I can buy only 2 anamorphic lens - which ones??

[David Mullen ASC]

The best thing would be to do a short film with two lenses and see how it works out.

 

[Emilian Dechev]

Alright thanks for the advice, just what I thought...

Its only 2 lens, because I only have 2 kidneys to sell

I know, I need to get the 100mm down the road, just need to make more moneys. Unfortunately Xelmus does not offer a 75mm at the moment.

Waiting for Atlas to answer about their 1.6X extender, but I guess they would not like it used on another brand.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

In theory, a PL-mount extender would work on most PL-Mount lens, I don't think the brand matters. There are some focus issues with extenders and anamorphic zooms I believe.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

A 65mm macro anamorphic would give you close focus & all else. You could shoot a whole film on it no problem. But as Mr Mullen said, for a c/u of a person ‘you would have to like that look.’ A hair wide, but you’d have to have taste to even notice.

On my anamorphic features, I often had a 40mm and 60mm C-Series anamorphic for Steadicam shots, the second for when I needed to stay tighter, so it definitely works as a close-up lens but it's like shooting close-ups on a 32mm spherical, for example, or anything in the 27mm to 35mm range -- it can be done but it has a look to it.

I was on a TV show where we dollied into a close-up on a 35mm spherical, slightly low-angle -- I thought it was a nice heroic angle but the editor sent a note complaining to me about using a wide-angle lens on a face... and I was thinking "35mm isn't that wide-angle!"

 

[Phil Holland]

I very much agree with David here. I mostly have experience on Panavision anamorphic, but if you gave me the choice of 2, 75mm and 40-ish.

Also David, that particular episode was a treat. Loved seeing how you framed all that up. Train scenes = wonderful.

I'm more of a 3 focal length dude, but given just one, you can do a lot with 75-85mm 2X.

Miss working in anamorphic, first decade of my career a whole bunch of it, which is why I have some funky glass. Last decade, less so.

One thing I will say is the variety of different looks is pretty massive among vintage through modern anamorphics, even at same squeeze ratios and focal lengths. Gotta test those babies to discover what you're into. Some of the wider lenses have a bit more distortion than I'm comfortable with, but on a few films we *gasp* fixed that in post. *tears*

Many of these anamorphics to date ideally should be used stopped down a bit. But i'm not going to tell you how to live your life

 

[Zack Birlew]

This would be quite a dilemma, there are only three lenses after all. All I could say is, if it were me, I would go with the 40mm and 100mm and use the 40mm as a 50mm/60mm by moving closer, maybe with a diopter from Vormax or one of those high end Zeiss ones if necessary. Basically treating the 40mm as the everything lens and the 100mm for close ups. However, I could see the strategy for the 40/60 because on my first feature on spherical, I tended to favor the 35mm more than the 50mm just for practical space limitations in a working restaurant and we used either the 50mm or 85mm for close ups, usually going with the 50mm if memory serves me right.

 

[Andrew Reese]

From my experience my favorite focal lengths on anamorphic are 40mm for wides and 75mm for everything else. I add diopters to the 75mm for better close ups. Out of the various sets I have used (atlas / kowa) those always seem to be my go to on most of my shoots and what I would purchase first if I could only get two. Anything wider than 40mm has to much barrel distortion for my taste unless specifically using them to shoot ultra wide scenes which is usually only a small percentage of the time. 50mm has always felt like a good "in between" focal length framing wise but I always end up grabbing the 75mm instead for better depth of field and just move back from my subject if I can. 100m is great for tight shots but I always seem to run into limitations with that focal length in tighter spaces and so the 75mm with diopters is to me more versatile so that focal length tends to stay on my camera a lot more. As long as you don't place a subject to far on the outer edge of the frame you can actually get some pretty pleasant close-up shots of talent even with the 40mm focal length without it looking too warped. Anything below 40mm and I wouldn't want to shoot people with it at least not unless I was pretty far away and capturing an entire scene.