The Nikon Z 85mm f/1.2 S has been a long time coming. So much so that it’s more of a ‘me too’ lens than a real revelation. For DSLRs, Canon has been making 85mm f/1.2 lenses for around 35 years, and its latest RF 85mm f/1.2L USM for mirrorless cameras is available in two versions, the pricier ‘DS’ edition adding an apodization filter to take the hard edge off bokeh discs.
By contrast, Nikon’s F-mount prime lenses with autofocus generally topped out at f/1.4. That’s surprising, since Nikon launched a manual-focus 50mm f/1.2 AI lens all the way back in 1978, upgrading it to the AI-s version in 1981. And there’s never been a Nikon 85mm f/1.2 lens until now. It comes nearly three years down the line from the similarly speedy Z 50mm f/1.2 S, and nearly four years after the rather bonkers behemoth that is the Z 58mm f/0.95 S Noct manual-focus lens.
