Steve has an 85mm f1.4 Nikkor lens for sale. I’d love to own it, but even used, this is one expensive lens! This led me into a search for alternatives, which led me to an entire Flickr group devoted to this interesting lens. I was impressed that these beautiful images were made with this amazingly cheap lens, so I decided to pick one up.

I’ve had the lens for just a few hours, and I’m already very impressed by the bokeh. To me, it looks as good as that from lenses costing five times as much. Interestingly, it seems that that the smooth bokeh makes the in-focus parts of the image appear even sharper than they actually are. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not suggesting that this lens isn’t sharp – it is! It already seems like the best lens bargain I’ve ever found.