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Nikon 85mm f/1.4G

11 Lembert Dome

This scene was shot at Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, with Lembert Dome featured in the distance.

General comments on performance of the 85/1.4G

See the Reader Comments page for thinking on why a sharper and more contrasty lens is not necessarily the better choice for any particular task.

Under the flat and dull lighting conditions seen here, the 85/1.4G delivered a crisp high contrast image with rich color saturation. The lighting was what most photographers would disdain, yet the quality of the result is very high. The heavy cloud cover dispelled any hope for a brief peek of front lighting.

Field curvature appears minimal (very hard to detect), and no evidence of focus shift in this comparison or others. Those qualities make the 85/1.4G an unusual and easy-shooting lens; focus it wide open and shoot with the confidence that you’ll get what you aimed for. The minimal field curvature means that subject matter at the same distance will be sharp, with only a modest loss of sharpness to the edges and corners. The lack of focus shift means that wide-open focus yields optimal results stopped down (no focus shift). Neither of these factors is a given with many designs, so the 85/1.4G is eminently practical as a precision lens requiring no special fuss.

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Diglloyd DAP is DSLR-oriented, but also contains workflow and other topics. Much of the focus is on Canon and Nikon but also Pentax and Pentax medium format.

Special emphasis is placed on lens evaluation, focusing on Canon and Nikon and Sigma lenses, but with a few others like Rokinon/Samyang.

Make better images by learning how to get the best results right away.
Save money by choosing the right lens for your needs the first time, particularly some of the new Sigma Art lenses vs Nikon and Canon.
Workflow discusses image organization, raw conversion and post processing. Many examples show processing parameters for direct insight into how the image was converted.
Jaw-dropping image quality found nowhere else utilizing Retina-grade images up to full camera resolution, plus large crops [past 2 years or so].
Real world examples with insights found nowhere else. Make sharper images just by understanding lens behavior you won’t read about elsewhere.
Aperture series from wide open through stopped down, showing the full range of lens performance and bokeh.
Optical quality analysis of field curvature, focus shift, sharpness, flare, distortion, and performance in the field.

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The test scene showing the distant point of focus