I rather like this combination because it runs against the idea that a high-resolution camera demands the latest glass.

It doesn’t.

What it demands is good technique.

At 35mm the lens gives you a useful environmental view for street work. Around 50mm it becomes beautifully ordinary — which is often exactly what you want. At 70mm you’ve got enough reach for portraits and details without carrying a separate short telephoto.

The constant f/2.8 aperture remains genuinely useful. Wide open, I wouldn’t expect the clinically perfect rendering of a modern 24–70mm. That’s rather missing the point. Stop it down to f/4 or f/5.6 and the old Nikkor can produce files with plenty of detail for the D850.

There are catches. It’s a push-pull zoom, which some photographers love and others regard as an invention of the devil. Autofocus is screw-driven rather than AF-S: quite fast on a D850, but decidedly more mechanical and noisy. There’s no VR. Close-focus performance isn’t its strongest characteristic, and individual examples now matter enormously because these lenses are getting old.

But there’s something appealing about putting one on a D850.

You have one of Nikon’s finest DSLRs attached to a professional zoom from another age. No electronic correction wizardry is required to make a photograph. No fashionable lens profile is going to rescue sloppy technique. Hold the thing properly, watch your shutter speed, put the focus where it belongs and make the exposure.

I’d be particularly interested in this combination for black-and-white street photography. The D850 gives you extraordinary tonal information, while the older 35–70 has a rendering that can be a little less brutally clinical than modern glass.

And there is another advantage that shouldn’t be overlooked: these lenses can often be bought for remarkably little money.

For someone already carrying a D850, I’d much rather see $100–200 spent on a clean 35–70mm f/2.8D and the rest spent getting out and making photographs than assume another expensive modern zoom is going to transform the work.

The D850 will certainly show you the limitations of the old lens.

It will also show you just how little those limitations matter when the photograph is good.

Today 4:30 PM

same camera with Nikkor 85mm f1.8G

The Nikon D850 with the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G is a different proposition from the old 35–70mm f/2.8D. In many ways, I think it is an even better match for the D850—particularly for the sort of people photography you do.

Nikon D850 + 85mm f/1.8G — When Simple Works

There are combinations of camera and lens that don’t require much explanation. Put the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G on a D850 and you have one of them.

The D850 provides 45.7 megapixels, excellent dynamic range and enough resolution to punish poor technique. The 85mm f/1.8G provides something rather simpler: a sharp, relatively light, fast short telephoto that gets out of the way.

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I’ve always liked 85mm for photographing people. It gives me working distance without putting me on the other side of the street. I can isolate somebody from the confusion behind them while still retaining enough surroundings to tell us where they are.

On the D850, the 85mm f/1.8G is exceptionally useful.

At f/1.8, depth of field can become extremely thin at close distances. That’s lovely when it’s deliberate and bloody annoying when it isn’t. With a 45.7MP sensor, slightly missed focus doesn’t hide particularly well.

For ordinary street portraits I’d be quite happy around f/2.8–f/4. There’s still plenty of separation, but you’ve bought yourself enough depth of field to accommodate a slight movement from either photographer or subject.

And I’d keep the shutter speed up.

The old rule suggesting 1/100 second should be sufficient for an 85mm lens doesn’t account for what happens when you inspect a D850 file closely. 1/250 second is a much more comfortable starting point for people, and I’d happily use 1/500 if they’re moving. ISO is cheap; camera shake isn’t.

Where the combination shines

The 85mm f/1.8G doesn’t have VR, but I’ve never regarded that as much of a problem for photographing people. Stabilisation won’t stop the person in front of you moving anyway.

The lens is also wonderfully sensible in size. The D850 is already a substantial camera. Putting a huge f/1.4 prime on the front turns the whole arrangement into something considerably more conspicuous. The little f/1.8G keeps things manageable.

Autofocus is another advantage. Unlike the screw-driven 35–70mm f/2.8D, the 85mm has its own Silent Wave Motor. On the D850 it makes for a responsive, straightforward combination.

But what interests me more is the rendering.

The 85mm gives enough sharpness to exploit the D850 without making every face look as though it has been photographed for a dermatology textbook. At wider apertures the background falls away gracefully. Stop down and there is considerably more detail available than most photographs will ever require.

For street work

This is where things become personal.

Some photographers will immediately tell you that 85mm is too long for street photography. Apparently we’re all supposed to use 28mm or 35mm, get three feet away and demonstrate our courage.

Nonsense.

Focal length determines how you work. It doesn’t determine whether the photograph is street photography.

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An 85mm lets me watch before stepping in. It allows expressions and gestures to develop without immediately changing the situation simply by being there with a camera.

There’s a trade-off. You can become lazy with an 85mm. Stand twenty metres away, shoot everything wide open and every photograph becomes a floating head against a pleasantly blurred background.

That’s portraiture by formula.

Move your feet. Look at the background. Sometimes use f/5.6. Include the bloke sitting beside your subject, the market stall, the battered wall, the motorcycle or whatever else explains why this person was worth photographing here.

That’s when the 85mm becomes interesting.

The D850 exposes mistakes

The great strength of the D850 is also its occasional irritation.

It records almost everything.

Poor focus, slight camera movement and careless technique that might disappear in a 12MP D700 file can suddenly become obvious when you’re staring at a D850 image at 100%.

That doesn’t mean the D850 is difficult to use. It means good camera handling matters.

I wouldn’t obsess over pixel-level sharpness. Nobody looking at a finished photograph gives a damn whether an eyelash is resolving perfectly at 200%. But if the whole photograph has that slight softness produced by camera movement, that’s another matter.

Hold the camera properly. Give yourself enough shutter speed. Focus carefully.

Then forget about it.

D850 + 85mm or D850 + 35–70mm?

They’re actually rather complementary.

The 35–70mm f/2.8D is the walkabout lens. It gives flexibility, environmental photographs, groups, street scenes and portraits without changing lenses.

The 85mm f/1.8G is more deliberate.

With the 85mm fitted, I’m already making a decision about how I’m going to photograph. I’m looking for people, faces, gestures, layers and small pieces of human behaviour rather than trying to cover everything.

And sometimes having fewer choices is useful.

After all these years making pictures, I’m increasingly convinced that one camera and one lens can be wonderfully liberating.

A Nikon D850 with an 85mm f/1.8G isn’t exotic. It isn’t fashionable. And it certainly isn’t small.

But put the strap over your shoulder, walk out the door and spend an afternoon looking for people rather than equipment.

That’s a serious photographic tool.

And frankly, that’s enough.