Nikkor-H 85 1.8

Some of these older lens shine on the Z bodies.

 

[ATTACH=full]1414818[/ATTACH]

I enjoyed using an 85/1.8HC for a good while, captured one of my best images of my son with it, on film. Lucked into perfect outdoor lighting arrangement during the golden hour for that one. The lens coating was good enough to minimize flare.

 

The zoomed in focus feature of mirrorless did allow me to enjoy using my good manual focus lenses again. I had always struggled to focus them accurately with the DSLRs I used. Then I picked up a used Sony A7 and had a great time re-discovering some excellent manual focus lenses I had in various mounts, mostly short tele's like the 85/1.8 and 105/2.5.

 

But now, the continuous "eye" focus with my Z bodies has me using AF lenses again for the most part. Pets and people are not very good at holding still, though the Lab we had would "stay" for a little while.

But now, the continuous "eye" focus with my Z bodies has me using AF lenses again for the most part. Pets and people are not very good at holding still, though the Lab we had would "stay" for a little while.

Yeah, eye focus AF is addictive.

However, I do think I use my 85/1.8 and 105/2.5 more these days as I can more easily focus them on my Z6ii than on film cameras. Also the out-of-focus areas of the 85/1.8 looks particularly pleasing when shooting video - it is a very organic imperfection and gives much less clinical result compared to the native Z lenses.

The Peek focus on the Z7 has helped me a ton, havent had that on any of my previous camera's, it would be one of the top reasons I like the Z7 so much, I have some Zeiss glass that I always love to use for portraits but the Z opens up all these pre AI, Ai and AI-s that I would just normally use on my film body's with some nice results.