Nikon
85mm f/1.8
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2008 KenRockwell.com. All rights reserved.
Nikon AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.8D. I'd get mine at Adorama or Amazon. It helps me keep adding to this site when you use these links, thanks!
Introduction
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I personally buy from Adorama, Amazon, Ritz, B&H and J&R. I can't vouch for ads below.
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This is a popular AF lens and rightfully so. It's inexpensive and very good.
Specifications
It has six elements in six groups.
It focusses as close as 0.85m or three feet.
It is 2.8" (71mm) around by 3.1" (78mm) long. It weighs 13 oz. or 415g.
It takes 62mm filters and comes with a nice metal HN-23 hood.
It has a lovely 9 bladed diaphragm stopping down to f/16
Nikon Product Number: 1931, in catalog as of spring 2008.
Performance
Bokeh: Near objects can have sllight magenta halos, while far objects can have slight green halos.
It has no distortion.
The samples I've seen have nice metal filter threads.
A screw-in metal HN-23 hood is included with the lens.
Its sharp at every aperture, and especially at f/1.8.
AF speed is super fast on the F100 and F5. One full turn (two half-turns) of the AF screw of the non-D version pulls focus from infinity down to 16 feet.
It tends to autofocus a tad closer than it should on my F100. This shouldn't be much of an issue in practical photography.
From the little I've used this lens, the Bokeh is fairly poor.
Recommendations
This is a lens to get if you don't have an 80-200/2.8 zoom. The zoom tends to be as sharp and almost as fast, so they tend to overlap in capability.
At only $400 or less brand-new this is a magnificent lens on all fronts. It sold for only about $320 in 2004.
Hint: the included HN-23 metal hood screws into the lens' 62mm threads. THe front of the hood has no threads, however any of the Nikon snap-on 77mm plastic lens caps pop right on the front of the hood. If you don't change filters, you coulsd leave the hood on all the time and use a 77mm cap.
PLUG
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Thanks for reading!
Ken