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<blockquote data-quote="bluenoser" data-source="post: 48559" data-attributes="member: 6351">In and of themselves, they are both good quality lenses and they are both very good portrait lenses.&nbsp; One is only &quot;better&quot; than the other depending on a person's circumstances and objectives.If you are shooting in a smaller, indoor space then the 85mm has a field of view of almost 130mm given the crop factor of a Nikon DX camera like the D3100.&nbsp; That is to say, I think you'd find it a bit cramped and not practical in that situation.&nbsp; The 50mm (i.e. a 75mm field of view on DX) would work better in this situation.&nbsp; The 50mm will allow you to get closer to your subject for more personal or intimate shots (this may or may not be appropriate depending on your subject or the look you're going for).&nbsp; The extra distance of the 85mm will allow you more working distance and perhaps give a more flattering perspective regarding undistorted facial features, etc.&nbsp; Both lenses are very fast and will allow you to easily perform subject isolation and blur the background.&nbsp; I would suggest you might want to save a bit of money and consider the 50mm AF-S 1.8G instead of the 1.4 (unless you *need* 1.4).&nbsp; Good luck with your decision.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bluenoser, post: 48559, member: 6351"] In and of themselves, they are both good quality lenses and they are both very good portrait lenses. One is only "better" than the other depending on a person's circumstances and objectives. If you are shooting in a smaller, indoor space then the 85mm has a field of view of almost 130mm given the crop factor of a Nikon DX camera like the D3100. That is to say, I think you'd find it a bit cramped and not practical in that situation. The 50mm (i.e. a 75mm field of view on DX) would work better in this situation. The 50mm will allow you to get closer to your subject for more personal or intimate shots (this may or may not be appropriate depending on your subject or the look you're going for). The extra distance of the 85mm will allow you more working distance and perhaps give a more flattering perspective regarding undistorted facial features, etc. Both lenses are very fast and will allow you to easily perform subject isolation and blur the background. I would suggest you might want to save a bit of money and consider the 50mm AF-S 1.8G instead of the 1.4 (unless you *need* 1.4). Good luck with your decision. [/QUOTE]

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