Back in 2019, I caught a glimpse of the Atlas Orion anamorphic lenses and was immediately intrigued. At the time, we were seeing a surge in fast and affordable spherical lenses that cover full-frame, and Atlas Lens Co., on the anamorphic side, was ahead of the pack in terms of price point. At $8.999, the Atlas Orion prime is affordable, at least when compared to the Master anamorphic series available on B&H for $48.000. Since 2019, a few other low-cost competitors, such as Sirui and Vazen, occupy a place several thousand dollars below the Atlas Orions. Since there are already plenty of shots of lens charts out there, my hope is this article will serve as part field test and part introduction to anamorphic for those getting started in this niche. Using the Atlas Orion lenses A-set with their 2X squeeze and a Canon C500 MK II shooting 5.9K Canon Raw Light, I shot a cereal commercial in San Diego and a yet-to-be-announced project in downtown Dallas (both during the day and night). The stylish looking Orion 40mm T2.0. Image Credit: Graham Sheldon / CineD Because the 5.9K full-frame RAW out of the C500 MKII is absolutely lovely, it seemed like a fertile testing ground for these optics. Canon is also introducing a potentially phenomenal update for the Canon C500 MK II that lands at the end of July 2021. The addition of both 4:3 and 6:5 sensor modes when shooting in Canon Raw Light represents a genuine embrace of...
Published By: CineD - Saturday, 3 July, 2021