Bokeh

[Marbean]

I like posting on this forum because there are some neat photo people here. But I posted this on another thread and got not alot of replys.

Can you tell from a photo how many blades were in the lens just by looking at the brokeh?

Marvin

[Abel]

normally u can tell if theres a shot of likes etc.... like street lights or a car light etc...

it will usually make a shaped of a 5,7,8 sided polygon etc depending on the amount of blades the lens has...

thats the only case i know where u can tell.

[Marbean]

Abel !!! I should have known.
Count the sides and you have the number of blades in a lens,

Thank-You

[Glen_A]

Originally Posted by Marbean

Abel !!! I should have known.
Count the sides and you have the number of blades in a lens,

Thank-You

Those that persnickity about such things say the bokeh is nicer with more blades, smoother as it were. I guess the more blades the more nearly perfect the aperture circle is. This is one of the reasons the Canon 50mm F1.4 lens ( 7 or 8 blades I believe) is preferred to the inexpensive 50mm F1.8 (5 blades).

[Scott-Tx]

everything you ever wanted to know...

http://www.vanwalree.com/optics/bokeh.html

some say 'bookeh' means bull**** in japanese. i think it's closer to confusion.

[Scott-Tx]

most hold that old lenses have better tonality and smoothness than new glass. the attached shot was taken with a 150mm heliar in a very old shutter... the lens is about 80 years old. for certain shots, there is still nothing that can compare to a heliar, lanthar, vertiar, or dagor. the lens is relatively fast at f/4.5 and this shot was taken wide open.