Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]><Snip> It is also an interesting fact > that camera/lens reviewers for Japanese photo journals often ridicule > themselves and say, "We are the only species on the earth that are so much > concerned about bo-ke." > > Mikiro To me this is one of the more intensely interesting aspects about being on the LUG and i guess the whole internet. This Bokeh business caught us all here on the western hemisphere with our pants down just a very few years ago. OF COURSE the quality of the out of focus areas of an image is of great importance! WHY DIDN'T WE THINK OF THAT! And it's impossible to ignore. And embarrassing we are just now being made aware of it. Many of us were resistant to the idea. I recall Ted saying he never had a picture rejected because of bad Bokeh. Erwin pooh-poohing it's just part of good lens design but you can now find the word used on his site. And a few others, even people who are died in the wool "wide open" shooters. But Martin (where are you Martin?) seemed to value bokeh as a first consideration. Me I'd put it down a notch or two. So it's a mini revolution about how we think about our glass. Quite exciting! All these people who were not going for it at first are very aware of it now and have incorporated it into their mind-sets and vocabulary on almost a day to day basis. Very exciting. We had to deal with the misconception of older Leica glass having better bokeh. LOTS and LOTS of BS about how the new ASPH's had bad bokeh. But it's nice that as better Bokeh is just part of better lens design; Leica is the bokeh king. Perhaps a reason why Leica is so popular in Japan. Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/