Review on 📷 Enhance Photography with Nikon AF-S DX Micro NIKKOR 85mm f/3.5G ED Vibration Reduction Zoom Lens for Nikon DSLR Cameras by Carri Taylor

I use this lens on my Nikon D-5000. Bought to photograph the praying mantis that lives among the plants in our garden. The autofocus is surprisingly quick and quiet, and the vibration reduction gives me 3-4 stops. When photographing a praying mantis, I don't use autofocus most of the time; Instead, I manually focus to the closest distance, then lean forward (using the monopod to eliminate vertical and lateral movement) until the subject is in sharp focus. Works like a charm but takes some practice. This lens has a very shallow depth of field of f3.5 - it's measured in fractions of a centimetre. Images from this camera and lens combo are brilliant, with natural colors and (when properly focused) very clear. The lens is a bit light and mostly uses plastic materials. However, it doesn't feel cheap, everything is well made and works perfectly. I also like the M/A function, which allows you to manually adjust/override the focus provided by the AF module without having to switch to manual focus mode first. The lens has an AF/M switch so you can fully control it in manual mode. The minimum focus distance is very useful and much shorter than most critters will let you use anyway. A nice feature is a scale that shows playback speed for the distance you're focusing on. I had a little problem with f/3.5 instead of the more usual 2.8. In practice, however, this difference is insignificant and will only matter in very limited cases, such as portraits of people. With which, by the way, this lens also does an excellent job. All in all, with over 35 years of photographic experience, I have to say that this is one of the best lenses I have ever owned. It outperforms some of the $1,000 lenses I've had on older film SLRs. If you're looking for a macro lens for your Nikon DX format DSLR, you've come to the right place.