Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

[OM] Focus and Bokeh

Subject: [OM] Focus and Bokeh
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2015 16:09:23 -0700
As those who are foolish enough to read my meanderings know, one of my endless interests is qualities of focus and bokeh. I am in love with the combination of clear detail with lack of edginess and with lovely OoF qualities of many old LF images. I some time ago came to the conclusion that such is probably not possible with smaller formats, likely a factor of absolute aperture diameters and lens to film distances.

But I persevere. :-)

My latest adventure in this direction is a LensBaby Soft Focus Optic, in their discontinued Scout optic holder, for straightforward helicoid focusing. After a few test shots, I did a more extensive experiment with near and far focus and some bright, tiny light sources in the background. For comparison, I took the same shots with an OM 50/1.4, last version. <http://www.moosemystic.net/Gallery/tech/Lenses/LensBabySoftFocus/LensBaby_SF.htm>

Annoyingly, the supposedly 50 mm LensBaby and Oly 50.1.4 have quite different actual FoVs; oh well. Interesting results, in any case, for me. It appears that the LBSF at f8 & 11 has a good combination of focus on a near subject and decent bokeh, certainly better than the conventional lens. It also seems that the LB has slightly deep DoF at the same nominal aperture?

This is far from the worst bokeh I've seen out of conventional 50s, so I'll likely be trying to reproduce and compare some worse examples I've encountered.

I didn't try the LBSF 50/2 at wider apertures for this comparison, as it really starts to live up to its name there. It has other uses, and a set of three 'normal' multiple opening aperture plates that do interesting things and a bunch of others for special bokeh effects. More to explore. It appears, and I've seen someone else say, that the Soft Focus Optic is very similar in image characteristics to their new 56/1.6 lens.

BTW, those Alt.Moose images I recently posted that pretty much everyone ignored, perhaps rightly so, were products of the LB Spark Special Edition 50/2. Blame B&H daily specials. :-)

Alt Dot Moose

--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz