I have been using a lot the Sony 135mm f1.8 GM vs the Nikon 85mm f1.8 S.
The Sony lens is technically excellent, sharp,... and so is the Nikon. Probably a technical draw overall. But... I just far prefer the look of the images shot with the Nikon lens.
Some of the may result from some body driven aspects (colors), but there is more to it. It’s about look of bokeh and the transition from sharp areas to oof ones,...
Nikon has also been known for, and explicitly wrote about this, their intend to merge 2 lenses in one:
- sharp accross the field at medium apertures when it matters for landscape,
- optimized look at wide aperture when attempting to have limited DoF (typically close up for wide glass)
So we’ll have to test at various distances to understand what they optimized the lens for.
Nikon being the marketing disaster they are we can’t expect them to tell us about it...
Finally, not all the lens can be designed by the best engineer in the team. The 20mm f1.8 may end up just being a very very good lens and not an outstanding one generally speaking. Even so it could still be outstanding for some usage such as landscape work.
Cheers,
Bernard