Lenses with the "best" Bokeh !

vtc2002

I vote crazy skills. Excellent image!!!

paulr

Owl was about 30 foot away and turned and passed me, about 25MPH Just Lucky with the shot, but even at 5000 of second did not stop the movement in the wings.

Rx4Photo

Excellent eye-hand-shutter finger coordination @paulr. Here's one of mine from 4 years ago. Many fear manual focus, but when you nail it, you know YOU nailed it!

Zeiss Makro-Planar 100mm T* ZF.2 @ f/3.2 , 1/8000 , ISO 1600

paulr

True, When I started Photography all lenses were manual I think catching fast moving items is a combination of experience and a modicum of Luck. The lens you used for your image is a truly remarkable lens. Zeiss are not cheap but you get what you pay for.

heartyfisher

When I went on my self imposed mission to photograph a dragonfly in flight the only success I had was when I went manual everything !. Manual focus , aperture, shutter, ISO, Zoom, Flash power. don't look down on Manual Focus its still the best whne you really need it. still I am lazy LOL ... I use P Mode auto everything usually.. LOL

vtc2002

@WestEndFoto I like the bokeh on the PAD of Marie you posted today. I really like the 135 DC as well, it is a great lense.

WestEndFoto

Yeah, it is my favorite lens for portraits.

Killerbob

Has anyone compared the Nikon 135mm DC with the Zeiss 135mm f/2 APO Sonnar? I have seen photos from both, and in my opinion the Zeiss is absolutely fantastic. It is manual focus though, but somehow seems to add an almost 3D element to shoots...

paulr

I had a play with the Otus 28mm 1.4 lens at the Photographic show in Birmingham Uk I asked the question why not wider and the Zeiss reply was beacause we wanted to make it perfect without barrel distortion.In the time I had it, I think Zeiss acheived their goal. Truly, a remarkable lens.

Msmoto

Here is a bit of a different portrayal of bokeh....24mm f/3.5 PC Nikkor at f/6.7, using tilt shift on a D4. ISO 100, bounce flash w/ reflectors.

Msmoto

Oh, one more...
400mm f/2.8 at f/10, 1/250 sec, D4, ISO 400. Bokeh with motion blur...seems to work for race cars.

donaldejose

Just for a laugh.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=71-r0u6TNW0

Pistnbroke

I am not a bokeh fanboy as it does not sell wedding pictures but I am trialling the Samyang 85mm f 1.4 ( £215 $ 280) for pre wedding shoots and it looks very good to me at f2..

donaldejose

I am not a bokeh fanboy either and seldom shoot wider than f4. Like you, the people I shoot for just don't want so much out of focus. In fact, they would prefer a diffusion filter over the lens rather than f1.4! My personal preference is for having both eyes very sharp and that is hard to do wider than f4 unless you have the subject directly facing the camera which gets boring. Most people I shoot portraits for are not looking at bokeh or sharp eyes. They are looking at how fat they look and how many wrinkles or fat folds they see and want to see those negatives reduced as much as possible. Now if I was shooting pretty young models as PitchBlack was it would be a different story.

Mecubig

Nikon 50mm f 1.2 AiS is best for bokeh I think , old Lens design but still sell for $799.00 and NO AF future built in . 58mm F1.2 still sell for around $5000-$6000, suprise dollars

WestEndFoto

Hmmm....I have the 50 1.2 AIS and it is my favorite lens, even more so than my 85 1.4G or 135 DC 2.0. I love shooting it wide open with certain subjects because the spherical abberation gives it a hazy effect to both the out of focus and in focus areas. However, when I look in the out of focus areas at the bokeh, the 135 wins hands down with the 85 in second place.

Ironheart

50mm f/1.2 @ 5ft = 2.5" DoF $725
50mm f/1.4 @ 5ft = 3.0" DoF $550
50mm f/1.8 @ 5ft = 3.8" DoF $220

The question is, is 1.3" DoF worth $500? Inquiring minds want to know

Vipmediastar_JZ

Ironheart said:

50mm f/1.2 @ 5ft = 2.5" DoF $725
50mm f/1.4 @ 5ft = 3.0" DoF $550
50mm f/1.8 @ 5ft = 3.8" DoF $220

The question is, is 1.3" DoF worth $500? Inquiring minds want to know

Nice breakdown and good question. I can definitely test 1.2 vs the 1.8g. What F stop do you want me to test it at? Wide open or stopped down?

donaldejose

Well, I would say "bokeh" lovers are really looking more at the quality of the bokeh than they are at the exact inches in the DOF. As long as whatever they want to get in focus is in focus (maybe just one eye, maybe a whole body at greater distance), they don't care about DOF. They are "focused" on what the bokeh looks like.

WestEndFoto

Yes Donaldjose, I think you have hit the nail on the head.

autofocus

I don't know if it's the best bokeh but the 200 f/2 is incredibly sharp. This photo isn't much to look at. I was actually testing the dof and bokeh right after I purchased it. You can see how fast the focus falls off looking at the writing on the bottle. The chair in the background almost disappears and it's only 2 feet away.

donaldejose

Great technical lens performance there autofocus! Very impressive. Look at the bottle cap to see the focus fall off rapidly and the razor thin DOF. But how practical? How often do you use that lens at f2?

Vipmediastar_JZ

@donaldejose I seen some great portraits at f2 normally they are full body and if everybody lines up a group can be in focused as well.

donaldejose

PitchBlack posted great work shot at f1.4 BUT they were of two limited types. 1. Only one eye was in focus in a half body or portrait shot unless both of the subject's eyes were parallel to the sensor. 2. The whole face was in focus in a full body shot with a nice outdoor bokeh background. It seems to me f1.4 and f2 can work very well outside to dissolve a background some distance from the subject. In the studio at portrait distance they will dissolve part of the subject. In the studio I don't see much need for a bokeh background because you can control that background completely with other means. I think all the fuss over f1.4 and f1.2 is overblown. Don't get me wrong, if you are a bokeh lover and hunter that is fine with me. Go for it. I have plenty of f1.4 prime lenses but I find that I seldom shoot them wider than f2 so I might just as well have purchased the less expensive f1.8 prime and not lusted after the f1.4 version.

WestEndFoto

I usually shoot at f/5.6 or f/8.0 in the studio or less than f/2.0 outdoors to dissolve the background. There are always exceptions, like group shots outdoors where everyone needs to be in focus.