Introduction
One-and-a-half years after the faster – and significantly more expensive – Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G, this Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G had been released. Two thirds of a stop slower, about half the weight and less than a third of the price – but with very similar imaging characteristics. At the end of the DSLR era this was a very popular lens and Nikon made a whole lot of them, but is it still an interesting option today? Let’s try to find out in this review.
Sample Images
You can find many of the sample images in full resolution here.
Contents
Specifications / Version History
Already in 1964 Nikon released a manual focus 85mm 1.8 lens and there have been two different autofocus versions since:
- Nikon AF 85mm 1.8(D)
380g, 6/6 design, 62mm filter, 9 straight aperture blades, MFD 0.85 m, aperture ring, screwdriver AF, 1987-2020 - Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G
346g, 9/9 design, 67mm filter, 7 rounded aperture blades, MFD 0.8 m, AF-S, 2012-2020(?)
This is a review of the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G lens, its full specifications are:
-
- Diameter: 80 mm
- Field of view: 28.3° (diagonally)
- Length: 73 mm
- Weight: 346g (without hood, without caps)
- Filter Diameter: 67 mm
- Number of Aperture Blades: 7 (rounded)
- Elements/Groups: 9/9
- Close Focusing Distance: 0.8 m
- Maximum Magnification: 1:7.1 (measured)
- Mount: Nikon F
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $426 (new) or starting at $280 (used)
Handling/Build quality
This Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G is part of Nikon’s more affordable f/1.8 line up together with the 20mm 1.8G, 24mm 1.8G, 28mm 1.8G, 35mm 1.8G and 50mm 1.8G. It is therefore the longest focal length in this series.
The outer casing seems to be mostly made from high quality polycarbonate which is also true for the filter thread. There is a rubber gasket to be found at the bayonet.
The front retention ring with the lens name is easily damaged by some of the pinch-type lens caps. Looking for a used sample I came across many with damaged rings, this was also a problem with the Nikon AF-S 58mm 1.4G.
The focus ring features a mechanical coupling to the helicoid (no focus by wire) and it takes about 100° from the minimum focus distance (0.80 m) to infinity.
The resistance is okay, definitely not as nice as a real manual lens or some of Sigma’s better AF lenses.
Many Nikon AF-S G-lenses show some slack when changing the direction of rotation on the focus ring and this 85mm 1.8G is clearly one of those. It is not as bad as the 28mm 1.8G, but you can still notice it here as well.
A plasticky bayonet type lens hood it also part of the package. It can be mounted reversed for transport.
It looks like this Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G features the same focusing system as the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G: front and rear groups are fixed, a central group together with the aperture diaphragm is moving on focusing. When adapting this lens to other camera systems a too short adapter can therefore have a negative impact on this lens’ image quality.
In terms of focal length, this is the longest lens in Nikon’s line up of AF-S lenses with a maximum aperture of f/1.8.
This lens also works perfectly on the last generation of analogue F-mount cameras like the F80, F100, F5 and F6. On earlier cameras you are not able to change the aperture due to the lack of an aperture ring.
AF performance
When the AF-S primes hit the market some people were put off by their AF speed, as usually – especially when directly comparing those where there was a direct predecessor. This was also the case here, the newer Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G actually focused slower than the older screwdriven Nikon AF 85mm 1.8(D). Nikon at that time claimed the AF-S prime lenses are geared towards higher focus accuracy instead of speed. Still, people shooting sports often decided to stick with the older AF(-D) lenses.
The lens works without limitations via the FTZ adapters on Nikon Z cameras.
On the Sony E-mount cameras this lens also focuses surprisingly well in AF-C mode via the Monster LA-FE1 and LA-FE2 adapters (not in video mode though).
Vignetting
light falloff
| f/1.8 | 2.1 EV |
| f/2.8 | 1.2 EV |
| f/4.0 | 0.7 EV |
| f/5.6 - f/16 | 0.4 EV |
A very typical performance for an 85mm 1.8 lens. The 85mm 1.4 lenses I reviewed show a similar vignetting amount at their maximum aperture, meaning they have a slight advantage when stopped down to f/1.8 to f/2.8. Stopped down further they all show only very little falloff.
It is recommended to have a look at this article first to get an idea how this brightness graph works.
optical vignetting
Fast lenses usually show a noticeable amount of optical vignetting. Without going too much into technical details optical vignetting leads to the truncation of light circles towards the borders of the frame.
In the center of the frame almost every lens will render a perfect circle, but only lenses with very low optical vignetting will keep this shape in the corners.
So in the following comparison we move from the center (left) to the extreme corner (right) and see how the shape of the light circle changes.
We definitely see some optical vignetting at f/1.8, by f/2.8 it is almost completely gone.
The f/1.4 lenses are at an advantage here, stopped down to f/1.8 most of them show less optical vignetting. I also think the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 AF shows slightly less. All in all an average performance.
Sharpness
MTF-Graphs
I already told you that the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G and this Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G share a very similar optical design and therefore also their performance is very similar. Nikon’s MTF graphs promise a very even across frame performance with very good albeit not excellent sharpness from f/1.8.
Most MTF-Graphs show calculated values that do not take into account manufacturing tolerances and sample variation. Furthermore they are usually calculated for infinity, so in the field and shooting at different distances a noticeable variation may be visible.
Lensrentals.com measured many of these, so we have some data on the performance of actual lenses. As we can see these measured MTF graphs look extremely similar to the Nikon’s own and we further see that Nikon’s AF-S 85mm 1.4 and 1.8 perform very similar at their maximum apertures.
Focus Shift
I already told you this lens’ optical design is very similar to that of the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G which had some issues with focus shift. This Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G also shows a slight focus shift, but it is less pronounced and should only be an issue at short focus distances – if at all. We already see strong longitudinal chromatic aberrations though.
infinity (42mp Sony A7rII)
The Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G showed an exemplary performance in this category, it is probably the best 85mm 1.4 fullframe lens devoid of any special glass elements here.
This Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G does show a slightly worse performance, as there is a bit of a midzone dip at wider apertures and it takes stopping down to f/5.6 for very good across frame performance. The f/1.4 lens already looked really good at f/4.0.
The benefit of this f/1.8 lens is, that it has less issues with color aberrations at infinity.
How do the recent f/1.8 lenses designed for mirrorless cameras compare? The Sony FE 85mm 1.8 and the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 show a similar performance, both these lenses also have a midzone dip and need f/4.0 to f/5.6 for very good across frame performance.
The significantly more expensive Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8 already looks very good from f/1.8 and I expect the same (or more) of the Nikon Z 85mm 1.8 S (which we didn’t review yet).
portrait distance 2.0 m (42mp Sony A7rII)
For portraiture it isn’t so important how flat the field is, it is more interesting to see what the sharpness is like when focused at different parts of the frame to take field curvature out of the equation.
This is what I did here, I refocused for every shot and aperture to get the best possible result at different locations in the frame (center, inner midframe and outer midframe).
Focus distance was roughly 2.0 m and the circle of the dollar bill is more or less the size of a human eye.
f/1.8 <————> f/2.8
A good performance, again very similar to the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G. At f/1.8 things get a bit softer when moving away from the center, but this is still very usable – we are looking at 100% crops from 42mp files after all.
This is a category, where the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN is hard to beat, as it shows an impeccable performance already at f/1.4 everywhere in the frame. The Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM is not as sharp as the Sigma at f/1.4, but comes very close. The Viltrox 85mm 1.8 AF also looks almost as sharp in the outer midframe as it does in the center.
close 0.8 m, 1:7.1 (42mp Sony A7rII)
With a minimum focus distance of 0.80 m this f/1.8 lens focuses slightly closer than the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G. As was already the case for the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G, things are a bit softer at the maximum aperture due to spherical aberration, stopping down to f/2.8 improves the contrast significantly.
It looks to me like the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 AF is a bit contrastier at f/1.8 here.
Flare resistance
As always evaluating flare is a complex matter since you can get any lens to look bad if you push it hard enough and a slight change of scenario can affect results a lot.
Fast tele lenses rarely show a good performance in this category, but this one is luckily not the worst.
At the maximum aperture we can see some faint ghosts and also some veiling flare with the sun outside the frame, the latter only happens in very specific angles though.
Stopped down the ghosts become more pronounced and the situation regarding the veiling flare doesn’t really change. Using the hood also doesn’t really make a difference, I tried to manufacture a setting where the hood makes an actual difference, but I did not manage to do so. For all the pictures above the hood was used.
The Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM is still the best fast 85mm in this category I came across so far, but also that one still has issues with veiling flare. This is also one of the categories where the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN seems to perform worse than the Sony lens.
Coma
The coma correction of this Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G is really good. It performs better at f/1.8 than the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G, the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM and also the older Nikon AF 85mm 1.4D – even when those are stopped down to f/2.0.
The Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN and the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 are the fast 85mm lenses best corrected for Coma we reviewed so far, and even those do not perform as well as this Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G.
Distortion
The Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G shows a low amount of pincushion distortion. A correction profile is available e.g. in Lightroom. If you are using this lens via the FTZ adapter the profile will automatically be applied in Lightroom and cannot be turned off.
Bokeh
What was special about this lens when it was released was, that it offered very similar bokeh quality as the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G – for a fraction of the cost. But let’s see for ourselves.
Close distance
At close distances we definitely see the same qualities that we saw with the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G: very smooth out of focus backgrounds and also a smooth transition zone.
Mid distance
At mid distances it doesn’t render backgrounds as smooth as the better 85mm 1.4 lenses, but don’t get me wrong: if you don’t manage to take nice portraits with this lens: it is not the lens’ fault.
Long distance
I found this lens to draw a very appealing bokeh in most situations and if you do not manage to take nice portraits with this 85mm 1.8, it won’t be the lens’ fault.
Sunstars
Nikon’s AF-S lenses are a bit hit-and-miss when it comes to the quality of the sunstars they create. This Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G has an aperture diaphragm made of 7 rounded aperture blades that creates okayish sunstars from f/11 to f/16. As this is primarily a portrait lens I gladly take rounded aperture blades for nice out of focus highlights slightly stopped down over nice sunstars.
If you want to learn more about this topic have a look at this article.
Chromatic aberration
lateral
While the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G corrected this aberration perfectly, the same cannot be said about this f/1.8 lens, as it shows noticeable lateral CA. Luckily they are still easily fixed by just one click in a good raw developer like Lightroom.
longitudinal
If you already read some of my reviews of Nikon’s f/1.4 AF-S lenses you already know: correcting longitudinal CA has not been the number one task of Nikon’s optical engineers during the AF-D and AF-S era and that applies to this 85mm 1.8G with zero ED elements as well.
Strong green and magenta outlining at f/1.8, still noticeable at f/2.8, mostly gone by f/4.0.
When it comes to purple fringing the situation is not a lot better.
The Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.4G shows a similar performance in this category. Modern high performance lenses like the Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM and especially the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN do noticeably better in this category. Also the Viltrox 85mm 1.8 AF looks like it performs a bit better here.
Conclusion
good
|
average
|
not good
|
This Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G is a very good example of what an affordable first party lens should look like. It offers about 90% of the performance of the professional f/1.4 lens for only 30% of its price, hereby giving people on a budget a highly capable yet affordable first party lens, instead of pushing them to cheaper third party options.
In 2024 there is much stronger competition than there was in 2012 though. We now have affordable 85mm 1.4 lenses with AF from e.g. Samyang and Meike that can be found for the same price and also a capable 85mm 1.8 AF from Viltrox for even less, the latter two also available for Nikon Z-mount by the way.
In the Z-mount world a used Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G is still a very affordable 85mm option for those that already have one of the FTZ adapters. The Nikon Z 85mm 1.8 S is surely better corrected for most optical aberrations, but for typical portraits I doubt that actually makes much of a difference for the final picture.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $426 (new) or starting at $280 (used)
Alternatives
Nikon AF 85mm 1.8(D):
The predecessor with AF that relies on a motor in camera (“screwdriver AF”). On higher end DSLRs this lens focuses very fast, in terms of optical performance I expect it to perform worse in every regard. During autofocus operation the focus ring also turns by itself, which is pretty annoying.
buy from ebay.com | ebay.de (affiliate links) starting at $200 (used)
Nikon Z 85mm 1.8 S:
This Z-mount lens is Nikon’s latest 85mm 1.8 lens. In terms of correction of optical aberrations I expect it to be noticeably better and I would also expect the AF to be faster. Will you be able to see the $400+ difference in actual portrait pictures? I am not so sure about that.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $697 (new)
Viltrox 85mm 1.8 AF:
This is a lens that positively surprised all of us, as it draws a very nice bokeh and is very affordable. In terms of sharpness it is least as good as this Nikon lens, in the other categories there are some small differences sometimes in favour of one, sometimes in favour of the other. This Viltrox is a bit on the heavy side though, the Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G with adapter is actually lighter.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $399 (new)
Sony FE 85mm 1.8:
This is one of the earlier Sony FE lenses. A decent allrounder with mediocre flare resistance and also high longitudinal CA. These days I would only recommend it to those that need a very fast and reliable AF, everyone else should have a look at the aforementioned Viltrox and/or the 85mm 1.4 AF from Samyang.
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $548 (new)
Zeiss Batis 85mm 1.8:
This lens does have a bit of a fanbase, personally I found it vastly overpriced when it had been released and I still find it overpriced today. If you can spend that kind of money on an 85mm lens, better have a look at the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art DG DN (if you care most about resolution and contrast) or a used Sony FE 85mm 1.4 GM (if you care most about pleasing bokeh).
buy from amazon.com | amazon.de | ebay.com | ebay.de | B&H (affiliate links) for $929 (new)
You can find more alternatives in our Guide to Portrait lenses for the Sony A7, A9 and A1 Series.
Sample Images
You can find many of the sample images in full resolution here.
Further Reading
- Guide to 85-135mm portrait lenses for Sony FE cameras
- Best Fullframe Lenses from China
- Bokeh explained
- Reviewing Lenses isn’t really worth it
- Technical Knowledge
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Thanks for the review. I have used for a long time: 85 1.8D, 85 1.8G and 85 1.8S. Version 1.4 Z is not yet available, and version D and the features of version G did not impress me.
It so happened that when switching from versions D to G and from version G to S, I had the opportunity to compare them in parallel. The Z85 1.8S was actually my first lens with a Z
mount. And, the difference between the G and S versions is more than 100% worth the price difference for me personally. And even though I ended up selling the Z85 1.8S, I’m not sorry that I bought it. Another question is that most people who cannot see the features of a drawing in the absence of a parallel comparison will not be able to identify the difference.
But I strongly agree that if using 85 1.8G If you don’t get a beautiful photo with, then it’s definitely not the lens’ fault!)
The Tamron SP 85mm F1.8 Di VC USD is notably missing from the list of alternatives. It is a larger more complex lens with image stabilization.
I have that Tamron lens and I think it’s well-nigh the best 85mm f/1.8 lens… not that I’ve extensively tested many, mind you. 🙂 Of course it’s pretty bulky but otherwise it has no weak points whatsoever, and even the size/weight is relative. I often carry it instead of the 70-200mm f/2.8 and it’s a noticeable difference.