Kowa Prominar Anamorphics advice

[Dominik Bauch]

Hi,

Thinking of using a set of Kowa Prominar Anamorphics on an upcoming shoot.
Red workflow aside and purely from an optical perspective are there any gotchas? (major CA wide open)

From people who have used them, how do they look? Would you recommend them?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[Dan Kanes]

I'd make sure you have a well serviced set (like the ones at Camtec) and either you or your AC'a should prep them beforehand with the camera package so you have all the right donuts, etc. everything is figured out before the shoot.

 

[Joel Voelker]

A good set looks incredible. Expect softness to be outside of the frame but quite sharp in the center. Beautiful flares. Tremendous distortion on the wide end.

 

[Kyle Stryker]

I would make sure to shoot a chart when you are prepping. The lenses have a vertical alignment screw that can get offset and give your vertical lines a slant and make things look really skewed. I would also roll some footage and check the sharpness of the lenses. I've had bad experiences with the 75mm on two different shoots, and they never quite got "sharp" regardless of focus. The optics internally needed some calibration and we couldn't use the lens anymore. Old Anamorphics are tricky. Goodluck and happy shooting.

 

[Martin Ubilluz]

Like every one else said its all about where you get the set and who serviced them . If they are a good set and maintained well they should be very very sharp wide open. I have a set of Kowas anamorphics 32mm,40mm,50mm,75mm,100mm that I rent out that has been completely re done by panavision in LA and are super sharp wide open, and all focus marks line up with very good mechanics . I can send you stills if you wish just message me.

the one thing you will notice is on all kowas there is a lot of distortion on the sides of the 32mm and 40mm you will see less of that distortion on the red cameras then on cameras like the Alexa with 4:3 sensor because red cameras crop anamorphic lenses . which could be a good thing if your going to be using the wide kowas a lot .

they flare orange unlkess your shining a spuer blue light at them . the wides flare more then the tight lenses . they are all light and can go on a movi.