Best portraiture lens for D700FX

[Ben Ang]

50mm f/1.2 for full body shots. most beautiful skins tone rendition i ve seen yet. though its only half a stop faster, the lens character is worlds apart from the 50 1.4.

 

[nightwolf75]

If let say one has only enough $$$ to buy the "cheaper" 50mm/f1.4 and the 35mm/f2 after getting the D700... make sense??? Or just get a D90 and buy better lenses.....:dunno:

it is not abt 'cheaper' lenses with expensive cam, or vice versa. IMO, it is hard to explain, but you have to see the bokeh produced on a DX cam vs a FX cam for (eg) 85/1.4 to know why people say the 85/1.4 has creamy bokeh.

i hope by now the TS would have realised that just abt any lens can be the 'best' portrait lens, depending on ur needs. zooms are convenient, but heavy especially if u are talking abt the 70-200VR. primes are smaller and lighter but more inconvenient. i won't say they are necessarily cheaper than zooms... witness 200VR. :sweat:

 

[Blur Shadow]

zooms are convenient, but heavy especially if u are talking abt the 70-200VR. primes are smaller and lighter but more inconvenient. i won't say they are necessarily cheaper than zooms... witness 200VR. :sweat:

Haha! The 200mm F/2 VR is like a bazooka... Certainly not light or convenient to carry!

 

[giantcanopy]

uber long telephoto primes .like a 400mm f2.8 ;p

 

[sf_kang]

[QUOTE
enough $$$ to buy the "cheaper" 50mm/f1.4 and the 35mm/f2 after getting the D700... make sense??? Or just get a D90 and buy better lenses
QUOTE]

If you choose D90, then go for the AF-D 50mm/f1.4
If you choose F700, then go for the AF-D 85mm/f1.4
(that is if you wish to stay totally with Nikon lenses)

 

[Alan Koh]

[QUOTE
I go for photo-art shots both studio as well as outdoor portraiture.
QUOTE]

For outdoor portraiture, you don't mentioned what shooting style you're looking at, e.g tight face closeup shots, medium head n shoulder shots, or even half body shots, or the more candid full length portraits, etc.
The Nikon AF-D 50mm/f1.4 (or the latest AF-S 50mm) is great for half body or full body shots. If you want something tighter (and willing to shoot further from your subject) then the AF-D 85mm/1.4 is great.
But for shooting photo-art, then you might want to consider a lens with closer focussing, e.g. the Zeiss ZF50mm/f2 or ZF100mm/f2. As these two are makro lenses, the focus close and offer pretty good images even when shot wide open at f2. You get the wonderful Zeiss colour and 'milky soft' bokeh when shot wide open.
I use both these on my D700. The quality and build of these Zeiss lenses are just the best there is. Do note that these are manual focus lenses but that's fine for portraiture anyway.
Got them from TK Photo (Richard) at Shaw Tower, Beach Road.
Fred

Hi Fred,
Thanks for your comments.
For portraiture shots, I normally do head to shoulder or half body shots for both studio and outdoor shots.
For outdoor shots I prefer the background to be completely blur.
I normally set my camera to 'spot' and aim at the eye of the subject.
I love Zeiss lenses they produce beautiful color but I am not sure how they fit into D700 body.
The ZF 100mm/f2 is interesting. I need more information on this one.
Shall visit TK Photo when I am in Beach Road.
Once again, thank you.

 

[Witness]

to answer your question, that really depends on what you deem "best" for your style of shooting.

85-105 mm lenses are known as portrait lenses because they give the closest nose to ear distance perspective reproduction compared to what our eyes see.

that aside, any lens can be a portrait lens, if you shoot outdoors and have tonnes of space, 200mm would work, long zooms can help to "slim" down subjects due to perspective. alternatively, if the space is tight, then you may need something wider than a 35mm.

so whats your take?

 

[Alan Koh]

Hi my friends,
Once again, thanks for all the comments and recommendations for portraiture lenses.

Alan.