Ok, my turn to try and get this forum rolling again. Share your BOKEH here! All bokeh welcome. Jittery bokeh, funky bokeh, swirly bokeh, bokehliciously smooth bokeh -- as long as it's not photochopped bokeh. I'll start: Zeiss 50/2 Planar: CV 75/1.8 Heliar:
For those who think that you can only get bokeh from DSLRs, CSCs or large sensor compact with fast lenses, here's mobile phone bokeh for ya! Nokia Pureview 808:
But the sensor size is actually pretty large too 1/1.2", relatively speaking that is vs the size of the lens. Still, it's still bigger than most compact cameras. And with a f2.4 wide aperture, the combination is actually pretty good for bokeh. Nevertheless, still very good results!
It's still an 8mm f/2.4 lens, and the only way to coerce shallow DOF from it is to shoot at near-minimum focusing distances. On a side note, shallow DOF and bokeh are different things, with bokeh being the quality of the out-of-focus areas. Of course, in general one often needs shallow DOF in order to get good bokeh. The PureView's bokeh is pretty good for such a tiny lens -- smooth in most areas, visibly round highlights though has a hint of onion rings to it. A bit nervous at some high contrast edges, where you can see a hint of double-image... but in general still quite good for a mobile phone. It's hard to find good bokeh these days... the Canon 50L and 100L are notable exceptions. A lot of lens designs these days put too a lot of emphasis on sharpness by correcting for (or over-correcting) residual spherical abberations, this often leads to nervous background bokeh. Even modern Zeiss designs don't have as smooth bokeh compared to their older, "classic" designs.
What's the minimum focus distance of the Pureview? I'm kinda looking at the new Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM lens. Looks pretty yummy Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG HSM Review | PhotographyBLOG
On a rough estimate, about 20cm... which is not much. The Sigma is sweet, I tested it at Key Color in Mid Valley couple of weeks back. Very sharp across the frame. Noticeably heavy though, heavier than the 35L and you can feel the difference in weight.
After a long CNY break hiatus, I have returned with moar bokeh... The Zeiss 50/2 Planar again... very modern rendering, that often results in very busy and nervous bokeh especially when it comes to foliage and/or highlights: The Canon 50L, a beautiful bokeh monster: And these last two are from the CV 75/1.8 Heliar Classic. I am really loving the classic rendering style of this lens:
What's the street price back in KL for the Sigma 35mm 1.4? Shashinki selling it for RM2,988.00 now... Seriously thinking of reviving my use of the D300. It's been sitting idle for far too long already.
Been quite a while, I don't remember the exact price but was quoted somewhere in the 28xx range for the Canon mount version.
