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Picked up a nikkor 85mm AF-S F1.8 at Art & Craft in Ghent(B) yesterday.
I believe the 85 AF-S has a chance to become "the sharpest nikkor ever". Shot wide open on my D800 it delivers significantly sharper images than my micro 105 AF-S VR and the 70-200VRII ...

While a sample says more than thousand words:

A picture taken handhold(which should be clear in the 100% crop) at F1.8, 1/500 sec, AF-C and iso200 and no sharpening at all. Converted from NEF to jpeg. The only PP was WB adjustment sunny -> cloudy.

The focus area as seen in Nikon View NX 2.5.1:






And one more(also without any sharpening), taken handhold, 1/640sec, iso200, AF-C and F1.8 :

The focus area as seen in Nikon View NX 2.5.1:


The scene, slightly cropped to show the nice bokeh this lens produces:



And another 100% crop:


Both pictures were taken in AF-C mode. The incredible fast and accurate AF module of the D800 helps of course...

thanks for your attention and kindest regards,
Stany

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This really looks spectacular!

Stany,

I have had the big brother of this lens (85mm f1.4G) for awhile and was very impressed. The lack of VR was a bummer. However, after using this lens on the Nikon D800 as well as the Nikon 105mm VR, I think I lean towards the 105. I have never tested the 1.8 version.

Steve

The 85mm AF-S G can not focus at close distances, much further away than I would like, but in combination with the resolution of the D800(E) you can get nice close ups with this combo.

Underneath images is what I got straight out of the camera and after conversion from NEF to jpeg, no sharpening or other post processing has been applied.

A close up of a dragonfly, F16, 1/250 sec and iso100 (PUFlash used)



and a 100% crop:



And some flower close ups at different apertures, with 100% crops...

A close up at F1.8:


The focus area as you can see in Nikon View 2.5.1:



And a 100% crop:


A close up at F9, 1/320 sec, iso 200:



A crop, resized to 1024px longest side:



A close up at F4.5, 1/500 sec, iso 100:



And a 100% crop of the focus area:


Kindest regards,
Stany

http://nikonrumors.com/2013/01/21/nikon ... base.aspx/
and
http://www.dxomark.com/index.php/Public ... omparisons

Traditionally the 85mm lens is meant for portraits, but I noticed that even on DX format ( Fuji Finepix S2, S3 and S5 and the Nikon D7000) the 85 mm is -at least to my taste- just a little too short to have a comfortable distance between you and the model. I personally would like to use about 135mm on DX for portraiture, a pretty expensive solution, where it would have been the cheapest one in the days of film.
The 85mm being too short has been realized by the industry of course and replaced by various rather cheap zoom lenses that will do the job. That is probably one of the reasons why this 85mm is that sharp, because this sharpness won't be needed at all for portraiture.

Nikkor AF-S 85mm f/1.8 G (FX) - Review / Test Report on PhotoZone.de