Micro 4/3 The New King of Bokeh?

[Biro]

The new king of bokeh... according to Mike Johnston of The Online Photographer...

Open Mike: New King of Bokeh

 

[Luke]

my heart wants what my wallet won't allow.

I wonder if that thing is eating into Nocticron sales.

 

[Biro]

my heart wants what my wallet won't allow.

I wonder if that thing is eating into Nocticron sales.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Luke]

I'd also love to see a shootout between this new Panasonic and the venerable Oly 45mm. If anyone wants to send me one of each, I'd be happy to do some extensive testing.

 

[lenshacker]

"King of Bokeh" across all cameras?

The Bokeh of the shots in the link provided remind me of the Nikkor 85/2. A reasonable comparison given the 2x difference for crop factor due to sensor size. Having an equivalent of this lens for my u43 is a good thing!

Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Nikki_swing1 by fiftyonepointsix, on Flickr

The Nikkor 85/2, wide-open on the Df. Subject moved.

Strange thing- the Nikkor 85/2 Ai and Ais were not highly regarded by some reviewers "in the day".

 

[Biro]

I'd also love to see a shootout between this new Panasonic and the venerable Oly 45mm. If anyone wants to send me one of each, I'd be happy to do some extensive testing.

Panasonic Lumix G 42.5mm f1.7 review | Cameralabs

 

[Ray Sachs]

Well, golly, I'd never even heard of this lens. I'm obviously aware of it's f1.2 bigger brother, but didn't know they also made a f1.7 version. I'm not in the m43 world these days, but portraits is one of the main areas I miss about having had it. Mostly with the Oly 75mm f1.8, but I used the little 45 sometimes too, and this one looks like another contender. The combination of small, unimposing, size with nice optics, narrow ENOUGH depth of field (keep the whole face in focus and blow the background - perfect) and the great face recognition AF that m43 seems to have nailed, is pretty tough to beat, all in all. I love the DF with various lenses in the 85-135 range, but I've never felt it was really BETTER than my m43 gear for this application. Well, if I ever go back in that direction, I'll have a look at this little lens...

-Ray

 

[Lightmancer]

"King of Bokeh" across all cameras?
...

Quite...

Thing is, back in the day when cameras were all just basically light- tight boxes that held the film, one could reasonably take out all the other variables by loading different cameras with the same film, and snapping away under the same controlled conditions. Today there are multiple variables in the optical chain from sensor to firmware not to mention what goes on in post.

I think this is a zero sum argument; it's no longer all about the lens, so there can no longer be a single "King".

By the way - and for the record - I had a 35mm version IV Summicron. It was okay, but not stellar. It was beaten in the bokeh stakes by the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm and most notably by the Vöigtlander Cosina 35mm f2.5 "pancake" of which I had three versions, all of them more pleasing to the eye than the "Bokeh King", which I actually traded to fund my second example...

 

[grillec]

I'd never trust only a given name to a lens because of its ability in a special realm. There is a 'Bokeh King', a Bokina and more 'Bokeh Monsters'.
The Lumix 42.5 seems to be quite nice at least on a Panasonic camera. If I would ever buy a µ43 combination this and a GX80 could be a possible choice for me.

 

[CraigC]

^
Yep, GX80 and the lens would be a great pair.

I'm also tempted by a combo of it and the 15mm 1.7 with a GM5. What a great (extremely) compact package.