Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor

Name: Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor
Brand: Nikon
Rating: 9.2 (35 reviews)

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Lens Review
Specifications

85mm	$519 average price

Lab Test Results

Blur
Chromatic Aberration
Vignetting
Geometric Distortion

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Buy the Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor

(From Nikon lens literature) Compact and portable telephoto lens that is ideal for portraits. Rear focusing for fast AF operation. Subtle blurring of background for beautifully natural and evocative portraits.

SLRgear Review
August 4, 2008
by Andrew Alexander

The Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8 AF was introduced in March of 1988; the AF-D version was introduced a few years later in 1994. A small-sized medium-range fixed telephoto lens, the 85mm ƒ/1.8 is the little brother to the larger 85mm ƒ/1.4. The ƒ/1.8 version only loses two-thirds of a stop, but costs only one-third the price of the ƒ/1.4 version.

The 85mm ƒ/1.8 was originally designed to fit the 35mm film frame, so it will have no problems covering either FX or DX digital SLR camera sensors. On a DX body, the lens will give an effective field of view of 127mm.

The lens is available now for around $400, and ships with a round screw-in lens hood.

Sharpness
The Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8 AF-D is very slightly soft when used wide open at ƒ/1.8, ranging from just under 3 blur units in the corners, to just under 2.5 blur units in the center. This improves as you stop down; around 2 blur units uniformly at ƒ/2, and at ƒ/2.8 the lens approaches its optimal sharpness, at 1 to 1.5 blur units. At ƒ/4 the lens is essentially tack-sharp across the frame, but by the numbers it doesn't reach its optical peak until ƒ/5.6. At ƒ/8 and ƒ/11 performance continues to be stable, still tack-sharp, and ƒ/16 shows some degradation from diffraction limiting, but only reducing overall quality to 1.5 blur units.

On the full-frame D3, the 85mm ƒ/1.8 fares slightly better (and posed some questions to us we still can't answer - more on that later). At ƒ/1.8, the lens shows results between 1.5 and 2 blur units. Mirroring the D200, this performance improves as the lens is stopped down, achieving essentially tack-sharp performance by ƒ/4, though the differences between ƒ/2.8 and ƒ/4 are very small. Sharpness is excellent all the way through to ƒ/16.

The question we haven't been able to find a satisfactory answer to is why the ƒ/1.8 performance on the D200 is a full blur unit worse than that seen on the D3. The effect only occurs at ƒ/1.8; at other apertures, everything else is more or less as we would expect. If you have any insights as to why this might be, please chime in with a user review below.

To summarize, with the exception of some very slight softness as ƒ/1.8, the 85mm ƒ/1.8 offers excellent results for sharpness stopped down to ƒ/2.8 and greater.

Chromatic Aberration
We were very surprised by the excellent performance exhibited by the 85mm ƒ/1.8 to reduce chromatic aberration. Mounted on the D200, we see some of the lowest numbers we've ever seen for CA, with even the worst-case CA not exceeding 1.5 percent of frame height.

This performance is mirrored on the D3, where any extra CA introduced by the full-frame FX sensor is detected and automatically removed by the D3's image processor. To evaluate the lens' performance rather than the camera's we run RAW images produced by the D3 through Bibble to evaluate chromatic aberration. In this case, the lens does show some CA, but it's still not alot to write home about: in the worst case, 3/100ths of a percent of frame height in the corners.

Shading (''Vignetting'')
Corner shading isn't much of a problem on the D200: at ƒ/1.8, you can expect the corners to be about 1/3 of a stop darker than the center. This improves at ƒ/2, where this number drops to about a quarter-stop. At ƒ/2.8, corner shading is very low.

On the full-frame D3, corner shading is more of an issue. At ƒ/1.8, shading in the corners almost reaches a full stop; this improves to 2/3 of a stop at ƒ/2, and 1/3 of a stop at ƒ/2.8. At ƒ/4, light falloff is less than a quarter stop difference, and by ƒ/5.6, it's as low as it can get.

Distortion
The 85mm ƒ/1.8 is optimized to produce distortion-free images. On the D200, there is statistically the slightest amount of barrel distortion, but it's a very, very small number. On the D3, you're looking at about 0.1% barrel distortion in the corners; however, this is almost so small as to be inconsequential.

Autofocus Operation
The 85mm ƒ/1.8 AF-D was developed before Nikon's newer AF-S system, meaning it uses a mechanical screw to move the focusing lens group. The lens focuses quickly, and does produce some noise while focusing, but the level of noise (as well as focus speed) will depend largely on the Nikon body being employed. Newer Nikon bodies like the D40, D40x and D60 which lack the focus screw will not be able to autofocus this lens.

Macro
The 85mm ƒ/1.8 offers very poor macro capability, with a minimum close-focusing distance of 85cm (around 3 feet) and a magnification of only 0.11x.

Build Quality and Handling
The 85mm ƒ/1.8 is often criticized as being one of Nikon's cheaper-looking lenses, primarily because of its plastic shell. Despite the plastic shell, it's fairly heavy for its size, at 374 grams (13 oz), and construction stands up well in day-to-day use with a metal body mount.

The 85mm ƒ/1.8 offers a windowed distance scale measured in feet and meters, with a companion depth-of-field scale and marked infrared index. The lens uses an aperture ring with a locking mechanism to prevent the ring from moving. Unlike its pro-level sibling, the 85mm ƒ/1.4, the ƒ/1.8 lens does not offer a lens-mounted manual focus switch.

The focus ring of the 85mm ƒ/1.8 is 3/8'' wide, using a soft rubber texture of raised squares. Manual focus travel of the ring is almost a quarter-turn: 85 degrees. The plastic filter threads take 62mm filters, which do not rotate during focusing.

The HN-23 lens hood is provided with the lens, a round screw-in hood made of metal, with a ribbed interior. Use of the hood is recommended to prevent flare and ghosting, but it's a screw-mount hood so much less easier to attach than newer bayonet-style mounts. The hood can't be reversed for storage.

Alternatives

There's really only one direct alternative for the 85mm ƒ/1.8; the larger, heavier, and costlier 85mm ƒ/1.4. However, if you're willing to sacrifice the ƒ/1.8 capability, there are a couple of other alternatives.

Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.4D AF ~$1,000
The ƒ/1.4 version of the lens is larger, heavier, and costlier, but you do get something for that: two-thirds of a stop faster aperture performance, and a bit more sharpness, at the cost of corner softness. Stopped-down, the 85mm ƒ/1.8 is actually a bit sharper, but the out-of-focus corners are a large part of what makes the 85mm ƒ/1.4 such a good portrait lens.

Sigma 70mm ƒ/2.8 EX DG Macro ~$400
It's not really in the same class of lens, as the Sigma 70mm doesn't provide the ƒ/1.8 of the 85mm, however, it offers a similar focal length. Optical performance of the Sigma 70mm is some of the best we've seen: tack-sharp at ƒ/2.8 (actually outdoing the 85mm ƒ/1.8) but a bit worse CA. Corner shading and Distortion are about the same.

Tamron 90mm ƒ/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 SP AF ~$450
The Tamron also isn't a good direct comparison, but it's in the same ballpark. It's primarily a macro lens, offering similar results for sharpness, corner shading and distortion as the 85mm ƒ/1.8; CA is slightly higher.

Conclusion
The comparison between the 85mm ƒ/1.8 and ƒ/1.4 versions is one of the longest ongoing discussions concerning the Nikon product line. In the final analysis they are dramatically different products, offering results which are difficult to compare. The ƒ/1.8 version offers better corner-to-corner sharpness, but at wider apertures, the ƒ/1.4 offers better central sharpness.

In its own right, the 85mm is an excellent lens, offering class-leading performance for chromatic aberration, very low corner shading at wide apertures, and practically no distortion. Sharpness is excellent at ƒ/2.8, only showing a touch of softness when used wide open. For the price, if you need the 85mm focal length, the lens is an excellent option we have no trouble recommending.

Sample Photos

The VFA target should give you a good idea of sharpness in the center and corners, as well as some idea of the extent of barrel or pincushion distortion and chromatic aberration, while the Still Life subject may help in judging contrast and color. We shoot both images using the default JPEG settings and manual white balance of our test bodies, so the images should be quite consistent from lens to lens.

Still Life shot

VFA target

As appropriate, we shoot these with both full-frame and sub-frame bodies, at a range of focal lengths, and at both maximum aperture and ƒ/8. For the ''VFA'' target (the viewfinder accuracy target from Imaging Resource), we also provide sample crops from the center and upper-left corner of each shot, so you can quickly get a sense of relative sharpness, without having to download and inspect the full-res images. To avoid space limitations with the layout of our review pages, indexes to the test shots launch in separate windows.