since mantra has very cool (and production ready) depth of field, it is a bit sad that there is no apparent way to manipulate the bokeh shape (either parametric as in prman or yet cooler with a mask image as in mental ray). or is there? any ideas?

are there any plans for something like this?

and on a broader note: what about lens shaders (or image shaders)? any plans for those?

cheers!

If you add the Bokeh Rendering Parameter you can set radial versus box, but nothing else. The image thing also exists in Indigo, along with a thing to simulate the number of blades.

A control image would be interesting because you could maybe emulate the bright ringing in some lenses. The smooth radial is compared to the creamy look of Leica lenses but you can get some interesting effects with other lenses. Take a look at this site (if you haven't already) and check out some of the effects: http://www.bokeh.de/en/index.html [bokeh.de]