Name: Vivitar Series 1 85mm f/1.8 Manual Focus Portrait Lens for Nikon
Brand: Vivitar
SKU: VVV85MMN
Price: 114.00 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 5 (1 reviews)

Vivitar Series 1 85mm f/1.8 Manual Focus Portrait Lens for Nikon

Vivitar 85mm f/1.8

Vivitar

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Photography

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SLR Lenses

Vivitar SLR Lenses

Vivitar 85mm f/1.8 

Top Rated Gear: Vivitar Series 1 85mm f/1.8 Manual Focus Portrait Lens for Nikon Filter Size: 55mm, Image Stabilization Type: No, Lens Format: APS-C / DX, Lens Mount: Nikon F, Lens Series: Unique (No Series), Lens Type: Medium Telephoto, Telephoto

The Vivitar 85mm F1.8 Aspherical Lens opens up new photographic opportunities you'd never get with a zoom. The focal length and aperture make it a great portrait lens. When shooting in bright conditions with fast shutter speeds and low ISOs, you'll create beautiful subject separation, and backgrounds which melt away into soft colors.  The aspherical multi-coated optics ensure bright, razor sharp images. It has a nicely damped and rubber-clad focus ring, allowing for smooth focus pulls and precision focusing. Due to its internal focusing mechanism, the physical size of the lens remains constant. The Vivitar 85mm lens is also a great choice for DSLR videographers. The lens mounted aperture ring works just like a professional video camera.  The lens comes with a removable lens hood, caps, and pouch, along with a five year warranty. Whether you are an amateur photographer, or a professional looking for an affordable portrait lens, the Vivitar 85mm F/1.8 is the perfect choice.

I use this lens as a general portrait lens, mostly for shooting people but works well on animals, as long as you don't stop it down too far. Stopping down to 1.8 will net you focused eyes and a blurred snout on a dog at least.

The best part of this is the price. It's cheap, though in some respects it also feels cheap. It works nicely, however and does take getting accustomed to full manual controls for aperture and focusing.

The only thing that would make this lens better is autofocus, but hey, that's part of why this lens is so inexpensive, so the trade off is acceptable. There is also no vibration compensation/image stabilization, which again, keeps the price down.

If you're looking for a fun lens, that can do nice bokeh and does nice portraits, this is a good lens to try.

I have used this on my 1Dx and an old XSi, both work equally as well and quality is very good overall from both.