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Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S Review

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The Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S is a great lens for portrait, event, landscape, and street photography in good lighting. It provides excellent sharpness and bokeh, and has a solid build quality with smooth and accurate autofocus. The image quality is impressive, with sharpness and minimal distortion and vignetting. However, it does exhibit some flaring and longitudinal aberration, but overall, it's a high-performing lens that is slightly expensive but worth the investment.

The Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S offers impressive sharpness and bokeh, making it ideal for various photography genres in good lighting. The solid build quality and smooth autofocus add to its appeal, despite the lack of image stabilization and control ring. Overall, it's a high-performing lens with excellent value for most users.

Pros
  • Excellent sharpness and bokeh
  • Solid build quality
  • Smooth and accurate autofocus
  • High-quality image with minimal distortion and vignetting
Cons
  • No image stabilization
  • No control ring
  • Flaring and longitudinal aberration at wider apertures

The lens has a solid build quality, with a mainly metal construction and a sealing gasket for protection against dust and moisture. The autofocus motor operates silently and accurately, especially with eye autofocus, while the manual focus ring provides smooth and precise control.

The Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S is a versatile lens suitable for portrait, event, landscape, and street photography with excellent performance in good lighting conditions. It offers impressive sharpness and bokeh, making it ideal for capturing subjects with out-of-focus backgrounds. The lens has a solid build quality, with a mainly metal construction and a sealing gasket for protection against dust and moisture. The autofocus motor operates silently and accurately, especially with eye autofocus, while the manual focus ring provides smooth and precise control. However, the lens does not feature image stabilization or a control ring, which may be a drawback for some users. The image quality is outstanding, with excellent sharpness and minimal distortion and vignetting, even when used on a 45-megapixel full-frame camera. While the lens may exhibit some flaring and longitudinal aberration, its overall performance is impressive at both full-frame and APS-C modes. The bokeh quality is smooth and appealing, although some longitudinal aberration may be noticeable at wider apertures. Despite being slightly expensive, the Nikon Z 85mm f/1.8 S offers excellent value for its performance, especially compared to other expensive 85 millimeter lenses on the market.

The image quality is outstanding, with excellent sharpness and minimal distortion and vignetting, even when used on a 45-megapixel full-frame camera. While the lens may exhibit some flaring and longitudinal aberration, its overall performance is impressive at both full-frame and APS-C modes.

Source

This article is based on the review by

Christopher Frost

Christopher Frost

Christopher Frost is a YouTube channel dedicated to providing in-depth reviews and analyses of photography equipment, particularly lenses. Christopher Frost, the creator and host of the channel, is known for his thorough and detailed evaluations of various lenses from different manufacturers, including Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, and others.  To learn more, please visit the channel here.

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