- Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake at robertoblake.com
helping you create something awesome today.
So today I'm gonna give you five reasons to buy
a 85 millimeter prime lens for your cameras.
Whether you're shooting Nikon or Canon or Sony
or whatever, I really think that everyone
should consider the possibility of an 85 millimeter prime,
and I'm gonna give you my top five reasons why.
So number one is the focal length.
At 85 millimeters we've got a tremendous focal length
and it's not just good for portraits,
it's also good for street photography
and the thing I like about this focal length is
it forces you to be creative.
You actually have to really think
about your composition a lot more,
and it does give you some flexibility.
Now granted, on the Nikon 85 millimeter f/1.8
and a lot of the similar lenses like it,
the minimum focus distance is about .8 meters
or roughly 2.2 feet, for those of us in the United States,
and so you do have to have some distance
between you and the subject in order to focus.
This can be a good thing though
because especially when you're taking portraits,
having that distance means that there's less awkwardness
and you can probably get much better shots overall
because your models will relax.
This is also good in the case of street photography
if you wanna get candids.
I do like the focal length for the crazy things
that it forces you to do,
and I think that that is a very appealing option
especially if you are a new photographer.
Really stretch those creative muscles.
Number two: the beautiful bokeh.
The bokeh quality that you get
when you open this up for wide apertures
and you get that depth of field is stunning.
Whether you're doing photography or video, the bokeh quality
from an 85 millimeter lens is just amazing.
It is gorgeous and you can see that
in some of the shots that have popped up here on the screen.
But I think this could be tremendous for you in either case,
whether you're doing photography or video.
This is gonna get you some amazing shots
with a great film look in terms of depth of field
and I think you should really look at it for that
and for subject isolation.
I think that when you're using an 85 millimeter lens,
that that subject isolation and what you get out of it
is one of the best features overall.
Which brings me to the third great thing
about buying an 85 millimeter lens,
and that is the lack of distortion.
When you're shooting portraits,
and you're shooting with the 35 millimeter f/1.8
or even a 50 millimeter f/1.4 or f/1.8,
the thing is there is a little bit of lens distortion
and that is really not great on portraits.
You can see what it does to somebody's face.
When you shoot with an 85 millimeter prime
it's a lot closer, even when you're on a crop body
to what you'd be seeing naturally.
And so you get a much more flattering image,
especially if you're doing anything with beauty
or if you're doing headshots for a model,
this is an ideal lens for that,
and at the price you really can't beat that.
A lot of people like to use a 24 to 70 millimeter lens
and they usually just take it to the maximum on that,
or they're shooting at around 85 or 90 on the 70 to 200.
The 85 millimeter is a great compromise.
The fourth reason to invest in an 85 millimeter lens
is due to low light situations.
In low light situations when you want to shoot
close-ups, when you want to shoot portraits,
or if you want to shoot candid street photography,
the 85 millimeter is a great option
especially if you get a model that either allows you
to shoot at f/1.2, f/1.4, or f/1.8.
And you can get a lot of those options from Canon and Nikon.
I have links for all of those
in the description below for you.
But this is tremendous for that,
especially if you're shooting DSLR video, this could
actually open up some new creative opportunities for you
in those low light situations
that you just wouldn't be able to get with a 50 millimeter.
My last and fifth reason for you to get
an 85 millimeter lens is the compression.
What I mean by the compression is
the way it handles the background
and the way that it isolates subjects.
Even if your background is not
anything really interesting,
or it's a really crappy background,
or it's a busy, chaotic street,
being able to open this up all the way
to the widest aperture, maybe it's f/1.8, maybe it's f/1.2,
and being able to isolate the subject,
it looks amazing when you actually do that,
and it's because of the compression,
not just the wide aperture.
There are other camera lenses that you can use,
like the 35 millimeter,
and sure you'll get the bokeh,
but the isolation of the subject is not nearly
as noticeable, it's not nearly as good.
It does actually bring out some of those details
or you can get artifacts
or some additional distortion there.
So again, the compression factor,
the lens distortion, the ability to isolate the subject,
these actually really make an 85 millimeter lens special,
and if that's something that matters to you
either producing DSLR video or doing still photography,
doing candids, doing portraiture,
then this lens at under 500 dollars
as the Nikon 85 millimeter f/1.8,
will be a good investment for you.
If you want a different 85 millimeter lens,
again, I've got links in the description below,
but these were my top five reasons
for buying an 85 millimeter lens.
Now in this case, I actually haven't bought this yet.
I'm renting it from Lumoid,
and if you want to try it before you buy it and rent it
you can use the link up here in the annotation
info card or in the description below.
They are not currently sponsoring this video,
however I did rent this lens from them
and it actually was really affordable.
So if I decide to buy this it'll be because I got
the opportunity to play with it a lot
and make an informed decision.
So if that's something you wanna do,
go ahead and check that out.
Anyway, I hope you guys found this video informative.
If you still have questions
about the 85 millimeter primes,
let me know in the comments section.
I'll try and answer as many of your questions as I can.
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Check out the other awesome content on the channel.
As always you guys, thanks so very much for watching
and don't forget, create something awesome today.
Maybe with an 85 millimeter lens.