This new Nikon 85mm f/1.4 improves on the previous versions by adding instant manual-focus override, and has optical performance far superior to either of Nikon's previous, and also excellent, 85mm f/1.4 AI-s and 85/1.4 AF-D. Because the metal hood is attached to the filter thread of the AF-D lens, the lens cap would never sit right on the front of the Nikon 85mm f/1.4D, whereas the new 85mm f/1.4G does not have this problem – the hood has been replaced with a plastic bayonet hood that does not use the filter thread, so the lens cap could be put on and taken out very easily. For scientists, this 85's corner coma performance easily exceeds the exotic 58mm f/1.2 Noct-NIKKOR. Both the Noct and this 85/1.4 have no coma to keep points of light sharp in the corners wide-open, and this 85/1.4 is much sharper than the Noct in the corners at large apertures. Good-night, Noct! Nano Crystal Coat Efficacy: Experience enhanced image clarity, diminished ghosting, and interior flare across a vast spectrum of wavelengths If you want a tougher, more precise-feeling 85mm f/1.8 for the same price or less, get the 85/1.8D.

You're really pushing it with the oldest AF cameras like the N2020, N6006 and N8008. You'll have no AF, and confused exposure modes. Manual focus is fine, along with electronic focus indications.All these lenses are superb for any sort of photography. If you split hairs and pixels, this manual focus 85mm f/1.4 AI-s easily has the best optics of the four 85mm lenses I compared directly.

The hood is a crappy bayonet plastic excrescence, not the real screw-in 77mm HN-31 hood of the 85/1.4 AF-D or the beautiful turned-aluminum 72mm HN-20 of the 85/1.4 AI-s. Here now are crops from the center of 100% FX 12MP (D3 or D700) images, focused on a reference phase lattice at 3 meters (10 feet) with synthetic reference vegetation at 15 meters (50 feet). Printed full-image at this size, these would be about 42 x 28" (105 x 70cm) prints, at least as seen on most 100 DPI computer monitors: If looked at at 100% under ideal conditions at 36 MP, it's sharpest by f/4, but not much softer at all wide-open at f/1.4, which is much better than the earlier f/1.4 lenses. This is an FX lens, and works especially well with on FX, 35mm and DX Nikons like the D4, D800, D800E, D7000, D700, D3X, D300s and F6. The Nikon 85mm f/1.4 G AF-S Lens is the successor to Nikon's popular AF Nikkor 85mm f/1.4D IF lens. Designed for use with Nikon's FX-format DSLRs, this professional medium telephoto lens features a fast f/1.4 aperture, as well as a Silent Wave Motor (SWM), and Nikon's Nano Crystal Coat to reduce ghosting and flare. The 9-blade rounded aperture produces soft and pleasing blur characteristics.It is especially well suited to the new Nikon D4 and D800, in fact, this is the lens with which the Nikon D3 is shown in many of Nikon's promotional photos.

If you want a lightweight, super-sharp general-purpose carry everywhere medium tele, this new 85/1.8 G is a great lens for just about everything. If you want a fast, tough 85mm, that's why this lens has been sold out for most of its 15 years as Nikon's top fast telephoto lens. For less money, the B+W 72mm 010 is an excellent filter, as are the multicoated version and the basic multicoated Hoya filters, but the Hoya HD3 is the toughest and the best.Let’s take a look at how the Nikon 85mm f/1.4G does when compared to its smaller, lighter, cheaper and newer f/1.8G sibling: You might not want this lens if you are looking for the sharpest lens from edge to edge of the image. (The lens is designed to be sharp in the center "focus" and soft in the corner). Nikkor AF 85mm f/1.4D has been hailed as legendary lens for Nikon DSLR or film camera. I think it is because of its unique characteristic but also its age. This lens has been around for thirteen years. The color rendition of this f/1.4 manual focus lens matches the multicoated manual focus f/1.8 and manual focus f/2 AI-s lenses. Distance information is relayed to the camera, so the Nikon body can do all the advanced exposure-related stuff with this lens. But this is true for all the alternatives too. [+]

Unfortunately, this lens suffers a bit from purple fringing in high contrast area (see sample pic below), it is also susceptible to flare, but not as bad as other lenses. In case you're wondering just how far Nikon has brought optics with the introduction of this 85mm f/1.4, here's how well Nikon's current fastest in-production lens, the 50mm f/1.2 AI-s, looks stopped-down to f/1.4: The 85mm ƒ/1.4 isn't a good macro lens - it provides a relatively decent minimum close-focusing distance of 85cm (3 feet) but a low magnification ratio of only 0.11x. In summary, the 85mm ƒ/1.4 produces consistently sharp images when stopped down significantly; shot wide open, expect to see some corner softness, which may or may not work to enhance your image.For B&W film outdoors, I'd use a 77mm Nikon Y48 or O56 filter, or 77mm Hoya HMC K2 or 77mm Hoya HMC Orange. The 85mm f/1.4 AF-D (1995-2010) is out, simply because of its clumsy auto-manual focus switch. Pros loved its optics, but good riddance to all the focus-mode fiddling. Everything works perfectly on every digital Nikon, both FX and DX, and even on Nikon's cheapest digitals like the D40, D40x, D60, D3000, D3100 and D5000. Very good feel to the rubber grip around the focus ring, too bad I can't manually focus this using the D70's tiny viewfinder. The 85mm f/1.4 AI-s is sharp all over, but spherical aberration lowers the local contrast a little, as if there's a tiny bit of haze. The image is sharp, just not as contrasty. The corners are almost as sharp, but a little darker from falloff. Even if the corners aren't quite as sharp as the center at f/1.4, the corners are still sharper than any other 50mm or 85mm f/1.4 lens that I've ever used.