Nikon NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S Mirrorless Camera Lens JMA301DA

Nikon's long awaited 85/1.8 prime for the Z-series is finally shipping and I'm happy to report it's been worth the wait. Design and build are as expected based on the existing f/1.8 series primes, which is to say relatively light and compact in a decent, if unremarkable, composite casing. AF is fast and accurate and the lens balances very nicely on my Z7. Image quality, as hoped, excels. The lens is tack sharp wide open right across frame. On testing, I can detect a very slight bump in sharpness at f/2.8 in the extreme corners on a planar subject (brick wall). But this is only detectable by making painstaking comparisons at the pixel level. You would never notice it in real world shooting. Simply choose your aperture, focus on any part of the frame at any distance and prepare to be amazed. It's all here. Biting (but not clinical) sharpness from wide open. Exquisite detail at the plane of focus. Beautiful creamy background blur. Smooth transitions. And exceptional colour purity, which is probably down to the remarkable lack of colour fringing, even on out-of-focus highlights. It all adds up to 'that look' which only the best short telephoto lenses have: that beguiling combination of sharp details and glowing highlights against a soft wash of colour, all balanced in perfect harmony. The lens is just as well behaved on stopping down. Depth of field simply increases, untroubled as far as I can tell by any significant focus shift or field curvature, just as you expect and just as you want. No unpleasant surprises. Complaints? If pushed, I would say it doesn't focus quite as close I would like but, in fairness, that's true of every 85mm prime I've ever used. It's just how it is. Some will say it should have been f/1.4. Not me. Not when it's half the size and weight of those 'hero' lenses. Not when the rendering is this good. I pair mine with the equally exceptional 14-30/4 zoom, which on my Z7 makes for a fantastic two lens kit for travel and backpacking. Highly recommended.

Not the cheapest lens out there and I’ve paid less for a 50mm 1.4 G but man is this lens fantastic. It’s moderately small and well built. Autofocus is fast and bokeh is amazing wide open so all in all it’s definitely worth it. Just do it , trust me you won’t be disappointed. Don’t worry about the fact that it’s not a 1.4 or 1.2 as once you get the feel of it and see the results you will know it’s a keeper. Check out the price of the 1.2 and you will cry having to spend that much !!!

I will say up front, I don't normally shoot primes. But I decided to invest in some for my Z6 as the kit lens at f4 limited some shots I wanted. Right out of the box it looks and feels like all the other S lenses. Not too heavy, quality construction, everything you could hope for. But it's the image quality that stunned me. For 15+ years I've carried a Nikon DSLR and a zoom lens, for many years a 24-70/2.8 lens. I've always bought primes but never used them much at all. These S lens are different, I've pretty much completely switched to using primes! The sharpness, speed, and quietness are talked about a lot. Obviously all stellar but there is a very difficult to describe image feel to the S primes. Yup they're 'only' f1.8 lenses, but having used 1.4 f mount lenses I'm not missing anything at all. You can shoot these S primes wide open at 1.8 all day and the quality is stunning. I recently traded in my 24-70/4s kit lens for the f2.8s version. But I'm still finding I prefer to shoot with the prime lenses. The 35mm being one of the 3 I pretty much carry everywhere now. If you have a Z6/7 get yourself some of the primes, they're definitely worth it.

It is absolutely the best z mount lens you can get at that price. Extremely sharp , Bokeh is very good , light transmission of F1.4 lens on a DSLR although it is rated at F1.8 , extremely versatile focal length and light weight. The size of the lens matches very well the size of the Z cameras. In summary, A must have lens.

This lens lives up to the expectations that all the reviews I have read and watched. Exceptonal performance with razor sharp images from F1.8 upwards, giving those wonderful out of focus backgrounds. At the price that I paid it is superb value for money.

I own many lenses. This is by far one of, if not the best lens in my arsenal to date. It just works. Silently focuses (even in video). It is crisp edge to edge. And you can actually shoot at f1.8! Never mind the two stop of sharpness rule! I love this lens. And I will be investing in more of the Z lenses for my mirrorless camera system.

This lens is amazing. That is it. Done. Super sharp. Very lightweight. It's a pleasure to use.

Have a Z9 and the 24-70 2.8 - heavy! The 50 is refreshingly small and light - feels well made, not much on the lens functionality wise - compared to the more expensive lenses.

Insane sharpness and image. Must buy lens. Focal length is great for portraits. Tight in indoors. Minimum focus distance is terrible. Sharpness and details throughout the image from centre to corner is great. Excellent smooth bokeh. Dust magnet focus ring. Boring design. Good colour (accurate but not punchy) and contrast. Better than 50mm f1.8 for portraits. Not versatile like 50mm 1.8 due to focal length. No regrets in choosing 85 over 50. Will buy a 35mm 1.8/1.4 for indoor and wider shots in future. Uploaded sample 1 is jpeg straight out of camera, sample 2 is lightroom edited, sample 3 is same image cropped. Took on Nikon Z5 at f1.8

La lente più nitida che abbia mai avuto, ottima per Nikon a livello di risolvenza e contrasto nell'immagine. La qualità dello sfocato è piacevole e morbida e l'autofocus è molto silenzioso, anche se ho notato che il mio esemplare ha dei motori di messa a fuoco leggermente più rumorosi di altri che ho provato. A quanto pare c'è un po' di variabilità, ma non crea nessun problema in video. Eccellente, 5 stelle meritate

Its a Nikon Z 50mm f1.8 lens. You put it on a camera and use it to take pictures and Nikon made it. What's not to like? Seriously though, I decided to compare it to the image quality of my older 50mm f1.4 AF-D (and an FTZ), just to see what the difference was (other than that the AF-D can't autofocus on a Z-Mount). Wow; this was so much sharper and clearer, especially if used with the recently-released pixel-shift capability.

make no mistake, this is professional glass through and through TL;DR: Pros: - sharpness and resolution are sensational - smooth non-distracting bokeh - micro-contrast is pro-level - color rendering is superb - light and compact - fast focus - solid build Cons: - max magnification is not inspiring (this is no macro lens) - no controls on the lens except for AF/MF switch. no control ring, no lens buttons, no aperture - no built-in VR - plain design looks cheap at first when Nikon released this, I thought it was just a placeholder lens, to make sure Z system early adopters had something to shoot with. it just looks like a simple cheap lens, one of the reasons I wasn't attracted to it at first but now while I got tired waiting for a faster 35mm option and got this to play with, I am absolutely stunned by the image quality delivered, and see no reason to wait for a faster (and no doubt heavier and pricier) option. portraits look stunning at F/2, sharpness is hair-splitting corner to corner, resolution this lens delivers is superb, crop any way you like. micro-contrast is second to none, and colors are sensational if 35mm is your FOV, look no further for Z system. this lens also makes 50mm 1.8 S redundant. just shoot 35mm and crop, resolution is there, especially if you shoot Z7. even on Z6 I can crop like there was no tomorrow and get stunning photos all in all, highly recommended.

Excellent lens. Fast and Low light, feel small and bit short than my 85 1.4g. Quality is excellent. 85 1.4g is much bokeh because of 1.4 but almost same in the naked eye. The only thing i like is there are no purple pringing in the backlit not like 85 1.4g. So if u have existing 1.4 and purple pringing is not an issue to you, no need to buy.