nikon 18.5mm depth of field and bokeh

the lens is very good and increases the scope of use of the system. It does provide a good degree of background separation used wide open in portrait situations. the more distance between subject and background, the more blurring of course. It is not a background mush-out trickster though.

for me, there are advantages to this, as I am growing tired of seeing (and producing) the pervasive "1 eye in focus, mush all around that" head and shoulders. this lens gives the advantage of f1.8 for shutter speed (freeze subject movement) without the limitations of razor thin DoF.

The bokeh is ok. It will not get anyone going "wow, what a smooth background" on the dpr forums, but it will not damage a picture if the subject matter and composition are interesting.

if you absolutely need to use the V1 for "mush out" projects, get an adapter and a fast 50mm. I use FT1 with a 50mm f1.4 G and it works very well.

the 18mm f1.8 is a very good companion for the V1.