I shot a lot with the GH7 + Voigt 42.5mm F0.95 + Sirui 1.25x adapter while in China and Hong Kong and loved the setup, both for the images and also the ergonomics and use, but the combo is heavy. The glass is 1.3kg and with the GH7 the rig is over the 2kg mark (4.4lbs).
While I felt like a total bad-ass wielding the rig, and the coolness factor of shooting street scenes with hand-held anamorphic is in-arguably off the charts, it wasn't perfect. The bokeh isn't that stretched from a 1.25x squeeze factor, and does exhibit a certain amount of swirl, I was wondering if there was a spherical alternative that would be considerably less weight to drag around the world.
This is a first experiment in that direction. GH7 + M42-MFT Speedbooster + Meyer-Optik Görlitz 50mm F1.8, but with two small additions:
Yes, these are small cutouts of the sticky part of a post-it note stuck directly to the rear element of the glass. These sit between the lens and speed booster.
I've tried putting cutouts onto the front of the lens (on a space UV filter) and the results are underwhelming. This, however, looks incredible and is much more consistent in the shape of the bokeh throughout the frame.
Obviously the shape isn't ideal, as I should round it slightly and especially round the corners, but as a proof of concept, this looks promising.
More complex scenes:
Of course, these are open-gate images, and this is definitely bokeh that deserves widescreen.... and with the best grade I could manage in the Mac image Preview tool, we get this:
There is definitely something here. More to come for sure.