MF system with Leica-bokeh?

[dritz]

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Leica lenses produce beautiful bokeh -- so much so that often the blurred backgrounds are what makes a photograph. I've most recently been thrilled with the 90-APO-R with Fuji 400x slide film, and the 50-summilux-M ASPH on Delta HP5, and the 135-Elmarit-R on anything!

 

In addition to my Leica set-up I sometimes shoot a Mamiya 7; the 65mm and 150mm lenses produce the most pleasing blur.

 

What about 645 systems? In particular, I recently acquired a Fuji GA645 (a MF point-and-shoot). Very harsh bokeh. What about the Pentax 645AF system?

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Dean

Seattle, WA

[Peyton Hoge]

Leica lenses produce beautiful bokeh -- so much so that often the blurred backgrounds are what makes a photograph. I've most recently been thrilled with the 90-APO-R with Fuji 400x slide film, and the 50-summilux-M ASPH on Delta HP5, and the 135-Elmarit-R on anything!

 

In addition to my Leica set-up I sometimes shoot a Mamiya 7; the 65mm and 150mm lenses produce the most pleasing blur.

 

What about 645 systems? In particular, I recently acquired a Fuji GA645 (a MF point-and-shoot). Very harsh bokeh. What about the Pentax 645AF system?

 

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

Dean

Seattle, WA

I think you need to find a Fuji and Pentax forum.

[adan]

"MF system with Leica-bokeh?" On a film forum dare I say "Leica S2"?

 

No, just joshing.

 

Most MF system lenses were designed before the recent "interest" in bokeh, and so the focus was on resolution and contrast alone. Even the M7 system is over 20 years old.

 

As you pursue your research, it might be worth looking into reviews and samples from the Contax 645 system, one designed fairly recently. While one of the "worst bokeh" MF lenses IMHO is the Zeiss Germany 80mm for Hassy, the Kyocera/Zeiss designers seem to have put a little more thought into "beauty" as well as "precision" when creating their lenses for 35mm, and perhaps that carried over to the 645.

 

Michael Reichmann puts the Makro-Planar in the same class as the Leica 135 APO as "above and beyond" - review here, with at least one bokeh example: Contax 645

[roguewave]

The closest I have found is the Zeiss 50mm CF Distagon. Although a wide angle, It has a superb bokeh. Also the 120 CFi Makro Planar, which is my favorite portrait lens with my Blads, has a most divine bokeh, when shot wide open and you have a background that is some distance away. You sacrifice dof in all lenses in order to maximize the bokeh. The legendary bokeh of certain Leica lenses, particularly the summilux lenses is a very complicated blend of shooting wide open @ 1.4 and the very smooth blades that provide those amazing objects of light that swim around inside the glass. Yes, there are more elemental elements of bokeh, i.e the repeated outines & patterns of increasingly oof areas, but it's the color, luminosity and unexpected appearance of light, dancing in places it should not be that makes the bokeh of the summilux unique.

[Double Negative]

The closest I have found is the Zeiss 50mm CF Distagon. Although a wide angle, It has a superb bokeh...

 

I have a 4/50 Distagon CF FLE and couldn't agree more; it's a fine, fine lens - and fun to shoot, especially since it focuses down to about 19" or so.

 

Some samples, mostly page 2 and 3.

 

The Mamiya 7/7II lenses are also quite nice. Many are Zeiss copies... Like the N50mm f/4L (which I also have). This lens is so ridiculously sharp.

 

The problem with MF lenses is that practically all of them have five aperture blades. It would be nice to have twice that, but it is what it is I guess. Best bet? Shoot them wide open.