Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I've spent too much time thinking about bokeh. Some random thought follow. Geoff's comment: "One man's smooth out of focus transition is another man's remaining aberrations" is something with which I tend to disagree. Good oof rendition is good oof rendition - you see the residual aberrations elsewhere, mostly in the in-focus field. Some of the best corrected still camera lenses currently available (the Leica 50/1.4 asph and 75/2 asphs in particular) have extremely good out of focus rendition, as do some stunningly, incredibly well corrected cine optics like the Zeiss Ultra Prime and Ultra 16 series lenses. They key seems to be in not over-correcting the spherical aberrations, something which makes people perceive lenses as 'sharper' in the in-focus areas, as Nikon's 1960s marketing research revealed, and subsequently became incorporated into many designs by them and others, right up until recently. I once did a survey to try to figure out what "good bokeh" comprised. I used photographers and a wide selection of non-photographers who were available to me. When I asked my mother to describe which out of focus areas she thought were more pleasing she said "but they're all just blurry!" Some people simply don't care. Two things that people who did care almost universally dislike are double lines (ni-sen bokeh) and harsh transitions in the oof areas where normally these would be perceived to a person's vision as smooth in real life. They don't seem to mind sharp transitions where they would be sharp in life (like lights at night or in dimly lit scenes). Surveys are not always as useful as marketing research companies would tell you. If you want to use a lens that can provide everything from truly stunning to absolutely terrible bokeh, try the Zeiss 35/2.8 Distagon for the Contax SLR cameras. I picked one up with a Yashica SLR for almost nothing and was astounded at the way it could provide a series of amazing photos with incredibly good bokeh but then it would sometimes produce the most awful double line, harsh and sometimes even swirly out of focus rendition. I've also rarely seen a lens whose front-of-focus and behind-focus bokeh were more different. It's an interesting one to experiment with. A Noctilux in any of its incarnations is also a great lens to experiment with for bokeh. All versions (f1.2, f1 and f0.95) are capable of a great range of types and flavours of bokeh. Highly recommended. Marty Gallery: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/freakscene -- Be Yourself @ mail.com! Choose From 200+ Email Addresses Get a Free Account at www.mail.com