What's the best Nikon VR lens for portraits?

Question

I would like to do senior portraits and i would love to get a portrait lens with a zoom...which one is the best? I was looking at VRs.

Answer 1

I love VR lenses and use them most of the time. Portraits is one place I usually do not use them. I usually use a 50mm f1.4 or an 85 mm 1.8 I like the Bokeh you can get with these lenses. Remember you have a 1.5 crop factor if you are using an APS-c sensor

Answer 2

The Nikon 18-200mm VR is a great lens that covers many situations.  At 18mm, you'll get nice group or pull-back shots.  Imagine a full-length shot, with a carefully chosen background.  The effective view, because of the crop factor would be 27mm, a medium wide angle.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/18200.h...

Another excellent choice is the new Nikon 16-85mm VR.

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/16-85mm...

Here's a nice comparison of the two lenses.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/answer...

The "ideal" focal length for portraits has always been 90mm to 105mm.  That's well within the range of the 16-85mm VR or the 18-200mm VR.