Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/11/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The most famous lens for boke, such that it is called the King of Boke, is the Leitz/Leica pre-asph summicron 35 (fourth version, Mandler design). It is nothing but aberration laden fuzz wide open (though the last produced not too bad). It is famous for its silky smooth transition from in focus to out of focus in the middle aperture range; say f5.6 to f8 and a bit. That is it. That is all she wrote. Boke is obvious in a fast lenses wide open but that is not where the subtleties of lens design are best evaluated. Is it important?! That is up to you I guess. I had the above lens and I loved it. It was a later one and actually pretty good wide open. However I shoot a great deal in low light and I needed f1.4. I sold the 35/2 to finance a 35/1.4 Asph. The 35/1.4A is sharp and crisp even wide open. The first chromes I saw from it took my breath away. Boke? A mixed bag. Depending on the aperture and the focus point it varies from smooth and creamy to blotchy and harsh. Thankfully no double line boke though. Tthe only manifestation of Boke I truly can't abide. John Collier On Nov 18, 2004, at 11:00 PM, Frank Dernie wrote: > I think the salient point re boke is that it is only of real interest > in fast lenses wide open.