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Nikkor Z 85mm F1.8 S-Line Review | Does it Hold Up in 2026?
Jun 23, 2026
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a deep dive review of the compact luxury 85mm lens for Nikon Z - the Nikkor Z 85mm F1.8 S. Is it still worth buying in 2026? | Read the Text Review: https://tinyurl.com/Z85Sreview | Purchase the Nikkor Z 85mm F1.8 S @ B&H Photo https://bhpho.to/3ZjiJLM | Adorama https://prf.hn/l/MbzzngO/ | Amazon https://amzn.to/4aMQhHx | Camera Canada https://tidd.ly/4gCyFlg | Amazon Canada https://amzn.to/4oYxdfz | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/3QaVYYY | Amazon Germany
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro and Concept
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:10
I am Dustin Abbott and I'm here today to
0:12
give you my review of the Nicor Z 85mm
0:15
f1.8 S-line. Now, obviously this isn't a
0:18
new lens. It was released back in 2019,
0:21
but this is part of my series where I
0:23
personally am catching up on the back
0:26
catalog of Nikon's existing lenses,
0:28
having come to the platform a little bit
0:30
later than what maybe some of you did. I
0:32
also have a unique opportunity to
0:35
evaluate these lenses where the market
0:38
has radically changed since their
0:39
release point. When this lens was
0:41
released, it was basically the only
0:43
option on the platform at 85 millime.
0:45
Since that point, obviously, we have
0:46
seen the 85mm f1.2 2 S-line lens, a very
0:50
premium, very expensive, very big lens.
0:53
And so that alternative exists, but
0:55
probably more relevant to those that are
0:57
shopping in this price point, there have
0:59
been a handful of 85mm f1.4 lenses. And
1:03
then of course, notably, Viltrox's 85mm
1:06
f2 EVO lens that competes in a lot of
1:09
ways with this lens at about a third of
1:12
the price. Currently, the S-line lens
1:15
retails for $750.
1:18
And that's where I think a lot of the
1:20
complications come into play when there
1:21
are so many other options available for
1:23
cheaper. But does that mean that this
1:25
lens shouldn't still be on your short
1:27
list if you're shopping in 2026? Well,
1:30
that's the question I hope to answer in
1:31
today's review. By the way, I am filming
1:34
with the lens in all of these outdoor
1:36
segments on my Nikon Z8 body. And so,
1:38
you get a sense of rendering, how it
1:40
stays locked on my face during
1:41
autofocus. So, be sure to check all of
1:44
that out as we progress into this
1:45
review. And before we go any further, I
1:47
do want to say a big thank you to Nikon
1:49
Canada for sending me a loaner of this
1:51
lens. As always, however, they have had
1:53
zero input in my actual findings and
1:55
they will not see this video before you
1:58
do. All of that aside, let's jump in and
2:00
let's break it down. So, this is one of
2:03
the bigger lenses in the series of the
2:06
F1.8 S-line lenses. It's basically
2:08
second in size to the 20 millimeter
2:11
f1.8, 8. But as you can see, it's not
2:14
necessarily what I would call a small
2:16
lens for an particularly for an F1.8
2:18
lens. But when you compare it to the
2:19
f1.2s, as you can see here, it is 28 mm
2:23
narrower, 43 mm shorter, and weighs 700
2:26
g less. And so it's all relative, I
2:30
guess. This lens is 75 mm or 3 in in
2:33
diameter. It is 99 mm or 3.9 in in
2:37
length. It weighs in at 470 g or 16.6 6
2:41
ounces, which by the way that is a full
2:43
100 g heavier than say the 35mm f1.8 and
2:47
so you're definitely going to feel a
2:49
little bit more weight particularly for
2:51
a you know f1.8 85mm lens. This is on
2:54
the heavier side for that. It does have
2:57
a thorough weather sealing that starts
3:00
with the weather sealing gasket here at
3:03
the lens mount but then there are a
3:04
total of nine seal points throughout the
3:07
lens itself. This is a an S-line lens
3:09
and so it's professional grade. The
3:11
build quality here is a combination of
3:13
some polycarbonates and then metals that
3:15
are in the body itself. Now, when it
3:18
comes to a feature set, there really
3:20
isn't much going on here. We've got an
3:23
AFMF switch and we've got an AFMF
3:26
switch. That's it. We've got a broad
3:28
ring here that can be used for, you
3:31
know, as a customizable control ring.
3:33
primary function would be manual focus,
3:35
but you can set it up to do a variety of
3:37
other things by programming that within
3:39
the body. However, because there's just
3:41
a single lens relative to some of their
3:43
other lenses, that means that you can't
3:46
have one ring doing aperture while the
3:48
other does focus. And so, you you're
3:50
going to have to if you want to use this
3:52
as an aperture ring, for example, it
3:53
means you're going to have to sacrifice
3:55
full-time manual override because you're
3:57
going to have to switch into manual
3:58
focus before you can actually do manual
4:00
focus. So, I don't love it for that
4:02
aspect. However, if I use it, for
4:04
example, for doing aperture racking, and
4:07
so in video mode, have it set up as an
4:09
aperture ring, I am able to do fairly
4:11
smooth aperture racking, though there is
4:13
a fair amount of lag. And so, by the
4:15
time I finish rotating, if I'm at f8 at
4:18
the time, it'll probably finish out at
4:19
at least f11 before it actually stops
4:22
following that. So, you just want to
4:24
you'll have to just develop familiarity
4:25
with that. Up front we have a 67
4:27
millimeter front filter thread which
4:29
unfortunately is not shared with the 35
4:31
and 50 millimeter lenses. The minimum
4:34
focus distance is 80 uh cm which is a
4:37
little bit better than the S-line lens
4:39
which is 85 but it's not as good as say
4:42
the Viltrox Evo lens. So our maximum
4:44
magnification is 0.12 times which is
4:48
basically no better than average and a
4:50
bit on the low side of average for an
4:52
85mm lens. Finally, the price, as
4:55
already mentioned in our intro, it's
4:57
about $750,
4:59
which is more than most of the F1.4
5:01
competitors, about three times as much
5:03
as the EVO. And so, that obviously is
5:05
the big challenge for this. Terms of the
5:08
basic package, you know, lens hood, as
5:10
Nikon's l Nikon's lens hoods tend to be,
5:13
it's nothing special. It doesn't feel
5:15
like particularly tough, but yet they
5:17
hold up and they do just fine over the
5:19
long haul. So, let's talk autofocus. The
5:22
85mm f1.8 does vary a bit from the 35
5:26
and 50mm f1.8 sline lenses that I've
5:29
already tested for the simple reason
5:30
that rather than using one SDM focus
5:33
motor, we've actually got dual focus
5:35
motors at work here. That stands to
5:37
reason as that obviously with an 85mm
5:40
maximum aperture, you're getting a
5:42
little bit larger glass, a little bit
5:44
more weight, and those elements to have
5:46
to move back and forth. And so the dual
5:48
motors working in tandem allow it to
5:50
have sufficient thrust to move, as you
5:52
can see here, with good speed back and
5:54
forth between subjects. And so obviously
5:57
that's going to be useful and getting
5:58
quick acquis acquisitions when you're
6:00
going to shoot in various circumstances.
6:03
And I did find that overall autofocus
6:05
did pick up, you know, quickly. What I
6:08
did find if there was persistent
6:09
movement and I was trying to shoot a bit
6:11
of a burst that I got inconsistent
6:13
results. Uh some of them are perfectly
6:15
focused as you can see here. and then
6:17
the very next sequence um or shot in the
6:19
sequence is back focused. And so I just
6:22
saw a little bit of inconsistency when
6:24
it came to that. But truth matter is
6:28
that this is not a lens that people are
6:29
going to buy for action necessarily.
6:32
This is more of a portrait focus lens.
6:34
And on that front it did a great job. I
6:37
use it actually for a lot of portrait
6:39
type shots during uh this review period.
6:41
My daughter graduated from university
6:43
during this time and so in all the
6:45
sequence of events around that father's
6:47
day I shot a lot of different portraits
6:50
in a lot of different settings and I got
6:52
really good results. I got good focus
6:54
consistency locked onto the eye and
6:57
delivered well focused result after well
6:59
focused result. And so no complaints on
7:02
that front. I feel like it was doing a
7:04
good job. I shot a few sequences of just
7:06
some I was out doing a hike and up on a
7:09
cliff and you know there were some uh
7:12
there were some hawks that were flying
7:13
by and you know I could quickly snap up
7:15
and get a shot of those and all was well
7:18
on that front and so I would say in
7:20
general good unless you're shooting
7:22
persistent action and then it's a little
7:23
more inconsistent than what I would
7:25
like. Now on the video side of things I
7:28
found that video results were largely
7:30
good. touch to focus. I found that focus
7:32
transitions were good and confident
7:34
going back and forth. No visible steps.
7:37
As always, however, on Nikon, there is
7:39
going to be an occasional kind of back
7:40
rack where it moves in the wrong
7:42
direction for a moment and then also
7:45
sometimes a little bit of a final pulse
7:47
as it gets on there. But I saw minimal
7:48
amounts of that. And so it's better than
7:50
a lot of of lenses. It's still an area
7:52
where I think that Nikon needs to do
7:54
just a little bit of clean up in their,
7:56
you know, focus algorithms maybe to
7:58
eliminate that alto together. There is
8:00
some focus breathing. You will notice
8:02
it. I definitely do. It's not strong.
8:05
It's not particularly pronounced, but it
8:07
is there. Something to be aware of. In
8:10
my eye test where I go from my hand to
8:12
my eye, uh, it did largely good. Again,
8:15
there's there's those little micro
8:16
pulses here and there, but for a large
8:19
part, it transition back and forth
8:20
without any kind of issue there. I would
8:23
say that focus transitions generally
8:25
seem to have a pretty decent amount of
8:27
damping. They're not jarring and so I
8:30
think that most people will be happy
8:31
with it under that set of circumstances.
8:34
I also shot a couple of slow motion
8:37
sequences just during a portrait type
8:38
shot and you can see that focus locks on
8:41
to my daughter as she moves through
8:42
poses and stays accurately focused
8:44
throughout that. And then obviously as
8:46
we've been shooting in these outdoor
8:48
segments, you've had an opportunity to
8:49
evaluate how it's rendering in in an
8:51
envi outdoor environment like this and
8:53
also how it's keeping track on me as I,
8:56
you know, move around and do my thing.
8:58
At the end of the day, I would say that
8:59
most people are going to be happy with
9:01
autofocus generally. But just remember,
9:03
if you're trying to shoot persistent
9:05
action, you're probably not going to get
9:07
100% keeper rate. Our optical design
9:09
here is 12 elements in eight groups. You
9:11
can see that two of those are extra low
9:13
dispersion elements. That produces an
9:15
MDF chart that largely looks very good
9:18
here. You can see that starting off a
9:20
good sharp result in the middle of the
9:22
frame. And as we move out towards over a
9:24
good portion of the mid-frame out
9:27
towards that outer area, still a very
9:29
very high level. And it's only right
9:32
towards the end that we can see a
9:33
decline averaging out to about 53%
9:36
there. Now, I'll do a deeper dive in
9:38
comparison to the Viltrox Evo 85mm F2 in
9:41
a future episode. We can see that if we
9:44
compare in the middle of the frame, the
9:46
Viltrox is sharper in the middle of the
9:49
center frame and then it's still sharper
9:51
in this mid-frame zone, but once it
9:53
starts to decline, it declines more
9:55
steeply, leaving the corners being
9:58
sharper for the S-line lens. If we
10:00
transition on to my own test results, I
10:03
found that as far as vignette and
10:04
distortion, only the tiniest amount of
10:06
pin cushion distortion, basically not
10:08
even worthy of correction, but a minus
10:10
one to correct here on the right. And
10:12
one of the things that they market is
10:13
that this has really good control of
10:16
vignetting. And you can see that that's
10:18
true here. There's only about a stop
10:19
there in the corners. I used about a
10:21
plus 35 to 36 to correct for it. So, no
10:24
real issue there. I did see a bit more
10:26
of the longitudinal style chromatic
10:28
aberration than what I expected. And you
10:30
can see here a little bit of magenta and
10:32
more, you know, kind of strongly
10:34
pronounced a little bit more green
10:35
fringing after the plane of focus. And
10:37
that did show up on my dad's old SLR
10:40
that I use as a test. And you can see on
10:42
these shiny bits, definitely a bit of
10:44
green fringing there. Not too bad though
10:46
when it comes to the specular
10:48
highlights. And just taking a look at
10:50
those, we can see that fairly clean
10:52
inside. No kind of like concentric
10:54
circles. That's good. As far as the
10:56
geometry, here's f1.8. Then at f2.8, 8.
10:59
So pretty circular across the frame
11:01
though you can slightly see those
11:02
aperture blades. At f4 you can
11:05
definitely see that fairly pronounced
11:07
that those blades are showing lateral
11:09
style chromatic aberrations near the
11:10
edge of the frame. Basically perfect
11:12
correction. No problem there. Now when
11:14
it comes to sharpness and contrast and
11:16
I'm testing on a 45 megapixel Z8 here
11:19
and these are 200% magnification
11:21
results. You can see the center of the
11:23
frame. Good detail, good contrast. That
11:25
midframe really stands out to me. It
11:27
looks fantastic here. And if we go on
11:30
down, we can see that it's pretty
11:31
consistent from this corner to this
11:33
corner. And then that drop only happens
11:35
at the very corners, but frankly, they
11:38
really don't look too bad to me. It's a
11:40
pretty consistent result across the
11:41
frame. To go back to some real world
11:43
results for a moment here at f1.8, we
11:46
can see good detail and contrast here
11:48
throughout the, you know, plane of focus
11:50
in this subject. Likewise, moving on to
11:52
a portrait type shot, you can see the
11:54
overall look of the portrait is
11:56
beautiful here. But if we zoom in at
11:58
f1.8, we can see that, you know, the
12:00
detail and contrast just looks really,
12:02
really fantastic.
12:04
Likewise, here in a closer portrait
12:06
shot, you can see looking in f1.8, I
12:10
don't know that any portrait
12:11
photographer is really going to want
12:12
more detail and contrast than what that
12:14
is showing. Going back to the test
12:16
chart, from f1.8 8 to F2. I see just a
12:19
tiny bit more contrast, but nothing that
12:21
is particularly pronounced or strong.
12:24
Looks a little bit better here through
12:25
this zone and into the corners. I don't
12:28
know that that really looks all that
12:29
much different other than having just a
12:31
little bit better contrast. But again,
12:33
for real world perspective, here's an an
12:36
F2.2
12:37
uh portrait shot here. So, obviously it
12:39
looks great on the subject. But if I pan
12:41
over here, right off to the edge of the
12:43
frame, you can see how strong the detail
12:46
looks here. As I go all the way up
12:48
towards the corner, it's really holding
12:50
up nice and consistent. Moving on to
12:52
f/2.8. And then at f4, we can see more
12:56
contrast at f2.8 and a noticeable
12:58
additional amount at f4. By these
13:01
apertures, you know, f4 particularly,
13:04
that midframe looks really fantastic. If
13:07
I pop over to the other side, we can see
13:09
also very, very strong there. Down here,
13:12
looks fantastic. And then if I just take
13:14
a quick peek around the opposite side
13:17
edges and corners, we can see that all
13:19
of these details are looking really,
13:22
really good at this point. Here's a real
13:24
world shot at f5.6. And if I punch in to
13:27
100%, you can see that the detail is
13:30
just it's really awesome. Everywhere you
13:32
look in the frame, so much information
13:34
is captured in this scene. And it's all
13:36
rendered really nicely. And we can see
13:38
if we look right off to the very edge of
13:40
that frame. Looks great. Now, defraction
13:42
starts to be a bit of a factor by f11
13:45
and then more pronounced by f616, which
13:47
is the minimum aperture. But the pixel
13:49
density on Nikon's 45 megapixel sensor
13:52
is not super high and so I don't find
13:54
defraction to be as big of an issue
13:56
here. Now, we previously noted the
13:58
maximum magnification, which is only a
14:00
0.12 times. However, up close results
14:03
are nice, really good detail and
14:05
contrast. And one advantage of not being
14:06
able to focus particularly close as
14:08
we've got here is you get a more flat
14:11
plane of focus. So we can see just
14:13
results are more consistent throughout
14:14
the frame. We'll segue from that to
14:16
taking a look at the rendering and the
14:17
bokeh quality here at basically that
14:20
minimum focus distance. We can see again
14:21
with real world that contrast looks
14:23
pretty good. Background here is really
14:25
strongly diffused here. Just a little
14:28
bit further out. We can see again detail
14:30
and contrast looks good. Rendering looks
14:32
nice. I love this side because it starts
14:34
to get creamy. This side is a little bit
14:36
less so. So, you know, bokeh is really a
14:39
lot about the ratio. This shot I don't
14:42
love. I love the detail and contrast.
14:44
That's good. But I just find its
14:46
handling of this. It's it kind of just
14:48
stands out too much. It doesn't blur
14:50
together as what I would like. Again,
14:52
this image I do really like. Detail and
14:55
contrast is great, and that's a
14:56
consistent theme. And while there's a
14:59
little bit more edging in some of the
15:00
bokeh, I think that generally the the
15:02
shot looks good and it's got the pop
15:04
that I'll allude to in just a moment. In
15:06
this shot, you know, a little bit lower
15:08
contrast because of the scene and a good
15:09
ratio of closeness to the subject and
15:11
then distance to the background. So,
15:13
this looks pretty creamy here. Likewise,
15:16
this shot again detail contrast great
15:19
and overall rendering really, really
15:21
nice. Where this lens really, I think,
15:24
kind of shines to me is the overall kind
15:26
of dimensionality and pop of subjects.
15:28
And it has great contrast. And so we can
15:31
see here that the subjects really kind
15:33
of stand out. And while this background
15:35
isn't obliterated here, just the overall
15:38
image has a lot of punch to it, which I
15:40
think is what makes people happy when
15:42
using it. Finally, talking about flare
15:44
resistance for a moment. We can see
15:46
shooting through this window. You can
15:48
see there is a bit of veiling here, but
15:51
nothing bad here at large apertures. I
15:54
didn't have too many issues here. Here
15:56
at f1.8, again, a little bit of veiling
15:58
in the corner. If I center the sun, it's
16:00
not bad at all. Here in the corner, it
16:02
gives the most pronounced effect. And if
16:04
I stop down to f11, I found that flare
16:06
resistance actually got a little bit
16:08
worse. A little bit more ghosting
16:09
artifacts and a little bit more of that
16:11
veiling. And if I do an aperture rack
16:13
here, you can see that as the aperture
16:15
closed down, we see just a little bit
16:17
more flare artifacts, but at the same
16:19
time, I think that the coatings are
16:20
doing quite a good job and flare
16:22
resistance holds up pretty well. So,
16:25
what's my conclusion? Well, as per usual
16:28
with these S-line lenses, the problem
16:30
really isn't with the lenses themselves.
16:32
Nikon did something very unique in that
16:34
they chose to make these premium lenses
16:36
with maximum aperture of f1.8, which
16:38
means that, you know, there really
16:40
hasn't been a lot of direct kind of
16:42
analog competition for them just
16:45
basically on any kind of platform
16:46
because no one else is really kind of
16:48
focusing in on f1.8 as being a premium
16:52
aperture combination.
16:54
That being said, at this point, the
16:56
challenge for Nicor is that there have
16:58
been so many as as the platform has
16:59
opened up, there have been so many other
17:01
lenses released um including, you know,
17:03
some prominent ones that really the ones
17:05
that really stand out to me are the two
17:06
Viltrox with their Pro 85mm F1.4, which
17:10
has really, really gorgeous rendering
17:12
and then also the very inexpensive EVO
17:15
85mm f2. And both of them in their own
17:17
way, I think, are serious competitors to
17:19
the S-line lens. At the same time,
17:22
however, there's a lot of people who
17:24
still prefer to always use a first-party
17:26
Nick product. And with that in mind,
17:29
this really is a a solid lens. It is a
17:32
little lacking on the feature department
17:34
by 2026 standards. But, you know,
17:36
functionally, it's held up well. Build
17:38
quality has been good, and what's more,
17:41
it really does deliver largely on the
17:43
autofocus and definitely on the optical
17:45
front where the optics really still look
17:48
very, very good here in 2026. And so at
17:51
a price tag currently of $750,
17:54
it does feel overpriced for an 85mm f1.8
17:58
lens when you consider all the other
18:00
lenses that are on the market. There's
18:01
of course a robust used market by this
18:04
point and also, you know, various sales
18:06
that will come along the way. At the
18:08
same time, I would say that even though
18:10
I feel like it's a little bit expensive,
18:11
I doubt that anyone is going to be
18:13
disappointed with the lens that they get
18:14
for that money over the long run. And so
18:18
I think that the answer is complicated
18:20
at this point. For me personally, I
18:22
would have a hard time justifying the
18:24
extra expense of this lens over the
18:27
Viltrox Evo lens or the Viltrox Pro 85mm
18:32
F1.4, though that is a bigger, heavier
18:35
lens. Obviously, at the end of the day,
18:37
however, this remains a solid choice,
18:40
but a more complicated choice due to the
18:44
market pressures and changes that have
18:45
happened since that point. If you want
18:47
more information, you can check out my
18:49
full text review which is linked in the
18:50
description down below. There are some
18:52
buying links there as well. As always,
18:54
thanks for watching. Have a great day
18:56
and let the light in.
#Science