I recently started playing with some really old (1950s-early 1960s) Nikkors on a Nikon F. Here are some examples of the bokeh (first roll), in keeping with the spirit of this thread:
The first generation Nikon SLR optics are superb, and they are probably built to the highest mechanical standards ever attained. Other 50-year-old lenses that have never been serviced often look and feel like junk by this time (even Leica lenses), but these have a smoothness and solidity (and most importantly, clarity / lack of fogging) that is a thing to behold.
I tried some of Cosina's Zeiss-branded F-mount lenses the other day, and these feel like typical off-brand SLR lenses from the 1970s, no comparison whatsoever. The only really good-feeling one is the Distagon 35/1.4, but it's a giant boat-anchor (for a manual-focus 35mm lens)!
Some of them certainly can! For example, the OM Zuiko 21mm f/2.0:
And of course, the amazing Leica Summilux 21mm f/1.4... (probably won't get one in my lifetime though, will have to be content with f/2.0 at this focal length)
The Schneider-Kreuznach APO-Symmar 150mm f/5.6 is among the very best of large-format lenses (only significantly outperformed by the Rodenstock APO-Sironar S series) with exceptional resolution and contrast even wide open. But it is generally plagued by awfully unsmooth bokeh, especially my particular version, which has a non-circular aperture opening even at f/5.6. I guess it's a Compur shutter made for 150/4.5 lenses. It's all-original, linhof-branded though, so that's the way it came from the factory.
Shooting at close range, however, makes most such concerns disappear:
The Nikkor-T*ED 360mm f/8.0, however, produces consistently excellent bokeh by most standards (roughly equivalent, of course, to a 90mm f/2.0 lens in 35mm format):
Arrangement in the rain
(Ilford HP5 4x5in, Nikkor-T*ED 360mm at f/8.0, Linhof Technika V)
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