Customer Ratings & Reviews

This lens is sharp as a tack. Right our of the Box great results and happy portrait clients!

Great lens, nice price. Excellent for portrait photography.

Love this lens. Crips and clean photos. I have it on my nikond750

The best portrait lens I've been shooting with this lens now and it hasn't left my camera

True to its description. Easy to use and auto focus is amazing on a busy shoot day. Always loved this brand so I’m happy to see an affordable lens with quality.

A great lens have used quite a lot and have been very happy with results

The lens meets all my criteria for shooting portrait photography. Fast, crisp pictures, accurate focusing. I tend to stay away from low light photography woth macrp lens, since i have faster lens for that. I shoot with a D750, and lens feels comfortably on lens. 50mm tends to not feel as comfortable, sonce its smaller. Affordable price with filter, lens and taxes was a little over $500. If you're shooting portrait photography, you'll make that back in 5 to 7 shoots, short money for a good lens.

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

I picked this lens up as I wanted an 85mm and I wanted to try the f1.8 rather than dropping $1400 on the f1.4. So far, this lens has performed exceptionally.

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

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.

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.

For the price, if you are fine with using a prime instead of a zoom, get this lens. This lens is insanely sharp and I'm able to crop in on pictures (when needed) to ridiculous amounts because of how much resolution is still left. I bought this as a portrait lens for a full frame (d750). I also have several zooms and also the Nikon 50mm 1.8. I was actually relatively disappointed in how soft the 50mm was for a prime, but have kept it because of the price and size/weight/versatility for a walk around. However, this lens is now a go to lens whenever I can justify its use. If I were to redo this, I would have waited, skipped the nifty fifty, and gone straight to the 85mm 1.8 and coupled it with either the 35mm 1.8 or something that covers the lower end of the focal length. I've also used the 105mm macro Nikon, and honestly, while that lens is versatile because of the macro ability, it hunts for focus during portraits, is far too heavy, and really isn't any sharper for portraits (and the bokeh isn't as creamy, despite the DOF supposedly giving it an advantage). Also, there are far better priced macro lenses available if you want macro shots that will save you the money to spend on other lenses. I don't see the need to pay extra for the 1.4 85mm since I rarely shoot that wide because of DOF issues with portraits and modern full frames have insane ISO when I really need it, or I can just strap on the flash. In the end, get the 85mm 1.8, it is insanely sharp, good resolution, quick focus, lite weight, and has great DOF and bokeh. It is twice the price of the 50mm, but worth every penny and more. These two lenses really shouldn't be compared to each other as this is a far superior product and one that a pro could actually keep in his/her arsenal for a shoot. Also, if you're a pro, skip the 1.4 and put the money towards another lens or piece of equipment. I've used both, it is not worth the money. The 1.4 gives you the fancy gold ring, more weight, and that's justifiably it. The Sigma Art is enticing, but also built and weighs like a tank, and unless you're a micro pixel peeper, I can't see the need of a lens that sharp. If anything, it will just create more problems in PP with portraits. Zero regrets with this lens.

The Nikon 85mm 1.8g lens Is a must have for any SLR user. It is a high quality, high performance lens at a price that makes it affordable for anyone. The lens focuses quickly with an internal silent wave motor and is very quiet. The glass is huge, providing excellent light gathering capabilities, especially with the 1.8 aperture rating. The 85mm is another "normal" lens like the 50mm, in that pictures taken with it look very natural with the human eye. I find it difficult to take a bad picture with this lens! It is very sharp and very accurate. Though built mainly of plastic, it feels very high quality and the plastics are very strong. Great lens!

I wanted a mid-range prime lens and went back and forth considering the 1.4 or 1.8 version. I am not a pro nor do I make a living as a photographer, so I went with the 1.8 and have been extremely happy with it's performance, it has great bokeh, excellent sharpness, and focuses very fast. The results are great on both crop sensor and full frame cameras. So save yourself the extra $1000 and get this lens.

This is a great lens for DSLR cameras as well as mirrorless if you have an F2Z adaptor with autofocus support. Crisp, clear, and very responsive. A great reach, with the ability to do some subject isolation as well. The 50mm 1.8 is great, and this is a good compliment to that.

Just what I needed to take my senior portraits to the next level. Super fast auto focus, sharp at all apertures, light weight, and great bokeh quality make this my new go to lens for pictures of people.

Light as can be, rapid focus and as sharp if not moreso than the more expensive 85 1.4G. Beautiful OOF characteristics. Definitely better than the former AFD model which it replaces.

This lens produces tack sharp pictures with my D800e. It is light and seems solid. Quick autofocus and outstanding bokeh. I really can't find any faults with this lens.

I just did a recent portrait shoot and this was the only lens I pulled of my bag. This guy is a great, light weight option, especially on a DX (Crop) Sensor (because of the extended reach you get). I can't remember the exact number but this lens actually ends up being over 100mm on a crop sensor. Because of that, you get even more compression on shots which makes for great portraits. This paired with my d7200 has been nothing short of majestic (when the Green Ranger comes back as the White Ranger type of majestic).