Bokeh:a mythical construct

[Erwin Puts <imxputs@knoware.nl>]

'Bokeh' to state it quite clearly does not exist. The concept is supposed
to elucidate the out-of-focus characteristics of certain lenses, some of
them made by Leitz and Leica.
In fact is a marvelous piece of self-suggestion, of the kind David
Copperfield should be proud of. It is a well known fact that vision can be
influenced by what you think or like to percieve. 'Bokeh' falls in this
catagory: it has no sound scientific, not even factual basis. It is
'believer-stuff'. Like Ronald Reagans SDI project: it is easy to talk
about, we all seem to agree, no one has ever seen it and in never actually
existed.
Leica lore has always had its fair share of myths and mystique.
We do the rational discussion about Leica lenses no favour by introducing
constructs like 'bokeh'. It should be removed from the Leica users
vocabulary.
I am aware that I belong to the smallest possible group of anti-bokeh
promoters (just me). Still the bokeh discussion clouds the appraisal of
Leica lenses and that is tha last thing I would like to support.
Erwin