to be slightly warmer than the 24-70mmlens we used for our tests on the D800. It was also slightly more contrasty atwide apertures. Imatest confirmed our subjective assessments.
Vignetting (cornerdarkening) was much as expected for such a fast lens on a ‘full frame’ camerabody. Between f/1.4 and f/2.8, corners of frames were visibly darkened. Beyondthis point, vignetting became much less visible and would only be relevant incritical situations. The D800 includes vignette control to correct this problemwith type G and D lenses.
Very slight barreldistortion was detected, although it wouldn’t be relevant for the types ofsubjects this lens will be used for. The D800 also includes distortioncorrection for eliminating both barrel and pincushion distortion with type Gand D lenses.
Thanks to the large,cylindrical lens hood, backlit subjects were handled with ease. We found itdifficult to force the lens to flare when the hood was in place.
As you would expectfrom such a fast portrait lens, the bokeh produced by the review lens was mostlysmooth and attractive. The nine-bladed iris diaphragm produced circularhighlights at all aperture settings. Some outlining and coloured fringing couldbe seen around highlights in contrasty shots, which is typical of fast primelenses.
Buy this lens if:
– You need a fast prime lens for portraiture.
– You want high resolution across a wide range of aperture settings.
– You require excellent build quality and good handling characteristics.
Don’t buy this lens if:
– You don’t have a ‘full frame’ Nikon camera body.
– You need macro capabilities.
SPECS
Picture angle: 28 degrees 30 minutes (18 degrees 50 minutes with NikonDX format)
Minimum aperture: f/16
Lens construction: 9 elements in 8 groups
Lens mounts: Nikonbayonet mount, usable with FX and DX cameras
Diaphragm Blades: 9 (rounded iris opening)
Focus drive: Nikon Internal Focusing (IF) System with autofocuscontrolled by Silent Wave Motor
Stabilisation: No
Minimum focus: 85 cm
Maximum magnification: 0.12x
Filter size: 77 mm
Dimensions (Diameter x L): Approx.86.5 mm x 84 mm
Weight: Approx.595 grams
TESTS
Based on JPEG filestaken with the Nikon D800 body.
SAMPLES
Vignetting at f/1.4mm.
Vignetting at f/2mm.
Rectilinear distortion.
Strong backlighting; 1/400 second at f/6.3; ISO 100.
Bokeh at f/1.4; 1/200 second at f/1.4; ISO 100.
Bokeh at f/2; 1/100 second at f/2; ISO 100.
Bokeh at f/5.6; 1/30 second at f/5.6; ISO 200.
Portrait shot; 1/160 second at f/2.8; ISO 12800.
1/250 second at f/7.1; ISO 6400.
1/160 second at f/1.6; ISO 400.
Additional image samples can be found with our review of the Nikon D800 – click here.
Rating
RRP: not available. ASP: AU$2000, US$1700
- Build: 9.0
- Handling: 8.8
- Image quality: 9.3
- Versatility: 8.0