I bit the bullet and bought a Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 D lens last week. It arrived Saturday, 17 September, 2011. Read Ken Rockwell’s review here.
So far, so good. It seems to be built really well. The autofocus does seem to hunt a bit but I was shooting in somewhat low light.
Update 25 September 2011 Sunday: I like the pictures that come out of this lens. The subject is creamy or smooth and the backgrounds are to die for. But I don’t feel like they’re enough better than those from my 50mm f/1.8 AF D to justify keeping the 85mm, in that I’m mostly shooting indoors where 85mm is kinda long. Plus, I’m not stoked about the focus. Focus speed on my 35mm f/1.8 G DX is far superior. I suspect that I’d love the focus on the G version of this 85mm f/1.4, but that’s too much coin ($1699) for me to feel comfortable dropping at this time.
Yesterday, I decided to send my 85mm f/1.4 D back. For available light family photography, I’m going to try this combination instead of this 85m f/1.4D:
According to Ken Rockwell (and borne out by pictures he’s provided on his site), the metering on the X100 is phenomenal and that’s what I really need — an any-light-conditions f/2 masterpiece. We’ll see how that goes.
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