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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.

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.

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.

Q&A from Mark Bone

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China. These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families. The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits. The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796. These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly. Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom. Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app. The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes. These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match. All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths. Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.