Nikon SLR Cameras

Good Nikon lens for bokeh?

Guest
Guest

I know prime lenses give you nice bokeh. I'm not looking for anything professional. Any specific prime lens model or brand? I'm looking probably about 50mm.

Mark
Mark

It's not necessarily the case that a prime automatically gives you nice bokeh. Firstly, bokeh is somewhat subjective; people prefer different kinds. Some like swirly, busy bokeh and others like smooth bokeh. For instance, the Nokton 1.1 50mm gets slammed for having poor bokeh whereas the Nikon 105 F2 DC is designed with bokeh in mind, and its bokeh is fantastic.

You don't mention which brand of camera you have, but on a DSLR with a full frame sensor, a 50mm lens with a max aperture of 1.8 or 1.4 will give you the stuff. For an APS-C, a 35 will give you more or less the 35mm equivalent of a 50, and a 50 will give you the equivalent of around 75.

You don't even need 1.8, to be honest. My camera has a fixed lens with a max aperture of 2.8 but it delivers very nice bokeh. It's about technique as much as it's about the lens.

Bokeh comes mainly from the subject, the photographic technique, and the characteristics of the lens.

qrk
qrk

The Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 has very nice boke.