What is the best portrait lens for Nikon? That depends on which lens characteristics are best suited to your style. Do you crave razor sharpness, creamy bokeh, flattering compression? Can you get all of them in a single lens without compromising? To find out, we have gathered three Nikon lenses that photographers commonly favor for portraiture to see just what their comparative strengths and weaknesses might be. Shooting with a Nikon Z8 mirrorless camera, we tested the following lenses:
The result was not what we expected.
Criteria
Here’s a look at some of the criteria we considered when testing each lens to see where it’d place on the list of the best portrait lenses for Nikon cameras.
Criteria 1: Bokeh & Bokeh Quality
Portrait photographers will go on at length about the “bokeh” their favorite lenses produce, and they often assume that the lens that produces the shallowest depth of field will also produce superior bokeh. In reality, while bokeh is related to depth of field, it’s not quite the same thing. The difference is that depth of field refers only to the difference in the amount of blur between the near and far objects in your composition, not the quality of the blur (that’s bokeh). Lens aberrations and shape of the lens diaphragm will affect the characteristics of the out-of-focus quality. Some of those aberrations may be pleasing, or suited to a particular photographer’s style, which make lens choice very much a matter of personal taste, which is why we’re examining the bokeh quality of these lenses.
Criteria 2: Aperture
The widest apertures (lowest f-number) of out three test lenses are not the same, so for this test we leveled the field by shooting at f2.8 with all of the lenses, as well as shooting at the maximum aperture (Although the clickless control ring on the 135 Plena led to an error there, more on that below).
Criteria 3: Focal Length & Compression
Focal length also affects depth of field. Longer lenses have less depth of field (shallow is the common term) than shorter lenses. In this test our lenses are three different lengths, 85mm, 105mm, and 135mm. All of these lenses offer a fair amount of compression, which makes the foreground and background appear to be closer together (it’s really perspective distortion, but that’s a story for another day). While we figured the results would not very much between 85mm and 135mm, it is still a factor worth observing in the final portraits.
With all of that said, let’s start the comparison.
Best Nikon Portrait Lens for Creamy Bokeh – The NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S
The special strength of this lens is the f1.2 aperture. You can get plenty of blur by getting close in with longer lenses, but there is some alchemy to the 85mm f1.2 that can transform merely acceptable photos into something visually arresting. On top of being incredibly sharp, the bokeh is pleasingly creamy edge to edge.
One test of bokeh quality is if background points of light appear as uniformly round at the edges of the frame as the do toward the middle, rather than going football shaped at the margins, as it will with lenses less precise than this one. That precision comes at a cost – about $2,800, in fact.
At a weight of 2 pounds 9 ounces, this lens is not for you unless you’ve been eating your spinach or have a sturdy tripod. But if you want the absolute optimum detail and bokeh, limber up your money throwing arm, it’s going to get a workout.
Verdict
This is your best portrait lens if you want the ultimate in short depth of field, uniform bokeh, accept no compromises in image quality, and you don’t care about weight or cost.
Best Nikon Lens for Ultra Closeup Portraits – NIKKOR Z MC 105mm f/2.8 VR S
How tight of a headshot do you want? If your style is to fill the frame with a single eye, the macro lens will let you. The macro lens, at 105mm, offers more of the flattering compression than the 85mm f1.2 offers, with the advantage of its extreme closeup ability.
It is also the only one of these three lenses that has image stabilization – the others rely on the in-camera body stabilization included on Z camera models 6 and up. Priced at $1,049.95, the 105 is less than half the price of the 85mm f1.2 and less than half the weight at 1 pound 6.3 ounces. The bokeh is not up to the quality of the 85mm however, showing noticeable “cat eye,” in which the background points of light become football shaped, in the margins. But I have to wonder how much that matters – has any client ever complained about the shape of blur?
Verdict
The 105 is your best portrait lens if you want sharp, extreme closeups, and it is the lightest and least expensive option, with a slight compromise in bokeh quality.
Best Nikon Portrait Lens Balancing Bokeh and Compression – NIKKOR Z 135mm f/1.8 S Plena
Nikon’s marketing emphasizes the “dramatic bokeh” of this lens. Nikon’s not wrong. Of course you get a step up in compression from the 105, and there is a lot of technological ingenuity that delivers super-sharp images and achieves subtle, but hard to attain qualities, like minimal light drop off from the center to the edge of the frame, and no cat eye distortion even on the margins with the lens wide open.
A bonus is the advanced weather sealing, which give it an added layer of ruggedness. It’s a premium lens with a premium price — $2499.95. With 16 lens elements the Plena tips the scales at a hefty 2 pounds 3.1 ounces. One quibble – the clickless control ring was set to aperture, and brushing against me as it hung from the strap changed settings without my noticing. So in the comparative shots from each lens, intended to be at 2.8, the Plena is actually at 1.8. The exposure difference was easy to fix in post, the depth of field … not so much.
Verdict
The Plena is the best portrait lens for detailed images with edge-to-edge bokeh perfection, and close to zero vignetting. It’s also a weighty lens that lightens your wallet.
Conclusion
Surprisingly, in this studio test, the differences in images between the lenses set at nearly the same aperture and each at a distance to approximate the framing of the other lenses (and further lined up in editing), the differences were subtle. So how do you choose? Ultimately, each lens has its strong point, and you have to decide which is most important to you.
**All photos captured by and used with permission from Roy Furchgott: Website | Instagram | Facebook
