In my previous post I announced my deep excitement about finally buying an 85mm ƒ/1.8 Nikkor AF-D lens that I’ve had an eye on for years. As promised, bellow are my first test images using the new lens, shot on Friday 24.10.25. A very exciting lens indeed and one that for me really demonstrated how my habit of switching between a 24, 28, 35 and 50mm lens over the length of the years we’ve been shooting “PhotoWalks”, had begun to restrict how I approached the project.

It should go without saying that I do not intend to utilise exclusively, the 85mm from now on by any means, but simply working with a new focal length brought whole new way of looking at the subject of the project; the city of Athens. The fact that the various focal lengths of lenses gives you a better perspective on the story you want to tell is no mystery. What is interesting is that though my attitude has always been “well if you want that frame move closer/further from the subject to get that frame”, I am of course, well educated in the optical science of lenses and therefore recognise fully that various focal lengths don’t simply change the angle of view, but that each has unique qualities that bring a different aesthetic to each image. I love the shorter long lenses such as my old favourite the 105mm. But the 85mm is pretty much the ideal portrait lens precisely because of it’s lack of distortion and the way it renders the bokeh of a scene.

Enough talk here are the very first tests with the lens.

You can see her at work on her Instagram page.