Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 85mm f/1.4G Lens

Yes, it has an incredible price to match but what an incredible lens Nikon have come out with here. With the copy I have focus is always spot on and I didn't have to do any in-camera correction. The AF speed is not like lightening, but is very good and fine to keep up with all but the fastest moving action, but considering it can still do this at f1.4 is amazing.

When it really blows you away is at night. You have to try it to believe it but there's no coma - or none that's apparent - unlike so many other good primes. This means for low light it really is exceptional - great AF even at f1.4 and such little coma. Its incredibly sharp when you want it to be too, but the real beauty with this one is being able to produce such shallow depth of fields and gloriously smooth backgrounds.

So, it might be a healthy chunk of money but you get what you pay for.

Having owned the legendary AF-D version of this lens, it seemed hard to imagine that there could be much improvement in an AF-S version. However, having now upgraded I can confirm that this AF-S version represents a noticeable step forward. Whether this step up is enough to justify the extremely high price may be a different matter..!

As an 85mm f1.4 lens, this optic shares the almost unparalleled ability of its predecessor to isolate subjects at medium distances, which is why photographers have always loved Nikon's 85mm f1.4 lenses. Personally I think that the levels of sharpness, contrast and saturation are now noticeably better than the AF-D version and have been astonished by the quality of some of the images I have taken with this newer lens.

The other major benefit I have found is the autofocus speed. Although acquiring focus was always brisk on the 85mm f1.4 AF-D, it did still rely on the `screwdriver blade' system. When shooting motorsport or other high speed subjects, I would often pass over this lens in favour of newer AF-S lenses such as the 70-200 f2.8 AF-S VR lens.

With the new AF-S version I never have any such concerns as focus is blisteringly fast: it's actually very hard to get the lens to go out of focus for long enough to notice!

I am delighted with the upgrade as it now allows me to use the classic Nikon 85mm f1.4 prime lens design with any subject, no matter how speedy. Portraiture is the obvious forte of this lens but I have found all manner of other uses for it, particularly in shooting sports or action shots where it can `snatch a subject out of the background' in the blink of an eye to produce very impressive results.

Similar in shape to the AF-D version, this lens is slightly larger but remains a nicely balanced lens on any of the larger Nikon D-SLR bodies.

The only possible down side to this spectacular lens is the very high price. If you already have the AF-D version and are rarely bothered by the focus speed, then it may be hard to justify the substantial price. If you are new to the world of Nikon 85mm f1.4 and are struggling to justify the price of the AF-S version, then a secondhand AF-D version will give you 85% of the quality at a much lower price, albeit with slower focusing.

It's interesting to see that the introduction of this lens has not really generated a flood of secondhand 85mm f1.4 AF-D lenses on the market. Presumably many portrait photographers are happy with the superb abilities of the older lens. At the end of the day, the price of this lens may be the major factor in deciding whether to purchase it or not... :-)

Went to a family gathering tlast weekend and took pictures of all the members. This is a fabulous lens. which is perfects for portraits. Very shallow DOF and quite sharp even at f-stop 1.4.
Highly recommended. Disappointed with Amazon to find that they used Danish VAT (25%) rather than British (17.5%)without telling beforehand. Sure I live in Denmark, but that increased the price about a hundred £!