Originally Posted by Peter Klein
I like smooth bokeh, too, but for an f/1-ish lens I can conceive of owning, bokeh is last on my list.
--Peter
I liked everything you said. Until this. I don't quite understand it. At "f/1-ish," isn't most of your picture going to BE bokeh? Unless you're shooting distant/semi-distant scenes, and if so, why would you be doing so at f1.1?
What am i missing? : )
Imagine yourself in a situation where you truly need f/1.1. Having that aperture makes the difference between getting the shot or not, or getting a sharp shot vs. a motion-blurred shot. Well, the first thing you need is an f/1.1 lens. All the good bokeh in the world isn't going to help you if you don't have the needed aperture.
Look at the cost vs. quality of all alternatives. The old Noct price is out of reach from many of us. The new Noct price is on another planet. The Canon 50/0.95 has some real flaws, and requires surgery to use on an M. The Hex 50/1.2 is slower and hard to get. This makes the new 50/1.1 very desirable.
Now, if you view an f/1 aperture more as an artistic tool than something that lets you shoot in the dark, then probably the old Noct is the lens for you. That will be five grand, please. For me, the new 50/1.1 is looking pretty good.
Some modern lenses are sharper and more contrasty than their older counterparts, but have more "wiry" bokeh. Look at the bokeh arguments about the VC Nokton 50/1.5 vs. the pre-aspheric Summilux. What I'm saying is that to some extent, I'd rather have a sharper main subject, or more evenness across more of the image. And for me, all things considered, minimizing focus shift and flare are more important than bokeh.
One of the nice things about the 35/1.2 Nokton is that it has relatively smooth bokeh, given that it's a modern aspheric lens. It's pretty sharp and doesn't focus shift for all practical purposes. It would be ideal if the new 50/1.1 Nokton was like this. But there may have been size/weight/cost considerations that made the designers choose a different balance.
Then there's the lens Tom shot with. We don't know how close it is to the final design. Also remember that bokeh can vary greatly with the distance to the subject vs. the distance to the out-of-focus elements. So we really have to see more pictures from the final production version to know what the lens will really be like. I'll reserve final judgement until then. But I'm encouraged by what I see so far.
--Peter
