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SLR Magic 2x ANAMORPHIC lens
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  • @slrmagic the best way to see results is to test things in person! I just meant if I'm not part of the program I look forward to seeing what comes out of it.

    Thanks @BurnetRhoades!

  • @kellar42

    Here's another reference to a great looking film shot with some old and crusty Cooke anamorphics (Xtal Express), the British film Brighton Rock:

    ...so, resolution isn't always the "end all", especially with anamorphic.

  • @kellar42

    This was from the v2 uncoated prototype

    This was from the v3 uncoated prototype

    The version volunteers will be receiving is the final coated version. In other words it will be the pre-production versions. Packaging is not final and there will be no instruction manual. Both of these will be worked on during the volunteer testing period.

    We recommend those who want to look for more results should not join the volunteer program and wait for the official release version in 2014.

  • I emailed about the volunteer program, but whatever happens, looking forward to seeing more results from this prototype and some fresh options on the market.

    @BurnetRhoades interesting information on the recent films, thank you. I've always been surprised by the 'flaws' one can find in high-end anamorphic stuff if one really looks, and how much better (to my eye) it looks than anything else. Definitely becoming all the rage, now.

  • Thinking about it, the primary reason to use a Speed Booster is to increase FOV, effectively scaling the size of the sensor. This ends up being rather counter-productive with available anamorphic adapter designs, all of which (besides the LA7200) require longer minimum focal length as sensor size increases.

    Regardless of recommendation I would still have to see the results for myself if I was shooting with a BMCC or BMPCC but perhaps the right lens combination could achieve a final, effective anamorphic FOV at least the same width you can achieve on a GH2 without Speed Booster with anamorphic. Still, lower technical IQ at the edges isn't necessarily a deal breaker for certain applications.

    Two recent cases, Killing Them Softly and The World's End. The former maintained a T2.3 for a majority of the film, even for the daylight exteriors. The classic lenses they used go soft and chromatic that wide and this was done on purpose, because the clinical look of Primos isn't appealing to everyone. And even with these you're not guaranteed even performance at wider apertures. Django was mostly at T3.2 on Primos and E-Series and I spotted softness at the edges and a bit of CA in certain high contrast scenes.

    On The World's End they ended up using B-Series Panavision anamorphics, mostly at T2.8, that were salvaged from lenses that hadn't been catalogued and gone unnoticed for decades. Once the DP saw how their old coatings reacted to light and how the edges were soft and how each lens had its own unique aberrations they had to use them. Now these 1960s lenses are the new belle of the ball.

  • @jcbouden Our anamorphic lens should not be used with any sort of Speed Booster, Light Cannon, or Lens Turbo.

    How the anamorphic lens performs depends on the quality of the taking lens as well.

    If you look halfway through this review you can see all lenses perform differently towards the corners with lenses using some sort of booster with the worst performance towards the extreme edges.

    http://3d-kraft.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=138:adorable-35s-35mm-speed-lens-comparison-leica-slr-magic-mitakon-canon-speedbooster-samyang&catid=40:camerasandlenses&Itemid=2

    Boosters may increase the center sharpness and increase the stop of light but at the sacrafice of mid to extreme corner IQ and this would cause bad IQ on anamorphic format. Subsequently you may have to stop down the aperture to f/5.6 to balance out the effects and you end up with a slower anamorphic lens.

  • For those who didn't know we sent out the tweet yesterday about the volunteer program on twitter yesterday under @slrmagic

  • A big part of this, I think, was shooting 35mm with the smaller sensor and framing lots of wider scenes while stopped down. I like the 35mm focal length on the larger GH2 sensor for normal 16:9 shooting, if I can be at apertures of f/4 or wider (same story with that focal length on film).

    Stopped down it's an absolutely boring focal length without the character of a true wide or telephoto. But Andrew said he purposely didn't use any ND because they all (especially on a BMD) affect color and sharpness. Since this adapter isn't a known quantity yet it's best to shoot purely with it. For meaningful tests you need to control what variables are going to influence the results. (I've yet to see what I'd call a good test of the Speed Booster with meaningful conclusions on edge performance because of this)

    24mm is a much better feeling focal length with a 1.33x at the 19mm sensor size of the GH2 so I'm betting 17mm + 1.33x would have a similar feel on the BMCC, or slap a Speed Booster on it and use the SLR Magic 25mm.

  • I also wish there was more test with it, specialy tests about the limits of the adapter : how it reacts in full frame, with non slrmagic lenses, how it reacts at fast apertures...

    I am very happy of the sharpness, but I don't intend to shoot anamorphic the way Andrew just did (no offense), just because the image have in some shots a lack of character, of texture with so much sharpness and depth of field. I hope that the coating (I prefer quiet flares) and the other improvement will help. I really would like to see some nice bokeh with that lens

  • That's too bad. I wonder why Andrew mentions it in a comment relating to the anamorphic. With the physical specs on this adapter it sounds doable, since 18mm is doable on a GH2 with a similar adapter.

  • The test EOSHD plans to do with the GH3 and the 17mm T1.6 is a lens test and not an anamorphic test

  • That's because most of that daylight footage is stopped down, broad daylight. At f/8+ it's going to be very difficult to tell anamorphic from cropped spherical.

    What this footage shows very effectively, by being stopped down, broad daylight footage, is how much better at the edges this prototype adapter is than either the LA7200 or Century Optics adapter. All of the locations Andrew shot at are rich with texture and detail, in the center and at the edges of frame. At least paired to something the size of the BMCC.

    It beats dull focus charts that's for sure.

    His next round of imagery is reportedly going to be via the 17mm on a GH3 which should show what's really happening at the edges of the adapter and not the edges of the "sweet spot". I'm hoping he also shoots some footage on a Speed-boosted GH2 or GH3 and as wide as he can before vignetting.

  • Am I the only one who sees nothing anamorphy in this video?!? Even the backgrounds don't look anamorphic.

  • @slrmagic

    Ooooooooo, looking good Andrew!

  • @slrmagic

    Looking good especially after the V3 stuff from EOSHD. The f2.8 stuff is looking downright clinical! Once you get down to testing some coated versions, a lot of us are going to be curious to see what it does in the extremes on your 35mm f0.95 and 25mm f0.95 wide open. I think you may be surprised how much it improves with some coating.

  • @BurnetRhoades well if that works, then no problem - if not, Dealbreaker. I don't know if that's a possible solution. Usually then the Adapter gets a bit further away from the first element of the Lens, don't know if that's obsolete or not.

  • Here's the first test footage from our v3 prototype anamorphic lens

    This is still an uncoated version but sharpness should be increased in our V3 over the V2.

  • You use a 77mm->52mm step-down ring. What's the problem?

    There are no and likely never will be any anamorphic adapters with a 77mm rear element. If there was they would either be softer than the LA7200 or they would be the most amazing, polished by German faeries, glass on the planet and cost as much as a house, IMO.

  • @slrmagic so I can not use the v3 with a Lens that has a 77mm Frontdiameter? Well, then there's the Dealbreaker :(

  • @CameraRick @BurnetRhoades Our SLR Magic 35mm T1.4 CINE II has 52mm filter threads to the SLR Magic Anamorphic Prototype V3 has 52mm rear filter threads. To accommodate for Diopters the lens has a front filter thread of 77mm so you can use 77mm diopters/close up filters on the Anamorphic.

  • The rear threads are 52mm, based on Andrew's article over at eoshd. The rear element is 50mm reportedly and he's seen holding the V3 adapter connected to a Lumix 20mm pancake lens via 46mm->52mm step-up ring.

  • @slrmagic "V3 has a slightly larger form factor to accommodate for 77mm front filter threads."

    Does that mean the filter gets this thread, or will it fit on 77mm Lenses? I actually only own 77mm (like the Samyang 35mm) lenses, and I'd love to use this adapter with them?

  • Great, thanks!

  • @stip the V2 anamorphic adapter that @ed_lee83 tested had a smaller form factor but has a "cap" kind of hood with no filter threads. V3 has a slightly larger form factor to accommodate for 77mm front filter threads.

  • @slrmagic

    Thanks! Also, I can't see from the images at EOSHD, will it have a front thread and if so what's the diameter? Thanks!

    I like that you design it with a smaller and lighter formfactor in mind, that's an important criteria for me.

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