85/1.4 ais

[richardHaw]

The hype is real! 

Just overhauled mine and boy this lens is very sharp wide-open even with veiling flare!
I am impressed! I don’t remember the af version to be this good and the G is almost perfect in the center but lacks a bit of “soul”. I have always heard good things about this lens in my younger years and boy does it deliver! I have heard of people shifting to nikon and buying the f3 just to use this lens and now i know why!

There are reviews stating that this lens is terrible wideopen but mine is more than ok! One probable reason is that the crc may not have been calibrated property. There is an adjuster for this and it may be off.
I will post some pictures when i have the time

[David H. Hartman]

I have one that's lube contaminated. I'd love to see how its stripped and cleaned. Two independent camera repairmen declined the job for lack of a repair manual.

I ran the 85/1.4 AIS off against an 85/2.0 AIS on Tech Pan (yesterday's pixel peeping). I inspected the negatives at 80x  The 85/1.4 AIS easily beat the 85/2.0 from f/2.0 to f/5.6 but by f/8.0 they were the same. This same at f/8.0 when viewed at 80x was a pattern with other similar lenses. The cause was diffraction. I don't remember edge sharpness/resolution. I was looking at it. The test distance was two meters. It was close but I thought the 85/1.4 AIS had an edge over the 105/2.5 AIS. Both were designed as portrait lenses.

I was a bit disappointed at the performance at f/1.4 but the lens is a spherical design and the is a lot of detail with a veil. This can be a flaw or a feature depending on mindset and use. Like the 50/1.2 the veil is mostly gone by f/2.0.

The 85/1.4 AIS belongs somewhere among the 105/2.5 AI & AIS, 135/2.8 AI & AIS and 180/2.8 ED AIS in my opinion.

The one drawback to the 85/1.4 is what I call presence: it instantly transforms thec photographer into a cyclops.

Dave Hartman

[Roland Vink]

I ran the 85/1.4 AIS off against an 85/2.0 AIS on Tech Pan (yesterday's pixel peeping).

Years ago I did a very quick test of the AFD 85/1.4 with my AIS 85/2, shot at around 2m, both at f/2. This was on 100 ISO slide film. Couldn't tell the difference - sharpness, bokeh, vignetting all the same. I was mildly surprised, and pleased my humble 85/2 performed so well against a well regarded lens.

[richardHaw]

maybe I got lucky with mine or maybe because i always shot it with a hood 

so far it was very good! surprisingly good! the veiling flare wide-open is distracting but the sharpness and resolution is there!

This lens is kind of delicate due to the CRC. mechanically. the barrel is closest to the Noct but with CRC

my inner element is super dusty from the flapping iris. check yours if it has fine deposits from the iris opening and closing.

[richardHaw]

Years ago I did a very quick test of the AFD 85/1.4 with my AIS 85/2, shot at around 2m, both at f/2. This was on 100 ISO slide film. Couldn't tell the difference - sharpness, bokeh, vignetting all the same. I was mildly surprised, and pleased my humble 85/2 performed so well against a well regarded lens.

that's kind of a repeating patter in Nikkors. the 85/1.8 or 85/2 is just as good against the 85/1.4 when shot at the same (big) aperture

Nikon's cheaper 85's are very good.

[richardHaw]

the tripod picture was a test shot at the shop. i was shocked to see this  wasn't expecting this to perform this good. The AF-D was good but I don't recall it to be this sharp wide-open

the guy with the hat showed some veiling flare but not so bad really. the bokeh is very smooth! this is sharp enough to me.

at closer distances <1m, the challenge is to get things in-focus. some sharpness loss but not that much

the last picture is the minimum focus distance. very challenging to get it in-focus. same findings, small loss in sharpness at minimum focusing distance.

I took some portraits last night that I cannot share but it's perfect, sharpness and all (my subjects' faces) at around 1.5m to 4m away. i wasn't expecting this lens to be this good. mine might be a fluke. this lens feels like it's a bit delicate to put together like the 50/1.2 series so this may be the cause. very satisfied with this lens, no wonder it looked beaten-up when I got it. the previous owner shot and used this lens because he knew it was good.

[David H. Hartman]

I pull out all the stops to test my lenses.  I made my exposure in total darkness. I opened the shutter on B with a locking cable. I let the camera and tripod settle for one minute. I focused with a Nikon 6x finder. The exposure was made with electronic flash. I did every thing I could to test the lens and only the lens.

I never tested an 85/1.8 K or AI but I printed a friend's negatives and I'll class that lens with my 105/2.5 AIS and 85/1.4 AIS at least for sharpness and resolution. I'm  not sure about flare and the 85/1.8. I think my friend's lens was a K with a factory AI conversion. He could not print his own negatives due to asthma. I tried to buy the lens some years back. Anyway I have an 85/2.0 AIS and it's OK.

Dave

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The Nikkor 85/1.4 AIS was one of my favourites in the film era. Remarkably sharp even wide open, as exemplified by this snapshot of my son in a public library many winters ago.

I put a CPU in that specimen and it works flawlessly and smoothly even today, 35+ years after I purchased it new. It is super sharp in UV as well, although not responding very far into the UV range.

[richardHaw]

The Nikkor 85/1.4 AIS was one of my favourites in the film era. Remarkably sharp even wide open, as exemplified by this snapshot of my son in a public library many winters ago.

I put a CPU in that specimen and it works flawlessly and smoothly even today, 35+ years after I purchased it new. It is super sharp in UV as well, although not responding very far into the UV range.

that's an awesome shot

i am surprised by this because of the reviews but I wasnt disappointed!

[richardHaw]

I never tested an 85/1.8 K or AI but I printed a friend's negatives and I'll class that lens with my 105/2.5 AIS and 85/1.4 AIS at least for sharpness and resolution. I'm  not sure about flare and the 85/1.8.

The 85/1.8K is a nice lens. it's also sharp wide-open but really can't hold a candle against against the 85/1.4 Ai-S. 

The 85/1.4's weakness is the CRC. if that thing got out of adjustment then it's VERY ANNOYING to put it back to spec. there is a way to adjust it and it's not easy. This is the reason why I didn't remove the coupler.