This was a test shot from today. Actually, the last shot on a long and hot tromp through the city. It was photographed with the 35mm lens but today I was using it on a Leica CL which is a camera with a smaller, APS-C sensor.
I was curious to see how the background and bokeh would look if I used the lens at its maximum aperture. Would it be "wooly"? "wire-y"? "tense"? "aggravated"? "finicky"? "melancholy?" or just plodding and pensive?
Truth be told, I am not a particularly good judge of bokeh but I found it to be intransigent, jejune, and anti-mordantic.
I would defer to the experts among us, if any are brave enough to step in and talk about the quality of this lens's out of focus areas. Have a swing at it. You couldn't do worse than me.
Maybe it's gloppy with soft and mellow fringes.... Who can know? Perhaps I should run it by the experts at DPR...
A new spec for reviews: "Taken at 103°"
5 comments:
The beauty of bokeh is lost on me - my eye jumps right to whatever is in focus. Everything else is just background information pushing me to pay attention to the subject.
It’s OK.
Now pull out a 1970s Nikkor-OC pre-AI 35mm/2.0 (you must have one in a drawer somewhere, or $60 from your neighbourhood dealer), stick that on a full frame camera….
Everything has got more convenient and technically better in 50 years. Not sure it makes much difference.
New camera feature! As well as GPS coords, they could record termperature too.
To my eyes, the most striking technical aspect of that photo is how bloody sharp it is within the DOF. Crikey!!
A few years ago there was an extended discussion about bokeh on a forum (maybe RFF?). People had their own opinions, of course, but most everyone agreed that 'semi-bokeh' - too wide a lens, too stopped down an aperture - was an abomination. As far as bokeh was concerned, go long or go home. Anything less than puffy (or jittery, depending on preferences) amorphous shapes didn't count.
Now that street shot with the 35mm Sigma is pleasant to my eyes, but I hope some of those RFF veterans don't happen upon it...
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