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    • The "Jennette (GH5 + Kowa 8Z Anamorphic)" footage might be quite sharp actually, but the lighting is very soft (despite being quite directional), the grade of the video is very low contrast, the stream on YT is 1080p, and who knows what their export from their NLE was like.  Have a pixel pee at the shot at 20s and see what you think.  It seems like there's very little funk going on with that shot compared to more vintage glass. For example, compare it to some of the older lenses on share grid: https://www.sharegrid.com/quadplayer Like the Hawk V-Lite '74, the Todd AO, etc choosing the 50mm wide open option. In your two shots B&H vs Sirui don't discount the impact that Halation / Bloom / Glow can have on a shot - the resolution stays the same but the sharpness is reduced along with the perception of sharpness because of the reduction in local contrast beyond the pixel level. Yeah, you can always reduce resolution in post but you can't increase it (despite all this AI trickery trying to do this).  Don't be afraid of blurring the image either. I suggest you make a list of all your NLEs effects that can soften / blur / diffuse / etc, then take a couple of example shots and apply each of those effects in turn and just see what looks you can get from these tools.  It's work, but if you do it properly and label and export the images you will only have to do it once, and you might find that you can get a cheaper and more flexible lens and use some effects in post to get the look you want. Also, don't forget that if you don't set the taking lens to exactly infinity then the focus of the taking and anamorphic elements won't ever be aligned, so things near the focal plane will either be blurring vertically or horizontally or a combination of both.  Do this subtly and it will just knock-off the sharpness of the focal plane but keep the rest of the image basically the same.
    • I'm looking around to find an example to explain this better. Most of what I'm seeing is too sharp. This is nice. I find that sometimes I actually like when anamorphic lenses having taking lenses that are focused just a little off. Here's my B&H single focus vs a Sirui 1.6x that I rented. I'd happily just stick with the B&H if I could go wider with it. I also like what I'm seeing from the Kowa 16D in terms of character, but it's not going to play well with a ~50mm lens either. That is a really nice lens. Very smooth bokeh, and a little CA in the bokeh wide open (which I quite like). I think those Voigtlanders are known for holding circular bokeh for longer when stopping down, a very nice characteristic for pairing with an anamorphic lens.  I think you're onto something. Check out this video. Tropical was the wrong word. But it's super humid! I liked in Kobe for three years. I've owned the Helios three different times, and sold it. I just don't get along with that lens. If I can find a decent mod on a fast 35-50mm lens (with no streak), I'd consider it. From what I've seen, the mods still don't have the weirdness of true anamorphic. What Blazar is doing is really neat. I think they are doing it with their new Beetle lenses as well.
    • Japan is not tropical at all.  Tokyo sits at 35N, a little bit North of San Diego, CA which is about 33N.  For buying used lenses, tariffs are a real motherfucker, since buying lenses used from Japan used to mean getting them for a bit less than US prices and in much nicer condition all-around. As can my Blazar 1.33x when I pair it with one.  It's a great place to pair with an old DSO FF 58 if you can find one at a reasonable price (or just wait until Gale does another run of them, I picked one up last year over the holidays). If playing with this, you might also experiment with a lens modded with an oval aperture or with just putting an oval cutout in front of or behind the lens.  It'll make the bokeh a little more stretched.  It's similar to what Blazar are doing with Mantis and was one of the options with the previously-mentioned DSO FF 58.  I think there are also tutorials on doing a DIY mod for the Helios 58 (the lens used for DSO) to have it.
    • 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.
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