This is a wonderfully fast lens best used for low light concert photography or in fashion/portrait photography where you want to blow out the background with a nice "bokeh".

For those that don't know, "bokeh" is a term used to describe the quality of the out-of-focus areas of a picture...usually the background. I think it is an important feature of a lens especially one where you want the background to be totally out of focus but at the same time not detract from the foreground picture. (I wish I could stick in a photographic example at this point)

I've owned the Nikon 85mm/1.8D AF and I think it has an ugly bokeh compared to this baby. The out of focus areas at 1.4 are rendered very smoothly and don't clash with the all important foreground. Nikon claims that this is due to the increased number of aperture blades: 9 blades as opposed to 7 on the 85mm/1.8D AF.

Another wonderful thing about this lens is it's sharpness and contrast wide open at 1.4. In fact, I can't remember the last time I thought, "Hmmm...I should stop this lens down to increase sharpness and contrast..." because usually a) I want the background blown out as much as possible or b) I want as much light as possible to reach the film. Now, don't get me wrong, this lens does get better at smaller apertures (I believe its optimum performance is at f5.6) but if you buy this lens, you're not buying it for its performance at any other aperture than 1.4. Trust me :-)

The only gripe I have with this lens is the inability to switch to manual focus WITHOUT having to flick some switch somewhere. I guess this comes from my using Nikon's AF-S lenses (17-35mm, 28-70mm, 80-200mm, and 300mm) which give you that ability. I would dump this lens in a second if it came in AF-S form and had the same or better performance.

So, bottom line is, if you need a fast lens for low light situations or to totally blow out the background...this is the lens for you.



Recommended: Yes