Only 100x: Mitakon 135mm f1.4 lenses for Nikon F

It would be very cool if the optical performance (sharpness, colour rendition, etc) lives up to the price tag, but it strikes me as odd that it only has an 11 blade diaphram. I don't see that as rendering the really creamy bokeh I'd expect out of a lens like this.
 
Very interesting but one piece of info I couldnt find so excuse me for the stupid question....is this lens MF or AF ?
 
and redonkulously huge.
 
At 3 kilograms in weight, it is very close to the weight of the superb, AF-S focusing Nikkor 200 f/2 AF-S VR-G, both the original and the Mark II nano-crystal coated model. But...that weight is not really all that unexpected, since this is an uber-fast aperture lens. But the thing is, with manual focusing, it's going to be a challenge to wring the maximum utility out of this lens in many,many real-world shooting situations! But I reallllllly can not see the practical value of a lens that is just one f/stop faster than several really good 135mm f/2 lenses. But it does have that limited edition, esoteric, cutting-edge technology appeal working for it.
 
but it strikes me as odd that it only has an 11 blade diaphram. I don't see that as rendering the really creamy bokeh I'd expect out of a lens like this.
I'm always confused by comments like this.

(a) Rounded aperture blades allow very round apertures even with "only" 9 or 7 blades.

(b) Bokeh quality has literally nothing to do with the roundness of the aperture opening. That only influences how out of focus highlights look. If you optics give you a gaussian distribution, you could have an aperture formed like a square or like a heart and it would still look creamy.

(c) Bokeh is strongest wide open, and thats when all apertures are perfectly round anyway.
 
The sample shots look pretty damn good as far as bokeh is concerned. The combo of 1.4 and 135mm has good results.
 
but it strikes me as odd that it only has an 11 blade diaphram. I don't see that as rendering the really creamy bokeh I'd expect out of a lens like this.
I'm always confused by comments like this.

(a) Rounded aperture blades allow very round apertures even with "only" 9 or 7 blades.

(b) Bokeh quality has literally nothing to do with the roundness of the aperture opening. That only influences how out of focus highlights look. If you optics give you a gaussian distribution, you could have an aperture formed like a square or like a heart and it would still look creamy.

(c) Bokeh is strongest wide open, and thats when all apertures are perfectly round anyway.
(a) Fair comment - I didn't see anywhere that it mentioned rounded aperture blades, just "11 pcs".
(b) While my understanding may be a bit different than yours, I will withhold comment as I am by no means an optical engineer, but I would submit that OOF highlights are a major component of 'bokeh'
(c) or nearly so, granted, HOWEVER, how many of us regularily shoot wide open, especially with a lens like this, which must have, IMO, been designed with the portrait photographer in mind.
 
At 3 kilograms in weight, it is very close to the weight of the superb, AF-S focusing Nikkor 200 f/2 AF-S VR-G, both the original and the Mark II nano-crystal coated model. But...that weight is not really all that unexpected, since this is an uber-fast aperture lens. But the thing is, with manual focusing, it's going to be a challenge to wring the maximum utility out of this lens in many,many real-world shooting situations! But I reallllllly can not see the practical value of a lens that is just one f/stop faster than several really good 135mm f/2 lenses. But it does have that limited edition, esoteric, cutting-edge technology appeal working for it.
Only MF, big, heavy, expensive
Nahh sorry if I want to go crazy I would rather go full blast and get the Nikon 200mm f2 which is also AF
To me it looks like this is a lens for somebody who want you to know you have an uncommon lens rather then really use it.
 
The 11-blade aperture design is shared by....drum rollllllllllllllllll. Leica M-series lenses. According to Rockwell, 11- and 13-blade diaphragms create very small sunstars.Sunstars

Sunstars, or starbursts, whatever you wanna call them, are a HUGE deal these days to landscape and night-scene shooters. Street lights at night can create gorgeous sunstars against night-time blackness in city scenes. This is one area where Canon's 16-35mm L zoom makes very pretty sunset and sunrise images, with an absolutely GORGEOUS sunstar signature!

Now, what is weird is that odd-numbered irises create TWICE AS MANY points on a sunstar as the blade count, but even-numbered irises create the same number of points on the sunstar as there are blades in the diaphragm. So...lenses with 5,7,9 blades create 10,14,and 18-point sunstars. Lenses with 6 or 8 blades create six- or eight-pointed sunstars. As Rockwell notes, "With 11 or 15 blades, it's very tough to see sunstars becasuse the light is divided up into so many places."

Even with straight-edged blades, an 11-blade iris has a pretty nice,round aperture. But roundness of aperture is not really all there is to bokeh, but it does affect the shape of OOF specular highlights quite a bit, and can dramatically impact the sunstar pattern.
 
Nahh sorry if I want to go crazy I would rather go full blast and get the Nikon 200mm f2 which is also AF
Its also twice as expensive though.
I know :)
I had the D7100 which was awesome but I decided to go for the D750 which is also about twice the D7100 (actually a bit more), never regretted that move not even for a single second :)

Sometimes you get what you pay for, in the case of the Nikon 200mm f2 that is a true statement.
 

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