Nikon 85mm F/1.4 AF-D

[tom5]

Any comments on this lens? I've seen some posts which compare it

favorably with the Leica-M 75 f/1.4.

 

Also, the Nikon seems to be hard to find new. B&H is usually out of

both the USA and grey market lenses. Is the Nikon 85mm f/1.4 AF-D going

out of production or is it just made in limited quantities in batches?

[greg_hanson]

Tom,

 

I don't know anything about the quality of this lens, but I suspect it's recent popularity is due to the fact that it appears to be the lens that Steve McCurry was using in the National Geographic special on the "Search for the Afghan Girl". I've included a link for a review on this lens by a guy who's opinion I respect. The link is: http://kenrockwell.com/nikon/8514AF.htm

[joseph_verdesca]

There are several comments on this lens in the archives of photo.net. My own two cents - excellent lens, excellent bokeh, very fast focussing, rather on the large and heavy side - I also happily use the 1.8 version for something smaller, more discrete, lighter, fits better in a camera bag, also very fast, less expensive, etc. If you are on a budget, you should strongly consider the 1.8. If you're not, get both.

[gregg_johnson]

I have the F/1.8 version of this lens and it works wonderful. It has great bokeh, it's sharp, and fast. It came with a lens hood that I keep attached to the lens. It was a hard lens to get a hold of. A camera store had it in stock but I thought I could buy it cheaper online. The online orders that I placed from various online dealers did not have it in stock. After 3 weeks of cancelling online orders (the F/1.8 version of this lens is very popular), I went back to the camera store to purchase it, but someone had bought it. I decided to order the lens from the camera store which took 2 weeks to get it in.

 

I love this lens and use it whenever I can. It's beautiful.

[robert_scott6]

Having just purchased a 85mm f1.4 AF for wedding photography I find that auto focusing can sometimes be a problem at f1.4-2. I seem to think that manual focusing is the answer.......Any comments

[weike_zhao]

Hello, based on my experience, it is a user error. The reason is that when you shoot at F1.4 or F2.0, the DOF is very shallow. Most AF camera has serval focusing zone inside the viewfinder. If your focus is on the nose of a person, the other area will become out of focus but those out of focus areas are so close that you will tend to believe that it is not because of the DOF but because the lens are either soft or can not get a in focus picture. Since softness occurs when shooting at wide open, many people jump to conclusion that the lens has softness wide open. To verify if it is the true, you need to study the focused area and compare to the near by area. If they are all soft or out of focus across, then it is the lens problem. Also, the reason some people believe that when you use manual focus, you have less focus problem. That can be misleading. The reason is when you manually focus, you focus on exactly where you want to focus. AF will focus through your eye, not through your hand. In other words, the AF will act as your hand with its own judgement addedd, particularly when your AF preference setting is dynamic with close subject. Any suggestion that I am wrong will be appreciated. I am here attaching a photo that I initially thought the wide open shot has some focus problem. But after close study, I found that the close subject is in focus while the remote one gave me an illusion that it is too soft or out of focus.<div></div>