Anamorphic lens advice

[Dominik Bauch]

I'm looking into Anamorphic glass and would ideally like to go modern. I've shot with Kowas and didn't love them. Flare is ok in my opinion and the distortion is pretty extreme in areas.

Anyone have real world experience with the Arri Master Anamorphics? Sure they are clean but technically it's not tough to add some vignetting and light edge blur in post to mimic older lens artifacts. They are supposed to be more gentle look-wise than Master Primes and some amazing stuff has been shot with those.
I love the relatively light weight, low T-stop and the fact that every part of the frame is in play but I'm just concerned about the supposed clinical nature of the image...
Are these in high demand and is the resale price high? i.e. are these a good investment?

I would love to look into Hawk V-Lites but they are aggressively rental only... The size and weight are awesome plus the look is more classic.

Cooke Anamorphic i SF seem amazing but the weight is a real issue. Ideally I'm trying to still be in gimbal weight territory.

Any thoughts or advice much appreciated.

 

[Jonathan Pears]

Hey Dominik, I think all the lenses you menion all have their own pro's and con's, and when you factor budget into the conversation things can shift further. I have been fortunate to be able to shoot several projects on the new Atlas Anamorphics, and to me, they represent the classic look we all love, with modern day engineering taking care of all the issues we also aaociate with classic lenses. I would place them as a good mix between what we see from a Cooke and Master Series lens, and i would strongly recommend you looking into them before you make any major purchase decisions. You should be now be able to rent them locally in LA, or reach out to Atlas to see if they have a demo set. It won't be a waste of your time.

In terms of gimbal practicality, the 40mm and 65mm are both easily gimbal mountable, depending on what else you have on the rig as is the case with any lens. So, give them a look. I'd also suggest you take a listen to this interview with Denis Lenoir, as he has some interesting things to say about lens choice, and some interesting recomendations for how to decide on what lenses you want to use and like. Anamorphics are often different beasts, but its worth a thorough investigation if you're going to part with that much $$$.
http://wanderingdp.com/podcast/wandering-dp-podcast-episode-141-denis-lenoir-afc-asc/