Hasselblad CF150 versus CF180 Bokeh

I plan to get either one of these lenses, I know the 180 is a tad sharper than

the 150 and the 150 handholds much better. But how about the quality of out-of-

focus areas (bokeh)? Would love to hear from anyone who uses both and thinks

that bokeh is important ;-) Thanks

The 180, being a longer focal length, is going to give you a more intense "bokeh" effect

under ordinary circumstances. Then again, one guy's "nice bokeh" is another guys' "I dunno,

not so hot to me."

 

Genrally, and I have expressed this thought many times in this forum, I have owned just

about all the Hasseblad lenses (except the 40) from 38mm to 350 mm and if I had to pick a

"top 3" the 180 mm CFE or CFi would be in that group. (The 100 and the 38 being the other

two followed closely by the 250 CFE.)

Thanks for your very fast reply! Being more out of focus (as is the case for the CF180) does not necessarily mean a more beautiful bokeh. I am interested in the qualtiy of this background rendering, whether it is really smooth, or produces edges or "double lines". A Google search turns up surprisingly little information on this subject.

Andreas -

I haven't used the 180. And, my 150 is an FE version, so i haven't made the comparison

you're asking about.

 

But, both lenses are Sonnar designs, and i would expect them to behave very similarly.

When i chose, it was based on focal length and my prefered camera-to-subject distance.

Well, i also chose the 150 because it was available with a 2.8 max aperture....

 

Personally, i prefer a slightly shorter lens. I am a bokeh fiend, but i don't like the fully

blown-out bokeh of longer telephotos.

 

Good luck to you. If you do find any comparisons, please come back to share them with

us.

I would say that the difference in bokeh between the two is insignificant - you would be hard

pressed to tell the difference unless you had image from each side by side and you spent a

lot of mental effort comparing the two, and even then thre would not be much in it.

Composition and lighting will make more of a difference to the attractiveness of an image

than any lens choice you care to make.

I used to CFI 180 and was impressed with the sharpness, but not by the bokeh which I found a little "hard". My CF 150 is not quite as sharp but it's a lot smaller, cheaper and the bokeh appears a little smoother IMHO.

I've used both for years, with digital and film backs. The differences are pretty small but the transition from in-focus areas to out-of-focus areas appears a little more distinct with the 180mm. This only really becomes visible in two situations, when used wide open and when used at shorter focusing distances (say below 5 metres), these are the two circumstances when the 180mm starts to open up a clearer performance advantage over the 150mm.

I agree with the above posters...the 180 is sharper, but the out of focus areas are nicer and smoother with the 150, which is a better corrected lens (see the mtf from Zeiss).

 

The king for out of focus beauty has to be the 120 Makro f4. Absolutely beautiful.

http://www.olegnovikov.com/technical/cfi150vscfe180/cfi150vscfe180.shtml

THANKS! For what it's worth: Based on all your above comments and link and better hand holdability and after looking at dozens of sample photos on pbase, I decided to go with the CF150 lens. This also leaves room for the 250 at the far end, if ever I feel the urge to spend more $$$.