Normally you don't use a smallish sensor camera for good background blur (the GF1 as a Micro Four Thirds camera is in-between DSLR cameras and compacts with regards to this), but with a fast lens, you can get some if you try.
This lens has a pretty nice "bokeh", which is a fancy (japanese) word for the qualities of out-of-focus blur in photos. Some lenses (particularly zooms) gives it hard edges which is normally less aesthetic than smooth, soft blur.
While the bokeh does look ok here it certainly doesn't get into the kind of creamy niceness you can get with a 70-200/2.8. It's hard to get anything at small focal lengths in the best of lenses. What aperture were these shot at? f/1.7? An improvement over a P&S I guess.
You're right, for really soft background, one needs a bigger format and preferably longer focal lengths.
Again, the MFT format is in-between in this aspect too. (Yes, this was F:1.7.)
"Were ya on yer belly for that grass shot"
Nope, that's one of the good things about live screen cams over DSLRs.
(Especially if the screen is hinged.) (Which it isn't on the GF1, sadly, maybe my only real misgiving about it.)
Yes, many new DSLRs have live screens too, but sadly their autofocus is *very* slow in this mode. So far Panasonic is the only company to have out cameras with live-screen autofocus which is pretty speedy.
8 comments:
Were ya on yer belly for that grass shot, Eo? lol! :-) Nice pics!!
... "bokeh", which is a fancy (japanese) word ...
Really? At least in its original spelling it looks French to me.
Bouquet = The layers of smells and aromas perceived in a wine.
Very funny.
Actually the original spelling (in western characters) was "boke", but people kept saying it in just one syllable, so my pal Mike Johnston started spelling it with the H many years ago, and it's clearly here to stay that way, google has over 3 million entries for the word. Bully for Mike.
The original meaning in Japanese is something "misty" and also "soft in the head"...
While the bokeh does look ok here it certainly doesn't get into the kind of creamy niceness you can get with a 70-200/2.8. It's hard to get anything at small focal lengths in the best of lenses. What aperture were these shot at? f/1.7? An improvement over a P&S I guess.
And did Mike coin the term? I find that surprising even though I've read his writings about it. Or maybe just the spelling variant was his idea?
ttl was right. The word boke or bokeh is just the French/English word bouquet imported into Japanese and re-exported to English et al. with a new spelling.
Says who? Just because it sounds similar doesn't mean anything. Can you reference a source besides your own imagination that suggests the origin is the same? I could see it if the meaning was similar but how do you get from bouquet (smells, aromas, flowers etc) to bokeh (blur, mist, haze)? Is it so unlikely that a simple 2 syllable sound could not have existed in Japanese before Frenchman brought the word? The wikipedia makes no reference to the word origin being French, so unless you're just making up according to your own ideas perhaps you can provide a source?
According to the Wikipedia there's also a village in Iran near Tehran with the same name. I suppose their name also is derived from the French word?
Chris,
Only the spelling variant was Mike's idea.
And you're right, for really soft background, one needs a bigger format and preferably longer focal lengths.
Again, the MFT format is in-between in this aspect too.
"Were ya on yer belly for that grass shot"
Nope, that's one of the good things about live screen cams over DSLRs.
(Especially if the screen is hinged.) (Which it isn't on the GF1, sadly, maybe my only real misgiving about it.)
Yes, many new DSLRs have live screens too, but sadly their autofocus is *very* slow in this mode. So far Panasonic is the only company to have out cameras with live-screen autofocus which is pretty speedy.
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