Lenses


Five Great Portrait Lenses for Nikon Cameras

August 7, 2019

By Greg Scoblete

Nikon Z 85mm

Portrait photographers shooting Nikon mount cameras have no shortage of great optics to choose from. Here’s a look at five great new (and newish) portrait lenses for Nikon shooters to consider:

Nikon NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.8 S

The newest member of the Z-mount family of lenses for Nikon’s full-frame mirrorless system, the Z 85mm boasts nine rounded aperture blades to bring the bokeh. There’s Nano Crystal Coat to reduce flare and ghosting and a Multi-Focus System to deliver speedy autofocusing with fewer aberrations. You can stop the lens down to f/16 and focus on objects as close as 2.62 feet.

Price: $799 | nikonusa.com

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4 ED

The full frame (FX format) lens features an electromagnetic aperture control for consistent exposures during high speed shooting. It’s weather sealed and uses Flourine coatings on the front and rear lens elements to make dirt and moisture easier to wipe away. There’s a 9-blade diaphragm  as well as Nikon’s Nano Crystal Coat technology to minimize flare and ghosting.

Price: $2,200 | nikonusa.com

Zeiss Otus 100mm f/1.4

This portrait-friendly prime lens is available for Nikon (and Canon) full-frame DSLRs. The manual focus lens uses an apochromat design to reduce chromatic aberration and color artifacting and fringing. It’s capable of focusing on objects as close as 39.4 inches with a magnification ratio of 1:8.6. The focus ring turns a full 315 degrees. You can stop the Otus 100mm down to f/16.

Price: $4,990 | zeiss.com

Tamron 35-150mm f/2.8-4 Di VC OSD

This versatile portrait zoom delivers every focal length you’d traditionally reach for in portraiture. What’s more, each of those traditional portrait-friendly focal lengths are marked off on the lens barrel. It uses Tamron’s Broad-Band Anti-Reflection (BBAR) Coating to minimize flare and ghosting. Autofocus is driven by an Optimized Silent Drive (OSD) motor for quiet, speedy performance. This full-frame lens has a minimum object distance of 17.7 inches across the entire zoom range. Topping it all off, there’s Vibration Control that’s good for five stops of image stabilization.

Price: $799 | tamron-usa.com

Sigma 105mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART

The 105mm f/1.4 is packed with 17 lens elements, a larger-than-usual number that Sigma says keeps optical aberrations to a minimum and ensures the lens delivers razor sharpness and pleasing bokeh when shooting wide open. It can focus on objects as close as 39.4 inches from the lens with a magnification ratio of 1:8.3. It has nine rounded aperture blades that stop down to f/16.

Price: $1,599 | sigmaphoto.com