Portrait lens recommendations

Katmandew

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Hello all. New to the forum. I've been shooting DSLR FOR 9 years, mostly landscapes and pics of my kids but no real experience taking photos professionally. I wanted to take my own pics of kids and it started as an amateur hobby. I've had a couple courses so I know the basics and now I'd like to go a step further and am looking into getting into portrait photography. I would like some opinions on lenses. I just upgraded my D200 to a D750. I have the 50 mm Nikkor 1.8 prime that does well, but I'm trying to decide if I want the Nikkor 85mm 1.8 or the 70-200 zoom 2.8. I'm looking at the sigma and the Nikkor zoom 2.8's also. Leaning towards the sigma due to the price and bang for your buck reviews. I'd like to have a zoom since I don't have one yet and they are more versatile, but can't decide because I read a lot of good things about the 85mm 1.8 for portraits also and it's the least expensive of the three. Any input is appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Well, especially for portraiture the best lenses are indeed prime lenses.


But if you want a zoom, a quite cheap but optically great option would be the AF 80-200mm f2.8D. Thats just about 600$ used. It has no image stabilization, though.

Theres nothing wrong about the current AF-S 70-200mm f2.8 VR2, except of course its quite expensive.



Prime lenses however are great for portraiture because obviously the image quality is better, but also because prime lenses allow more shallow depth of field and because zooms are usually not required at all for portraiture.

With portraits one usually has all the time in the world and can easily "zoom by feet" - unless of course there is no room. Because of the later reason, the probably most popular choice for a portrait prime is 85mm - with 85mm, one can still manage a full body portrait (needs about 5m distance with an average person), but also closeups are very possible.

A very cheap possibility is the AI or AI-S 105mm f2.5 lens, which legendary for its fantastic optical properties and is only available used now, with prices varying around 120-200$ or €. As a lens thats 40 years old, its manual focus only.
 
Well, especially for portraiture the best lenses are indeed prime lenses.


But if you want a zoom, a quite cheap but optically great option would be the AF 80-200mm f2.8D. Thats just about 600$ used. It has no image stabilization, though.

Theres nothing wrong about the current AF-S 70-200mm f2.8 VR2, except of course its quite expensive.



Prime lenses however are great for portraiture because obviously the image quality is better, but also because prime lenses allow more shallow depth of field and because zooms are usually not required at all for portraiture.

With portraits one usually has all the time in the world and can easily "zoom by feet" - unless of course there is no room. Because of the later reason, the probably most popular choice for a portrait prime is 85mm - with 85mm, one can still manage a full body portrait (needs about 5m distance with an average person), but also closeups are very possible.

A very cheap possibility is the AI or AI-S 105mm f2.5 lens, which legendary for its fantastic optical properties and is only available used now, with prices varying around 120-200$ or €. As a lens thats 40 years old, its manual focus only.

Agreed. I think the 70-200 is too cumbersome for a portrait photographer. If you must have it, the 80-200 is a great alternative.

But as solar mentioned, the 105/2.5 is an amazing portrait lens with little investment. If you're shooting portraits, you should have the time to manual focus.

If you must have af, go with the 85. The 50 requires you to be too close, and because of that, you won't get the same effects of a telephoto.
 
There are various lenses that can work well for portrait.
85mm and 70-200mm are among the more popular.
105mm and 135mm are also very popular lenses for that.

Now I don't have any statistics but I think many portrait photographers like the 70-200mm 2.8 lenses the most.
This lens offer excellent optics throughout its range and great flexibility.
Its also a great general use lens and its used for sports, street photography and many more.
Its main 2 disadvantages are

Price
Weight/size

For portraits I only use my Tamron 70-200mm 2.8 VC, its perfect for that but on longer sessions I do find its getting heavier and heavier.
If you shoot portrait with backdrop behind subject then shallow DOF isn't so important so this f1.8/1.4 advantage of the 85mm isn't so important. If you shoot outside studio then the extra DOF is very handy.
I actually plan to buy also the Nikon 85mm 1.8G in the future.

Two good friends of mine who specialize in portrait use only 105mm lenses, one is using the Nikon 105mm 2.8G Micro and the other one Nikon 105mm f2 DC

If you consider 70-200mm 2.8 and thinking of Sigma or Nikon I would recommend also thinking of the Tamron 70-200mm 2.8 VC, its only 100$ more expensive then the Sigma and is overall better then it.
Still nothing wrong with the Sigma, its a very good lens too.

Hope this helped, good luck :)
 
Hard to beat a 85mm 1.8g for the price and awesome IQ.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I will look into the tamron. I think I for sure want the 85 prime now. May grab that and save for the zoom.
 
Primes: Nikkor AF 85mm f/1.4D or Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.8G.
Zoom: Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD

Forget the Sigma 2.8 70-200mm.

Good luck.
 
I've never used the 70-200, and it wouldn't really suit my tiny studio needs anyway but I absolutely adore the 85mm 1.8 D (older model), I really can't beleive how sharp that thing is and I think for a used D model I only paid around 20o euros. I'd say if you are on a budget get the 85mm D, if you are not on a budget, get both ;)

I wouldn't bother with the 85mm G model though, for me the only difference is the price...
 
I've never used the 70-200, and it wouldn't really suit my tiny studio needs anyway but I absolutely adore the 85mm 1.8 D (older model), I really can't beleive how sharp that thing is and I think for a used D model I only paid around 20o euros. I'd say if you are on a budget get the 85mm D, if you are not on a budget, get both ;)

I wouldn't bother with the 85mm G model though, for me the only difference is the price...

Curious... Why not the 85mm 1.8G? That lens is a fantastic value.
 
ruifo said:
Primes: Nikkor AF 85mm f/1.4D or Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.8G.
Zoom: Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD

Forget the Sigma 2.8 70-200mm.

Good luck.

Good advice all around for portrait lenses. The 85/1.4 AF-D is known for its beautiful lens drawing characteristics and its nice bokeh. I've been using one since 2003, and have really liked it. Still use it as my preferred portrait 85mm lens. The G-series f/1.8 85mm lens is one I can also vouch for: smallish, around $400 or so new, extremely crisp, high in contrast, a very sharp lens, almost brutally so on 24MP FX. I've seen a lot of good, sharp images from the new Tamron 70-200 VC model. It's good good optics, good fair price, and cool color rendering. Sigmas always have that yellowish, warmer color rendering which you can not just white balance away--that ain't the way that works. Sigmas seem to look okay on Canon, not so good on Nikon. I've bought multiple Siggy's...the color rendering mismatch they cause due to the glass formulation Sigma uses is a big issue for me, and what I like the least about Sigma glass.
 
And if we want to add a manual focus lens, to this poll, consider the Nikkor 105mm f/2.5 AI-S (or AI) as a great alternative.
 
Got the 85mm 1.8G...wow the difference. Slapped that on my D750 and it really is an awesome buy. Tamron 70-200 is my next purchase. After much more research, I've settled on the Tamron version instead of the sigma.
 
Yeah....moving from the Nikon D200 to the Nikon D750, and then adding the amazing 85mm f/1.8 G Nikkor lens....yeah...you've moved wayyyyyyyy forward in time! Enjoy the heck out of the new stuff!

I personally think the Tamron 70-200 VC is a better choice than the Sigma, especially when it's going to be shot on a Nikon body.
 

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