We got our hands on Nikon’s newest premium bokeh beast, the AF-S Nikkor 105mm f/ 1. 4 ED, at a special event in Hong Kong and at Photokina. Right off the bat it was a big girl with a lot to love, showing curves in all the right places.
We’re not joking about that size. For what it is, this soup-can sized lens has got some serious weight. It’s dripping with quality though and has a sound construction in line with the other lenses in Nikon’s premium stable. The focusing ring is well damped, and the exterior looks as usual like it can be used to sand down the edges of any rough tool.
Large aperture lenses can be too much for some to handle on manual focus, due to the shallow depth-of-field. Luckily this Nikkor provides a massive and easy-to-handle focus ring at your fingertips, for quick adjustments and control. It’s so convenient that it can be used as full-time manual lens if wished. This may mean depending more on the LCD live view rather than optical viewfinder for some to get it right, even though Nikon cameras still don't have focus peaking. Manual focus may remain the key for getting a precise detail tack-sharp, although that being said, the focus was quite reliable on autofocus.
In terms of speed, it was decent as well. We say decent as it isn’t the fastest reacting lens from Nikon (the Nikon 24-70 f/2. 8 laps it) but it’s no slowpoke either. This was at least the case when paired with the Nikon D810 we brought along to the event. It was also as quiet as a mouse.
Performance-wise the Nikkor AF-S 105mm has a few odd quirks. When it’s wide open, quality takes a slight drop as things get soft, though this is common for the large aperture lens type. You also may encounter some elliptical stretching of your bokeh balls in the image corners so they resemble lemons or cat eyes. But that's just nit-picking, since it's definitely useable wide-open. Once again, this is the price paid in the large aperture territory.
Apart from these regular quirks however, this lens can be an absolute joy to use. Just by stepping down to f/2. 8, things looked fantastic. The extreme shallow depth of this thing let us nab some smooth and satisfying bokeh shots. There was no sign of onion rings within our light spheres and the outer rings were well established all the way up to the f/4 setting.
Nikon has made a big noise about the nano crystal coating on their new lenses and its anti-reflective qualities. Whether it was this to thank or not, we didn’t encounter any major ghosts, flares or aberrations. We can’t wait to get in a test model for a battle of the Bokeh, but for now there's quite a lot to be excited about.
Here it comes though; the catch. At US$2,199. 95, having such a shallow depth-of-field comes at a massive cost. This Nikkor is being sold as a premium lens but we think that price is a little too premium. Don’t get us wrong, if you’re Scrooge McDucking it and have a swimming pool of cash to spare, and a love of shooting subjects in a tight view, go for it. Otherwise, consider some of the older Nikon 105mm lenses or some fast third-party options.
. digitalrev.com
2016-10-7 03:00