Nikon PC-E Micro Nikkor 85mm f/2.8 D

Very versatile, high quality lens I've had this lens for more than a year now and taken a few thousand pictures with it. It blows my old Tamron zoom completely away. 24-85mm is a huge range. It's just so darn convenient to zoom instead of changing lenses. The color is excellent with only a little aberration noticeable with extreme contrasts. It's certainly bigger and heavier than a point-and-shoot camera, but it delivers the same kind of instant flexibility. The "macro" switch is a little cumbersome and mine broke off after a while. I have other lenses for macros so I put a piece of tape over it and haven't missed it. It takes sharp photos, but certainly not as sharp as my Nikkor 60mm f2.8D macro. My biggest gripe with this lens is the barrel distortion at the wider-angle settings. I can never seem to fully correct the distortion in Photoshop and on architecture shots I could spend forever trying. I hardly ever use the 85mm end of this lens and over half the pictures I take (on my D50) are at 24mm. I've never tried the Nikon 17-55mm, but it is highly rated and I sometimes think of trading this in for one. But that lens is much more expensive. Heck, if money was no object, I'd hire a porter to carry around a bag of prime lenses and clean each one every time I switched. But in the real world, this is a great all-purpose lens in its price range. Not to mention that leaving a lens on the camera eliminates the chance of a piece of dust landing on the sensor.Read full review

Really Sharp!! This is a great walk around lens as it is wide for landscapes and zooms to a great portrait length. Add to that the fast macro setting you can’t go wrong with this lens. The extra stop helps low/available light situations and the shorter DOF wide open makes a very noticeable difference when shooting people and subjects. I have this lens and the F3.5 ED version and despite the excellent reviews for the cheaper lens, I can see why Nikon is discontinuing the cheaper lens in favor for this one. Images are tack sharp with much more contrast. Focusing is a tad slower and is heavier than the cheaper version, but it is still very fast and faster than my 55-200mm VR! Macro setting is useful and is almost as sharp as my dedicated 60mm. If you are an advanced amateur, want a walk around lens and are concerned with extreme sharpness with great macro ability and a good lens for portraits with great Bokeh, this lens is for you. If you normally just snap away and money is tight, the cheaper version is still a very good lens, but there is a reason why this one is almost $200 more than that one new.Read full review

sharp portrait & product photography lens This lens is one of the best made by nikon. stunning sharp, other pictorial results excellent as well. PC-E version is a bit lighter than older PC, but you cannot use PC-E mounted on any older body and any of extension rings, bellows without electric contacts cannot be used because of electronicaly managed aperture, PC version has no problem. Optically both versions are similar. Nice piece of lens.