Caleb Genheimer

The Kowa 8Z/16H is distorted near the far left and right of its image coverage. at 90mm on a 5D, you're pushing the boundaries. That is some of the distortion. First, level your tripod, then do what others are suggesting with a flashlight for alignment. Your clamp can make a big difference too. Get a good one that is sized to fit snug. The anamorphic shouldn't be held in place by the screws. They should mainly just be used for tightening to prevent rotation/misalignment. 

It was buy it now for $800, that's why I gave the heads up. I have absolutely no money right now or I would've snatched it up then and there.

Not mine, just spotted it. Great 8Z with Redstan clamps and a Jupiter too!   http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kowa-8Z-16H-2x-Anamorphic-Lens-for-Canon-DSLR-5D-7D-RED-/160977511166?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item257b01e2fe

There was one on EBay a year or so ago. I almost bought it, but as it was an unknown lens and it would've been my first anamorphic purchase, I passed.

I'd be up for helping him out a bit. If anyone else is, maybe we should get together and let him know. I have an identical Kowa and would love to buy and/or get instructions for how to build one of these. The Kowa is pretty hard to best quality-wise, and dual-focus is quite frankly the only difficult thing about it (obviously this system solves that problem). I only wonder how noisy it is.

Is that for BMCC/GH2 I assume?

Maximum FOV/taking lens focal length?

No, it is electronic coupling with a computer, that is what he means when he says you must calibrate it. It will work with any lens he can manage to fit it on.    I have a few ideas for him to make it very easy to change the rear lens quite quickly. If he integrates the anamorphic clamp with the anamorphic support system, ha can then attach the anamorphic parts of his electronics directly to that support instead of to the rails. Once he as done that, the anamorphic and everything related to it attaches to the rails via the support, making it easy to move the whole assembly forward or backward in order to change the "taking" lens.

Hi. I use a 37mm MIR-1B f2.8 with my Kowa 16-H (8Z is the same lens), and I love it. Very Russian, and a rectilinear flektagon copy, so it doesn't add any distortion to the image (keep in mind the Kowa still will, though). I also use Sedna, but everyone has been praising Driftwood's new Moon GOP1 setting, so I'm switching to that. Some other former Sedna users really seem to like Moon and think it is similar but grades better. (Note: I haven't actually tried it yet.)

Thanks for the rundown! I kinda suspected all that stuff about rear-anamorphic lenses not having all the "loved" anamorphic attributes, but nobody has ever confirmed that.

I'll second that, Andrew. Kowa 8Z/16-H is absolutely killer. Darn those Iscoramians for patenting their single-focus design. I think if Kowa had been allowed, they'd have surpassed Isco in the single-focus category.

Don't take this the wrong way, but these look as if you've got either the Kowa or the prime focused incorrectly. Getting both right can be tricky, because until both are fairly close/in the ballpark, it looks out of focus. The scale on the Kowa is approximate, and isn't always exactly right depending on the other lens. My first question is, what kind of clamp are you using/how are you attaching it to your "taking" lens (the 50mm)? Secondly, have you tried it (even just held by hand) in front of any other lenses? You should scrutinize those two things before determining that your Kowa is bad.    What you are describing seems very strange to me. I have the same Kowa, and they are built like a tank. I struggle to imagine one that simply doesn't focus. I assume they have a helicoil/coils, and as they are metal construction, it would be tough for these to quit working. It would seem far more likely that your lens elements are either out of alignment . . . or one is missing entirely. Even if the lens were failing to move the elements . . . you should be able to focus at whatever position it is stuck at.   What does the view look like through your Kowa (just naked eye)? Because these projection anamorphics are just adapters and do not have apertures, you can look straight through them quite easily. My good copy looks crisp and clear, just for reference. I can see clearly  and with detail through it.    Don't buy a diopter expecting it to fix this. There is a chance that it might, but don't count on it.   EDIT: I se you have experience with the B&H, so I assume you've learned how to focus these properly. Bummer, as that means there is certainly a bigger problem :/

Why do you assume it will breathe heavy? Is it a LOMO through-and-through, falsely stickered as ARRI, or is it ARRI glass with a LOMO rear anamorphic adapter?   I've been unable to find any good examples of footage from these LOMO (or other rear anamorphic) zooms, and in theory they've intrigued me quite a bit. Do they still exhibit the strange compression of out-of-focus areas and oval points of light? It would make sense that they don't flare nearly as much due to the anamorphic not being on front, but I could take or leave horizontal flares, TBH. Particularly the 20-120mm LOMO zooms that shows up on eBay have tempted me because of their f2.5 aperture. That's a pretty good aperture for a zoom, and 20-120mm is no range to be scoffed at. 20mm is wider than most other anamorphics (except for the DV ones), and 120mm is certainly a telephoto focal length. 

Did you try email? When I wanted one, I emailed him with some questions. He responded quite quickly. (I believe I just used the email that is on his site.)    Love the Redstan stuff. Superb quality.

I'll just mention that I now use this all the time. Once you set it up, it is just there, but it is incredibly nice to be able to watch my clips desqueezed straight from the camera, no rendering, no converting. Once I've dumped a card to my drive, I just open all the clips at once. That way, it loads them as a kind of "playlist" and it holds the modified aspect ratio from clip to clip so you only have to set it once. This simple little trick is a major time saver when you add it all up! Thanks again for the tip!

Yeah, I saw those too. We can dream, right?

Darn. I've always hoped to be the first person to really "go at it" with an anamorphic/TS combo. You beat me to it. Good luck!

I was just wondering, because as far as dual-focus is concerned, I'm set with my Kowa. That being said, I'm still hoping to upgrade to something single-focus in the future. I was under the impression that this meat either an Iscorama or a Lomo with a coupled Lomo back lens.

Those are double-focus though, correct?

Just thought I'd throw out the heads-up in case anyone is interested. It isn't mine (obviously), but the Todd AOs are decent AFAIK and complete single focus units.   http://www.ebay.com/itm/Todd-A-O-Anamorphic-lens-55mm-T1-3-canon-Arri-PL-Panavision-/330864182042?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item4d090ac31a

The issue was I think that it wasn't an improvement over projection/DV anamorphics that are already available. It is dual-focus, and the widest compatible taking lens is 35mm on GH2. My Kowa is double-focus and can do 35mm. It can even eek out 28mm. The squeeze ratio thing seems to be more or less a personal preference thing. Some folks (me) prefer the look of 2X anamorphics. Others just want the correct aspect ratio of 2.35:1 without cropping, so they prefer 1.33X adapters. The Apefos did seem to possibly be sharper and flare more than the DV 1.33X adapters, which honestly might have been the one unique thing it had going for it. Even when compared to other 1.33X adapters, they probably have the upper hand overall, as the LA7200/Century/Optex are all focus-through and useable at wider than 35mm.    Honestly, I think he ran into the technical walls of his lens design. He couldn't seem to get higher (2X) squeeze factors without a lot of barrel distortion, and he was having issues with the quality of lens grinding available to him. That, coupled with the fact that it was a dual-focus design were unfortunately the ultimate hindrances.    If anything is to be taken away from this, it is that good anamorphic lenses are very complicated, even the dual-focus projection lenses are difficult to reproduce . . . let alone anything like a single-focus Iscorama. I still think there is a place for a new (expensive) 2X Iscorama-type lens if someone can figure out how to make one.    I wonder where the Iscorama patents and designs are at. Even a new direct optical copy of the 36 would fetch a pretty penny. I've got to think that it is (if anything) more easily manufacturable in this day and age, what with CNC machines and everything. Sure, nothing is cheap to make, but it is just a metal housing and the right glass in the right place cut to the right shapes and coated correctly. The design as Apefos found out is the most difficult part, so why not bring back an older design like the 36 that is already known to be a brilliant design, even if it is something made to-order.

With the SpeedBooster imminent, if BMCC were to enable full sensor 4:3 recording, I'd be almost forced to buy this camera as soon as I had the money. 4:3 35mm-equivalent (boosted) 2X anamorphic footage at 2.5K RAW? I can't imagine needing much more than that, ever (especially with ProRes as a non-raw option).   Edit: they need to get these cameras out and in people's hands ASAP. @EOSHD any idea how they're doing on that front? Are they still massively pre-ordered/back-ordered?

Good job! Good music choice, I love Drive.

Glad to say that caffeine is as far as I've gone on the drug scale. Not many people my age can say that.

I finally found the short film that I worked on all semester in LA a year ago, albeit sans color correction. We shot a special flat profile on the FS-100 with Zeiss Super Speeds (per my suggestion). My friend and I were co-soundmen, all the way through from pre-post production.    They've disabled embedding. It is on this page, and is called "The Star". http://www.bestsemester.com/lafsc/