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SLR Magic 2x ANAMORPHIC lens
  • 804 Replies sorted by
  • I would target the adapter at a plastic lens no problem. it all depends on its weight, moving barrel no problem for me either. i am on a low budget, so if the image quality is good and the equipment is safe so no problem at all.

    also the adapter for the 14-42mm do not need to cover all the zoom range. if it vignette under 20mm no problem, people can use it from 20mm to 42mm. this way it can be smaller and lighter

  • (also, I'd reiterate what others are saying concerning lens mount. Providing it doesn't significantly effect price, a "Super 35/APS-C" EF-S mount lens will significantly widen your target audience.)

  • @apefos I would not target the adapter at a plastic zoom lens, and certainly not one with a moving barrel.

    @slrmagic If you end up making an adapter with plastic elements, make sure that it still retains the proper anamorphic look. The flares on adapters like that are often a bit different than what you'd expect from a proper anamorphic lens. And you'd have to keep the general IQ in mind as well. Personally I would prefer an adapter made from glass (if you decide not to make primes), even though that would make it heavier.

  • Here are some more thoughts for @slrmagic, after reading further comments.

    1. Rear/front thread sizes if you make an "adapter" for use with various "taking" lenses: 72mm is the front thread I would suggest. The best circular diopter option currently is the Tokina ATX, which is 72mm. Any front larger than 72mm would risk vignette with the Tokina ATX. Also, I'm no rocket scientist, but I think if you were to make the back thread 72mm, the front thread would have to be significantly larger than that. I'd try to keep the rear thread a bit smaller.

    2. A unique approach that just might make everyone happy: 1.33/1.35X anamorphic lens with oval iris. Best of both worlds. I did some serious internet digging on the oval iris concept several months ago, and I'm pretty confident that it would be possible to make an adjustable oval iris (that is, it is not fixed aperture; it has blades and can be stopped down, remaining oval). Therefore, you could make an anamorphic lens with a 1.35X squeeze up front, and make up the difference between 1.35X and 2X out of focus "smear" via an oval aperture. What you'd end up with is an anamorphic that flares lightly but not too much, that desqueezes from 16:9 to 2.39 without the need to crop, and that still delivers wonderful out of focus smear 100% on par with that of 2X anamorphics.

    3. Also, I don't know much about them, but I don't think rear anamorphic elements have been mentioned yet. As far as I know, they don't flare at all . . . but it may be more cost-effective to squeeze the image with a smaller set of optical elements near the back of the lens, rather than with a large set of front elements . . . just something you could look into. Flares can always be achieved with a flare filter.

    P.S.

    Just the fact that as a forum community we are having this conversation with a manufacturer is incredibly cool. @slrmagic mad props.

  • another thing i was thinking about. to get the oval bokeh the background needs to be out of focus, so need to shoot shallow dof. to get shallow dof with m43 sensor the maximum fstop to use is 2.8, better 2.0 so to develop anamorphic zoom or prime lenses to be slower than 2.8 would be a big mistake because they would not give the oval bokeh due to slow fstop does not give shallow dof in m43 sensor.

    so the adapter for the panasonic 20mm 1.7 and olympus 45mm 1.8 seems to be the best solution and if it have 52mm thread or a little bigger it can be used with most vintage lenses.

    this does not kill the idea of the adapter for the 14-42mm lens because low budget people will have the 1.33x to do the 2.4:1

  • Also, when i sugest the cheap anamorphic adapter for the 14-42mm lens i do not mean it need to be bad quality, i believe they can make it good quality, not a toy lens.

  • @LPowell if you read my previous post you can see my sugestion is two adapters or one adapter and one zoom or set of primes. one solution for low budget and one solution for pros. because if you develop just for pros, most people cannot buy, if you develop for low budget the pros will not buy, so why not two different products for different market.

  • If it is difficult to put hands in all lenses i said before, if you develop an adapter for the panasonic 20mm 1.7 and for the olympus 45mm 1.8 it will be good enough. these lenses are not expensive to buy and have them in your hands to develop the adapter

  • @apefos - "If you build a lightweight and inexpensive anamorphic adapter for the 14-42mm lens it will sell like hotcakes."

    Sorry, but I think you're talking about hobbyists rather than filmmakers. I'm hoping slrmagic is not looking to market this anamorphic as part of their Toy Lens line.

  • @LPowell As i said before i do not have experience with anamorphic shooting. But i think the duty of the manufacturer is to show us the solutions we do not have instead of being barred by obstacles existing today. Reading some threads about anamorphic i know it is very difficult to avoid vignetting, get good iq in corners, get focus near, use wide angle, and so on... But if a manufacturer wants to develop something it must solve all these problems.

  • People are going to want a miniature version of whatever Arri and Zeiss are doing, 4:3 recording with 2x anamorphic. If that is what is going to get you the proper aspect ratio and pixel stretch to get the perfect anamorphic look. Is there a thread that discusses what the limits are with hacks? Can hacks enable 4:3 with the proper frame rates, resolution, and encoding on any current cameras?

  • If you build a lightweight and inexpensive anamorphic adapter for the 14-42mm lens it will sell like hotcakes. do not discard this idea, think better about it. take the 14-42mm in your hands and try how much weight it can handle.

    also if you are serious about building the adapter, you, as a manufacturer, need to buy, to borrow or to rent some lenses to do tests. You must consider the adapter to work with the following lenses: 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 / 14mm 2.5 / 17.5mm 0.95 / 20mm 1.7 / 25mm 0.95 / 25mm 1.4 / 30mm 1.4 / 45mm 1.8 (and also the vintage nikon and canon fd lenses from 24 to 85mm, most of them uses 52mm thread)

    another option for you to fill the market gape would be you develop TWO solutions:

    first solution: a cheap and lightweight anamorphic adapter for the 14-42mm / 20mm 1.7 / 45mm 1.8

    second solution: a zoom anamorphic 20-45mm or at least two primes 20mm and 45mm or even better three primes 17.5mm / 25mm / 50mm

  • @apefos - "the main lenses to work with the anamorphic adapter would be: 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 / 17.5mm 0.95 / 20mm..."

    Have you actually tried using an anamorphic adapter with any of these lenses? I don't know of any production-quality adapters that would not vignette with these lenses. Very few of the Lumix or Olympus M4/3 zooms are viable choices either, since their outer barrels extend when zoomed. This makes them unsuitable for use with a matte box.

    In practice, anamorphics are only useful when mounted on a tripod and aligned to be precisely horizontal. You cannot produce good footage handheld because the slightest tilt will skew the image in a distorted manner. If the adapter weighs more than the lens + camera, you must mount it separately to rails in order to prevent image jitter.

  • I dont think a fixed focal length anamorphic lens would be the solution because to do a movie the director needs at least two or three lenses: 20mm + 45mm or 17.5mm + 25mm + 50mm

  • @apefos I appreciate your input. The 14-42 kit is a good suggestion but from my experience it is not a good lens to adapt a huge anamorphic lens. Due to the strength of the focus motor it is better suited for use with small and light lens adapters. I have not tried the other lenses you mentioned. Have you?

    This is also why this thread is good and also why we did not want to make an adapter. We do not want people to keep finding the right lens that would work with an adapter we make. We do not have access to all lenses in the market to build a compatibility list either.

  • the main lenses to work with the anamorphic adapter would be: 14-42mm 3.5-5.6 / 14mm 2.5 / 17.5mm 0.95 / 20mm 1.7 / 25mm 0.95 / 25mm 1.4 / 30mm 1.4 / 45mm 1.8 (and also the vintage nikon and canon fd lenses from 24 to 85mm, most of them uses 52mm thread)

  • @slrmagic Good sharpness at infinity is something very rare with anamorphics, but it is also something that is very filmic. To sacrifice that for close focus ability would not make any sense, as it´s a lot easier to make the lens work OK at close range with diopters, than the other way around.

    As for glass vs plastic; well, it all depends on IQ. As far as I know glass is superior, but as long as it performs well and is cheap people won´t care if it´s plastic.

    Personally, I think an adapter or anamorphic lens does not have to be designed with fast T stop in mind. If you decide to make a lens, a T value of 3.5 would be very good. Even 4 would be good.

  • If it is difficult / expensive / large to do an anamorphic adapter for lenses from 12mm to 50mm, so maybe for lenses from 20mm to 50mm it would be a better solution so it can have the 58mm thread or 52mm thread. Almost everybody own a 14-42 kit lens and it covers a good zoom range, an anamorphic adapter for it would be nice, or if shallow dof is a must, an anamorphic adapter for the new 12-35mm X lens. the idea in previous post about a zoom anamorphic is good also 20-45mm or 20-40mm

  • How about ultra-lightweight 8mm Berthiot S.T.O.P. "Baby Hypergonar" anamorphic lens. I was considering a kickstart to make 500 very small adapters like this. Works great on 25mm and 35mm lenses.

    http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2NlgxNjAw/%24(KGrHqJ,!r!E-ZUiTK-hBPnDet3PPw~~60_3.JPG

  • @disneytoy Have you tried 1.33x or 1.5x anamorphic before? We only make prime lenses at the moment as zoom lenses are a compromise to IQ.

  • Just a random question. An anamorphic lens usually works well from 3m-infinity. If there was a choice, would you prefer us to sacrifice 10m-infinity performance for close focus performance? Again, just a random though if it is even possible.

  • I think the amount of stretch correlates to that Anamorphic look. 1.33x may not be that much of a benefit. I have 2x and it is too wide. But it does give a very organic over digital look.

    How about a 20mm to 45mm zoom anamorphic.

  • @apefos an adapter that would work with a 12mm lens would be 77mm or larger. 58mm thread would not work as it is too small. As discussed before the next issue would be price. Would 2.5K-4K be affordable for an anamorphic adapter that would work with our 12mm T.16 lens? Expect huge 95mm or larger front filter thread to work with 12mm to 50mm lenses.

  • I saw Total Recall and there are lots of horizontal flares, and in most of them the camera does not see the light who generates it, so maybe they did those flares in post or there was a light source out of frame near the lens? Another movie called Super8 have some beautiful horizontal flares and they seems to be very realistic generated from the backlights.

  • i am not an expert in anamorphic but i think 1.33x or 1.35x would be the best and more useful option because it turns 16:9 into 2.35:1 or 2.39:1 or 2.4:1 without crop. Also i think an adapter like the LA7200 would be better in terms of versatility if it could mount in front of lenses from 12mm to 50mm. Maybe a 58mm thread would be most useful and use step rings to fit other threads. The chalenge is to design an adapter with good IQ in corners.

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