Bokeh at 400mm
In the following scene, you can judge the bokeh with the sky coming through the leaves in the background.
Nobody will be surprised by the first place of the 400mm f/2.8. This fast super-telephoto lens is renowned for its bokeh, and at f/2.8, it has the widest maximum aperture of all the lenses here.
As for the rest of the lenses, I find that the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 and the 400mm f/4.5 have more of a “cat’s eye” look compared to the 200-500mm and 180-600mm zooms. However, all of these lenses are still quite pleasant in how they render out-of-focus areas. I hesitate to pick a winner or loser, since everyone evaluates bokeh differently, and the images are fairly close regardless. However, I have a slight preference for the 200-500mm f/5.6 and 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3.
By the way, how would the bokeh champion 400mm f/2.8 look when stopped down to f/5.6? Here it is for comparison:
To me, it looks barely any different from the other lenses at f/5.6 or f/6.0. It has slightly softer transitions in the foliage above the owl, but the difference is very subtle indeed. The reason to spend over $14,000 on the 400mm f/2.8 is to shoot it at f/2.8, simple as that.
Bokeh at 500mm
How did the trio of 500mm lenses compare in terms of bokeh? Here are the results.
Here, I think the 180-600mm shows the most pleasing bokeh. The 200-500mm and 500mm are very similar to one another, and slightly worse to my eye. I had expected that the 500mm f/5.6 PF’s bokeh would look busier than this due to the texture of its phase-fresnel lens element, but it looks just fine to me.
Bokeh at 560mm and 600mm
The Nikon Z 600mm f/4 not only beats the competition in terms of sharpness, but it also dominates in terms of bokeh. Simply put, what the 400mm f/2.8 is at 400mm focal length, the 600mm f/4 is at 600mm. It even beats the 400mm f/2.8 + 1.4x combo despite both lenses sharing a maximum aperture (although the 400mm f/2.8 is second best, to my eye).
Behind this pair is the 180-600mm, and close behind are the 400mm f/4.5 and the 100-400mm, both with TC-1.4x.
Just for interest, I’ll show you how the 600mm f/4 looks when stopped down to f/5.6:
Although the bokeh is now more similar to the other lenses in this test (apart from the 400mm f/2.8 + TC combo), the 600mm f/4 is still the best, at least to my eye.
Bokeh at 700mm, 800mm, and 840mm
What about the bokeh of the lenses near 800mm? At such a long focal length, the depth of field is already razor-thin. That’s why the background looks nicely defocused even on the lenses with f/8 or f/9 as their maximum aperture.
Light levels were getting low during this test, and I was working quickly, so I apologize for the differences in exposure and a few missing tests. Pay attention to the bokeh, and you’ll see that there are some clear differences, though.
To my eye, the 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3’s bokeh is the best of the f/8-f/9 lenses. Meanwhile, the 800mm f/6.3 benefits from a shallower depth of field, but some of the bokeh in the specular highlights is on the busy side. The 400mm f/2.8 and 600mm f/4 have similar bokeh to one another, and still not perfect due to the influence of the teleconverter. If I had to pick a winner, it would be the 600mm f/4. However, it’s best to judge bokeh for yourself.
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