Is The Nikon 85mm F Mount 1.4 A Good Action Lens?

8/6/2025 - I ventured out to my favorite cove on the Chesapeake Bay to test out and see if my Nikkor F mount 85mm 1.4 lens was capable of capturing action photos in the water and if it's worth to pack in my bag when I head out for a high action photo session with the dogs.

To answer you all quickly, yes and no. This lens can handle action photographs of dogs. Is this lens as good as some of the top action lenses out there like the 70-200mm 2.8, 300mm 2.8, and 200mm 2.0? No. Not even close. So before we get into breaking down what I liked about the 85mm 1.4 lens and what I didn't like about it; it's important to know that this was tested with my Nikon Z8. My Nikon Z8 is a powerhouse of a camera when it comes to action. The animal eye focus and focusing system all around is top notch and I think without my cameras capability to track fast, this lens would have failed like it did with my Z6II years ago. All of the photos on this post are with the 85mm 1.4 lens.

My wonderful model for this test was none other than Morgan, who is a young Catahoula Leopard Dog that is extremely fast and is also a darker dog so extra hard to test the tracking and focus of this lens. This lens was tested in 3 different focus modes, and 3-4 different aperture levels. With that said, lets get into this review for Nikkor F Mount 85mm 1.4 lens!

What I Liked!

Price: The price of this lens compared to the big bad action lenses is affordable. It can run around $1,200 USD or around that price range for a brand new one (F mount). Compare that to the lowest priced action lens being $2,700 or more, that's a great deal for a nice lens that does a lot. I think if you are looking for a good over all lens for portraiture (It's my favorite portrait lens by far) but if you are looking take a few cute and easy action photos, this is a very nice lens to have in your kit.

Great for landscape action photos: I can see this lens creating beautiful landscape/action photo combinations. There is a certain point or limit this lens has and I found the best mark was when my dog was running farther out. It had a very nice hit rate so if you love taking landscape photos of dogs and want to throw in an action photo here and there with beautiful scenery in the background, this lens is a no brainier.

Prime Lens: Prime lenses tend to create sharper/better quality photos to work with versus a zoom lens. Why is this? I have no clue haha. My guess is because you don't have the adjustable zoom mechanism built in so prime lenses can have much better glass to work with? But anyways, this is why this lens is my favorite for portraits because it's so clean and creates a very beautiful image and it does the same for action.

Well....I guess those are my likes which, as an action based dog photographer aren't a lot.

What I Disliked!

Slow focus/lens: This lens is slow. It was not built for high speed/erratic movement from dogs. I am used to my Nikkor Z 70-200mm 2.8 lens which is fast, its so fast that my focus and hit rate for any type of action photograph is 95%, so as you can see that's a lot of photos in perfect focus for me to choose. And no! It's not because I have the Nikon Z8. It helps don't get me wrong, but my hit rate for perfect focused images at high speed action with my Z6II was around 60-70% and the tracking was OK. This lens however, had a hit rate of 10-20% (based off of 20 photo continuous burst mode - Nikon Z8) and it all depended on where the dog was running, how the dog was running, and what aperture setting I used. Also! my shutter speed had to be boosted to 1/4000 or higher to get a decent shot in focus versus being able to get photos in focus with as low as 1/500 of a second with my action lens. So to be blunt....this lens is slow.

Not very fast movement of Morgan running towards my camera. This was taken at f3.2, 1/3200. The higher the F stop the easier it is to get a dog in focus for action especially with this high of a shutter speed.

This set was a nice and polite front run. F2.0, shutter speed was at 1/10000 and it kept up very well and every photo stayed in focus. My issue with this is the very high shutter speed it took to compensate for the lack of focus speed of the lens.

Make sure you have a camera that can back this lens up!: I mean, this pretty much says it all and I said this in dislike 1. If your camera can't help boost this lenses potential for action photographs then don't bother. I think any of the new intermediate or professional level cameras from whatever brand you prefer can work. But if you are doing this as a hobby and have a starter camera, you're going to have a bad time. 9 point grid focus helps to predicted front running photos of the dog, and animal long focus for predicted parallel running photos of the dog.

Misses peak action moments: Yep....and this one stung because Morgan was on fire when we went to test this lens out. I was tracking very well, had the right set up, and as soon as Morgan hit that perfect stride or exciting moment catching the frisbee, it completely fell short and couldn't keep up, so as a primary action photographer, this was bad. My clients want those intense, action packed moments of their dogs in full flying stride or teeth showing, drool flying, expressive eyes in mid jump as they go after their frisbee/disc. Now, I think if the dog is slower than Morgan, who again is incredibly fast, then you have a good chance to get some decent action photos with this lens that would make a lot of people very happy to have. I just have expectations when it comes to photographing dogs in actions so for me, I wouldn't use this lens over my Nikkor Z 70-200mm 2.8 lens.

In this set you will see the first photo is in good focus, then as Morgan builds up more speed to his stride the focus gets worse.

Overall Review.

This is a great lens for portraiture and decent for action. If you're on a budget for a good overall lens, this one is it. Make sure you have a good camera that can help it out because it lacks in speed to focus on moving subjects. High shutter speed is a must. Stay far away from erratic movement like dogs catching discs.

If action photography is more of your stye/niche, then save up for one of the above mentioned lenses versus the 85mm 1.4.

I hope this review helps other photographers out when considering purchasing a new lens to add to your collection.

Michelle.