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Arkady

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This may have been posted already in the past, but this was new to me.
While researching what my Leica M6 & 35mm Summicron lens are worth on the second-hand market (answer: a lot...), I came across this in Mike Johnston's column in 'The Luminous Landscape'.

Speaking of the qualities of the 35mm f/2 Summicron lens:

It is optically pretty, at least stopped down in daylight. In the articles in Photo Techniques on "bokeh" in 1997 (I personally must take credit for inventing that now-common westernized spelling, since standard romanized transliteration of the Japanese word for "blur" is "bo-ke" or boke, which I felt was too readily mispronounced), I called it "the King of Bokeh." It's far from a perfect lens, but its flaws are, shall we say, amenable, and its good qualities are very pleasing indeed. Despite the nearly Universal prejudice these days, I don't think Leicas are about good lenses; I think their advantage is mainly in the camera, in its
handling, responsiveness, portability, quietness, and in its potential to be mastered. You can find sharp lenses under any flat rock (note to the literalists: figure of speech again). Only the Leica allows such a responsive and controllable camera with lenses that are perfectly good enough.
Click to expand...

So there you go: according to Mike, bokeh or bo-ke is the Japanese work for blurry...
 
Arkady said:
This may have been posted already in the past, but this was new to me.
While researching what my Leica M6 & 35mm Summicron lens are worth on the second-hand market (answer: a lot...), I came across this in Mike Johnston's column in 'The Luminous Landscape'.

Speaking of the qualities of the 35mm f/2 Summicron lens:



So there you go: according to Mike, bokeh or bo-ke is the Japanese work for blurry...
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Thanks Akela. I did know the word was of Japanese derivation, but, can I just check with you all; bokeh is pronounced like 'poker', but with a B? Or am I barking up the wrong Japanese Maple?
 
Well, bow-kay is the way I've always said it...turns out to be the Japanese pronunciation as well (I just google'd it before posting this thread)
 
Arkady said:
Well, bow-kay is the way I've always said it...turns out to be the Japanese pronunciation as well (I just google'd it before posting this thread)
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Glad to hear there was some due diligence involved before firing one off there, Arkady ;) Actually, I've heard people say it like 'bow-kay', but I've also heard 'boker'; I actually prefered 'boker', just coz 'bow-kay' sounds too much like 'bouquet' to me, as in Hyancith Bucket. :thinking:
 
There is probably no hard-and-fast exact pronunciation, merely accepted pronunciation, and much like the English word 'scone', subject to regional variations.
Especially since it's a transliteration from japanese...
I found several versions, including 'boya-keta'... so that would come across as boy-keh...
 
Halfway in...

[youtube]34pCcyTSlEo[/youtube]
 
I'd pronounce it "Bok-A" myself :shrug:
 
In the Olden days we got along perfectly well with out another word for Blur.

It is all rather pretentious. we all knew "waterhouse stops produce better out of focus highlights than a conventional diaphragms and the more circular the aperture the better."

That is a nice short sentence that covers for all the drivel written about Bokeh.(however you pronounce it)
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
In the Olden days we got along perfectly well with out another word for Blur.

It is all rather pretentious. we all knew "waterhouse stops produce better out of focus highlights than a conventional diaphragms and the more circular the aperture the better."

That is a nice short sentence that covers for all the drivel written about Bokeh.(however you pronounce it)
Click to expand...

In the older olden days we got on perfectly well without another word for interchangable metal diapragm with a fixed aperture, but it's handy that you can say 'waterhouse stop' in so many less syllables and still infer the same meaning.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
In the Olden days we got along perfectly well with out another word for Blur.

It is all rather pretentious. we all knew "waterhouse stops produce better out of focus highlights than a conventional diaphragms and the more circular the aperture the better."

That is a nice short sentence that covers for all the drivel written about Bokeh.(however you pronounce it)
Click to expand...

:thumbs:

Quite...:lol:
 
They are always inventing new terms tor things ...
Another example is "Scheimpflug principle"
This was never taught by colleges, as a term, till quite recently. It was something we all used on a daily basis, so did not need a special name. It was just a particular use for camera movements. we would simply decide to get a particular plane in focus.
What is more important is how to do it quickly and simply when needed.
 
Interesting read, and just for the record I pronounce it Bok-ee (as in the ending of words like tree)
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
They are always inventing new terms tor things ...
Another example is "Scheimpflug principle"
This was never taught by colleges, as a term, till quite recently. It was something we all used on a daily basis, so did not need a special name. It was just a particular use for camera movements. we would simply decide to get a particular plane in focus.
What is more important is how to do it quickly and simply when needed.
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That was on the syllabus back in 1983 on my degree course...

Ahhh the Cambo 5x4...what a [PLEASE DON'T TRY TO BYPASS THE SWEAR FILTER] that thing was to carry round the hills all day...:cuckoo:
 
Big_Ham said:
God a hate the term bokeh. Don't know why, but it riles me.
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Me too - sounds like some sort of waste body matter which is why I pronounce it "out of focus".
 
Big_Ham said:
God a hate the term bokeh. Don't know why, but it riles me.
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arclight said:
Me too - sounds like some sort of waste body matter which is why I pronounce it "out of focus".
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careful,

I was told categorically that you aren't allowed to be irritated by a word or a name in my Lensbaby thread, which led to me being severely abused for it and gave me a brief tagline which irritated me every day, thankfully now I'm an 80s popsinger.

As for the term bokeh, I thought it was pretty well known it was of japanese origin, and I've always heard the pronunciation to be like bow-kah
 
Arkady said:
Well, bow-kay is the way I've always said it...turns out to be the Japanese pronunciation as well (I just google'd it before posting this thread)
Click to expand...

"You know, I've always pronouced it that way as well.."
HyacinthBucket.jpg
 
Bokeh does come across as a trendy, w***y term. Sounds like a couple of stoned hippy photo students have simply sat down and invented it. The expression, 'Blurred background' works well for me.

Nevertheless, thanks for the research on this, Rob.
 
joescrivens said:
careful,

I was told categorically that you aren't allowed to be irritated by a word or a name in my Lensbaby thread, which led to me being severely abused for it and gave me a brief tagline which irritated me every day, thankfully now I'm an 80s popsinger.
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:lol:

Saying I hate it's probably enough to be given it as a tagline.
 
See this link for:"it is properly pronounced with bo as in bone and ke as in Kenneth, with equal stress on either syllable"
 
Arkady said:
That was on the syllabus back in 1983 on my degree course...
Click to expand...

That accounts for it, There were no degree courses in the mid fifties just Diplomas. Academics need fancy words....

Ahhh the Cambo 5x4...what a [PLEASE DON'T TRY TO BYPASS THE SWEAR FILTER] that thing was to carry round the hills all day...:cuckoo:
Click to expand...
:[/QUOTE]

You should try carrying around a 10x8 Plaubel Pico monorail kit or the MPP monorail. I carted the PICO for three years in the heat of Spain and the MPP for over Five years. They are both built like military equipment.
Old time photographers were strong.
The cambo was a mini in comparison.
 
:lol:
Big_Ham said:
:lol:

Saying I hate it's probably enough to be given it as a tagline.
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you cant say that you hate it!! You are not allowed to hate a word.

To quote what someone told me:

"It is a word, made up of regular characters from our Roman alphabet and, as such, cannot be 'irritating'"
 
Now I reckon it was really a Japanese camera user complaining about the front focussing of a new sigma lens bought in the west. He was actually trying to tell the shop assistant it was "broke" but had a bit of trouble with the r.
The poor assistant thought he was telling hom the japanese for blur.
 
joescrivens said:
:lol:

you cant say that you hate it!! You are not allowed to hate a word.

To quote what someone told me:

"It is a word, made up of regular characters from our Roman alphabet and, as such, cannot be 'irritating'"
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Pft, by that measure/logic nothing can be irritating. ;)
 
treeman said:
It's a stupid word, end of. I always have, and will, refer to it as "the out of focus area".

Stupid new words :cuckoo:
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words can't be stupid remember "It is a word, made up of regular characters from our Roman alphabet"
 
treeman said:
Pedant :razz:
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No,no, a pedant would point out:

Arkady said:
So there you go: according to Mike, bokeh or bo-ke is the Japanese work for blurry...
Click to expand...
Original Text said:
since standard romanized transliteration of the Japanese word for "blur" is "bo-ke" or boke
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which would of course make this scentence:
Arkady said:
"The reflection of this man's severed-head in my katana-blade is very bo-ke..."
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read: "The reflection of this man's severed-head in my katana-blade is very blur..."

which of course doesn't make sense.:shrug:
 
ka$h said:
...which would of course make this scentence read: "The reflection of this man's severed-head in my katana-blade is very blur..."

which of course doesn't make sense.:shrug:
Click to expand...

Have you listened to the actor Ken Watanabe recently...lol

:lol:
 
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