Nikon - AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.8G Medium Telephoto Lens - Black

I bought this for a DX camera so I can shoot High School basketball games. I am pretty close to the action so a zoom was not necessary! The 1.8 and the fact that its a Prime lens makes it an excellent choice. Putting this on the DX gave me about 127mm zoon and when shooting I choose JPEG which gives me even more FPS than if I was shooting raw. I have the option to crop in the camera as well. I love it!!

I’m honestly amazed. Amazing quality even in low light settings. I don’t even have to edit my photos

I bought this lens after tons of research to use for portrait photography. When i got it and started snapping pictures on my DX body, (actual focal length w/ crop sensor closer to 127mm) I was irritated. There was no noticeable difference from my Nikon 50mm 1.8g that I was try to improve on. I came home, grabbed the box and prepared to return it before the 15 days. Then I decided to go ahead and import some photos I took with it to my computer and really see. I was absolutely blown away with the sharpness. Granted the AF is much slower than the 50mm and 35mm 1.8G, the quality it well worth it. See this are mainly used for portraits and stuff like that, it is awesome. I would not recommend for anything that moves super fast if you want to use wide open. I did a sample test because I could not find one anywhere online that compared the 50mm f/1.8G to the 85mm f1.8G and frankly, this is probably the most common upgrade, not the 1.4mm that internet seems to constantly compare. The bokeh on this lens is a tad bit better, mainly due to compression of the image at such a long length. I attached an image to show sharpness comparison. Using a tripod. Notes on image, I had to compress a little because bb only allows 5MB upload, hope you can see the difference.

Can’t beat this lens. I have no complaints what so ever.

Crazy Sharp and punchy colors with very good contrast wide open at f1.8 center to corners.

Simply the best portrait lenses I've used on a full frame Nikon. I wanted a sharp lens that can be shot wide open for good subject isolation with a narrow depth of field and this lens fits that role. As for the focal length, I think it's perfect for head shots; the one in my review was taken with me seated at the same table just a few feet from the subject. I had an SB700 flash sitting on the table off to the side of the subject and fired it remotely with a Yongnuo YN622N wireless flash trigger. With my 50mm lens I'd have had to crop it quite a bit and lose out on some resolution. My 24-120 F/4 zoom lens would have worked OK but it's not as nearly as good in low light. This lens will get the nod anytime I want to capture human subjects. Are they any negatives? The only negative I can identify is that I'd prefer this lens was nano-coated. I think the color rendition and contrast is better with the nano-coated lenses. I'm sure that nano-coating would increase the price some but this lens is so relatively affordable that I could live with that. Some may say the lack of VR is a negative but I don't agree. I'm glad this lens doesn't have VR as the VR system would add weight and with a wide 1.8 aperture I don't see that it would be particularly useful in this application. All the positive reviews are correct, this lens is an amazing value and is a wonderful addition to your FX Nikon. It's light and simple design should give you many years of faithful service capturing beautiful images.

beautiful lens for portraiture, very sharp and beautiful bokeh at f/1.8.

I love to take photos of my family and pets I got tired of paying a professional to come and take 15 pics and take my $300 ...I invested in a camera and this lens for portraits and it is amazing ! Very clear and the bokeh is wonderful . I get many compliments about the photos I take . Very pleased with the Nikon products. Especially this lens