The Nikkor 85mm 1.4 has long been a staple in my bag. Any photographer who's seen my work might recognize the unmistakable look of that lens. It's probably been my favorite lens for several years. It's been through some pretty damn rigorous times. I'd hate to be without it... until now. The long awaited replacement for this puppy is here, and I wasn't disappointed.
I'm really honored to have been asked to put this lens through it's paces by Nikon USA. I hope I've done this request justice. I want to thank them for the opportunity to give it a field test.
Following in the footsteps of the 24-70G, the 14-24G, and the 70-200VRII - all with nano crystal coat, the 85mm 1.4G with a silent wave motor will be taking it's rightful place in my bag. Now, it needs to be said that like any 1.4 piece of glass, it takes a certain skillset to shoot ANY lens wide open @ 1.4. It's jut not a given that every image will be sharp. It's all about the plane of focus, and there are just too many distance related variables as well as an incredibly shallow depth of field to produce images in focus each and every frame. However, the only images out of focus with this new lens will be caused by user error.
Whenever I had any contrast whatsover in a given situation, this lens locked on and grabbed hold of the subject. The focus wasn't "jumpy" when trying to lock on. Whenever the lighting situation was flat, and the level of light was quite low, this lens still outperformed the older version hands down. Did I miss? Absolutely. There were some out of focus images, but I was impressed enough to use this lens in critical situation-, like the processional, for example. I cranked the D3s up to ISO 5000 and went available light- which is my usual preference. Now, shooting a processional @ 1.4 is not easy, and I don't recommend it to everyone, but I really love the look and I've even done it with the older version. My point is simple- it's faster. It's also sharper, but I never thought the older version was soft. The nano crystal coat glass and the newly designed elements will increase contrast, decrease CA, and it's practically flare proof. But really, I was ok with the old lens but it's FASTER, much! There were occasions when the far reaching focus points on the D3s made the lens a but unsure, but the scene was quite flat. However, once I found a cross sensor point it snapped into focus right away.
My apologies for not writing an incredibly scientific review. There may be some folks on certain forums that will say that I'm biased. This lens that Nikon has sent me is not mine. It will be returned to them shortly and then I'll be buying one, just like every other piece of equipment in my bag. If you like the 24-70, the 14-24, and the 70-200 VRII, then you'll love this lens. It's going to stay on my D3s for even more portions of the wedding day, for sure.
Incidentally, I take 6 lenses to a wedding. 14-24mm 2.8, 24-70mm 2.8, 28mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4, 60mm 2.8, and the 70-200mm VRII. I use each and every lens at each and every wedding. I use the right lens for the right look. My lenses are an extension of my mind's eye. Sometimes I need something wide, sometimes I'll need compression, other times shallow depth.... When Nikkor comes out with the new 14-300mm 1.4 G lens with nano crystal coat, my bag will be a bit easier to carry!
Here are some images from the weddings I shot this weekend. They were processed in Lightroom, and no additional sharpening was added in the high res images. Here are a few blog sized, with a link to the hi res version after some of them.
