07-02-08 – Mmmm Bokeh

http://www.bokehtests.com/Site/About_Bokeh.html
A really good page about DoF, Bokeh, and the circle of confusion. The circle of confusion is what a point light in front of the lens gets rendered as on the image plane.

(Insert joke about “yep, this is making my head a circle of confusion”)

Heh, I was just walking around Hong Kong (Mong Kok, the technology hub), and I found a Lensbaby 2.0 with telephoto + wideangle accessory lenses for a combined $40 canadian 😛 woo hoo. Macro + Shallow DOF + Lensbaby adjustment could be very very cool, but also very difficult.

It was second hand, and, unfortunately, I doubt I will find such a deal again. A new lensbaby 2.0 here is about $1180 HKD, or about $120-130ish USD =/ Camera prices are only marginally cheaper in HK, unfortunately. If i find a steal like that i’d probably snatch it up and i’m sure someone in farktography wouldn’t mind covering the cost :

That 100mm macro lens should have really good bokeh, because it is almost impossible to get everything in focus when doing a true macro (1:1) shot with that kind of lens.

It also seems to make any bug move twice a fast, go in a different direction or simply fly away right before it is in focus. 🙂

I’ve got a 180 macro. Holy hell that thing can be frustrating.

I use my 100-400 for macro sometime. I have to stand 40 feet away and jiggle my left leg.

(this is putting me in mind of that George Washington song)

Six Foot Twenty, Weighed a Fucking Ton

I’ve got a 180 macro. Holy hell that thing can be frustrating.

I have a 300mm “macro”. It won’t focus at all unless it’s uphill, in the snow, both ways.

And I can end this “my macro lens sucks” thing:

My 500 f/8 mirror lens has a “macro” mode. Gets down to 1/2.7x….
At that point there is enough doughnuts to please a police department…

Here is an example…

this is my favorite extreme macro shot. 100mm macro with a 50mm prime reversed. These are the little globes on the underside of a sage leaf that hold the oils.

Soosh, now that is the kind of stuff that if I were to forward it to anyone I knew, they would say, “Where the HELL do you find this shit?”.

dude’s a critically acclaimed film maker and one of my heroes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Hertzfeldt