jlw
Rangefinder camera pedant
That's interesting bokeh especially in terms of the fact that according to the article cited farther up the thread, these 'condom-shaped' highlights epitomize 'bad bokeh.'
(For those with long memories for the Saturday Night Live TV show, can't you almost hear Dan Ackroyd's Leonard Pinth-Garnell character? "This is simply bad bokeh. Bad, bad bokeh.")
And yet in this image it doesn't cause any problems.
Also, note that the out-of-focus areas in the other poster (the one closer to the camera) have nice, smooth out-of-focus areas. This fits in with the info I read in the bokeh page on the Luminous Landscape site, which said that the lens designer can distribute aberrations in such a way as to have either good foreground bokeh and bad background bokeh, or vice-versa... but not both. (The DC-Nikkors let you choose which, but you still have to choose one or the other.)
I think this brings out the idea that desirable bokeh in a lens is really a philosophical preference as much as anything else!
The author cited earlier in the thread said he wants his good bokeh to be in the background, because he always composes his pictures to avoid out-of-focus areas in the foreground.
But for many of us -- particularly all of us documentary-style RF shooters -- it isn't always either possible OR desirable to eliminate out-of-focus foreground objects. And in that case, wouldn't you want the "good bokeh" area to be in the foreground? After all, the foreground out-of-focus areas are likely to be larger, so it makes sense that you would want them softer and less intrusive.
It looks as if the designers of the Nokton agree with this idea...
(For those with long memories for the Saturday Night Live TV show, can't you almost hear Dan Ackroyd's Leonard Pinth-Garnell character? "This is simply bad bokeh. Bad, bad bokeh.")
And yet in this image it doesn't cause any problems.
Also, note that the out-of-focus areas in the other poster (the one closer to the camera) have nice, smooth out-of-focus areas. This fits in with the info I read in the bokeh page on the Luminous Landscape site, which said that the lens designer can distribute aberrations in such a way as to have either good foreground bokeh and bad background bokeh, or vice-versa... but not both. (The DC-Nikkors let you choose which, but you still have to choose one or the other.)
I think this brings out the idea that desirable bokeh in a lens is really a philosophical preference as much as anything else!
The author cited earlier in the thread said he wants his good bokeh to be in the background, because he always composes his pictures to avoid out-of-focus areas in the foreground.
But for many of us -- particularly all of us documentary-style RF shooters -- it isn't always either possible OR desirable to eliminate out-of-focus foreground objects. And in that case, wouldn't you want the "good bokeh" area to be in the foreground? After all, the foreground out-of-focus areas are likely to be larger, so it makes sense that you would want them softer and less intrusive.
It looks as if the designers of the Nokton agree with this idea...
taffer
void
Some coming from the wide open Helios 103 f/1.8 lens...
No lizard was hurt for making this picture
No lizard was hurt for making this picture
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