Finch585 Loc: Northern California

I'm a beginner and I've read that 85mm is a good lens length for portraiture. I only have an 18-105mm zoom Nikon kit lens. I'm wondering if using that lens at 85mm+ and positioning myself for good framing will produce the same result? I understand the auto-focus time may be slower than a prime lens. Thank you.

samiam Loc: Rochester, NY

I have the Nikon d5000 with the standard lens and shoot mainly "people shots". I have had very good luck with the lens...here are a few of my shots.

PaulDBowen Loc: Belfair, WA, USA

The reason an 85 mm is suggested is that it is considered a "short" telephoto. It will tend to flatten the image when compared with a 35mm to 50 mm, which is generally more flattering than the wider lens. Typically anything in the 85mm to 135mm range is used for portraits. Your kit zoom lens will work just fine for protraits in the longer end of the range.

dannydperez

The full frame 85mm was considered for many years as the ideal portrait lens by many. You have to consider the max aperture, though, as well. Most of the kit lenses today are a bit "slow", so using a longer lens helps improve the bokeh. I like to shoot portraits in the 150 to 200 mm range with my Nikon D40 mostly because the lenses I have are not very fast. I also tend to crop tightly, maybe too tightly :)

150mm +/-


190mm

Randyb1969 Loc: Armpit of California

I've read the same thing. 75-100mm is considered to be about perfect on a full frame. The one really good thing about crop sensor cameras is that it makes that 50mm lens into an 80mm equivalent. I've been wanting to get a 50mm since I got my camera, but can't decide weather to get the cheap 1.8 or save for the 1.4. I really need to decide.

ianhargraves1066 Loc: NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Florida

The reason you normally use a slightly longer focal length setting is to decrease the distortion you get by using a normal or wide angle lens. With a "half size" digital sensor, you can use a 50mm setting since 85 mm is normally recomended for a standard 24x36mm size film frame.
However beore zoom lenses came to being, unless you were filthy rich, you used whatever lens you had. %5mm was normal I still use 6x6 centimeter negatives on a Mamiyaflex c33 professional with a 135mm lens and you never get distortion. I have owned the camera for over 30 years and its still going strong and 30x40 inch prints are pin sharp. The previous owner in London made 20x16inch proofs from studio sittings and became a millionaire selling 40x50 color prints to Arabs and African dignitories. All from a humble Mamiya flex. You can pick them up for a song.
Regards,
Ian Hargraves
igh1066@hotmail.com
In the path of Hurricane Irene at Port Orange, Florida

PhotoArtsLA Loc: Boynton Beach

If you are using a DX format camera, a 50mm lens is closer to the look of the 85mm lens, which is a standard portrait lens for a FULL FRAME 35mm film camera.

At 50mm Nikon has the astonishing 50mm f/1.2 which is a manual focus beauty with a look, at f/1.2 which is close to magical. Shallow depth of field, and the cropping factor of the DX sensor gives all your chip resolution the visual equivalent of an 80mm lens.

When you are doing portraits, autofocus is not really necessary, and the full 35mm frame coverage of the Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 benefits the DX camera in two more ways:

1) MORE sharpness, less falloff. Super fast lenses tend to have a bit of vignetting at the edges when shot wide open. The crop factor of DX means the vignetting will likely be completely out of frame.

2) Fabulous Bokeh. The Nikkor 50mm is legendary in its beautiful handling of out of focus areas.

Here it is:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/36976-USA/Nikon_1435_NIKKOR_Normal_50mm_f_1_2.html