Photography News 73

First test

PRICE: £709

NIKON.CO.UK

The range of lenses for Nikon’s Z series continues to grow, and one of the most recent is a classic for portrait work Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S

SPECS

On image quality, the Z 85mm f/1.8 S is an excellent performer. It’s extremely sharp, hitting its peak in the centre (yellow circle) around f/2.8, but the bigger apertures are not far off that, so you can shoot wide open without worry. Sharpness stays excellent until around f/14 where it tails off a bit. In terms of edge sharpness (orange circle area), we thought f/5.6 to f/14 to be optimum, but it was very good even wide open. › Internal focus Yes › Manual focus Yes › Minimum focus 80cm › Focus limiter No › Angle of view FX format: 28° 30'; DX format: 18° 50' › Depth-of-field scale No › Image stabiliser No (in body) › Tripod collar No › Lens hood Yes, HB-91 bayonet supplied › Weather-sealed Yes › Dimensions (dxl) 99x75mm › Weight 490g › Contact nikon.co.uk ON TEST › Prices £709 › Format Full-frame › Mount Nikon Z › Construction 12 elements in 8 groups › Special lens elements 2x ED elements › Coatings Nano Crystal Coat › Filter size 67mm › Aperture range f/1.8-f/16 › Diaphragm 9 blade rounded design

If you shoot portraits on a full-frame camera, an 85mm lens is one of the go- to focal lengths. It’s useful for tight head- and-shoulders framing while still being close enough for good communication with the subject. Step back a little and you can switch to a full length framing with lots of subject separation, as these optics will normally have wide maximum apertures. The Nikkor Z 85mm f/1.8 S, which is designed for Nikon’s Z series of full-frame mirrorless cameras, is therefore one that early adopters of the Z 6 and Z 7 have been waiting for. In fact, it’s the longest full- frame lens for the Zmount currently available. And if youmount it on the newZ 50, with its DX format APS-C sized sensor, or shoot in DX cropmode on the full-frame cameras, you’ll get a very attractive 128mm equivalent. The lens weighs 470g, andmeasures 75x99mm, so it’s not particularly small

or light, but though it initially seemed unusually long for an 85mm lens, and the lens hood pushes this out by another 50mm, it felt nicely balanced on the identical Z 6 and Z 7 bodies. Compared to existing Nikon Fmount 85mm lenses, like the AF-S 85mm f/1.8G, it’s a fair bit heavier, but factor in the FTZ adaptor that’s required to use Fmount lenses on a Z body and the measurements are a lot closer. The barrel is dominated by a well grooved control ring, which defaults tomanual focus, and this will override the AF if you turn it. Like other Nikkor Z lenses, the control ring can be customised to set the aperture or exposure compensation, but it will automatically return tomanual focus if you push it intoMFmode on the lens or body. The control ring uses a non-linear motor with no physical connection to the focusing system, and though this canmake it feel a bit remote, it also allows good accuracy, so the slower you turn the ring the slower the change. Aside from that there’s just an AF/ MF switch on the barrel, and in AF mode the lens proved very responsive, though not super-swift in racking from near to far. I used it across all AFmodes,

and it performed very well in each of them, though the stand-out was using the Eye AF setting, a recent firmware upgrade to the Z bodies. In this mode, found via AF-Cmode andWide Area AF, I shot at f/1.8 andmoved backwards and forwards in relation to the subject with the focus adjusting, and the hit rate was near 100%. Very impressive, and I can’t imagine I’dmove out of that mode again while shooting portraits, unless I wanted something other than the eye to be sharpest, which is unlikely. The lens has a weather-resistant construction that matches the Z 6 and Z 7 bodies, and felt very sturdy. It uses a 67mm filter thread, and you’ll probably want to invest in an ND to allow the use of the widest apertures in bright light. The lens’s nine-blade aperture design gives out-of-focus areas a very smooth look, and points of light are nicely flat when defocused. Stop down a bit and focus on light sources and it gives very nice starburst. There’s slight vignetting fromwide open until around f/2.8, but this is only really noticeable under direct comparison. The Nano Crystal Coat controls flare well – it was difficult to spot in any of our test shots, and even when shooting directly into the light, contrast remained good. KS

ABOVE This lens’s nine-bladed aperture gives smooth background blur

F/1.8

F/2.8

F/4

F/5.6

Verdict

F/8

F/11

PROS Excellent image quality, easy to handle and weather sealed CONS Quite expensive compared to F-mount equivalents Every lens mount needs a good 85mm lens, and the Z 85mm f/1.8 S performs very well, with excellent build, sharpness and very few optical flaws. In conjunction with the Z bodies’ Eye AF mode it’s a real joy to use wide open, but it does come at a high price, size and weight compared to similar options.

F/13

F/16

46 Photography News | Issue 73

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