70-200mm 2.8 on Crop Sensor?
How useful is the 70-200mm 2.8 on a crop sensor? (nikon)
I will be mostly using this lens for potraits (3/4 shot and full body not much headshots) and a little bit of concert photography.
I'm open to other lens suggestion. I'm also interested in the 85mm 1.4 as i heard it is a better portrait lens (3/4 and full body shot)
Do the cropping in photoshop. You have more flexibility that way.
On a crop sensor, you are going to have to be quite a distance away from your subject with a 70 - 200. Why not use the excellent Nikon 24 - 70 lens which will give you an effective 36 - 105 which will be more useful for your purposes.
Perhaps a little to long even at 70mm for 3/4 body, fine for head-and -shoulders around 70mm or a bit olonger.
I use a 35mm to 70mm f2.8 for portraits, from full-length at 35mm to H & S at 70mm.
85mm is ideal on full-frame for H & S, and is good on crop-frame for H & S (though many would suggest 50mm or 60mm - get a 60mm macro as dual purpose lens), but as your sole portrait lens 85mm is possibly too long especially if you are thinking of 3/4 length. Can you always be sure of having the space to use 85mm for 3/4 length?
For concerts it depends on how close or distant you might be working. If you do not have a photo pass you will not be allowed to take any DSLR or mirrorless into a concert with any sort of lens.
Nikon crop factor is 1.5, which will equal 105-300mm. That's a bit much for portraits.
A better lens option would be the Sigma 50-100 f/1.8 Art lens. After the crop factor, the lens is an equivalent to a full-frame 75mm-1500mm f/2.7 which is a great range for portraits. All of the Sigma Art lenses, including the 85mm is noticeably sharper and actually cheaper than the Nikon equivalents. You could get the Sigma 24-70 and 50-100 for the price of one Nikon 70-200 f/2.8 VR. Go with the Sigma Art lenses over any Nikon.
I use the 70-200 mm on my cropped sensor Nikon D500.
Using a DX camera gives me more reach when shooting sports and action
When shooting portraits using a DX camera, I use either my 50 mm f/1.4, 60 mm f/2.8 macro or 24-70 mm f.2,8 lens
On a crop sensor an 85mm is good for headshots but you need to put a lot of distance between you and the subject for full body.
For upper and full body shots on a crop sensor a 50mm or 35mm is more suited.
If you want a zoom lens then the mid to long end of a 24-70mm f/2.8 would be better than the 70-200mm
The 70 to 200 mm lens will be way more versatile than a 85. With the crop sensor the lens is obviously going to be more telephoto, and at 200 2.8 the Boken will blow away the 85mm. But the downside is the weight of the lens, and the fact that it's two stops slower. You might want to consider a 50mm 1.4 or your mid leagth portraits, with that focal leagth you won't have to get so far back from the subject and you'll still be able to communicate with them on posing. With a crop sensor it's slightly telephoto, about a 75 mm equivalent in 35mm format. So there won't be any distortion and you'll still be able to get good bokeh.