Bokeh with Nocton 50mm and 40mm

[Stephanie Brim]

We've kind of had the discussion before about the fact that pleasant bokeh is often a personal thing. Not everyone likes the same kinds of bokeh. To really decide you're going to have to look at images from both lenses and make the decision for yourself. 🙂

 

[Huck Finn]

If you believe what his rating, it is the day of end of this world. look at the rated 10 35mm/2 4th version. no better than VC 40mm/1.4. Some of these what people called king of the bokeh did show distract back ground.

Great example of all of the conditions for problematic bokeh. Subject is shot from a close distance with an almost infinite background & the background has difficult lighting. As Mike Johnston says in the footnote to this lens' rating of 10, the rating drops drastically when shooting up close & wide open - & wide open on this 35 Summicron is only f/2. Bokeh on most examples of the Nokton I've seen at f/2 are fine. If you want f/1.4, it's there but there may be some bokeh issues depending on the conditions in which you're shooting. If you don't want any risk of such problems, stop down; it's not as if you'll automatically get bad bokeh is photos with the Nokton. It's really amazing that Cosina accomplished what it did with this lens in such a small package. IMO.

(Note: Refer back to Chendayuan's original post on the previous page in this thread for the picture I'm referencing; it doesn't reproduce using the "quote" function.)

Huck

 

[danielnorton]

This may seem like a strange question, but how can you tell if you've got a multi or single coated 40? I bought mine used, I'm assuming it's Multicoated, but I'm not sure...

I have found the bokeh to be very manageable on the 40/1.4 I've had a couple of shots with harsh bokeh, but for the most part it has been smooth..

here's the Harshness

Interestingly enough I was thinking the bokeh harsh, the subject thought it was great.. 🙄

Daniel

 

[rich815]

My single coated 40 has "S·C" in blue letters on the lens right after the words "Nokton Classic"