NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S lens
The No-Fear Factor of a Portrait-Perfect Lens
On one of her favorite studio sets, among old-time Edison bulbs, Dixie set out to make “a portrait album-cover type shot” in which bokeh was a key element. Eye AF guaranteed critical portrait focus, but check out the amount of detail the lens and its plane of focus revealed in the model’s belt buckle. Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/320 second, f/1.2, ISO 200, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
This is just between us, you understand; don’t let it get around.
We know there are photographers—professionals and enthusiasts—who consider NIKKOR Z lenses a—maybe even the—major contributor to the phenomenal performance of Z series cameras.
In other words, the glass actually might be more than half the full Z camera success story.
We found out Dixie Dixon is one of those photographers when we talked with her about her shoot with the NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S. Dixie took all the accompanying photos with that lens on her Z 9, and the lens-camera combination’s incredible precision and performance quickly inspired total confidence, which in turn led to—no kidding—absolute fearlessness.
NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S lens
Adventures in bokeh wonderland, where an f/2 aperture rendered the square background sequins as perfect circles. “We lit the sequins and aimed a fan at them so they’d be moving a bit and reflecting light in different ways. We knew the camera and lens would nail it.” What came into play here was the combination of the 85mm’s optical formula and its 11 rounded diaphragm blades, which render point-light sources perfectly round. Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/200 second, f/2, ISO 320, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
Here's that story.
The Sum of the Parts
“I shot almost everything with the 85mm at f/1.2, which makes sense for the way I like to work,” Dixie says. “In the past, before this lens and the incredible Eye AF possible with the Z 9, I was really leery to try shooting at a wide-open aperture like 1.2 because I was afraid I’d just miss focus just because focus had to be so precise. So I’d stop down to 2.8 to make sure I got the eye in focus, but man, with this lens—there’s no fear. It’s an incredible portrait lens—I’d say probably the sharpest lens I’ve ever shot, and the sharpest I’ve shot wide open. I shot the entire day hand-holding and pretty much wide open.”
So not only did the 85mm f/1.2 fit in perfectly with her style, it made her even more confident in pursuing those moments that showcased the style at its best.
“This was a tricky shot—middle of the street, cars going by, people walking around, but we got it quickly,” Dixie says of an image taken in the Stockyards district of Fort Worth, Texas. She set a higher ISO than usual for the low ambient light, then favored the model’s face with a video light. Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/160 second, f/1.2, ISO 640, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
The subject’s closed eyes were no problem for Eye AF in an image composed so the 85mm’s wide-open aperture would provide a soft background. Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/1250 second, f/1.2, ISO 50, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
There was one other key factor: the bokeh effect—not only beautiful, but reliably consistent. “I’ve used the 50mm f/1.2, and I love it, but the bokeh on the 85mm is even more incredible. When I shot at f/2—you’ll see in some of the shots—the bokeh is perfectly round, not an oval, and with creamy edges, which give the images a really dreamy, ethereal type of feel.”
Dixie doesn’t merely want backgrounds to be non-distracting, she wants them to add to the emotional caché she loves to create. “The 85mm f/1.2 blurs the background so beautifully, it’s really a dream lens for portrait photographers, wedding photographers, fashion photographers, anyone who photographs people. The secret sauce of this lens on the Z 9 is like magic. It’s a gorgeous, cinematic, fast, sharp combo.”
We’re glad she used that term, secret sauce, because we wanted to get a few words in about how the secret sauce—technology—drives the results she is able to get.
“I was a long way from the couple for this one,” Dixie says, “and there were cactus plants in the center of the venue’s driveway, so I got behind the plants and shot through them to frame the couple. Sometimes you can struggle from so far away to nail focus, but the shots were all insanely sharp.” Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/1000 second, f/2, ISO 50, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
“Same couple, same place, but this time closer than the previous shot. The Eye AF was on her eye, but the eyes of both are pretty sharp They’re right up against that door, which is a bit out of focus, but it maintains its detail and character without intruding.” Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/1250 second, f/2, ISO 50, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
The 85mm f/1.2 is a dream lens for portrait photographers, wedding photographers, fashion photographers—anyone who photographs people.
The focus was on her eye, but the horse seems to be making its own blue-eyed contact. “The location was a hacienda-style wedding venue,” Dixie says. “Working with animals can be tricky—that’s why the 1/800 second shutter speed.” Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/800 second, f/2.2, ISO 100, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
Time After Time
First, start with 85mm, which has long been considered an ideal focal length for portraits. There are several reasons for this, including its perspective’s true-to-life, flattering facial views; its comfort-zone distance between photographer and subject; and the main advantage for Dixie and many others, its compression factor, which means that between the plane of focus, which is typically—and in this shoot, exclusively—the eye of the portrait subject, the focal length produces smooth transitions into the soft bokeh of flattering, non-distracting backgrounds that enhance images. That gradual transition is capable of creating an other-worldly, fantasy look that means so much to Dixie’s work.
”A lot of times when I’d have a model in front of a busy backdrop like this the camera would try to focus on the background’s hard lines, but using Eye AF means nailing the key element. This image is so sharp and there’s so much depth to the file, you can keep cropping in and changing it—you can make it a head-and-shoulders portrait, with the door beginning to dominate. There’s a lot of creative freedom in post-production as well as in the making of the image.” Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/1000 second, f/2, ISO 32, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
There was one more immediate and important benefit. “I shoot a lot of backlit images—that’s part of my style, and a lot of times when I shoot backlit I have bright sun in the background and I’m going to get purple fringing on the edges of the subject, which I have to take out in post-production. But there was literally no purple fringing with this lens at all. It’s the perfect lens for what I do, even the lifestyle product photography—product in focus, everything else falling out of focus to maintain emphasis on the product.”
The bokeh background offered a practical benefit as well as an artistic one: there’s a parking lot behind her. “I wanted this image to be backlit, so I had to shoot toward the lot,” Dixie says. Z 9, NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S, 1/2000 second, f/1.2, ISO 125, manual exposure, Matrix metering.
What Dixie found after the initial sense of wonder settled into assurance is that she was free to concentrate on creating situational images for fashion and portraits—“all hand-held, so I’m getting those moments that are happening spontaneously as opposed to a locked-down type of shot.”
Going to be shooting with the NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S on your Z camera? Relax, you’ve got this.
BTS NIKKOR Z 85mm f/1.2 S -
Can one lens be the dream lens for portrait photographers?
Would we even ask the question if we didn’t have the answer?
