Scarlet Dragon W/ ISCO 2X Anamorphic adapter - Test Reel

[Noah Gould]

Undoubtedly, some of you have explored the option of anamorphic adapters and found, like most, that it's not great. Despite this, I felt the need to give it a try. Digital anamorphic has increasingly become my favorite format and I feel it has produced some of the most 'film-like' digital images to date.

I put together this 'frankenstein' of a rig and brought it up to my parents over holiday. Finally got a chance to put together some of the shots. Though it would be tough to use this set up on any serious production, I was pretty happy with the results. Very soft vintage looking image.

Considering the ISCO with rear Nikon are altogether less than $500, not bad at all. Until I can afford a set of Hawks, or Cooke anas, this will have to do

Also used were a cheap set of Vivitar 95mm threaded Diopters

All shot in
5K 6:5 2x ana
redcode 5:1 & 10:1(48fps)
Highlight OLPF
colored in Davinci 11 with Dragoncolor2

 

[Noah Gould]

P.S. sorry for the sub-par male modeling
I'll get somebody prettier next time.

 

[Noah Gould]

I actually do have a question for the RED team or anyone who might know the answer.

Why only 5k anamorphic mode on Scarlet Dragon?

I would be interested in using 4k or 3k 6:5 ana ( because of vignetting , lower comp, and frame rate options).

Seems like it would use less horsepower then 5k, no?

 

[Micheal Del Castillo]

Nice stuff Noah. I keep reading about these ISCO lenses but cannot find any history on them. For instance what were they originally used for?

Also, what nikon glass were you using?

thanks

 

[Noah Gould]

Thanks Micheal.

It was a VERY cheap Nikkor 35-105mm f3.5. Old school style still zoom lens.

Anyone feel free to correct me here but I believe these style of ISCO's were for projecting 35mm anamorphic. More or less the opposite of how I used it (and rotated 90 degrees). It would 'de squeeze' 35mm shot with anamorphic lenses?

 

[Christopher-lee dos Santo]

Wait a second... SD does 5:1 compression with ANA setting?????? WHY DID I NOT KNOW THIS!!!! Where have I been hiding?

 

[Brian Boyer]

Is it my imagination or do things look stretched horizontally a tad? I'm getting a definite "squat" vibe throughout most of the video.

 

[Anthony Berenato Jr]

Is it my imagination or do things looked stretched horizontally a tad? I'm getting a definite "squat" vibe throughout most of the video.

Just a tad, yes. Unless we both have the same imagination.

Still some really nice shots.

 

[Cosmo D]

It's great. Can you describe your system? Which mount? How to connect everything?

 

[Brian Boyer]

Still some really nice shots.

Agreed.

 

[Noah Gould]

Is it my imagination or do things looked stretched horizontally a tad? I'm getting a definite "squat" vibe throughout most of the video.

This is not your imagination. It turns out this distortion is present in all anamorphic glass (though far less in very expensive lenses but very noticeable on my cheap ISCO)

basically the closer you get to close focus the more stretch starts to become more like 1.8X or even 1.6X (thus the horizontally stretched look)

the farther you get back to infinity focus, it gets back to a spot on 2X stretch

 

[Noah Gould]

It's great. Can you describe your system? Which mount? How to connect everything?

Thanks Cosmo. You basically need to clamp the ISCO to a spherical lens via step up rings then find some kind of lens support. I ended up just using a nikon lens and ef adapter to use my canon mount.

http://www.vid-atlantic.com/anamorphic/

This company pretty much specializes in adapting these types of anamorphics.