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Great thread BTW. Modern sterile images are incredibly boring.

Here's a quick test from the Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95 and Sirui 1.25x showing the overall quality and how it behaves with differing apertures. The Voigt is sharp when stopped down, but not when wide open. The colour shifts are from the Voigt. F2.0 F1.4 F0.95 Here's an image from the other night to get a bit of a flavour. I've sharpened it quite a bit in post. I've shot with this combo on my current trip and really like it, but it's really heavy and so I've been thinking about alternatives for getting a similar look. I'm starting to think of this as a two-part challenge: the first part is things that can only be done optically like the bokeh (size, shape, CA, etc) and the second part is things that can be influenced in post (especially the softness of the focal plane). In this sense, I'm looking for glass that will give me the right bokeh, and can then degrade the image in post using softening, vignetting, distortion (barrel / pincushion), CA (of the whole image) etc. I'm surprised at how much the bokeh swirls: The fact that swirly bokeh is just anamorphic bokeh at the sides of the image, and the wider the aspect ratio you end up using in the final video the more you're cropping off the top and bottom where the swirl goes from vertical to horizontal, makes me think that a very swirly spherical lens with a wide crop might be a passable alternative. I will be investigating my vintage fast ~50mm collection on SB when I get home. These seem the easiest way to get soft images with character without huge weight and complexity and cost.

How dirty are you looking for? My Sirui 1.25x can look pretty dirty if you put it on a softer taking lens.

@Ninpo33Thanks for such a detailed response. It's good to know that there are still some out there making beautiful images with this old glass. I love the idea of Buyee for vintage lenses, but it never seems like it was more cost effective than just waiting it out on eBay. And that was before the tariffs. Plus, it seems like a lot of older glass imported from tropical climates has more fungus. How do you make it work for you? I can't find anything written about this. Is it as simple as unscrewing the back panel and popping out the anamorphic element? Seems like a steal compared to some of these other variable diopters. Are there any known limitations? Is that a YashicaScope? Would love to see some footage!

I have my doubts as well. Then again, the ZR was such a rushed collaboration between Nikon and RED that you never know if the R3D NE implementation, or Resolve decoding, was modified or tweaked at the last minute for the production version. Whatever the case, you have to applaud Nikon for the ability to match the Komodo-X color and DR so closely in their own promotional videos.

Another bargain right now is the Laowa Nanomorph lenses if you’re OK with APS-C. Used they’re getting really cheap and they’re very tiny. For a native mount solution and ease of use they’re quite acceptable in my opinion. Especially if you consider not needing to mess with all the clamps, adapters, FVD’s etc and being able to go wide.

My “Pocket Anamorphic” setup i’m working on. Waiting for a couple eastern european guys to finish with a small scale front focuser prototype for these little 8mm scopes.

Right now it’s a great time to pick up older adapters vs new modern $$$ anamorphic lenses. The 2x stretch and even 1.5x stretch of the older adapters looks really good to my eyes compared to the modern offerings. The Yen is also fairly weak so buying from Japanese websites takes it to another level. There’s also a nice middle ground and I’ve had a blast choosing from the best of both worlds. My favorites in 2025 1. Most Kowa Prominar 2x and 1.75x versions. $200 now 2. Elmoscope II because they are usually in amazing condition and equal to the Kowa’s but cheaper because they are not as well known. $150 now 3. Smaller 8mm scopes because they are fun and I’m working on a tiny solution with old small Rangefinder glass and Fuji APS-C $100 - $150 now 4. Blazar Nero 1.5x adapter because it’s good and you can play with completely different looks depending on taking lens and sensor size. Looks really good on APS-C and gets very funky on Full frame. $500 or less now on the used market if your patient. 5. Siuri 1.25x adapter mod where you take out the anamorphic and convert it to just a DIY Variable focusing adapter for cheap. That way you can have a budget focusing option for the older adapters at a reasonable cost. $250

Its so rare with Nikon that I can say it never happens. They may fix a couple of bugs, but tweaking features and performance after announcement date and before shipping date? Very unlikely.

This is a good result from the Korean test of the ZR, but note that it is on a 4K timeline (whereas, the one I posted above was for 6K R3D NE on a 6K timeline): 6K or 8K on a 4K timeline will always result in a better DR performance on Imatest. Paule's test of the ZR against the S1 II was also really informative, especially when it comes to the ZR's advantage for highlight roll-off. But it is difficult to compare between his test scenario and CineD's, which uses NR to determine underexposure stops. For example, CineD also rated the Canon R1 at 9 stops latitude and equal to the S1 II. However, I'm not sure most people will see the benefit of those claimed 9 stops as they involve heavy NR. I did see a very recent interview where the Nikon rep, Ricci Chera, showed a production version of the ZR and noted that all the testers were pre-production models. It is entirely possible that Nikon has tweaked the camera for better DR or other performance aspects and that these cameras are now making it into the hands of the consumers. Chera also implies at 10:00 that the "Z-cinema family" will fill out an entire range of cameras and lenses, which means that more Z-cinema branded products are coming to market.

If you're using Chrome, you can just right click on some random part of the page and select "translate to english" and it does a pretty decent job.

Q&A from Mark Bone

Absolutely beautiful imagery. Some shots are very square, and some were asking if it was an opengate mode LOL

Any English version?

I have also been searching for the Nikon ZR DR/Latitude test, and result been a bit all over the place. I think one reason for the latitude test discrepancies is that the first reviewers were not able to use Davinci and had to use REd own software and it might have induced some errors...The Nikon Z6iii is better in the highlight than the Zr, which can't be true!!! . Their was also some talk that Nikon/RED got another stop of DR during their test/development. Below is a test side by side with the Panasonic S1ii, which is a bit of the king in terms of DR/latitude and their might be neck and neck to half a stop of exposure latitude between both. Their are little discrepancy like light positioning that make me say that. He is at 4.5 over and 3.5 under that would give about eight stops, you could give another half stop to the S1ii in the highlight. For example, CINED gave the S1ii without DR boost a solid 9. This could be because they test at 1080p. If you reduce the size from 4k to 1080p, you might get another half a stop to a stop in the shadows as it would reduce the noise. For reference most Canons are at 7 to 8 stops of latitude, the Sony Venice is a 8 stops, the RED Raptor is at 9 and the Alexa LF is at 10 stops of latitude. He also has test of the highlight rolloff and the Zr looked a little better and the flickering in the shadows. Which is not present in the REDraw file, but is in the Prores one!!! In this one, with the french tester (You can get English dub), he gets about 5 up and 3 3.5 down. You also have this korean tester with the DR test with the Xyla chart and Imatest software. He got like 13.5 in Nlog!!! And 12.9 in REDraw. His DR test starts at around 23 minutes. Last thing is that CineD responded on their page saying they had a ZR on test for a week (% days ago) but they had some problem that they were trying to resolve with Nikon.

Yup and thanks to their as always very thorough testing they come to the conclusion that I was expecting: it has the same asymmetrical weak OLPF as the Z6iii, which is very disappointing.

I'm looking around at the current anamorphic landscape and finding that while much easier to work with and capable of wider angles, the new offerings from Sirui, Blazar and Laowa lack the same jaw-dropping quality that footage from the older adapters had. I find them so clean (yes, even the Blazars) that I think that it defeats the point of shooting on anamorphic. So that brings me back to the vintage adapters, which seem to have come down in price since the modern lenses have hit the market. Plus there are now several variable diopters available for single focus. Going on character alone, what are your favorites? At one point or another, I've owned 10-20 different adapters, and I still have a modded Bell & Howell Single-Focus. But after an 11-year hiatus from anamorphic, I am looking for fresh perspectives.

Not a clue, I just saw that there were some products available. A quick search reveals that the usual suspects offer them (Moment, Neewer, Smallrig, etc). Lots of them (or all of them?) will have their optics manufactured in the same factory, so they might all be similar optically. In which case, you're choosing form-factor (for example the Moment one is square and doesn't seem to have filter threads so doesn't look like it supports a vND) and perhaps the case / system that goes with that, and also price of course.

Optyczne published their review: https://www.optyczne.pl/107.4-Inne_testy-Nikon_ZR_-_test_trybu_filmowego_Jakość_obrazu.html

The monitor needs to support N-log - SmallHDs don't. Not sure what LUTs have to do with anything, as the exposure tools are based on the incoming log signal, not the monitoring LUT...I've found that Portkeys have a few that "read" N-log as well as Atomos, but that's all.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809809423132.html I think it's newer than the one I got and I guess it's closer to $30 than $20. If you look around, you can also find some cases that work well with it. It can also work with some cases, as mentioned in this video by DP Journey. I got one of those cases too, but I'm not planning to switch to it until the Apple case that I got with my phone is falling apart (should just be another 3-6 months or so, based on the lifespan of my other cases and the amount of damage I've already done to it. The main change I made from his setup is that I went with a magsafe CF Express adapter that I can put on the little folding tripod gizmo. He also just made a video about an upgrade tripod gizmo which looks nice, but didn't seem to have anything compelling enough that I'd upgrade from the original.

As for instance? :- )

Any tips for the brands you've seen? :- )

Seems there's something new to arrive (from t)here: NDA is leaked here (for more details there and over there). This November, they say. (Actually, not totally exempt from pure nonsense, oh boy!) It would be nice @MILCs side too! ;- )

Interesting idea and seems like it might work well for some situations. I personally always use my phone in a drop-proof case and never take it out (as that just means the fit of the case gets loose and it lessens the protection) but the idea of a clip-on / clamp-on one seems sensible. I'd imagine that we'll see a number of third-party accessories come out for the 17 over the coming months. When I got mine there were only Apple cases available to be delivered immediately and the delivery date for the rest were weeks away. I took the GH7 >> Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95 >> Sirui 1.25x anamorphic adapter out for a spin in the markets last night and the images were great. I'm not sure how much of that was due to the anamorphism of the lens, and how much it was just due to it not being pristine, but maybe that might be worth the extra fuss.