[Leica] Re: Bokeh - proven myth ?

[Jim Brick <jim@brick.org>]

Get a copy of the May/June 1997 Photo Techniques. Much of the magazine is 
devoted to Bokeh. Articles are: "What is Bokeh," "Bokeh Terminology," and 
"A Technical View of Bokeh."

Read this to clear up anything you don't understand.

Jim


At 05:44 PM 1/1/2002 -0800, Henry Ting wrote:

>This is going to be controversial.
>I read about a lot of Leica lens offering a distinct
>"Bokeh" image that's missing from lens of other makes.
>I was confused as to how could this be possible,
>unless outside of physics' existentialism, Leica lens
>have a metaphysical spirit that the likes of Nikon or
>Zeiss lack.
>
>To prove my point, I did some experiment.
>I used my Leica M6 with the 35 Summicron and a Nikon
>F2 with a 35mm lens. I set them up both on tripods
>with the same camera to object distance in shooting my
>car head on at a range of only 5 feet. The background
>was a cul-de-sac of our neighborhood with florals and
>houses and images that I am familiar with.
>Then I shot the pictures with Ektachome 64 with the
>aperture of both these cameras wide-open. I controlled
>the session with everything identical from the 2
>cameras except the lens (Leica vs Nikon).
>
>I got the slides back right before X'mas and here are
>the results :
>
>I setup my projector against a white screen at 15 feet
>distance, the image of the Leica lens show a hint of
>warmth and the same amount of details from the
>highlights to the shade compared with the Nikon. The
>area of the car's hood which were the focal point,
>both images are tack sharp. The Nikon image shows a
>bit more contrast, but very minor when everything is
>in sharp focus. However, the image behind the car's
>hood, extending further back from medium distance all
>the way back to infinity, the images get progressively
>blurry as the distance increase. Using some florals
>and our neighbors front yard, the out of focus image
>from both the Nikon and the Leica were 100 percent
>identical. Even the sizes of the Bokeh images were of
>the same size (we all know the image gets
>progressively bigger as it comes into focus). At least
>from my eyes, I cannot see any differences from the
>highlights to the shades. Both these pictures were
>taken at F2, 1/1000 sec with the same subject to
>camera distance and the same film used.
>
>The result?   No differences whatsoever. I think the
>reverse is true. If both lens are of the same focal
>length, the graduality from sharpness to blurryness
>should not be different at all. Based on the law of
>physics this should apply to every lens.
>I for once proved to myself there is no difference and
>for anyone that claim there is a "Bokeh" difference
>between Leica and Nikon lens, my only comment from
>here onwards is "More power to them".

- --
To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html