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Vintage Anamorphics Vrs New Tech

Matthew Quinn

Matthew Quinn

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Hello,

I have been following these boards for about three years, however i have only JUST started to post things. I was wondering how everyone feels about Vintage Anamorphic lenses Vrs some of the Modern Lenses with a 16x9 sensor in mind. I have had a set of Kowas set up with my Epic before I upgraded to the Dragon sensor, and since then i have looked at some new lenses from P+S technik and I am very interested in the new Vantage Hawk mini anamorphics. Which way would you guys go considering the fast paced upgrade paths to the Weapon and beyond?
thanks for your input!
-Matt
 
Hi Matt,

It seems to me that modern ana lenses are sharper open then vintage ones and that they also breathe less. Ana on Dragon is really nice as you have a wider FoV which I find works really well in 6:5 mode which uses more of the sensor height than 4:3 mode. Depends on your shot really. If you're on Kowa's, the widest length is 40mm right so you might want want to experiment with 4:3 for a slightly wider FoV too to get a wider shot? You will certainly get a wider shot on the Dragon sensor.

I'm new to ana shooting so don't take my word for gospel but I think this is right!

Cheers,

Craig Lees
ED & SSX UK
Rehoused FD SSC & Lomo Squares
3dstories.co.uk
 
In my opinion one of the biggest things anamorphics have going for them is nostalgia. The look we associate with anamorphic is for a large part from the 80's. Those lenses were not perfect, but that's why they look that way. They look like a movie, a fairy tale. They don't look like real life. Take away the blue flares, the edge softness and distortion, and it doesn't look like a fairy tale anymore. I haven't seen any of the modern lenses that excite me. But thats just my opinion, and some 20 something probably has a completely different idea of nostalgia and what looks filmic.

The one thing you do get from modern anamorphics is longer focal lengths for the same field of view, and overall shallower dof, as well as a more medium format look. That is very attractive.

Nick
 
+1000. It's anamorphics' optical flaws that make them beautiful. Put an anamorphic lens on ANY digital camera and it looks a LOT like film straight out of the gate.

been getting some great results from my PL mounted A7S actually (just don't move it too much!!) but Dragon still rocks.

this is a golden era for anamorphic IMHO! Newer cams with more DR and higher native ISO massively helping.

Craig Lees
ED & SX UK
3dstories.co.uk
 
To be honest, the new Anamorphic lenses from Zeiss and Cooke look too sterile. They look like cropped spherical lenses and that kind of defeats the purpose of Anamorphics in my opinion.

Shot on 80's era Kowa Anamorphics which are the lightest Anamorphics on the market. They were what was used on "Straight Outta Compton." I shot these in natural light, run and gun handheld pulling my own focus. I love these lenses and in terms of getting a cinematic look, look no further!

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Ah man. I should have bought that set of Kowas in 2004 for $6K. Oh well.

Though I do actually really like what the Master Anamorphics do. Don't know how they got the wides to be so damn tight.
 
Demetri Zuev said:
If only they weren't so damn expensive...
Click to expand...

That's why you rent from Redusers like Nick Fury who own a set. Best prices you can find anywhere, and best set of Kowas you will find. Saves you a boatload of money over buying haha.
 
I am cutting a piece right now that I shot on my Lomo squares right before I sent them away for a long vacation. I seriously embrace the flares, put flouro Tubes and dedos in the frame. It fits the piece and it's flaretastic ;-)

Nick
 
Kowas are fantastic lenses, I know because I started my fascination with anamorphics with a Bell&Howell Kowa anamorphic adapter before I had my own set of Kowas, and never looked back. I was partly sad to let them go this year, but equally happy to replace them with a set of vintage Hawk-C Anas, and they look fantastic. So I agree with the others, nothing will give you a more 'filmic look', on any camera, than vintage anamorphic lenses.
 
I'm guessing from the square bokeh wide open on the night stuff that they are using prisms for the squeeze. I think they look tits though. Totally bizzare new look. I like it.

Nick
 
Stumbled on this thread and thought i'd show you my make shift anamorphic. Did a nice job for me on the 5D. I will be seeing how the image circle and the focal length stuff will work out.
Some vingetteing and massive light leak because of the way the two lenses sit on the rails. I'll see what i need to make this franken-morphic work with the Dragon.

https://vimeo.com/100141126
 
From by the video, I hate the chromatic ab of the night time shots on the mini hawks.
 
To be fair, The min hawks were shot wide open in that footage. I would never be shooting wide open on anamorphics, particularly in the day and age of Dragons. The film I just wrapped we were shooting night exteriors very comfortably at a 2.8 and weren't even pushing the asa. Plus your focus puller will poison your food if you try to make him/her pull focus at t1.5 on anamorphics.

Nick
 
Matthew Quinn said:
Looks great!! Ty for the link, what exactly do you mean make shift? Would like to know more.
-Matt
Click to expand...
It's two lenses smashed together...
But you still get your "Squeezed" anamorphic footage after you alter the size to compensate for the 2x.(image 1) SO what you see in the middle is exactly what the sensor recorded. So it's not a cheat with Magic Lantern...you are literally using every bit of space the Sensor can give you in video mode.(and the throughput is exactly the same and you retain audio because it's the optics not software cropping it. Even the bokeh looks correct for a 2x. On a FF sensor+a 2x anamorphic projector lens the AR felt something close to 3.55:1. SUPER Aggressive look but the flares and the AR is what makes people stand back and think about what else you could do with it. Now because i'm focusing on both the taking lens and the the anamorphic....the circle of confusion and critical focus are changing. It's very tongue and cheek. Even though both are being treated as primes it calculating and fussing with two critical focus points. One being your subject the other focusing on the image within the anamorphic lens. It can be a bit difficult when racking. Also vignetting happens when the focal length of the taking lens gets below 150mm. So i'm stuck with a telephoto FOV. So i treat it like a long prime.
Next goal is to try and make this work with the Dragon...it's just getting all the Rail hardware and support to make sure the Line of Optics is correct and the relative distances are nailed down. I will post more once the hardware comes in.





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Clearly not the same as the 6K WS function which does the cropping itself off the sensor(hopefully i said that correctly)
 
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