I've recently returned to Nikon and those of you familiar with my posts on the Canon forum know that I call it the way I see it regardless of my investment. After a day of testing the 85 f1.4 on a D700 I've found that while its decent for closeups and head and shoulder portraits, its unacceptably soft at distance. IMO $1k straight 85mm lens should shoot perfect images wide open and this doesn't cut it, especially coming from the Canon 85L. My Nikon 24-70 totally blows it out of the water in every way except for focal length.
I'm now thinking about the 85 f1.8, 105VR, or a 70-200 VR. The thing is that the 85 f1.8 looks like the same lens technology as the f1.4 so no upside there other than cost, the 105VR is still just f2.8, and the 70-200VR is a tad generic IMO, plus its a lot of coin for what a lot of people tell me isn't as sharp as the Canon version. Normally I'd do my own testing but time doesn't allow...I need this figured out by the weekend.
Anyone have experience with all of these and can advise which is best on FX?
Well, i changed the picture control from 'standard' to 'vivid' in NX2. Reduced saturation and exposure compensation slightly. Slight smart sharpening on the smaller first pic (100/0.8) Posting the full file now, just converted to .jpg. No nothing done with it.
This looks better than anything I got from my 85 1.4 wide open when I had it. The difference being a crop camera and no micro adjust I assume. Thanks for posting the full image on this - interesting...........
Looking good. I had an 85 and wa slightly disappointed as well. I am now in lovewith the 180 2.8 ED AIS. I have just started shooting with it so I don't have much to show. But here are a few. All I can say is that I love the bokeh of the 180.
I have been nothing but impressed with my 85 f/1.4. I don't use the lense nearly enough, but as soon as I sell all my DX stuff I'm buying a few new lenses and a D700, so I am sure the 85mm will be a better focal length than on my D300 right now. I just end up using my 50mm f/1.4 more often.
Here are a few samples of the 85 f/1.4 mounted to my D200 - not that kind of POP from above, but still no problems with lack of sharpness.
Michael, you've posted that last image a couple times now... that shot has all but convinced me to get the 1.4. I only wish I had an FX camera to throw it on!
Somehow, the larger image doesn't have the pop the smaller size shows in spade. It seems that it has to do with the higher contrast level of the smaller image.
Some lovely images Peter and Michael, as much as the price point of the 85mm f/1.8 has me wanting to grab one, there just seems to be a quality to images from the 85 f/1.4 that makes them something special.
Marc Kurth wrote:
This looks better than anything I got from my 85 1.4 wide open when I had it. The difference being a crop camera and no micro adjust I assume. Thanks for posting the full image on this - interesting...........
Marc
I haven't done any micro adjustments.. As someone else pointed out, it doesn't look quite as good in full size, but pics seldom do, do they? I always think all my pics look like crap, before i reduce the size by at least 50%.
