[Leica] Notes from off in the bokeh

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

> Mike,
> 
> So, what's _your_ rating for the lenses you've tested (bearing in mind that
> this is largely subjective)?  What are your grades for the Leica line-up
> (since I only have one that I own to test, and no access to others (no
> rentals in Balto./DC area)?
> 
> Interested,
> Dan


Dan,
No lens is perfect. As far as bokeh is concerned, you have to decide first
if it's even _in_ your pictures (some people don't do that kind of
photography), second if you like it or object to it (some people seem almost
offended by out-of-focus areas in pictures, an attitude that truly perplexes
me), and third--assuming your pictures have bokeh in them and you aren't
offended by that fact--what "look" you tend to like.

For me, there's more of a tendency for pictures to be ruined by rotten bokeh
than for pictures to be improved by good bokeh. The point of "good" bokeh
for me is to get backgrounds and foregrounds unobtrusively out of the way of
the picture, and only very secondarily to perhaps create interesting washes
of color or tone, and then only in certain cases. I have one friend who
spent years deliberately exploring bokeh as an integral part of his
photographic artwork, but I personally don't do that.

As far as ranking lenses is concerned, most Nikon lenses suck to varying
degrees (better to keep everything in focus if you shoot Nikkor!) although a
few are pretty good. Most Canons are pretty good. (You can page through an
issue of _Sports Illustrated_ and tell what kind of camera the photographers
shoot by looking at the bokeh of the long lenses. I can tell N. vs. C. a
mile away.) Leica lenses vary, from very good to just okay. That 75mm M is
great, and so is the pre-ASPH 35mm Summicron if stopped down a bit. A Canon
lens that is superb is the older 100mm EF macro. The EF 50/1.4 is very good
too, although it's unpredictably flarey and I don't personally like that.

As a general rule, most 35mms are okay (even the AF Nikkor 35mm f/2 is not
too bad) and most 50mms are problematic (with some exceptions...although I
personally like the Summarit better than the Noctilux, both are good).

Assuming you actively _like_ bokeh (and please, no flames--believe me, I'm
well aware that some people don't care), the absolute killer lenses for
out-of-this-world bokeh are Rodenstocks--specifically the Apo-Sironar-S
line. All of them I've seen or used are marvelous. I have a friend who
shoots 6x9 with a short Rodenstock view camera lens just for the bokeh. <s>
I'd personally never shoot a particular focal length, format, or brand of
camera just for the bokeh, though I do avoid lenses that have bokeh that
consistently annoys me.

Photography is all aesthetics for me. A picture is as good as it looks. Only
a handful of photographers don't suck, and only a handful of their
photographs don't suck. Which doesn't leave much. That makes it kind of
annoying when an otherwise great picture is ruined by tizzy or ni-sen
(double-line) bokeh in the o-o-f areas simply because the photographer has
never bothered to look at the out-of-focus areas of his or her pictures or
never tried different lenses to see what they do. We saw a lot of this when
it started to be fashionable (sorry, "hot") among advertising photographers
to use a lot of o-o-f, a dozen years ago or so. Many of them shot bad lenses
with jarring o-o-f effects, completely insensitive to the visual effect they
were copycatting. 

Lens connoisseurship is not at all a prerequisite for being a good
photographer, and I admit that I'm a lens connoisseur. My favorite lenses
are those that achieve a balance of properties without any standout flaws,
and if that includes a lack of standout virtues, that's okay with me. (I
like the look of black-and-white 35mm pictures--in fact I prefer that look
to all others--and am not obsessed with getting them to look like
medium-format pictures.) So the lenses I like best maybe don't have
"perfect" bokeh, but that's okay--I accept imperfection if the overall
balance is good. 

- --Mike