Frederik is a photographer, blogger and youtuber living in Denmark in the Copenhagen region. Outdoor photography is the preference, but Frederik can also be found doing flash photography applied to product shoots and stills.
You can find plenty of posts related to the setup and activation of the walking steadiness, that works with more modern iPhones and more recent versions of IOS. It uses data from the sensors in the iPhone together with number of steps, step length and walking stability to calculate a walking steadiness index number, that translates onto: OK (best score), low or very low (worst score). The idea is to monitor your walking patterns and predict if you have a heightened risk of falling, as injuries from citizens age 65+ is a problem in growth. So the intention is good.
The problem however is that it appears not to work! I have followed every instruction on how to switch on the walking steadiness to minute detail, and re-done it over and over again: no result. Then I tried to google if others had the same issue, and yes! But no solution.
What to do? I waited!
I do not know how the software or the logic works, but suddenly my iPhone (a 12 with IOS 15.1) generated a walking steadiness score! It was on a Thursday. And after that? Silence. No update. Until it became Thursday again! New update!
So currently it looks like my iPhone calculates the walking steadiness once every week!
The strange thing is, that my wife who also has an iPhone with the IOS 15.1 installed gets daily updates! Not real time updates though, but daily updates. The only difference I can spot between the two is that I have a Garmin Phenix 3 connected to the iPhone and she has a Garmin Vivoactive watch. I doubt however, that this is the cause of the difference, as the waking steadiness is based primarily on data generated by the sensors in the iPhone.
So what to make of all this? My point is that if you experience lack of data and results when it comes to the walking steadiness function in the iPhone, maybe a bit of patience is all you need. Keep walking with your iPhone in your pocket for a week or so, and see if it results in scores generated.
As you can see from the image below, a few weeks later, it is confirmed that the updates follow a weekly pattern. Every Thursday the data is updated. I am not sure if the Thursday is the day of updating, or of it is a coincidence that is more determined by when I started to log data. But it does confirm that when you have turned on walking steadiness, patience is key, subject to what tracker you use to collect the data.
Please let me know in the comments how you are doing and what frequency your iPhone has in updating the steadiness score – it seems to me there is very little data on the subject out there, so it would be great if we could fix that via this post.
When the Z6ii came out, the world of reviewers agreed that the Z6ii was basically a Z6 with an additional processor and an additional memory slot. Probably because the cameras on the outside are almost similar. In other words, the Z6ii is not a major upgrade from the Nikon Z6, that many considered to be Nikons not-too-impressive entry into the mirrorless world. But Nikon gained some credit for actually listening to the critique raised towards the Z6, but still the Z6ii was positioned by many as a mild update of the Z6.
Nikon Z6ii with the Nikkor 50mm 1.8G lens (and the FTZ adapter in between)
I could not disagree more. I will go to the other extreme and say that the Nikon Z6ii is at a whole new league relative to the Z6. The heart of my argument is the extra EXPEED processor that Nikon added to the Z6ii. If you think about it: Why did Nikon add an additional processor? Was it just to make the spec list look better or is there a bigger picture behind this move? In a world that lacks semiconductors (November 2021), would it not be strange that Nikon added an additional CPU to their camera unless there was a compelling reason?
What many don’t realize is that a camera today is more a computer than anything else. Computing power matters. Especially when we are talking computations needed for auto focus with eye detect etc., but also for FPS and clearing the buffer of images fast. Future software logic enhancements and firmware updates may need to have some headroom CPU wise to enable new functionality or better AF to be implemented – say if some of the Z9 AF capabilities were to be trickled down to the Z6ii or Z7ii.
Is the Z6 sufficient in some cases?
November 2021 I found the Z6 over at B&H for 1600 USD and the Z6ii for 2000 USD. That is a 25% price difference, and of course you need to make sure that the added functionality of the Z6ii is worth the extra money. The Z6ii has the same sensor, same buttons and dials, same viewfinder and same rear LCD, so other than the additional card slot, more advanced AF software and more computing power, many of the hardware items that go into making the Z6 and the Z6ii are exactly the same.
I would imagine that:
if you do not to much photography where AF functionality is important,
you are not a(n event) shooter where dual card slots is vital and
you do not shoot much in low light
then the original Z6 could be sufficient for you. But I ask you to consider this carefully, as I doubt that for example future firmware updates related to AF will be done for the Z6 due to lack of computing power.
More computing power in the Z6ii
You can see from the spec list how much more computing power the Z6ii has relative to the Z6, for example:
Camera buffer 124 RAW images (vs 35 before)
Massively improved AF system
14 fps (12 fps)
Video 4K at 60fps (30fps before)
The AF system is a major step forward, and I don’t think we will see the Z6ii improvements later implemented in the Z6, simply because the Z6 does not have computing power needed. And this brings me to anther point: future improvements to firmware that require significant amounts of computing power may be possible to implement on the Z6ii, whereas the Z6 probably will have to pass. And the hardware is locked when the camera leaves the factory; you cannot add an additional CPU to the Z6 unfortunately.
The computing performance not only shows in the specs, but also in every interaction you have with the camera. I noticed this when I had both a Fuji X-T20 and a Fuji X-T3. The latter is so much faster, so much responsive and does what you ask it to do with no hesitance or delay. The X-T20 on the other hand has almost a life of its own – actually, I can turn it on, wait 1/2 a second and turn it off again and nothing happens! The camera is so slow booting that it does not find out that I momentarily had the camera turned on!
More improvements
Other than the above improvements, the Z6ii has other improvements that I believe are less related to the CPU power:
Time lapses up 15 minutes (30 seconds before)
Stronger EN-EL15c batteries (340 shots vs 315)
Charging in camera
Firmware update via Snapbridge
Connectors for the battery grip MB-N11 with controls
1 stop better low light AF sensitivity
Of course, if none or the above is important to you, and you really don’t need strong AF performance, 4K 60fps or a big buffer, then you may find that the Z6 is sufficient for you, and your wallet will thank you (unless you spend the savings on lenses or the like) as Nikon dropped the price on the Z6 when the Z6ii came out.
But my guess is that most will welcome the enhancements that the Z6ii offers over the Z6. But we are in personal preference territory here, so I leave it up to you. My hope with this post is that you gained some insight to the Z6ii improvements and see that there is more to the upgrade than a CPU and a card slot.
You probably heard the term “megapixel war” and that manufacturers try to top the number of megapixels their camera or smartphone offers. So you could get the impression that more is merrier, but there is more to the equation than that…
Resolution
If you look at a chessboard, you can see it has 8 squares across by 8 squares up, in total 64 squares. So if your chessboard was a camera sensor, it would have a resolution of 64 pixels. Indeed not a lot, but it goes to show the principle of each “dot” that enables the camera sensor to register the amount of light it is exposed to.
My Nikon D750 camera has 6016 pixels across and 4016 up, giving a total of 24.160.256 pixels, often abbreviated 24 megapixels or 24MP. For most photography this is more than sufficient resolution unless you crop your picture, which in effect takes away some of the pixels and hence the resolution.
Bit depth
The bit depth tells how much information your camera is able to store per pixel, i.e. the size of the number per pixel. JPG files store very little information per pixel – only 8 bits known as a byte, and hence it is able to store 2^8 = 256 different values (This is per colour channel, but lets leave that aside for now).
If your image is a RAW file, the format allows you to store 12 (or 14) bit of information. This gives a much finer granularity in the tones and colors that can be stored, but it also comes with a price: the file is much larger, as the information stored per pixel is dramatically increased.
No chain is stronger than…
Many only consider the resolution as an important parameter, but the bit depth is equally important, as it enables you to store the specific reading of light from the sensor. However, you also need a good lens to let through good light with all the details required to capture the scene, so if you put a poor lens in front of a high resolution sensor that captures in RAW, the only thing the sensor will register is precisely how bad the lens is.
So you need all the elements in the chain to work together: lens, sensor resolution and sensor bit depth, in order to get the best possible image captured, with good resolution and contrast.
So if you have a good camera that can capture say 24MP in RAW format on a good sensor, the limiting factor is probably more the lens that you put in front of it than the resolution of the sensor. And that is why any experienced photographer will tell you: invest in good glass before anything else.
You may have seen the post where I adapt a Canon FD 1.8 50mm lens to a Nikon DSLR with an adapter from Urth. If not, you can find the post right here. What I learned from that attempt was that the glass that has to be added to make a Canon lens work on a Nikon DSLR has some side effects that are unfortunate, to say the least. The reason for adding the glass is that the lens otherwise will not focus to infinity.
The Canon FD to Nikon Z mount adapter. As the pencil shows, there is no glass in this adapter, it is basically a metal ring.
Mirrorless are different apparently. An adapter for Canon glass to a Nikon camera body has not glass as the image below illustrate.
The adapter I bought was from K&F Concept, but there are many other options available out there. Be aware that if you buy from K&F concept, then the delivery time (judging from my case) is around 3 weeks for the parcel to travel from China to Europe (Denmark), so be prepared to be patient! But once you got it, the combination of the Canon lens, adapter and Nikon Z50 camera looks like this:
Nikon Z50 with the canon FD 50mm 1.8 lens, and the K-F concept adapter inbetween.
Mounting the lens to the adapter is straightforward, but be aware that the adapter has to be set in position “locked” to allow the aperture blades to change position. If not, the lens is fully open irrespective of how much you turn the aperture ring on the Canon lens.
Performance
I am happy to report that all the issues I found with adapting the Canon lens to a Nikon DSLR are simply gone. The 50mm lens from Canon performs as you would expect: no Vaseline like look fully open, but solid performance at all apertures.
Centre sharpness is excellent at f/5.6 and although not as good wide open, it is certainly a solid performance from a vintage lens:
Centre sharpness at f/1.8 left f/5.6 right.
Also the corner sharpness and contrast is approved, although you again can tell the difference between wide open and stopped down:
Corner sharpness at f/1.8 left f/5.6 right.
The lens suffers from aberrations especially wide open, and it looks dramatic in the image below. However, it is a 400% (!) zoom and I successfully removed the purple fringing by using the color selector in the manual removal of chromatic aberrations in Lightroom.
Wide open the aberrations are noticeable, but gone as soon as you stop down – f/1.8 left f/5.6 right.Bokeh fully open f/1.8 to the left, and stopped down to f/5.6 to the right.
The bokeh is maybe where the lens has a weak point, as it only has 5 blades and they are rather straight. So stopped down you get bokeh that is less pleasing IMHO – of course subject to personal preference. You will also notice in the blue bokeh balls to the right, that there is a bit of onion rings; something that bokeh experts do not fancy. To the left fully open you have a more pleasing result, but the edges are brighter than the center, also a no-go for bokeh enthusiasts.
So in conclusion I am very happy with the performance of this lens. It is not the lens with the best sharpness or contrast I have ever tested (that was the Nikon 135mm DC), but it is certainly not bad performance. You can get one of these lenses with a bit of luck on a flea market for around 10 USD, but be prepared to pay more when the seller is knowledgeable. Still, a lot of lens for your money.
Of course you will have to regulate the aperture by turning the ring on the lens itself, and you are left with manual focus entirely, but I don’t think anyone would expect it any different when you mount a Canon vintage lens on a Nikon mirrorless body. And in terms of “the look”, I really like the way Canon renders colors; it is a bit different than Nikon and as far as I can tell it has a bit more “coffee”-ish look that I actually like. So I look forward to shooting more with this combo.
Saul Leiter In My Room, Edited by Margit Erb and Robert Benton. The Ilford HP5 film to the right just to give a sense of size of the book.
You probably know Saul Leiter as the street photographer, one of the pioneers in using colors in street photography and considered part of the New York school of photography. And you may also know that he also was a painter, and started out as a painter before venturing into photography. Some of his work is painted nudes, where he combines photography and painting. And on top of all this, he also worked for many years as a fashion photographer – Harper’s Bazaar, just to mention one.
This book is not about all the above. Rather, it is filled with black and white pictures, almost entirely shot in Saul Leiter’s apartment in Manhattan. I think it is anyone’s guess why Saul shot in black and white for these images, but it enabled him to develop the films himself in the studio. And I am not so sure he ever wanted these images to amount to much, although he during the 1970’s planned to make a book of all these images, but it never amounted to anything. He was, as always, in no particular hurry.
Leiter did not any type of explanation of analysis of his work. I cannot help it, but as a photographer I immediately notice his use of natural light, patterns in shadows, framing (and yet framing!), blocking the view partly by various objects, the shallow depth of field, use of mirrors and reflections – the list goes on and on and on. He is a true master of photography – period. But where the magic surfaces for me is that no matter how much I try to analyze the images down to individual components and effects used, I find myself thinking that “this is not the whole story”. There is more to it. There is a bit of mystery, intimacy, vulnerability and uniqueness that simply transcends all analysis.
So I highly recommend this book for any photographer. Maybe his book “Early colors” is a better place to start if you are new to Saul Leiter. Or the book All about Saul Leiter. But if you find yourself wanting to know Saul Leiter for more than his street photography, or just want to see the products of a master of photography, this book should be on your coffee table anytime soon.
You have probably heard about F-stops, a value that indicates how much light a lens can take in relative to the length of the lens. So a short lens with a large diameter has large maximum aperture (low F-stop number).
A good example is the 50mm f/1.8 G lens from Nikon – it has a maximum aperture value of 1.8 and hence a lens opening of around 50/1.8 = 28mm. Had the lens been shorter, say 35mm, with the same lens opening at the front, the maximum aperture would have been 35/28 = 1.25.
However, then light travels from the front of the glass to the rear, some light is always lost. There are many reasons for this – coatings is one – but lets for now just accept that as a fact. And then the F-stop changes in upwards direction as the lens lets in less light.
Where F-stop describes the theoretical light a lens takes in, the T-stop is at the far end of the lens, measuring the actual lights that gets through the lens. So T-stops has to be measured – it is no longer a mathematical relationship between lens opening and length.
If we take the example from before, the 1.8G 50mm lens from Nikon with an F-stop value of 1.8. When you look at DXOMark and their measurements of that lens, they report the T-stop value to be 2.0. In other words, from front to back light equal to 0.2 F-stops is lost.
Why should you care about this? First of all, if you buy a fast lens with a large maximum aperture, then my guess is that you do so also because of the ability to take in a lot of light to help you out in low light situations. If the benefit of a fast lens is diminished as the light passes through the lens, then my guess is that you want to know about it?
Photographers in general do not pay much attention to T-stop values. Videographers much more so. The reason being that when you shoot film or video, you often change lens during the same scene, and you don’t want to do a lot of post processing to even out the exposure, if the lenses you use have different T-stop values. So videographers naturally look for lenses that have common T-stop values. And in my view, the less light is lost from front to back, the better lens. I guess that is also why DXOMark has this as one of their key performance indicators when they present their findings.
All about Saul Leiter, texts by Margit Erb, Pauline Vermare and Motoyuki Shibata. The Ilford HP5 film just to give some sense of the size of the book.
Margit Erb apparently is the founder and director of the Saul Leiter Foundation, dedicated to preserving his art and legacy. She worked with Saul Leiter since 1996 and is instrumental in the production of a number of books about him. In this book consists of 232 images (paintings & images) and combined them with wonderful quotes from Saul Leiter. The book was originally created in Japan to accompany the exhibition Photographer Saul Leiter: A Retrospective.
The book is all about these 232 images and quotes. Only at the end of the book there are 3 short chapters written by Margit Erb, Pauline Vermare and Motoyuki Shibata. Other than that, it is only images and quotes. Just like I like a book about photography!
I simply looked at the world, not prepared for anything.
Saul Leiter.
And what images! Especially the street photography is where he shines as a ground breaking master of photography! I know he is famous for using colors where others use black and white, but I think there is so much more to his images than just color and the occasional sprinkle of red color that so many talk about: If you look at his framing techniques and how he used objects to block the viewers angle partly, plus unconventional positioning of his subject in the frame, then you start to realize how ground breaking his work actually was. And if you flip over to Instagram, there are so many photographers trying to do the same and (IMHO) not getting even remotely close.
It is not where it is or what it is that matters but how you see it.
Saul Leiter.
Saul Leiter did not like all the analysis of his work. In a video I watched on YouTube he was asked about how he saw the relationship between his paint work and his photography work and how if he believed his paint work had influenced his photography work. He stopped the academic questions and said “I am very suspicious of the analysis of art work…the explanation for certain things are not the real reasons for certain things.”. In other words, the more you analyze his work from an academic point of view, the less you enjoy the images.
In the same interview, he often says when asked why he did things a certain way or why this or why that, hen answered “because I liked them”, i.e. he was not driven by a certain agenda, it was much more simple than that. Similarly, when asked why he preferred the streets for his photography, the answer was “Things are going on! The street is like a ballet, you never know what is going to happen.”; much more preferred than a studio.
I have a great respect for people who do nothing.
Saul Leiter.
So to make a long story short: I love the images of this book! The book covers his early street photographs, images for advertising, nudes and paintings, but the street photography images are my favorite. I am sure that if you like street photography, then you will love this book and all the wonderful images and quotes.
Going up one stop means you double the amount of light that hits your sensor or film. Going down one stop means you half the amount of light.
You can go up and down in stops in the 3 dimension you know from the exposure triangle:
Shutter speed: If you double the time the shutter is open, then you go up one stop. If you change the shutter speed from 1/100th of a second to 1/50th, is the same as going up one stop. You let in more light because the sensor is exposed for a longer time.
ISO: If you half the ISO setting, it is the same as going down one stop. Say you are shooting at ISO 1600, then reducing to ISO 800 is the same as going down one stop. Increasing to ISO 3200 is going one stop up.
Aperture: If you change the aperture from f/1.4 to f/2, then you are going up one stop. Same if you go from f/2 to f/2.8. When you walk up and down the aperture scale in hole stops, you walk in steps of 1.41 (the square root of 2). This is not as easy to remember as the linear relationship for shutter speed or the doubling when it comes to ISO, but you will quickly get used to it.
What is the point? It is to give you a common language for changes to the exposure, irrespective of which dimension in the exposure triangle is changed. So to maintain status quo, you can go one stop up in shutter speed and one down in say ISO, and get the same result as before. This is a smart way to have a common language to changes to exposure, without knowing what the specific camera settings are.
Henri Cartier-Bresson Here and Now, by Clément Chéroux
If there is one photographer that every photojournalist or street photographer knows, it is Henri Cartier-Bresson (HCB)! This books takes you through all of HCB’s life: what event shaped him, who he met and was influenced by, his travels to Africa, Cuba, China, India, Spain etc, his work as a reporter for the Communist Press, how surrealism attracted him and influenced his work – the list goes on. Reading this book, you come to understand both how interesting a life HCB lead, but also the historical events that his images document and reflect.
I can’t figure out exactly why I find HCB’s images so stunning. There is obviously his mastering of composition long before all the rules were invented. And his talent for being at the right spot at the right time and on top of that hitting the shutter exactly at the decisive moment. But there is more to it than that. A touch of surrealism that adds a strange glow to his images that continues to fascinate me. No matter how much I analyze the images, the effect on me somehow escapes me just when I think I have it all figured out! And I guess this is exactly where a good photographer and a master of photography separate: the ability to make you look not only a second time, but again and again.
This book is a wonderful collection of 500+ of his images, and as a photographer looking over the should of a master, this is the part that I like the best. Others may find the story of his lift more interesting – for example how he 3 times escaped as a prisoner of war and later became a communist. And later decided to work for many years solely doing photojournalism. This part of the book I also enjoyed, but the pictures! I can wholeheartedly recommend this book if you find his work fascinating like I do.
PS: HCB is quoted for saying that: “In any case, people think far too much about techniques and not enough about seeing”. This remark is more relevant than ever, where YouTubers constantly battle to what extend photography gear matters and if the rule of thirds is to be applied always or sometimes.
I got my Nikon AF-S 85mm 1.8G lens over at mpb Europe for 334 EUR used – this was October 2021. The lens was rated by mpb to be in excellent condition, which in my experience is close to brand new! The same lens from new in Denmark is around 500 EUR, but mind you that here in little Denmark prices are per usual some of the highest in Europe. But still, I find that I save a lot buying used gear in good to mint condition.
Nikkor 85mm AF-S 1.8G lens
The first that I noticed when mounting the lens is how big it is in terms of circumference. It protrudes beyond the f-mount size significantly as the images above and below show. I knew the 1.4G lens is a “dramatic” lens in terms of size, but it surprised me that the same can be said about the 1.8G lens.
The 85mm 1.8G mounted on a Nikon D750
The lens does not have a golden ring on the nose, so apparently Nikon does not think this is a professional grade lens; my guess is they left this to the 1.4G lens instead. The body is made up of plastic, and the f-mount is metal as we know it. The feel and appearance of the lens is quite good considering we have left the days of “all metal, all glass and made in Japan”. This one is made in China.
The weight is around 350 grams which is super light, especially considering the lens volume. Although Nikon does not market this lens as weather sealed, I did notice that there is a rubber gasket on the f-mount, so at least dust will have a hard time finding way in between lens and body.
Speaking of the 1.4G lens, your question is probably why I did not buy the 1.4G? I would have loved that lens, but the price tag is around 3 times as much as the 1,8G! And although I love fast lenses, I simply could not cough up the cash to go for the 1.4G.
The lens comes with a lens hood of good quality albeit plastic, it takes Ø67mm filters and there is no issue with moving parts out front, your filter will be sitting in the same position as when you mounted it!
Here the lens hood is mounted on the 85mm 1.8G
The lens has no aperture ring – all adjustments to aperture are done via the camera body. There is only one button on the lens itself, and that is the auto focus to manual focus switch. The former can always be overruled by manual focus as soon as you start turning the focus ring.
I am happy to say that the focus ring works really well. There is no play as I reported for the 50mm 1.8G lens. The feel of the manual focus ring is not super smooth, but it works ok. The AF-S is as you would expect both silent and fast, but not the fastest Nikkor I have tested. But as this is mainly a portrait lens, maybe some street as well, I doubt that you would need blazing fast AF as you do for wildlife and sports. The built in AF motor allows you to use the lens also with AF on Nikon entry level bodies like the D3x00 and D5x00.
Minimum focus distance measured to 75cm; official numbers say 80cm.
The distance scale is there working from the minimal focus distance of 0.8 meters to infinity, although my own non-scientific testing showed that I could get 5 cm closer than that. They have even found space for DoF markings on the distance scale, although only for f/16. There are 7 rounded aperture blades, which is a bit on the low side, especially for a portrait lens where the bokeh per tradition is vital.
The lens comes with what Nikon calls SIC – super integrated coating, and the dampening of flare when pointing the lens to a street light at night is some of the best I have ever seen. The SIC is really sick, pun intended! There is no ED glass at all, so it is really a “back to basics” construction with no modern fancy stuff, but just good glass in a relatively simple construction.
Performance
This lens is sharp! You may have guessed that if you took a look at the MTF chart from Nikon or read other reviews, but it really is! Take a look at these two images from Lightroom measuring the center sharpness at 300%:
Center sharpness.
Wide open left (f/1.8) and stopped down a bit to the right (f/3.5). If you have seen other of my reviews, you know that I like to shoot a whiteboard with a few dollar and EUR bills to test sharpness and contrast, and when I can read the state names, then I know I am dealing with a very sharp lens. In this case I can read that NY is to the rightmost! The sharpness gets slightly better stopped down, but this is impressive performance!
Looking at the corner sharpness, it gets even better (still 300%):
Corner sharpness.
This is from the bottom left, and the performance wide open (left) is impressive! I may be able to see that it stopped down has slightly better contrast (look at the white in the EUR sign top left), but still this is some of the best corner performance wide open that I have ever seen! Well done Nikon!
And when you shoot at f/1.8 you really get a shallow depth of field! I know that f/1.4 or even f/1.2 will give you more, but still:
Out of focus elements – notice the cat to the left.
Same motive, but 2 different focus points: left the flower in the foreground and right the cat in the couch. Even when there is only 1.5 meter between the subject and your background elements, the latter gets rendered beautifully out of focus!
The bokeh I have found to be beautiful. When shooting wide open, the aperture blades are not engaged, and hence you of course get nice round bokeh balls, although the bokeh towards the corners tend to be more oval and shaped like an American football:
Out of focus elements at f/1.8.
I had high hopes for aberrations, but apparently I can get any lens to generate at least purple fringing:
Noticeable chromatic aberrations to the left.
Wide open to the left you can see purple fringing in the high contrast zones of the tinfoil. Not so much stopped down to the right (f/7.1). So there is a bit of aberrations and shooting streetlights at night (yes, a hobby yours truly practices) it gets noticeable – but I have always been able to remove it in Lightroom by pulling a few sliders. And speaking of streetlights at night, my test of flare showed that this lens has some of the best control of flare that I have ever seen.
The lens does suffer from focus breathing, so if you are considering it as an option for videography you may find that this is a showstopper. Especially when you ALSO consider how well flare and ghosting is controlled by this lens (videographers for some reason love this stuff and do not want to well dampened lenses in this regard).
In my reviews I don’t test distortion or vignetting. The simple reason being that you can fix this in Lightroom with a push of a button. Only for demanding architecture or real estate photographers can I imagine that distortion and vignetting would be a problem, and I am pretty sure they are not in the market for a 85mm.
Conclusion
Pro:
Super sharpness, both center and corners
Super contrast, both center and corners
Light – 350 grams
Ok build quality, albeit no gold ring from Nikon
Well working manual focus ring
Takes filters with no issues
Good handling of flare and ghosts
Price performance
Works on Nikon entry level cameras
Con:
Not the widest of wide – there is the 1.4G to mention an alternative
Some aberrations in high contrast areas wide open
Not for videographers (flare too well controls + some focus breathing)
AF not the fastest in the AF-S family
Not sure how long-term durable the build quality is
You probably have picked this up reading the review above, but I absolutely love this lens. It is clear to me that all attention has been given to the internals of this lens, and hence you get a “budget-feel” lens on the outside and a top performer on the inside. If you are to prioritize, then if you ask me, this is as it should be.
Right now, I cannot think of a lens where the price / performance ratio is better than this one when we are talking modern lenses (vintage lenses you buy on a flea market may have a better ration, but that stems from the price primarily). So if you need a 85mm prime from Nikon, this one should definitely be on your short list.
My only concern is if the lens will stand the test of time – will it survive the constant use in a demanding pro environment? I am not sure; maybe better to go with a gold ring lens if you are a demanding pro.
The strange thing is, that my wife who also has an iPhone with the IOS 15.1 installed gets daily updates! Not real time updates though, but daily updates. The only difference I can spot between the two is that I have a Garmin Phenix 3 connected to the iPhone and she has a Garmin Vivoactive watch. I doubt however, that this is the cause of the difference, as the waking steadiness is based primarily on data generated by the sensors in the iPhone.
