Gorgeous looking, built like a tank, great balance with my F100, razor sharp and contrasty even wide open with beautifully defocused background, focuses very fast, defocus control well designed and easy to use.

None.

I love the feel and heft of this lens. It is beautifully finished using all-metal construction and operates as smooth as silk. They don't build them like this much anymore, and when I first lifted this lens and worked the controls, I knew why this lens is so expensive. It is in a class by itself, among the slew of cheaply made modern lenses. The results are stunning, ranking with the sharpest and most pleasing results I've ever gotten from Nikon primes. Out of focus backgrounds using defocusing control are silky smooth and featureless. But beware: at minimum focusing distance (four feet) and f2.0, if the eyes are in focus, the nose won't be! This is a professional lens all the way that requires an informed understanding to get the best out of it. It was obviously designed to be used wide open, since there is no perceivable degradation in sharpness like so many other lenses used wide open, but your depth of field in that case is extremely narrow. But because it is so bright, it focuses fast and accurately in spite of its not being a Silent Wave lens.

Customer Service

No experience with lenses, since I've never had any go bad that I didn't break myself.

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105mm f2.8 micro, 180mm f2.8, both autofocus D lenses like this one; bunch of other primes that are outside the focal range of the two mentioned, so not really similar products.

Great sharpness at f2, Incredible from F4 onwards. Excellent contrast and resolution. Fast. Supreme build quality. Great handling

Heavy? f22 would be nice

Bought it 2nd hand. Fantastic lens from every perspective. Razor sharp even at wide appertures. Handling and built quality is a dream. DC is nice but I bought and use it for its speed and optical performance. Worth every sent. If only all lenses were built like this....

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80-200 f2.8
180 f2.8

good build quility, large aperature, defocus control

sometimes a little bit out of focus when taking very close up protrait with my F100

very solid lens, i won't sell it.

Similar Products Used:

AFS80-200, tamron 28-200

Sharpness and contrast at f2, defocus control very useful for low light, still life and portraits, build quality, manual focus smoothness, great to see the chrome ring back on the lens, fast AF performance, viewfinder brightness comparable to Zeiss.

Hollow sounding AF Sound and too zippy when using the non D version on an F90X but better on f100. Lack of Dust cover on the non d lens.

Anyone using this lens would be happy just to it at f2 and no smaller. Light transmission is very high even for an f2 lens. Terrific quality in low light or nightime conditions. Sharper than the Zeiss planar 50mmf2 at f2 and Nikkor 180 f2.8 AFN at f2.8 ( to pick two of the very best), it is the sharpest 135 and has a contrast range to match. Trying one means you will buy one, at least that is what happen to me. An easy 5 star this one.

Customer Service

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DC lenses are unique

Looks nice

Simply not a sharp lens

I have run tests with this lens and it consistently underperforms in sharpness many of my other Nikon lenes. Compared to the 180/2.8 and the 85/1.8 it is a glaring noticeable difference. My conversations with Nikon Techs confirm that this lens was not designed for razor sharpness. Yet all other reviews of this lens rave about its sharpness. Though used, mine is dead-on-mint and I assume not a factory reject.

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24/2.8 AF; 35/2 AF; various 50/1.4-1.8s; 85/1.8; 180/2.8 AF; 200/4 AIS; 300/4.5 AIS; various zooms

- Very solid build
- Soft focus feature
- Built in lens hood
- Fast aperture
- 9 aperture blades

- Very slow AF
- Not as sharp as I expected
- Heavy

I thought this lens looked good on paper. I don't know if I just got a bad sample or what, but the photos I shot without the defocus just didn't seem as sharp as I would have expected and the photos shot with the defocus really looked un-natural. I thought when using the DC feature, the out of focus areas had a really strange look to them, not really all that pleasing. I found the best use of this lens was to use the soft-focus feature, which I'm not sure if many owners of this lens even know about. You can turn the DC ring past the 5.6 on the "R" end and open your aperture to f/2 and it will give a very pleasing soft focus to the photo. I think this can also be equally accomplished with a good quality soft focus filter on a regular lens. I really saw no value in owning this lens any longer, so I sold it. I was kind of disappointed, as this was one of the main reasons I switched to Nikon, plus the fact that i love the 135mm focal length range. Perhaps if they ever make this lens in an 85mm range I may try it again, the 135mm just didn't do anything for me.

Customer Service

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Similar Products Used:

None