85/1.8 G vs 85/1.4D vs Rokinon 85/1.4 AE

[ruslan]

<p>Which one would you choose and why? Give your reasons, please.</p>

[greg_alton]

<p>For my uses, the 1.8G. Excellent autofocus and price, size/weight. I can't compare directly the image quality but 1.8G is very good, and I don't need the extra half-stop (for light or DOF) that badly - which for me applies equally to the 1.4D or 1.4G versions.<br>

If you are in Russia, note that it is currently available at a lower price than almost anywhere else in the world, at least at market ruble rates. (Although probably true for the other Nikon lenses too).</p>

[ruslan]

<p><strong>Greg</strong>, yes. I am. You are correct. </p>

[Jochen_S]

<p>Rokinon is manual focus isn't it? - I wouldn't buy such a beast before I get a fulltime job in aerial surveillance or a well equpped / staffed video team. - Odds I could focus it for anything else are way too low.<br>

The rest is unknown to me. Nikon AF in a not too expensive rig is very tempting. I might end trying to urge the assistant at a local store to sell me the 1.4 with a lot of work... i.e. have him take comparsion shots with my camera bought 2 minutes ago, or something like that. - Means I am convincable to buy an f1.4 with superior IQ and similar AF performance, but it takes more than rambling about bokeh & metal parts inside to do that job. - In doubt I'll give the f1.8 a go. I know it will be fast & challenging enough. <br>

FTR: I don't plan to get into Nikon WA. My 90mm Summicron would do shots of static subjects at f11 & basic ISO from a tripod well enough too (but I seem challenged to do wide open portraits with it - it seems f4 is my safe bet). I 'd buy state of the art AF with acceptable glas for indoors or moving (= "not frozen in their pose") people. <br>

Maybe the f1.8 also serves as a compact substitute for the f2.8 VR zoom on lazier days? - I'll have to hit the wall a few more times with attempting to shoot what I already have until I'm ready to go Nikon.</p>

[robert_stig]

<p>I had the 1.4 ais I had the 1.4d (stolen) and I now own the 1.8d. I have shot with the 1.8g but its af for me is too slow. Others might say its ok but for me its not enough. Its half the speed of the 1.8d<br>

<a href="http://youtu.be/YVHvbUUQL9Q">http://youtu.be/YVHvbUUQL9Q</a><br>

i also cant bring myself to buy that lens because of the build. Plastic filter thread cheap hood. No thank you. I cane from the 1.4 AIS and D so the 1.8d is level down and the 1.8g is another level. Thats me though. Still many prople are happy with it. <br>

If i didnt have anything now, id probably wait till february to see if theres any news by sigma of an art lens. Tamron is rumored to release two primes and im hoping one is an 85. Ill toss my 1.8d and get either. <br>

And if there wasnt any new lens released and i needed an 85, id go with a used 85 1.8d again. Because of the af speed. Its critical to me. I used d3/d3s/d600</p>

 

[luke_kaven]

<p>The 85/1.8g is sharp across the frame pretty much from wide open, and the price is a bargain for a top optical performer. The 85/1.4D is dismal in the borders and corners. It is only sharp in the center. If you're doing landscapes, go straight for the G. The D lens has a very refined bokeh, but the G lens is excellent.</p>

<p>I am able to focus the G lens manually without play in the focus ring.</p>

[owen_omeara]

<p>I have had both the G and D versions and I sold the D because of terrible auto focus Nd weak contrast. The G version has been superb up to this point. I use it a great deal and it shows no sign of aging. The contrast and colors are wonderful. I own the 810 and this lens does the 36 megapixils proud. I think the build of the lens is wonderful.</p>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>The Samyang 85mm f/1.4 AE lens is excellent, and if you can do without AF I'd see no reason to pay far more for the Nikon f/1.4 AF-D, since its IQ is no better. However, the f/1.8 85mm Nikon is very good value and offers AF and excellent IQ for not much more money than the Samyang.</p>

<p>Only drawback with the Samyang is that it doesn't have terribly close focus. Coupled with the IF design that effectively shrinks its focal length to 75mm as focus is pulled closer, it doesn't have much magnification at its closest focus (1:11.33). <strong>Not</strong> 1:9.5 as reported by Photozone.<br>

The AF-D Nikkor also shrinks to around 75mm, but has a closer MFD of 0.85m and a magnification of 1:8.8. The f/1.8 Nikkor gets closer still with a maximum RR of nearly 1:8.</p>

<p>Personally I'm very happy to use manual focus and have the Samyang. The viewfinder focus-confirmation light gets focus pretty much bang on, and if I need more critical focus then I switch to LiveView. Besides, relying on open-aperture AF can give you an aperture-dependent focusing error with lenses as wide as f/1.4.</p>

[CvhKaar]

<p>I'm quite happy with my 85mm F/1.4 D, because<br>

- i like the way it renders skin,<br>

- i am used to using it<br>

- it's got a nice smooth Bokeh ( i do not say that other lenses do not hae that nice Bokeh, 'cause i did not try them for that),<br>

- not for the AF (it is not the best) ,<br>

- not for the corner to corner sharpness (it's is not there) ,</p>

<p>So for me it is a good lens which does what i want it to do...</p>

[Two23]

<p>Since the Nikon would be imported, wouldn't that actually make it considerably more expensive in Russia? Anyway, I went with the Nikon 85mm f1.8G mainly because its sharpness is so highly rated. Note that I don't often shoot portraits with it--I use another lens for that. If you are wanting a lens to shoot portraits, what about the Helios 85mm f1.5 44-2? I really like what that lens does for portraits. It should be a lot cheaper too.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

[greg_alton]

@kent, generally prices in Russia are higher than the US

for imported equipment but mostly due to VAT (18%) and

comparable to Europe. With the drop in the Ruble there

is some equipment imported before still available at

'old' prices. It is a temporary thing.

[joseph_smith3]

<p>I can comment only on the 85mm f 1.8 G which I have owned for about 6 weeks now. I use it on a D 800E and I am very pleased with it. Its image quality is superb, I love its color and contrast, and it is very light for a f 1.8 lens, much smaller and lighter than my 70-200mm f 2.8, and was priced (in the US) in such a way that it became hard not to buy if you needed an excellent prime in this focal length. I have never used the others so I cannot comment on them. <br>

Joe Smith</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>I have the Samyang 85 f/1.4 and the new 85 f/1.8 AF-S. The Samyang is pretty good, but probably not tack sharp at wider apertures - I bought it for my D700, which is a little less demanding, and the 85 f/1.8 AF-S hadn't been launched. (I didn't want the bokeh of the AF-D.) I got the AF-S because manual focus of an f/1.4 lens on a D800 was too inconvenient for me to want it as my only 85mm, and the AF-S was reasonably cheap. The 85mm f/1.8 is impressively sharp at wide apertures; my biggest objection to it is that it has quite bad LoCA (green fringes on the background), possibly worse than the Samyang although I've not directly compared. With the possible exception of the Otus, there doesn't seem to be a fast 85mm that lacks this problem entirely. The 85 f/1.4 AF-S seems particularly LoCA-prone, which discourages me from spending anything like its going rate on one.<br />

<br />

So... the 85 f/1.8 is very good so long as you can live with the LoCA. The Samyang is slightly less sharp but a bargain for what it is, and it's a fraction faster, so long as you don't mind manual focus. You'll probably be happy with either. Good luck!<br />

<br />

One disclaimer: my first Samyang turned up without working electronics. I got a replacement from my vendor which works fine, but it's only fair that I mention it.</p>

[greg_alton]

<p>@kent, you asked about the Helios 85 mm. I've used one and while it's an interesting lens, it's really a specialist lens (or a lens oddity, if you prefer) - it only works in stop-down mode (and of course manual focus). It does have an interesting look, but I wouldn't even put it in the running for comparison to the Nikon.<br>

It is, however, cheaper - now ~$200 or so, or a little more than half the (local) price (for now, as mentioned above) of the Nikon f1.8G. This shows the effect of the ruble - I think the ruble price has stayed the same as when I looked at it a couple of years ago, when the US$ equivalent price was close to $400. If you can get it at current ruble price, it might be worth playing with, at ~$400 it was frankly ridiculous - or only for the hard-core collectors and experimenters.</p>

[5711]

<p>85 1.8G<br>

to compare technical specs check:<br>

http://www.photozone.de/nikon_ff</p>

<p>85 1.8G is one of those lenses that almost outperforms the 85 1.4G and comes at a very affordable price.<br>

buy it, you won't regret that decision.</p>

 

[ruslan]

<p><strong>Greg</strong>, you are correct. Helios is a strange thing. <br /><br /><br>

<strong>Andrew</strong>, thank you, but I have seen the review of the Samyang at ephotozine.com<br />and I am impressed with its wide open perforemance. Just have a look at their review. <br /><br />As for the prices Samyang cost 250 USD while the Nikkor 85/1.8G costs 420 USD here. And the 85/1.4 G is very expensive about 1500 USD (exorbitant price). 85/1.4 D is about 800 USD. </p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>Ruslan - agreed. Just be aware that the <a href="http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare/Side-by-side/Nikon-AF-S-NIKKOR-85mm-F18G-on-Nikon-D800E-versus-85mm-f-1.4-Aspherical-IF-Nikon-on-Nikon-D800E___823_814_364_814">f/1.8 is sharper</a> at wide apertures, especially off-centre. The Samyang is perfectly acceptable, especially down a stop - and I rarely bothered even with that on my D700 (my D800 is more demanding). I really got the AF-S for convenience reasons, although the extent of the LoCA does give me a little pause about shooting at f/1.8 and ignoring the background. But that's what my 200 f/2 is for. :-)</p>

[ruslan]

<p><strong>Rodeo </strong>and<strong> Andrew</strong> - if Samyang (Rokinon) used,<br>

1) do boreder focus points in VF work together with focus confirmation dot? (Or only the central one) ?<br />2) in LV mode - is the lens open wide all the time (irrespect of the actual aperture setting) or is it closed down to f-stop set on the camera? I need it just for the record.</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>Hi Ruslan.<br />

1) You can only set a single focus point (you can't have area focus or 3D tracking - "Single-point AF is automatically selected when manual focus is used" to quote my D800 manual), but you can manually select which point is going to be used. You can't do the thing that used to be possible on old Canons (IIRC it doesn't work with recent ones) where you could select all focus points with A-Dep and have the focus points light up as they each hit focus - it's only one point at a time.<br />

2) The stop-down behaviour in live view depends on the camera. On recent high-end bodies (with a separate aperture lever motor) you can toggle between "normal" (wide open) and "exposure preview" (stopped down) using the OK button during live view shooting. Some other bodies, such as the D7100, stop down to the selected aperture. I believe this behaviour has changed between bodies, and the D700, for example, would at least not always stop down beyond a certain limit. I've not sat in front of a camera and confirmed this, and Nikon don't document it as obviously as might have been helpful (and the D800 changed with one of the BIOS updates...) so please don't take this as authoritative. It's the same as any other lens, though - the Samyang has an aperture lever, it's not like the Hartblei/Arsat/Peleng lenses I've owned where you have to adjust the aperture manually, and you should be able to confirm the behaviour experimentally.<br />

<br />

Effectively, the Samyang is an AI-P lens (except for the one I had which didn't have working electronics, which was effectively AI-S). That pretty much means that you can do anything you can do with an AF (not AF-D) lens when it's switched to manual focus mode. Notably, the camera won't think it's trying to autofocus, so you don't get trap focus the way you do with a real AF lens (or a manual focus lens that's "chipped" to think it's AF).<br />

<br />

I hope that helps!</p>

[nsfbr]

<p>I know I'm late to the party, but I'm an owner of an 85mm f/1.4 G who if doing it over again would save the money and get the 1.8G. It is a fantastic lens. Better or as good in many way and certainly a better value. </p>

<p>One thing to understand, and is often missed (I'm not sure as I have read every posting in this thread) is that the difference in T-stops between the 1.4G and 1.8G is MUCH less than the difference in f-stops would have you believe. If I recall correctly, the 1.4G is a 1.7 T-stop lens. While the 1.8G is a 1.9 T-stop lens. So, while you do get to have the razor thin focal plane of f/1.4 in the former, it really isn't letting that much more light in. </p>

<p>Don't get me wrong, I love the lens I own. I do. I'm not selling it any time soon and it helps me do some really great things in portraiture. But if I had to do it again, I'd buy the 1.8G and put the rest of the money towards something else I could use, like a lighter tripod or in the fund to eventually get the super tele I'd like some day. Get the 1.8G. Out of those choices it is the best lens for almost any application.</p>

[ruslan]

<p>Thank you much, colleagues. </p>