Scorpio Anamorphic Lenses @ NAB?

[Matt Gottshalk]

Saw a poster at the Servicevision booth at NAB this year announcing these 2:1 lenses.

Anyone know anything about them?

http://www.fdtimes.com/2012/04/29/scorpiolens-anamorphic-prime-lenses/

 

[Zeb B]

Until Evin replies . . . you don't have an answer

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

Yeah I figured, lol.

 

[Matt Uhry]

Sweet ! Excited to hear about these getting out into the wild.

Matt Uhry
www.mattuhry.com

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

As of NAB they were nothing more than vapor... They should actually show functional prototypes at IBC, I think that's the plan.

We'll see if they actually come to market. I hope they do, because the specs are promising. I picked up a pamphlet, that's the only tangible thing I could get my hands on while at their booth.

 

[Evin Grant]

They look very nice, probably not cheap if they'll even be sold (as opposed to rental only ala Panavision).
I'm guessing they're rear anamorphics so probably less of that cool ana flare.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I talked to the designer at NAB... She went for a rear-anamorphic approach to keep the lenses sharper, lighter, faster, and cheaper. But then you don't really get the artifacts of anamorphic lenses, so to me, the only reason to use these is to squeeze a 2.40 image onto a 4x3 sensor and thus gain vertical resolution over cropping. If you want that anamorphic "look" (stretched bokeh, blue horizontal flares) you should use front-anamorphics.

 

[Andy White]

Such a shame they're rear ana's... was excited for a while. Guess it's a case of staying with Squarefronts and hiring in better glass when needed.

Seems a very odd move and a bit of a misifre?

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Not a misfire, just a difference in opinion or approach -- do you want to design the best anamorphic lens technically and optically, plus make it practical in terms of weight and speed -- or design something with a classic anamorphic look? People pick anamorphic for different reasons. When shooting in 35mm, you had the finer-grain from using all 4-perfs worth of negative for the 2.40 image, whether or not the anamorphic lenses were front or rear-element designs, so if you were shooting in anamorphic mainly to reduce grain by using a bigger negative, the rear-anamorphics made sense -- and the truth is that most anamorphic movies used front-anamorphic primes plus rear-anamorphic zooms, and oddball lenses like tilt-focus or macros or telephotos were all rear-adapted. A movie like "Legend" for example was mostly shot on rear-anamorphic zooms because Ridley Scott likes using zooms, and that's one of the reasons that Scott brothers switched to Super-35 once the conversions to scope got better by using a D.I., so they could use better and faster spherical zooms.

But since grain isn't an issue with digital, and most sensors are 16x9 or wider, there is less reason to shoot in anamorphic because you actually get better resolution using spherical lenses and cropping to 2.40. So that leaves only two reasons to shoot with anamorphic lenses on digital cameras: if you want the classic artifacts and distortions, flares, etc.... or if the sensor is 4x3 and you can use more of the sensor height with an anamorphic lens.

 

[Andy White]

I suppose they might have a good market for new 4x3 sensors (as you say, giving more height), but it just seems an odd choice - as the anamorphic 'aesthetic' (ie all the old abberations etc) will probably be the key driver in sales (?)

Personally, I like the look of older anamorphics and their 'less than perfect' look, but that's a preference that some clients don't like (gotta say I am very anti-lens flare now - argh!!!), but my love is the things that are wrong - it just seems to take the edge off the digital look. I used to work a lot in video/tv (late 80's & early 90's) and the nearest we got to film was always 16mm/S16mm (35mm was rarely used as source - that was for expensive US stuff and I can always remember how we'd lust after shooting anamorphic (but that was pointless for TV in Pal and 4:3 days - LOL).

How the world has changed... but that's for another thread

Just it seems a really odd choice (IMO) to go the rear Ana route. It would have been nice to see another new Anamorphic (front style) lens hit the market.

Have you heard (or seen) any more on the Zeiss Anamorphics - I'd presume these are front (or mid) style?

 

[Evin Grant]

They looked like front to me, but I didn't look that closely.