Economy
Effect vs Weight vs Workflow
Camera equipment for shooting Bokeh Panos can be big, heavy and expensive, but if that thought is putting you off then this section is for you. High quality second hand equipment is coming down in price all the time and combinations that aren't painful to carry around all day are possible with some careful choices and a bit of compromise.
Entrance Pupil is EVERYTHING with this technique (almost). This is how large your maximum aperture appears when viewed through the front of the lens. It's what determines how much light comes into the lens and thus how shallow your depth of field can be. Larger entrance pupils tend to be on bigger/heavier lenses with longer focal lengths. These things make them harder to use hand-held because you'll need to shoot more images and hold up the higher weight for a longer time. Although modern manufacturing has created some great options (like the ones above) physics will limit how far this can go. For those reasons, I start by choosing a lens with a focal length between 75mm - 135mm. This way you can still get pretty large entrance pupils without everything getting too difficult.
To help illustrate this, I plotted some options onto a chart. This starts by using an 'Entrance Pupil per 'Kilogram' (camera and lens) ratio (see more details below). I then take focal length into account, to give each combo a penalty for requiring too many images. Since those lenses are also very heavy it will make them exponentially impossible to achieve without a tripod and a lot of time.
Notes: Despite the raw potential of hyper expenisve 300-600mm prime lenses you will likely never reach a wide angle equivalent with them due to needing hundreds or thousands of images and the weight being far too high (unless you have a tripod and a ton of time). The Sirui 75mm f/1.2 lens is a standout here due to the sheer size of its entrance pupil while weighing very little.
Effect vs Weight
Let's ignore workflow and focus on effect for lenses between 75-135mm. The ratio score shows the lenses Entrance Pupil (mm) divided by the total weight (kilogram) of the camera and lens. This will show the efficiency of the gear you're carrying.
EP - Weight - Ratio - Camera + Lens
Full Frame (DSLR)
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71 - 1,790g - 39:1 - Canon 6DII + Canon 85mm f/1.2
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61 - 1,400g - 43:1 - Nikon D600 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4
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75 - 1,745g - 43:1 - Nikon D600 + Nikkor 105mm f/1.4
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68 - 1,515g - 45:1 - Canon 6DII + Canon 135mm f/2.0
APS-C crop (DSLR)
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47 - 0,878g - 54:1 - Canon 200D + Canon 85mm f/1.8
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68 - 1,203g - 56:1 - Canon 200D + Canon 135mm f/2.0
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61 - 1,025g - 59:1 - Nikon D3300 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4
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47 - 0,780g - 61:1 - Nikon D3300 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.8
Full Frame (Mirrorless)
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75 - 2,685g - 28:1 - Nikon Z8 + Sigma 105mm f/1.4
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75 - 2,335g - 32:1 - Nikon Z9 + Nikon Z 135mm f/1.8
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71 - 1,865g - 38:1 - Canon R6II + Canon 85mm f/1.2
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71 - 1,865g - 38:1 - Nikon Z6II + Nikkor 85mm f/1.2
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75 - 1,670g - 45:1 - Nikon Z5 + Nikkor 135mm f/1.8
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47 - 0,885g - 53:1 - Sony A7CR + Sony 85mm f/1.8
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75 - 1,281g - 59:1 - Sony A7IV + Sony 135mm f/1.8
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75 - 1,396g - 54:1 - Canon R8 + Canon 135mm f/1.8
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75 - 1,281g - 59:1 - Sony A7C + Samyang 135mm f/1.8
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61 - 0,992g - 61:1 - Sony ZV-E1 + Samyang 85mm f/1.4 II
APS-C crop (Mirrorless)
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50 - 1,285g - 39:1 - Fuji X-T1 + Fuji 50mm f/1.0
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45 - 0,923g - 49:1 - Fuji X-T30 + Fuji 90mm f/2.0
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63 - 1,108g - 56:1 - Fuji X-T50 + Viltrox 75mm f/1.2
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61 - 1,050g - 58:1 - Samsung NX500 + 85mm f/1.4
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47 - 0,735g - 63:1 - Fuji X-M1 + Fuji 56mm f/1.2
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47 - 0,714g - 66:1 - Sony A6000 + Sony 85mm f/1.8
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40 - 0,563g - 71:1 - Sony NEX 5N + Sigma 56mm f/1.4
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61 - 0,792g - 77:1 - Sony A5100 + Samyang 85mm f/1.4 II
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63 - 0,768g - 81:1 - Sony ZV-E10 + Sirui 75mm f/1.2
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42 - 0,455g - 92:1 - Sony NEX C3 + Samyang 75mm f/1.8
Ratio Key:
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20:1 = Terrible
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30:1 = Poor
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40:1 = OK
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50:1 = Decent
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60:1 = Good
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70:1 = Great
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80:1 = Amazing
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90:1 = Incredible
The First (worst) example here is still a good system for shooting bokeh panos, it's just far too heavy for what it is.
The Sirui 75mm lens has the best ratio here, but since we're combining the camera weight too its score will depend on which camera you put it on. If you were to put the lens on the (225g) Sony NEX C3 the combo would score a ridiculous 96:1, although that camera is really quite unpleasant to use for this technique. The A5100 was much, much better and the 88:1 score is still pretty amazing. The ZV-E10 was better still and dropped the score to 81:1. However if you went for the more advanced and modern Sony A6700 the ratio (68:1) starts to feel a bit less special. The unfortunate truth is that having an EFV and/or IBIS is going to weigh your system down. APS-C cameras help a little, but not as much as you might think. The Sony A6700 and A7CR are pretty much the same weight, but full frame lenses are not going to get you the same great ratio scores. Modern mirrorless lens designs can still squeeze more out of the APS-C crop.
The Sirui 75mm f/1.2 lens and Sony A5100 combo weight is less than some 85mm f/1.4 full frame lenses on their own and this has a larger entrance pupil (greater bokeh pano effect).
COST
Now let's focus on reasonably priced equipment, to see how much effect we can get for the least money. The last mentioned combo is also featured below, so the highest effect to weight ratio gear is amazingly also one of the cheaper options!!
€175 : APS-C DSLR
Nikon's first small purpose build DSLR can be picked up for next to nothing. This meant I could spend most of this budget on the lens, which worked out as a 127mm f/2.7 equivalent on this 22 year old, 6mp APS-C CCD sensor. I had to use JPG over RAW here, so as not to get frustrated with the poor buffer speed when shooting these 32 images (hand held). It's important to note that using a smaller sensor will not effect the results you can achieve from a lens, it will only mean you need to shoot more images to get to this same result (this would require only 15 images from a full frame camera).
Nikon D100 - (€2000 in 2002) €25~
Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 AF-D - (1987) €150~
Entrance Pupil: 47mm
Weight: 1.2KG (2.65lbs)
Ratio: 39:1
# Frames: 32 | Equiv. Lens: 34mm f/0.72
€200 : APS-C Mirrorless
Like the DSLR, this small n light Sony mirrorless camera also uses an APS-C sized sensor. The 'N' variant improved the original NEX 5's resolution, dynamic range and noise performance while not costing much more, so is worth choosing to get the best value today. Despite being 9 years newer than the DSLR (above) I still had to avoid RAW and use JPG, so as to not get crazy bored when shooting this hand-held burst (48 shots). The controls of these early Sony mirrorless cameras were terrible (compared to a decade older DLSR), but having the rear screen show a live view all the time was massively more helpful when trying to align the pano frames so this ended being a nicer experience overall. Being able to adapt to more older, cheaper and often prettier rendering lenses does limit you to manual focus, but it's much easier to use on mirrorless cameras.
Sony NEX 5N - (€700 in 2011) €75~
Konica 85mm f/1.8 - (1970) €125~
Entrance Pupil: 47mm
Weight: 0.7KG (1.54lbs)
Ratio: 67:1
# Frames: 47 | Equiv. Lens: 27mm f/0.56
€375 : APS-C Mirrorless
Upgrading the little old Sony mirrorless range as far as it went and combining it with the new Samyang 75mm f/1.8 AF lens can cut your weight down a further 200g to a ridiculously light half a kilogram for the entire combo! That's so light it feels like a toy and represents the one of the best entrance pupil for the weight that I can find.
If you are more interested in a full frame combo with this lens you could get the weight down to 740g with the Sony A7c (or 700g with the original A7R if you don't mind losing in-body image stabilization). If Samyang ever make this lens for the L-Mount (which they now might) then the weight could potentially come down to 650g with the Sigma FP although that would also be without in-body image stabilization or a shutter mechanism.
Sony A5100 - (€700 in 2014) €175~
Samyang 75mm f/1.8 - (2020) €200~
Entrance Pupil: 42mm
Weight: 0.5KG (1.1lbs)
Ratio: 84:1
# Frames: 41 | Equiv. Lens: 29mm f/0.69
€500 : Full Frame Mirrorless
This relatively small n light Sony mirrorless camera uses a full frame sensor, so will improve your workflow (using previously mentioned lenses) by reducing the number of images you need to shoot. For this example let's throw a longer focal length at it however. This rather obscure lens can get some pretty extreme results for the price. These classic lenses can give a very fun rendering to the image, this one is particularly hazy for example, but I find it reminds me of film images and find the results quite pleasing.
Sony A7 - (€1300 in 2013) €350~
Sigmatel 135mm f/1.8 - (1970) €150~
Entrance Pupil: 75mm
Weight: 1.45KG (3.2lbs)
Ratio: 52:1
# Frames: 47 | Equiv. Lens: 34mm f/0.46
€500 : APS-C Mirrorless
This little mirrorless camera has the same sensor and processor as the flagship NX1. It was sought after for quite a while, even after it was discontinued, but its price is finally starting to drop as it melts into obscurity. Although it's quite light the 85mm lens is unfortunately heavier than some full frame options, but even then it manages to score a really good entrance pupil to KG ratio.
Samsung NX500 - (€700 in 2015) €150~
Samsung 85mm f/1.4 - (2012) €350~
Entrance Pupil: 61mm
Weight: 1.05KG (2.2lbs)
Ratio: 58:1
# Frames: 54 | Equiv. Lens: 32mm f/0.53
€825 : APS-C Mirrorless
I've bumped this camera up to the much newer Sony ZV-E10 here, but if you put this insane lens on the A5100 you can get the total weight down to 708g, which gives that combo a bokeh pano ratio of 86:1 and brings the total cost down to €500!! This lens is the lightest optic with an entrance pupil of this size (62.5mm), so by putting it on light bodies like this you can still get incredible images, but for a surprisingly low weight. If your budget can only stretch to €550 and/or you'd like to shave another 80g off the weight then you could combine this lens with the A5100. Check out the review of that camera for some bokeh pano samples.
Sony ZV-E10 - (€800 in 2021) €450~
Sirui 75mm f/1.2 - (2024) €375~
Entrance Pupil: 62.5mm
Weight: 0.785KG (1.74lbs)
Ratio: 80:1
# Frames: 49 | Equiv. Lens: 26mm f/0.42
