AF-S DX Macro NIKKOR 85mm f/3.5G ED VR

[jayingleson]

AF-S DX MAcro NIKKOR 85mm f/3.5G ED VR

hello everyone

i am looking to aqquire a really good portraiture/macro lens and im looking for opinions from people on this new lens Nikon have launched recently.

its a IF 85mm F3.5 lens that has a macro compatibility aswell as it can go as close up as 0.286 m/0.9 ft. (life size)

ED + VR II + 1:1 = £350 sounds too good to be true??

[Don Hoey]

The lens gets good reviews as a macro lens. The Apparent lowish cost is down to limited aperture for a fixed focal lens and that its manufactured in China. Both of those cut costs.

To get my head around your 'looking for a good portrait/macro lens', I have looked at your gallery and the obvious question is what does your current lens not give you ?

Portrait and macro are not terms that normally appear together. Macro usually being very sharp is not the lens I would consider for female portraiture. Never yet met a lady yet who wants any skin blemishes to be faithfully recorded . Of course if you are going to resort to gaussian blurr in pp for smoother skin tones then I will wonder why you want to use a razor sharp lens in the first place.

Lots of people use the 85mm f1.4 for portraits, but that is to take account of its shallow dof and creamy smooth bokeh. Neither of these properties equally apply to this lens. The 85mm f1.4 being specifically designed as a portrait lens for full frame 35mm.

Next to find out what kit you currently have I thought I might find a clue in your hello post.
So D3000 with 18-55mm kit lens. D3000 does limit you to AFS so that does limit options a lot. However remembering a previous post in The D7000 thread and reading your 'hello' the common theme is future upgrade to D7000 or D300, D300s. Any of those cameras mean your lens options can be extended to AFD, or AI/AIs manual focus, and there is a far wider range of focal lengths there.

Next in your hello thread I note your interests as fashion, natural beauty, portraiture, people and creativity.
Kit you are looking to aquire 70-200 f2.8VRII, 50mm f1.4 and 35mm f1.4. .......... just wondering where the 85mm micro lens fits into that lineup.

Your description of the lens in this post makes me wonder if you are being seduced by marketing ...... " its a IF 85mm F3.5 lens that has a macro compatibility aswell as it can go as close up as 0.286 m/0.9 ft. (life size), ED + VR II + 1:1 = £350 sounds too good to be true?? "

If you have a picture post it in this thread along with improvements you are hoping for from a portrait lens. That will open it up to general advice from some of our portrait aces of which I am not one.

Don

PS : Thinking about it posting a pic and asking questions might get more attention in a new thread without Nikon as a header. Canon, Pentax, Olympus portrait gurus are less likely to pass it over then.

[jayingleson]

hello

thank you for your advice i really appreciate it

i just generally heard that the 85mm 1.8 AF was an amazing portraiture lens but have the limited capability of having a camera without a build in moter which does not help matters when studio work is usilally snap snap snap and your done and manual focus makes it alot harder and is more time consuming for portraits when people cant keep still to get the focus right.

the afs 85mm lens looks like a way out with autofocus so it seems the way to do, i was thinking of investing in a 35mm 1.4 in january but was alittle sceptical on its portraiture abilitys.

thanks

[Don Hoey]

Perhaps you have to make a judgement here. The fact that the D3000 means you can only use AFS lenses has resulted in a pretty expensive lens shopping list. If you move to a body that can take advantage of screwdrive AFD lenses then not only are they cheaper than the AFS variant but are far more accessible on the used market. Another consideration re the body is that the prism viewfinder of the likes of the D300 is far superior to the Pentamirror type in the D3000, so even the manual focus you mention is a bit of a different world.

On the used lens front I have bought from Grays of Westminster before, and no doubt there are other dealers where you can save serious cash by buying ecx+, exc++, to mint- over the cost of buying new. I have bought lenses from Grays in mint- condition, and the only way I would know they were not new was the lack of the origional box. Example from Grays listing today, Mint- 50mm f1.4AFD for £185 compared with the best price I have seen on a quick look for the new AFS version of that lens £288:99.

AFD is not quite as fast as AFS but then it is fine for studio work. I have the 85 f1.8AFD and a quick check on Stevie's D300 and a/f is easily fast enough for portraiture of a moving subject.
I don't know how fast your subjects are moving, but remember the likes of Bailey, Duffy, Donovan, Avedon, Litchfield and Parkinson, to name just a few, did not have access to the fancy wizz bang kit available today. I would hope they would inspire you. Look at their images and lighting plays a key role. Far more than the lens that was used.

As for focal length then it does depend on working distance, and how much of the subject or its surroundings you want to include. As you have an 18-55 you should be able to see if anywhere in that focal range fits the bill. Before spending on a 35mm set your lens to that and give it a go. You will soon know if that focal length fits the bill or not. Remember if you want shallow depth of field for subject isolation, then within the bounds of your available working distances, the longer the focal length the better. Wide aperture of course helps too, and in this case f3.5 on the 85macro is not particularly wide.

Don