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Nikon lenses for portraiture purposes..
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I’m seeking some advice on opinions, with regard to lenses for primarily portrait shooting with a Nikon dslr. In my case, I have a D300 and D80, should that make any difference.
A little while back, I trimmed down my photo kit, in particular my Nikon kit, which wasn’t seeing much use at the time, so in effect I am starting with a relatively blank slate here. I am looking to add a lens, perhaps two or three, for portrait shooting, which is my real passion. Previously I have shot with a variety of lenses, namely all relatively modern autofocus Nikon primes. In my case, these were the 20mm f2.8, 35mm f2.0, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.4 primes, all AF-D models. Also, I used a Tokina 100mm f2.8 macro lens, which I also liked very much for portraits and macro.
Most of my mileage would have been with the 50mm for indoor shooting & half-body portraits, and the 85mm/ 100mm for outdoor shooting and headshots, so I have an idea what focal ranges work for me, for the type of portraits I shoot, in terms of working distance, etc. The 35mm would have served for full body portraits or tight indoor spaces, and the 20mm for more environmental or experimental portraiture.
So, starting with a relatively blank slate, I am looking to build up a small number of lenses solely for portraiture, and wonder what recommendations people may have, especially from personal experience and hopefully with examples. I think I can do without autofocus, so that opens up the field for me, to anything that can be mounted and shot on a Nikon APS-sensor dlsr. My D300 can take care of metering, if I can’t, so am not concerned with the metering functionality, although am open to suggestion on using manual focussing for portraiture as I have not done so before. My style of focussing and shooting rapidly, not re-focussing until my position or position of my subject changes, indicates manual focus should not be too much of an issue, but as always, open to opinion and personal experience.
Of the lenses I have, I have a pretty good idea of their capabilities, as well as some of the more modern autofocus options like the 105mm f2, etc, so am more interested at the moment in lenses I do not know so much about, such as manual Nikkors, and specific versions of them. Also, my preference is for primes, not zooms. Nothing against zooms, just that for portraiture, primes are my personal preference. But most of all, I am interested in interesting lenses, with character and perhaps unique qualities, such as how they render an image, as opposed to highly corrected modern lenses which effectively have no flaws, or ‘character’ as I prefer to refer to it as.
So, with all that, I’d like to open the floor to all and sundry suggestions, and perhaps this thread can even become a source or resource for lenses for portraiture with Nikons.
To recap, my main criteria are:
– Primes. No zooms unless it offers something unavailable in a prime
– Max aperture f2 (I do a lot of available light indoor shooting)
– Can be manual focus or autofocus
– Must fit modern Nikon cameras, so no non-AI options, unless it is so mindblowing & worth AI’ing
– Character and image-making characteristics such as rendering, bokeh and other undescribable characteristics most important. Not too worried about sharpness
– Looking for 2 main lenses really, something in the 40- 60mm range for indoor portraits, and something in the 80- 100ish range for outdoor portraits
– Budget-friendly appreciated, so options under €500 would be greatImages to accompany recommendations appreciated, and will try to post up some of my own preferred portraits.
Thanks in advance, and think this could be an interesting thread..
An old favourite of mine is the 180mm f2.8 (e.g. AI-S); light, although not THAT close focussing (1.8m I think). For years I had just been using the 105 f2.5 AI-S, which is also lovely. Both have built-in hoods, too.
The modern 135mm f2 DC (defocus control) is superb and one of the best portrait lens for Nikons out there, unless you can afford to go long (e.g. 300mm f2.8).
I’ve searched as well in the past, and have tried strange things, like putting a 145mm f1.2 TV-Fujinon on an SLR, but the results were crp.
These days my basic one-and-all is an old 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D when I use DX or FX DSLRs.
(For portraits I now often skip DSLRs altogether, as I have superb (vintage) glass choices for my medium format(6×7) and large format (4×5″/5×7″) gear, none of which even get close to your €500 budget). :DWow you don’t make it easy ;)
Seems like you already tried most options, the only thing I could suggest which fits in your budget is a Sigma 70-200 2.8 HSM II macro which you can get 2nd hand for around 400 euro but then it does not fit into your max aperture requirements, is only one lens and does not fit into the smaller focus you want.
As for the 50mm f1.4 you tried, I was reading a review which said the 1.8g is much sharper and cheaper http://mansurovs.com/nikon-50mm-f1-8g-review
Also soon the 85mm 1.8g will be available also so maybe that beats the 85mm 1.4 http://mansurovs.com/nikon-85mm-f1-8g-announcement#more-25556
Ha ha, thanks for the feedback guys.
Fine Print, some interesting options. I see you favour longer portrait lenses, and its a pity the crop factor makes anything above 100mm a headshot/ outdoor lens for me, as something like a fast 100mm equivalent on DX would be perfect for my usage and would probably be happy to shoot the lions share of my portraits with such a lens. The 80-200 makes a nice portrait range lens on 35mm/ FX alright, I suppose a sigma 50-150 on DX would do the same job, but I prefer primes and their single field of view for portraits, so am not sure I would use a zoom. Although, that said, the range of the 35-70mm f2.8 zoom on DX has always interested me, but have never bitten as f2.8 is a bit slow for the available light indoors portraits I favour.
I can imagine medium and large format are quite nice for portraits, and although something I would love to dabble in one day, for the unique look they can give, for now they would require quite a different way of working than I currently favour with my DX nikons. That said, I do have a nice rolleicord begging to be shot more, so perhaps will persevere/ dabble with the waist level finder on that for portraits again..
shibang, yes, it probably shines through that I am a prime man, lol. I’m set on DX, or rather not set on FX, so the 70-200 is out for me as it becomes not wide enough on the short end and more of an outdoors lens for me, which is only a portion of my portrait shooting. The f1.8 G 50mm and 85mm lenses are interesting alright, but I have yet to decide whether I would prefer AF-D lenses which I can use on older nikon film cameras, or just get AF-S lenses which could be pressed into service on a smaller D3000/ 3100 body at some point in the future. Re: sharpness, that is not something I am overly concerned about, for what I shoot, by the way.
Try the amazing Samyang 85mm/f1.4 then (comes in a chipped and unchipped version at under €300!!!). OK, its manual focus and most DSLR finders are crap for fast MF lenses, but optically this lens is superb. I can live with MF for a saving of €1000 over an AF Nikkor 85mm f1.4 in any case.
I used to be set on primes, but found that my 17-35mm f2.8 AF-S is nicer than my 20mm f2.8 AF-D and perhaps my 35mm f2 AIS as well; my 80-200mm f2.8 AF-D is optically indistiguishable from above recommended 180mm f2.8 and offers more flexibility.
PS: AF-S lenses can be used on any old Nikon film body as long as they’re not G-lenses. My 17-35mm AF-S has an aperture ring (like all proper lenses should :)) and kicks ss on my FM, FE2, F2 and F4.
if you are looking up to f/2 for portraits then i would consdier 3 lenses 135mm DC f/2 , 105mm DC f/2 and 85mm f/1.4
I love a 70-200/80-200 for portraits., Nice range, blows the backdrops out nicely even when stopped down. Not so great indoors of course, with a 5ft min focus. You can’t beat the 50mm 1.8G for value, getting one myself soon. I use my tamron 17-50 at the 50mm end at the moment for indoor portraits, and the 80-200 outdoor, I now also have the 105mm micro which will also take great portraits outdoor.
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