SLR Magic x Toy Lens Bokemorphic review

The Bokehmorphic is a toy lens that SLR magic will be releasing in the near future. Based on their pre-existing 28mm f/2.8 models, the lens has an extra ring that changes a front aperture filter between a circle, five-sided star, heart, oval, eight-sided star, diamond and a five-leafed clover shape. This allows for some creative fun to be had with the variously shaped bokeh, regardless of whether you are a hipster or not.

Over the course of a week or so, I carried the Bokehmorphic along with me daily. It wasn't too much of a hassle since the lens itself was very compact, basically the same size as the Sony E-mount 16mm pancake. Fixed at f/2.8, the default circular aperture setting is acceptably sharp around the centre which means you could treat it like a regular pancake, but of course the fun is in the shaped apertures at night time. The fact that the borders are rather soft subtly draws attention to whatever is in the middle, like a less extreme version of the SLR Magic 35mm f/1.7.

At first glance, I thought that the heart-shaped filter was too gimmicky, but it became a fun shape to use, as you can see in the photos. I liked the 8-sided star right from the start with its more subtle bokeh, and when in focus the flare from light sources tends to come out as a cross shape. The five-sided clover is subtle all around, while the oval filter gives a sort of impressionist painting feeling when everything was out of focus, rather like brush strokes, although I have been since informed that it is an omage to anamorphic film bokeh.

The diamond is sort of interesting, but I couldn't find much use for it except for the generic sparkly background bokeh in portrait shots. It felt like a less conspicuous version of the five-sided star, which gives extremely distracting bokeh and is very eye-catching, which might appeal to hipsters, but tends to draw too much attention away from the subject for my personal preferences. However, I did like that the star shape when I was doing light art, since it was then the lone focal point.

Of course, when you turn the camera portrait-wise, the heart-shaped bokeh become asymmetric and rather arrow-like, but the others remain relatively unchanged. In one of the photos, the usually thin ovals became flat and sort of remind me of a rainy soft focus interpretation of a scene.

Overall, I had more fun than I had expected with this lens. It provides a lot of creative opportunities and can turn all your friends into lovestruck victims of your heart-shaped bokeh. Of course, you could make bokeh filters of your own, but these are pre-made, inbuilt and much less likely to get ripped or ruined.

All photos are straight out of camera, taken with my NEX-C3.


Starry starry tea.


Coffee love.


Oval bokeh rendered lights.


Five-leafed clovers in my tea.


Lovestruck.


Wish upon a clover


Hamster prince.


Swirly light art


Whoosh.