How come nobody...

[Zack Birlew]

Hey, guys, I know I've asked about this in the past, but it's been a long time with no final answers yet. Okay, how come nobody has tried to put the Panasonic Anamorphic adapter onto the 18-50mm RED zoom? Granted, you'll have to use a 72mm spacer ring and zoom in a bit, but it'll still do the anamorphic squeeze for 2.35:1 framing. I know that people have said that it wouldn't exactly be true 2.35:1 squeeze and that it would mess with your focusing, but with my tests on my HV20, it is indeed workable and it looks rather nice. Up until now I would have expected someone to at least try just to see but, so far, there's been nothing. Anybody willing to test this out?

 

[Dan Hudgins]

Focus ring?

Focus ring?

Hey, guys, I know I've asked about this in the past, but it's been a long time with no final answers yet. Okay, how come nobody has tried to put the Panasonic Anamorphic adapter onto the 18-50mm RED zoom? Granted, you'll have to use a 72mm spacer ring and zoom in a bit, but it'll still do the anamorphic squeeze for 2.35:1 framing. I know that people have said that it wouldn't exactly be true 2.35:1 squeeze and that it would mess with your focusing, but with my tests on my HV20, it is indeed workable and it looks rather nice. Up until now I would have expected someone to at least try just to see but, so far, there's been nothing. Anybody willing to test this out?

To get a 1.33:1 Anamorphic to give good results, it shoud have its own focus ring so that you can set the prime and anamorphic group to the same distance.

Some 1.33:1 adapters I think have a focus adjustment, but others may not.

If you still want to use a fixed focus 1.33:1 adapter, you can try these steps:

1) take a flashlight bulb and battery and move it to different distances from the camera with the prime lens focused at its distance wide open.

2) look at the (4k) frames in a graphics program 1:1 pixel size and find the distance that makes for the sharpest distance, that will be the distance the 1.33:1 anamorphic adapter is focused at all the time (since it is fixed) this will probably be about 8 feet or something.

3) when you shoot leave the prime lens focused at the best distance for the 1.33:1 anamorphic adapter and focus using Diopters lenses of different focal lengths like +3, +2, +1, +0.5, +0.25, -0.25, -0.5 and such, you can get lens blanks at an eyeglasses shop.

4) you can make a focusing diopter with a +3 close to the adapter and a -3.25 away from it, as the gap increased the lens will focus closer, you may need to fiddle a little with the values, but you could make a focus group and put a follow focus gear on it, you focus with the focus group. You could take the front off an old 25-250 zoom, the front part is the focus group and would give better results than just two simple lenses.

4b) another way to focus the adapter is to cut it in half so you can adjust the distance between its positive and negative back and front groups, this is the way it should have been made in the first place. focusing the anamorphic adapter is more important for digital cinema since at f/1.2 the DOF is smaller than the f/2.8 used in video zoom lenses, and such.

Best to use as many pixels as you can since the OLPF divides the light over four pixel groups and cuts the resolution so much, a 1.33:1 anamorphic on 16:9 gives you (1.33*16)/9 = 2.36:1, Cinemascope was 2.35:1 and ARRI is closer to 2.40:1(?) on a cut down plate or something, so that is good enough.

If you want to do this feel free to PM me, I am interested in the 1.33:1 scope adapter thing also...

 

[Anders Yarbrough]

Using that adapter sounds like torture to me. Definitely a little thrown together for the 18-50, and you wouldn't really want a director, producer and everyone else to think that you and your assistants are hacks!

 

[Dustin Cross]

I am pretty sure this was tried last year at the Red test and the footage looked really really soft.

Dusty

 

[Brian Broz]

We tested Panasonic Anamorphic adapter with Sony Z1Us a few years ago.
It was extremely soft when viewing at 1080i with lots of CA on the edges.
Maybe you were getting ok results from the HV20 as it has a small front diameter (43mm) and may only be "seeing" the very center of the adapter (?)!
Works very well for DVX100s but unfortunately nowhere near sharp enough for REDs resolution and optics.

 

[Zack Birlew]

Well, I do notice a little softness to the image as well but not offensively so. But I figured that the difference between a 1080p 1/3" sensor and 4K Digital S35 sensor would make up for the slight image softness, especially when the 4K has more headroom for added sharpness in post.

 

[Evin Grant]

The optics of the panasonic Anamorphic are utter dog shit. Barely enough for DXV even.

 

[Zack Birlew]

Yes, I've heard that every time I ask this question. That's why I say someone should test this, put up a few stills or even a test video, and let everyone see for themselves and make their own judgements. If it's bad, then, like Mythbusters, the idea is "Busted".

 

[Dan Hudgins]

Another adapter? Dealing with fixed focus the "right" way...

Another adapter? Dealing with fixed focus the "right" way...

The optics of the panasonic Anamorphic are utter dog shit. Barely enough for DXV even.

Here is a German lens, if you find its best focus point as I talked about above and use close up lenses to set the focus it might look better. From the photo it seems to have a focus adjustment, but may not go close/far enough so an extra lens in front can fix that.

http://www.projectorcentral.com/schneider_optics_anamorphic.htm

Isco made some 1.5:1 and 1.33:1 lenses also, Bolex made a 1.5:1 lens a while back. You can use a small prime lens like a Nikkon enlarger lens of 35mm or 50mm to get a smaller front element and sharper results maybe with the adapter.

You cannot use a fixed focus adapter for shooting without add on lenses for +/- adjustment, if the adapter is fixed focus the prime lens should also be fixed focus. You would then focus by tape to match the close up lens used and just shoot at a fixed set of distances.

It is better to use a 50mm or 75mm prime lens with the adapter, and put a wide angle adapter in front of the anamorphic adapter since 'Scope lens adapters may distort on the sides of the frame if you try to get the max angle out of it.

 

[Hannes Isaksson]

This is very interesting!
I want to shoot a documentary anamorphic style so I'll probably do some tests when my red arrives. Keep you guys posted.

 

[Zack Birlew]

Bump! Still waiting for testers! =)

 

[Zack Birlew]

Hey, guys, here's a little update about this.

Well, seeing as how I finally had some time to get away from my classes at Chapman today, I decided to head on over to RED HQ. I made sure to bring along my Panasonic Anamorphic adapter and my Canon WD-72H to test on the 18-50mm RED Zoom at the RED Store. Unfortunately I don't have any pics to share but here's the lowdown:

Panasonic Anamorphic Adapter:

1. It literally costs you some zoom range.

Unfortunately, the Anamorphic adapte requires a 72mm spacer ring in order to fit. I first had to zoom the lens all the way to 50mm as, for those who don't know, the RED 18-50mm Zoom moves the barrel when you zoom in or out, it's not a bad thing but it was interesting to see. So, after screwing it on, I zoomed back and because of the lens hood built into the RED Zoom, I could only reach about 25mm. The Panasonic Anamorphic is kind of a fat adapter too, so that didn't help.

2. It costs you some f-stops

The adapter shines in 4K, much better than 1080p HDV on my HV20. Unfortunately, I didn't have a flashlight to bring with me to test flares and the RED Store guys didn't have any on hand either. The resolution was very sharp but the lens had to be stopped down to around f3.5-f4.0 in order to get full crisp sharp images all the way through the zoom range, otherwise the Anamorphic adapter experienced its usual blooming effect at near 50mm, it's not too bad visually but not ideal.

3. I tested this and looked at the 5.6" LCD. To my eye, things were sharp when set correctly, but either because I'm inexperienced with the RED or the adapter is weird, I couldn't tell what to look at when in 4K Anamorphic mode or if the image changed at all (ie. unsqueezed). Still, the sharpness was apparent.

4. Focusing weirdness still there.

Focusing with the adapter on the camera was still a little different. Not so much when you stop down, but it's still requires a little getting used to.

5. Overall, it CAN work.


Canon WD-72H

1. Sadly requires a stepping ring as well.

Same deal as the anamorphic. It just needs it.

2. Sharp as heck!!!

Really impressed with how this adapter performed throughout the range.

3. 14mm-ish looks nice and big but...

The wide angle adapter, unlike the Anamorphic, doesn't interfere with the zoom's hood, so you can go all the way down to 18mm, which is now more like 14.4mm! The added mm range really opens the zoom range up, however, I fear it may vignette a little at 14mm due to the spacer. I couldn't really tell on the 5.6" LCD.

4. HEAVY!

Certainly does add some weight to the front of the zoom. It may be easier just to swap to a Nikon 14mm or something if you really need it to be wide and light, but there wasn't any apparent image warping or anything like that with the adapter on, so it depends on what you want.

 

[J. Bernard Vallon]

The best thing to do with these old anamorphic adapters is to flip them around, double them together, and attach them to the EVF when your using REAL anamorphics, so you can view a de-squeezed image.