400mm f/4 DO IS opinions?

[Kayaker72]

That is the general consensus, not sure about the poor bokeh. Maybe someone has an example of such? I haven't looked at every review ever made with it or every image. But I have looked at several including Bryan's and he doesn't notice anything terrible about the bokeh. But that is just one review in one use case. Doesn't mean it can't be less than desirable.

My recollection from when I was considering the 400 DO V2. A few quick searches, and I do not see a specific test of the V1 (actually, hardly anything turns up on the v1), but you can see the bokeh issues the V2 has with onion ring (ish) bokeh both in Bryan's review and at Lenstip. My recollection was people attributed this to DO and that I read V1 users saying there was a similar/worse issue with V1. But, bokeh is subjective, perhaps you are fine with it. Easy way to test would be to scroll the flickr form on DO lenses and see what you think.

As for the V2, in terms of fun, it was very high on my list. Just easy to hop in and out of the car, track birds, travel etc.

EDIT. BTW, I do want to emphasize, the V2 was still very very good. I was happy with the majority of my images, but I did occasionally see an image with nervous bokeh. In terms of the points I was trying to make, IQ, contrast were the primary differences between V1 and V2. But the bokeh may not be as creamy as other big whites. But, $2150 isn't the same price as other big whites.