5 Nikon 85mm Portrait Lenses: $300 to $2,200 (Review)

I am a hobbyist. There is no way I am going to pay into the thousands. I always look into the older generation lenses and the nikon 85mm 1.4d is mind blowing on its on. I also tried the budget rokinon and samyang and are outstanding. They give a warm tone to the pictures. The only downfall is they are manual lenses. Too much time wasted trying to focus.

Definitely, the most comprehensive and practical review I've seen on YOUTUBE. Great Job 😀

Strange test. Nikkor 85/1.4G definitely have way better bokeh then Sigma. Even from your samples. In a real life Sigma focusing as good as 85/1.4G and Zeiss is manual focus , how you can compare ? Tried many times to get ghosting from front light on 85/1.4G and I cannot replicate your results…. Chromatic …. you showing how to remove vignetting in Lr , but chromatic can be removed the same way , why then worry about ? And again , in real life I only suffered from this on my 85/1.4 D&G lenses few times.
At the end of the day , Nikkor 85/1.4 is a winner as 105 is nearly double of price and I am not even talking about second hand market where you can buy 85/1.4G for 800-900 buks.

I'm not a 'Nikon Guy', but enjoyed this comparison. Have you noticed how sharp you two are in the clip!!!! Woa!!! looks great what ever you recorded this with.

Is it only me?

Lenses placed on table, bare bottom without cap…. gives me shakes SORRY!

Well your 85 is not an ED lens whereas your 105 is an ED lens. That's why you see the difference in the chromatic aberration.

What is a 105mm doing in a 85mm test?

You blew it by not including the Nikon 85 1.8. Some people prefer it to the 1.4 and it's much smaller, lighter and cheaper. You could have left out the 105 or Rokinon.

This is like a rat race where the winner is a cat

Winner nikon 105mm

Very in depth analysis. Thanks a lot for that. But what are your views on Tamron – 85mm f1.8 and 90 mm f2. 8?

If the Nikkor 105 1.4 were not in the contest, which one of the 85 mm you would take, Chelsea? And you, Tony? What about the Nikkor AF-S 85 1.8 G? And what about the Tamron SP AF 85 1.8 Di VC?

im still confused why a 105mm is one of the choices… title clearly say five 85mm portrait lenses

Thank you for your comparison! Got that Sigma Art, reasoned by focal length, autofocus and sharpness! Don't regret anything at all

Why no field test of the Zeiss Planar 85mm 1.4?

Value for money remains a very important factor for most people. Sigma would be my choice, next to the excellently reviewed Nikon 84 1.8, how many times do you see reviews where fast 1.4 lenses have to be adjust4ed to f/4 etc for optimal performance.

I'm wondering how these lenses would do on a crop sensor? I'm wondering if i need to upgrade to a camera with a larger sensor to get the full potential of a 85mm 1.4 ??

I do not understand why you say the 85mm is a good lens for portraits.
When we shot film the 85mm was the standard portrait lens but with todays cameras with their crop sensors and the 1.5 X multiplier then a 50mm lens becomes the 85mm portrait lens.
The Nikon 85mm you tested is an AF-S DX lens that you are using on an FX body.
We have AF-S lenses and use them on DX so it will not give you the same results

I tried using a 50mm 1.4 Nikon lens to do portraits. The problem with it is that at 1.4 when the nose was in focus, then the ears were out of focus. Focus on the eyese and the earlobes were blurry.
I found that I had to stop the lens down to 1.8 to get any usefulness out of it at all.
I ended up selling my 50mm 1.4 and buying a 50mm 1.8 and everything went swimmingly after that.
Just because your 1.4 is better and a stop faster than my 1.8 does not mean a damn thing when you have to stop it down to make it work.
With todays iso settings a stop here or there is totally irrelevant. I got really great bokeh with the 1.8 lens and my subject was in focus from the tip of the nose to the earlobes.

I wonder if they used all those lenses out of the box or did focus tuning. (Dock station with sigma, and in body tuning for the rest) I do have the sigma art 85mm and it started producing very good results only after the dock tuning was done.

What does Sigma put in their lenses ? They are gargantuan

Most of these lenses would cost more than all of my gear put together, lol. The Rokinon 1.4 works really well for a fraction of the price. If I'm going to even think about spending $1000+ for a lens it's going to be a more versatile lens than an 85mm.

When I first purchased the Sigma 85mm f/1.4 Art a couple years ago, I was disappointed how often it would miss focus with my D850. But since two firmware updates, one for the lens and one for the camera, and after calibrating the lens with the dock, I nail focus every time. No one talks about this. All anyone knows about the AF on this lens is from old reviews. Someone should do an updated review.

Your WIFE VERY CRAZY FOR USE NEW BODY OR SHE WANT SHOOTS YOU ALSO BUT SHE VERY NICE

There is no logical or rational reason to care about this kind of detail or pay more for it, no one cares these days. 99% of your audience will never see your photos in high resolution. The sad reality is these tiny differences in lenses are becoming less and less important in the modern world. People do notice nice bokeh, good lighting, sharp images, great composition. This kind of detail? WAY less than 1%! Add to that all the crap most pros add in post (because the modelis like it and it sells!), and you have what you see in the the top magazines. None of this matters anymore, no one cares.

Rokinon didn't get enough credit here. It may perform a little weaker than the others here but it's miles apart from them in price and with that in mind I find it impressive how well it keeps up with the others. Also, their 135mm f2 is jawdroppingly good

I have read and heard a lot of older comments on the AF of the Sigma 85mm 1,4 Art, and I suspect that Sigma has since dealt with those problems without telling anyone 🙂 , because my copy does nail the AF every time without any problem.

Bloody music

Whoever uses a manual focus lens in this darn age is beyond me.

WTH kind of an airhead video is this?

If you wanna advance your skills as a photographer, skip on "buy all" channels.

Honestly T & C, music is NOT required, your voices are smooth enough !!

Inappropriate title
Change it to "85mm vs 105mm"
Not a good review a very unfair review.

I only watch cos of chelsea…just phoar 😉

The poor photographers portrait lens is the Tamron SP 90mm F2.5 model 52B macro lens with Nikon mount. It is manual focus with no electronics. Goes for about $120 used.

85 just as good as my 135mm sigma

I have a hard time going much under f2 since the so little detail is in focus for close ups. I'll keep my f1.8 Nikon D at around $300 these days.

Dxomark says that sigma 85 art is one of the sharpest , best transmitting 85s on the market. That’s the one I want for my canon 6d