Bokeh Charts

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of any lens is the unique out-of-focus areas or “bokeh” it produces. Out-of-focus pinpoint light sources are rendered as round orbs in spherical lenses, and elliptical orbs in anamorphic lenses. But a lens' optical design and housing effect the character of its bokeh, as well as the aperture setting, and of course the shape of the iris when stopped down. Bokeh changes significantly from the center of frame out to the edges, and at every iris setting.

The Leitz Thalia lenses, have very uniform bokeh from the center to the edges due to their modern optical design and the fact that they are designed to cover a much larger image sensor than the Alexa LF. On the other end of the spectrum, the Richard Gale Optics Clavius primes, which are based on the legendary Helios 44-2 58mm f2, is well known for its "swirly bokeh" reminiscent of Petzval lenses.

In anamorphic lenses the amount of elongation or squeeze of the out-of-focus areas is directly effected by the squeeze factor of the lens. A 2x anamorphic squeezes the lens' entrance pupil into a very narrow oval. In a 1.5x squeeze lens like the P+S Technik 35-70mm T3.2 or the Iscorama adapter we tested, the bokeh is not squeezed as much. It’s squeezed even less with 1.33x anamorphic lenses, and less still with 1.25x squeeze lenses like Panavision Ultra 70. A spherical lens has 0 squeeze factor, so the bokeh remains circular.

Observing a lens' bokeh can become as interesting as how it renders your subject. Often (especially with older lenses) no two focal lengths in a set will have the same bokeh. So please enjoy the bokeh of 167 different lenses!

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of any lens is the unique out-of-focus areas or “bokeh” it produces. Out-of-focus pinpoint light sources are rendered as round orbs in spherical lenses, and elliptical orbs in anamorphic lenses. But a lens' optical design and housing effect the character of its bokeh, as well as the aperture setting, and of course the shape of the iris when stopped down. Bokeh changes significantly from the center of frame out to the edges, and at every iris setting.

The Leitz Thalia lenses, have very uniform bokeh from the center to the edges due to their modern optical design and the fact that they are designed to cover a much larger image sensor than the Alexa LF. On the other end of the spectrum, the Richard Gale Optics Clavius primes, which are based on the legendary Helios 44-2 58mm f2, is well known for its "swirly bokeh" reminiscent of Petzval lenses.

In anamorphic lenses the amount of elongation or squeeze of the out-of-focus areas is directly effected by the squeeze factor of the lens. A 2x anamorphic squeezes the lens' entrance pupil into a very narrow oval. In a 1.5x squeeze lens like the P+S Technik 35-70mm T3.2 or the Iscorama adapter we tested, the bokeh is not squeezed as much. It’s squeezed even less with 1.33x anamorphic lenses, and less still with 1.25x squeeze lenses like Panavision Ultra 70. A spherical lens has 0 squeeze factor, so the bokeh remains circular.

Observing a lens' bokeh can become as interesting as how it renders your subject. Often (especially with older lenses) no two focal lengths in a set will have the same bokeh. So please enjoy the bokeh of 167 different lenses!

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of any lens is the unique out-of-focus areas or “bokeh” it produces. Out-of-focus pinpoint light sources are rendered as round orbs in spherical lenses, and elliptical orbs in anamorphic lenses. But a lens' optical design and housing effect the character of its bokeh, as well as the aperture setting, and of course the shape of the iris when stopped down. Bokeh changes significantly from the center of frame out to the edges, and at every iris setting.

The Leitz Thalia lenses, have very uniform bokeh from the center to the edges due to their modern optical design and the fact that they are designed to cover a much larger image sensor than the Alexa LF. On the other end of the spectrum, the Richard Gale Optics Clavius primes, which are based on the legendary Helios 44-2 58mm f2, is well known for its "swirly bokeh" reminiscent of Petzval lenses.

In anamorphic lenses the amount of elongation or squeeze of the out-of-focus areas is directly effected by the squeeze factor of the lens. A 2x anamorphic squeezes the lens' entrance pupil into a very narrow oval. In a 1.5x squeeze lens like the P+S Technik 35-70mm T3.2 or the Iscorama adapter we tested, the bokeh is not squeezed as much. It’s squeezed even less with 1.33x anamorphic lenses, and less still with 1.25x squeeze lenses like Panavision Ultra 70. A spherical lens has 0 squeeze factor, so the bokeh remains circular.

Observing a lens' bokeh can become as interesting as how it renders your subject. Often (especially with older lenses) no two focal lengths in a set will have the same bokeh. So please enjoy the bokeh of 167 different lenses!

Please note, we selected one "orb" created by a pinpoint light source, from the same point for every single lens. This does not tell the whole story of a lens' bokeh, since it changes significantly from the center of frame to the edge. It would also change depending on what format you shoot in. For instance, if you shoot Canon K-35s on an Alexa Mini, you are seeing the "sweet spot" of the lenses. Bokeh starts to get really interesting in many lenses as you get near the edge of their image circles. So When shooting on the same K-35s on an Alexa LF, you are seeing almost to the edge of their image circle, and you will see the way the bokeh changes at the extremes.

The question often comes up: if the image is de-squeezed in post (either by a lens on a film projector or by a post process) and everything else in the frame becomes “normal,” why does the bokeh remain elliptical? The reason is that bokeh, whether it’s out-of-focus areas in the foreground or background of your image takes on the shape of the entrance pupil. The bokeh of your squeezed image isn’t a circular shape that has been squeezed by a factor of 2x, it’s actually an oval shape that has been squeezed by a factor of 2x. If you look through the elements of a spherical lens, you see a perfect circle. If you look through a 2x anamorphic lens you see an oval or elliptical shape.

There are companies that make masks for lenses in different shapes including squares and hearts, or any other shape you can think of. When you use these, your subject doesn’t become the shape of the mask, but the out of focus highlights will. This helps illustrate a common misconception about elliptical bokeh. You are de-squeezing the image but the bokeh retains the shape of the entrance pupil, and in the case of anamorphic lenses, the entrance pupil is elliptical.