I am an absolute slut for bokeh. I personal three totally different f/0.95 lenses and I shoot vast open way over I most likely ought to. However regardless of years of bokehlicious taking pictures, I’ve by no means seen the sort of bokeh balls produced by this new lens.
I’ve simply reviewed the Zhongyi Optics Mitakon 55mm 1-5x Macro – an excellent $399 lens that not solely gives as much as 5:1 copy ratio, however does it with a medium format picture circle (although it is obtainable for all the things from Fujifilm APS-C cameras to Canon and Nikon DSLRs to Hasselblad and Fujifilm medium format cameras).
One thing I did not actually discover till pixel peeping the photographs was the distinctive – not less than, to my eyes – bokeh balls. They’re in contrast to something I’ve ever seen earlier than. Have a look for your self:
Firstly, simply to get the pedantry out of the best way, many individuals use “bokeh” as a synonym for “blurry background” – however the time period is much extra nuanced than that. Bokeh describes, particularly, the traits and the rendering of out-of-focus areas of a picture, each foreground and background.
This would come with, for instance, the smoothness or noisiness of the transition between defocused components. Is it easy and “creamy”, or jagged and “noisy”? This is what bokeh refers to, not merely the general blurriness of the background.
Anyway, one of many key traits we are able to look at are the “bokeh balls” – the rendition of out-of-focus factors of sunshine. Whereas these usually seem as strong round orbs, there’s really quite a lot of nuance in how totally different lenses render them.
Phrases like “cats eye bokeh” (the place the orbs are longer and thinner, fairly than spherical), “cleaning soap bubble bokeh” (denoted by a vivid, skinny ring round a pale heart) and “onion ring bokeh” (with concentric circles of texture) are frequent traits.
Which brings me to the bokeh balls on this pattern shot, taken on the Mitakon 55mm 1-5x Macro utilizing the Hasselblad X2D II. At first I assumed that the lens produced “donut bokeh” as seen within the decrease, darker picture. Like cleaning soap bubble bokeh, that is the place the round orbs are hole, however have a thick ring surrounding a darkish heart.
Nevertheless, as you possibly can see within the high picture, this bokeh additionally expresses itself as a thick ring of sunshine surrounding a second orb within the center – and I do not recall ever seeing bokeh balls like this earlier than.
If we’re to comply with the naming conventions, based mostly on what this attribute appears like, maybe it is honest to name this “mushroom bokeh” or “thumbtack bokeh”. Heck, it virtually appears like a hydrogen atom, so possibly it is “hydrogen bokeh” (given the selection, I would name it “Manhattan bokeh” after the superhero in Watchmen who selected the hydrogen image).
Level being, I would like your assist. When you’ve seen this type of bokeh earlier than and / or you recognize what it is known as, please depart a remark or e mail me – I am dying to know extra about it and see what different lenses produce it!
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