Howard_Creech's Full Review: Nikon AF 85mm f/1.4D IF Lens
Nikon’s Nikkor 85/1.4D AF IF lens harkens back to another era, a time before television became ubiquitous and news was measured in sound bites and “photo ops”
When men and women with nothing but a camera and a reporter’s notebook traveled to the World’s remote trouble spots and exotic locales, filling the pages of glossy weekly news magazines with thousands of stunning images.
Background
The Nikkor 85/1.4D AF IF is a lens that would have made those photojournalists drool, a fast, tack sharp, short telephoto with great contrast and superb Bokeh. The lens is designed for available light shooting in the photojournalism tradition. The 85-105mm focal length range has always been popular, since it is especially good for portraits, news shots, documentary photos, street shooting, and travel photography. From the nineteen thirties through the late nineteen sixties, photographers Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ernst Haas, Carl Mydans, Robert Capa, W. Eugene Smith, David Douglas Duncan and many others shot breathtaking images of world events while on assignment for magazines like Life, Look, Die Stern, Paris Match, and others.
These famous photographers used hand-held cameras, available light and fast lenses to shoot wars, natural disasters, coups, riots, political demonstrations, and celebrity weddings. Many photojournalists carried fast short telephoto lenses to allow them to get a bit closer to the action, without losing any light. The Nikkor 85/1.4 (manual focus) was first introduced in 1982 as a complement to Nikon’s long popular Nikkor 85/1.8.
The 85/1.4D AF IF offers a re-designed iris diaphragm that improves on the legendary Bokeh of the manual focus 85/1.4 by adding blades, and changing their shape so that the aperture is as close to a perfect circle as possible. Normally the aperture formed by the diaphragm blades is more octagonal or hexagonal than circular. This causes out of focus highlights in the image background to form hard edges, which distracts from the main subject by drawing the viewer’s eye to these “hot spots” The diaphragm in the 85/1.4D AF IF forms a circular aperture, which improves sharpness and apparent resolution in the subject area, and gives out of focus highlights in the background a subtler and softer edge, which is more pleasing visually.
Bokeh
Bokeh (pronounced BOKE-eh) is a Japanese term that describes how a lens renders the out of focus highlights in an image. Some lenses have good Bokeh, and some don’t. Prime (single focal length) lenses always have much better Bokeh than zoom lenses, fast lenses usually have better Bokeh than slower lenses, short telephotos (in the 85-105mm focal length range) usually have better Bokeh than longer lenses, normal lenses (35-55mm) vary greatly. Should you care if your lens has good bokeh?
If you shoot portraits, candid/street shots, or travel photography, a lens with good bokeh is going provide a lot of images with what one professional photographer friend called the “AHHHH” factor. This is what happens when you are going through a batch of newly returned slides or prints, and look at one that you nailed perfectly, most serious photographers will say “AHHHH” in pleasure.
What does a lens with good bokeh do? It renders the bright out of focus highlight points in the background of the image more attractively, usually in a more rounded, softer edged way. If you use selective focus a lot then Bokeh can make or break your travel/portrait/street shots. If your images usually seem dull or lack impact, bad Bokeh could easily be the culprit. Not only do hard-edged highlights distract the viewer’s attention from your subject, they lower resolution and cause colors to lose saturation and appear less vibrant.
These effects are subtle, but often the differences between a stunning print and a mediocre picture are subtle. If you are a good photographer, and you plan your shots carefully, consider every lighting variable, always use a rigid lens hood with every lens you own, meter carefully over the full scene (not just the subject) and bracket your shots whenever possible, a lens with great bokeh is going to provide you a lot more keepers than a similar lens that has poor Bokeh.
While my wife and I were living in Japan I had a very good friend who was a U. S. Navy Photojournalist. “MAC” was a purist (he only shot slow speed fine grained B&W film) a traditionalist (he only used manual exposure/manual focus cameras) and a dedicated photojournalist of the old school. He loved natural light, using the camera hand-held, and getting as close to his subject as possible. He was a crusty old salt, a nautical curmudgeon, a no-nonsense career Chief Petty Officer, and a die-hard Nikon fan. His kit consisted of two Nikon F3 (motor-drive) bodies, a Nikkor 35/1.4, a Nikkor 50/1.4, a Nikkor 85/1.4, and a 200/4.0 Nikkor Telephoto. With these four lenses he shot ships “under way” while hanging suspended from the open door of a hovering helicopter, grip and grins with Admirals, Ambassadors, the Vice President of the U.S., and other big-wigs, amphibious Marine beach landings, and at sea rescues when carrier pilots were forced to ditch their planes in the ocean.
Sailors on some of the ships would ask “MAC” how he liked being a “puke” (a derogatory and disrespectful military term for admin types and other non-combatants) he would cheerfully inform them that he was much better armed than they were, and if they’d like a demonstration, he would happily beat an enemy soldier into submission with his rugged Nikon F3. He could then interrogate the subject with threats of additional “close encounters” with the heavy Nikon, quickly eliciting all relevant military information from his unfortunate captive. “Mac” could then use the still functional Nikon to shoot a series of dramatic propaganda photos of the broken and submissive enemy soldier. The first 85/1.4 Nikkor I ever used was my friend’s "U. S. Navy property" lens, which did in fact look as if it had been used to interrogate an enemy soldier or two, however it worked flawlessly, and the images were always incredible.
(A more comprehensive explanation of Bokeh follows the main text of this review)
Nikon’s original manual focus Nikkor 85/1.4 was a high performance professional photojournalist’s lens. In the early eighties, it was “the” lens to use if you were a professional photographer. Nikon’s patented “CRC” (Close Range Correction system) insured tack sharp focus from center to edge even at the fast maximum aperture, something very few lenses can do. News and travel photographers consider 85mm to be the same as the “natural perspective” seen by the human eye, so images made by skilled photographers with the Nikkor 85/1.4 will mimic what viewers expect to see.
By using the lens at its very fast F1.4 maximum aperture the skilled photographer can use selective focus (to throw the background completely out of focus) which causes the subject of the image to jump out at the viewer. When selective focus is coupled with the Nikkor’s razor sharp resolution, fantastic contrast, and subtle soft focus “Bokeh” highlights the lens can be an awesome weapon in the talented photographers arsenal. The Auto Focus version of the lens capitalizes on everything the manual focus version was able to do, and adds lighting fast auto focus, internal focusing, and improved “Bokeh”
Technical Specifications
Focal Length: 85mm
Construction: 9 elements in 8 groups
Filter Size: 77mm
Minimum Focus Distance: 2.8 feet (33.5 inches)
Maximum Aperture: F1.4
Minimum Aperture: F16
Optimal Aperture: F4.0
Price: $900.00
In the Field/Operation and Handling
The 85/1.4D AF IF is a heavy lens, it feels solid and well made, the front element is huge and the lens looks professional. I used the lens recently on a Nikon F4S, the 85/1.4 balanced beautifully on the F4S, but that balance might be a bit less ideal on an N80 or N65. The focus and aperture rings are well placed and easy to use. Manual focus (as is the case with most Nikon AF lenses) is a bit under-damped.
I used the lens (near dusk) to shoot a group of youngsters practicing soccer at Farnsley Park. I concentrated on one very skinny young girl who was guarding the goal. My goalie had a very intense face and tense body language; she was really into what she was doing. I wanted to show her face in profile (because she had a large dirt smudge on her cheek) and not lose the tense body language. The light was going fast and I had a streetlight right behind my chosen location (I was shooting from about thirty feet to her side and on a parallel plane with the goal) I centered the 85/1.4 (vertically) on the goal and waited for her to move into the frame, when she did I fired off several shots at F1.4 (in aperture priority mode) at 125th of a second and 1/250th of a second.
The slides (Ektachrome Elite ISO 100) were great, sharp as a tack, with great color (red & white soccer outfit), the dirt smudge was prominent and (as a bonus) she was biting her lower lip in concentration, her body language showed lots of tension. The streetlight was rendered as a soft edged out of focus glow in one corner….the Bokeh was absolutely gorgeous
Conclusion
The Nikkor 85/1.4D AF IF is the latest in a long line of fast, short telephoto Nikon lenses that stretches back more than half a century to the legendary 80/2.0 Nikkor. The original fast high performance lens that convinced David Douglas Duncan to dump his German glass for Nikon lenses has been improved continuously over that period. Photography has always been a series of compromises, for every gain it is necessary to give something up, but after more than fifty years of constant improvement Nikon has a lens that comes as close to being perfect for the job it was designed to do as possible.
If you want a truly superb short telephoto lens with a fast maximum aperture, great Bokeh, high contrast, and excellent resolution (even when used wide open) then the Nikkor 85/1.4 is the lens for you. For nine hundred bucks you can hang a legend on the front of your camera, and impress your friends when you point out that the Bokeh in your images is exceptional. I highly recommend this lens.
“BOKEH”For those who Want to Know a Little More
Bokeh is a term that has been with us since the era of the photojournalists. News, combat, travel, portrait, and documentary photographers have long known what a lens with great Bokeh could do in the hands of a good photographer. While the effects are subtle, they are obvious, and not difficult to quantify. Bokeh adds impact, by focusing the viewer’s attention on the subject, and not on the background.
There are two major factors, which determine if a specific lens model has good or bad Bokeh. Spherical aberrations, which are a result of the curved lens surface, and the shape of the aperture. Spherical aberrations are a product of the convex shape of the lens, and make it difficult to achieve focus evenly across the frame, on a single plane. Optical engineers add additional lens elements to correct for the spherical (and chromatic) aberrations. The degree of correction for spherical aberration determines the level of edge hardness in the background; most modern computer designed lenses are over-corrected for spherical aberrations, this results in harder edges in background highlights, and a slightly softer effect in the foreground.
It is also difficult (because of the curved shape of the lens) to focus light rays of different colors on the same plane (which causes color fringing) The CRC (Close Range Correction system) employed in the Nikkor 85/1.4D AF IF neutralizes this over-correction. The 15-blade iris diaphragm used in the Nikkor 85/1.4D AF IF makes the aperture circular, which further reduces the hard edged out of focus background highlights.
Older lenses often reversed this process, in the days when slide-rule mathematical computations for lens formulas could take days or weeks, optical engineers would sometimes guess parts of the formula, to speed the process, sometimes these “leaps of faith” produced magical lenses that photographers still talk about in reverential tones, but more often they produced real clunkers that were mediocre performers across the spectrum.
Many of the lenses designed in those earlier times had little or no anti-reflection coating and lens manufacturing technology was far less precise, the exact opposite of today’s high technology computer designed and precision manufactured lenses. A lens that projects soft blurs in the background and a harder effect in the foreground (spherical aberrations are under-corrected) was a great asset to photojournalists, since there was usually nothing between the photographer and his subject.
Many of these older lenses showed very good bokeh, the background highlights were rounded and muted, and the hard-edged foreground usually contained nothing. The major problem with these lenses was that they usually had a “sweet” focus spot in the center of the lens, but the edges would be fuzzy. For head and shoulders portraits, or subjects normally found in the center of the frame this was fine, but for close-ups and large scale subjects the lens aberrations would be magnified, especially if blown up to magazine page size.
Often when you hear old timers rave about how lenses used to be better than they are today this is what all the fuss is about. Older Leitz, Zeiss, Nikon, Exacta, and Canon glass often showed these characteristics, they were superb for the available light B&W photo-journalistic style that was popular at the time, especially the very fast short telephotos and normal lenses. We live in a more complex world these days, and photographers seldom get unlimited access. Bokeh today is much more important to portrait, candid/street, travel photographers, and others who still work up close and personal.
If you enjoyed reading this lens review. Please read my other lens reviews:
85mm focal length is considered the optimal choice for portrait work using a 35mm SLR camera D-Series for Nikon mount camerasMore at Amazon Marketplace
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