QuickHitRecord

Seb Farges has been posting videos shot with this lens for quite a while now. I thought that it was impressive so I picked one up for myself. I believe that it may be the smallest anamorphic lens in the world. It is TINY. It's an interesting little beast (completely different from it's grandfather, the Hi-Fi 2) but I think that the footage has a nice, soft look to it! The Baby Hypergonar seems to work best in broad daylight between f8 and f16, but with the +0.4 achromat attached, I can take it all the way down to f1.8 on my Konica AR 40mm and still have pretty sharp results (and a five-foot rackable range that expands as I stop down). I should mention that there is no focus ring. You just shoot through the anamorphic. The lens vignettes very slightly on a 35mm lens (MFT), and the image bends at the sides ala wide angle a little much for my taste. At 40mm, I think that it looks good. And of course, 50mm works well too. Someone recommended trying it with a Nikkor 55mm Micro, which I did, but I was not impressed -- the extended barrel of that lens makes for a great place to conceal a tiny anamorphic like this, but you just can't get the anamorphic close enough to the taking lens. The flares seem to be soft, streaky blue and segmented white (or sometimes both at the same time). I find them to be very pleasing. The 1.75x crop vs the 2x crop that is a characteristic of so many other lenses is surprisingly more manageable, though I do find myself often shooting distorted, without an external monitor, just to have easy access to the magnified focus assist. Here's some footage that I shot this past weekend with this lens (attached to my Konica):   http://vimeo.com/45483904

Well done!

Cool shot. Very moody. Personally, I would not have modified the flares. Part of the beauty of these lenses is that no two lenses flare the same way. With the enhancement, we can't see the unique flaring characteristics of your lens. Can you post a "before" as well?

I revisited this combination and it turns out that you were right. I must have gotten it confused with another combination. Here is a quick test: First image is with the Noktor at f0.95. The edges become harder as you stop down. Second image is with the Ex Tele crop (2.6), though you will see more noise. Last test is the first image, but cropped to a 2.35:1 ratio. There is minor vignetting.

[quote author=Caleb Genheimer link=topic=934.msg6787#msg6787 date=1341383969]Is there anyone with a Kowa Bell and Howell/16-H/8Z and a Voigtlander 25mm 0.95 that could test the two together?[/quote] I have tried this combination with my Bell & Howell and as I recall, it vignettes to the point of the image taking the shape of a circle in the middle of a black frame.

Does anyone have any experience incorporating a 15mm rod system into the Velbon SPT-1 without getting too bulky or too expensive?

Rock on. That's a nice looking flare.

Not only does it look great, but it's also good for covering up high ISO noise, and the noise that results from shooting in crop modes.

There are definitely some focus marks on it. But it's always exciting to come across something we (or at least I) have not seen before. I hope that whoever bought it puts up some samples of their work... so that I can kick myself for not pulling the trigger on it.

I'd like to see the magnified focus assist and Ex Tele enabled when a monitor is plugged in. That would be huge for me. I have been talking to Panasonic reps a lot lately and while they aren't letting me know any specs for the GH3, they have been saying that there will be extra measures to ensure that it won't be hackable. So... unless the GH3 is 95mb/s or higher out of the box (which I doubt very much), I'll be holding off on this purchase until we can see if Vitaly can work his magic one more time.

This little guy looks interesting: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Prominar-Anamorphic-8-Lens-Used-Good-Condition-/280901634377?pt=US_Movie_Slide_Projectors&hash=item41670ac949#ht_2116wt_1114 It's not like any 8Z I have ever seen. There is no mention of it in the Super8Wiki. In fact, I have never seen one before it just popped up on eBay. Don't hate me if I am wrong but the shape of the anamorph suggests to me that [i]may[/i] be a 1.5x crop instead of a 2x. I'd snap it up out of curiosity myself, but I already have too many anamorphic lenses. If anyone here buys it, please post samples!

[b]Update:[/b] A friend loaned me an EF to MFT adapter with a built in aperture that I incorporated into the setup. When I closed the aperture all the way down, the resulting image looked more focused than I have seen so far (though still nowhere near usable). I tried adding and subtracting extension tubes of varying lengths into every combination that I could think of but was never able to bring the image into better focus. The "anamorphic direct adapter" is back on eBay at the moment, but the seller has gone from claiming three sales the last time he posted it to just one this time. Does this mean that two of his sales resulted in returned items? Perhaps. Either way, something doesn't seem quite right. I am out of ideas, so unless anyone else has any, we can mark this experiment as a failure. But at least now we know.

Thanks, Kirk. I am not explaining myself very well. What I am hoping to find is a matte box / filter holder that is built to be held vertical by a single 1/4" screw at the bottom. I know that this may not exist, but I thought that I'd put it out there and ask the question.

I am trying to find one that I can mount on my Velbon SPT-1 lens support. Has anyone seen anything like this? (I don't think that the Cokin filter holder will work).

I am sure that I am not the first to think of this, but I am using a nifty little workaround for the GH2's annoying lack of support for magnified focus assist when plugged into an external monitor. I find it to be quite useful, especially with all of the anamorphic shooting that I have been doing lately. On my DP4 (also can be done with DP6), I have my regular monitoring settings plugged into Preset 1. For Preset 2, I've programmed in monitoring in pixel to pixel mode (I think it's called 1 to 1). Now, if I want to check my focus, I just scroll the wheel to the right to bring up the Preset menu and select Preset 2. Immediately, I am looking at a "magnified" view of the center of my shot, and I can even turn on SmallHD's focus assist with the touch of a button if I need to -- then I roll right on the menu wheel to bring up the Preset menu again and go back to monitoring my composition in Preset 1. This might not be news for some people, but it's helped me out more than a few times already and I wish that I had discovered it earlier!

Thank you, everyone. With the help of my local machine shop I have been modifying the lens housing to make it more usable. Just a couple more tweaks and I will share my findings here.

[quote author=septemberdawn link=topic=867.msg6382#msg6382 date=1340423698]The 16-S (it's in the US) may be within the price range indicated by MirrorKisser, but as I know next to nothing about anamorphic lenses someone with more experience would need to confirm if it is appropriate.[/quote] I've seen people making great images with the 16-S, so if it's a really good deal, it might be worth snapping up. If you can, shoot some test footage with it and stretch or shrink it to see if you like the aesthetic (it will also help you ensure that the lens elements are still aligned properly) before buying it.

Nice. I do this to a lot of my footage as well. I actually think that the film grain adds a little something extra.

[quote author=septemberdawn link=topic=867.msg6380#msg6380 date=1340407803]I managed to purchase a Kowa Prominar Anamorphic 8-Z and I'm intending to outfit it with adapters/clamp by Redstan. This should be a good starting point for me. It's my first anamorphic lens.[/quote] Good choice. Post some shots for us!

I finally had a chance to take my Lomo square front (OCT18 mount) out: [center]http://vimeo.com/44522585 [/center] I actually meant to shoot more footage for a stronger shot sequence but the Lomo is the MOST frustrating lens that I have EVER worked with! It also delivers my favorite image! Very, very cinematic. I bought mine from au8ust on eBay and it is immaculate. Truly a beautiful piece of glass. But the design of the lens is very frustrating. The anamorphic and spherical elements are held together by one small tab (i.e. one point of contact) and focusing is extremely difficult. The front element is very heavy and if I ever tilt the lens down, gravity causes the two elements to separate, distorting the image. And even with the stopper that I added to the Velbon support track to keep the front element from falling off completely, tilting up or down puts the weight on the taking lens makes turning the focus ring very difficult. I have never cursed so much at a lens and many of my shots were not usable. But there is an [i]incredible[/i] look here, probably my favorite of all of my lenses, and I am determined to make it work. I am currently working on a few tweaks that may make it much more usable. One more thing: This is not a low profile lens. Every single person who walked by stopped to ask what it was, which was kind of distracting.

Off the top of my head, the lenses that I can think of that were NOT designed primarily for projection are Lomo square and round fronts (which are either monoblock or come with their own taking lens), LA7200, Century Optics, Isco Gottingen Anamorphot and Iscorama (though at least the 54 also came with a projector mount in the original packaging; I think that Iscoramas may have been designed for both). There are certainly many more that I am not thinking of. Some projection lenses are not suitable for video shooting at all. This list may help you determine those: http://super8wiki.com/index.php/Anamorphic_Lenses As a general rule, most of the gold-colored ISCO lenses are not ideal for video shooting. And don't get the Bell & Howell anamorphic projection lens that looks like a telescope confused with the Bell & Howell for Kowa. it is a completely different lens. I can vouch for the Bell & Howell for Kowa. It is excellent for video work (but expensive). The lenses that I mentioned earlier in this thread were designed for projection but can successfully be adapted for video shooting. You can add the Hypergonar range to that as well (though diopters are a must). There is no classified section that I am aware of, but some of the other forums have them.

I seem to remember stumbling across a guide that breaks down all of the Kowa Prominar variations sometime back. I can't seem to find it right now though. I don't remember much detail except that the 8Z and 16H are basically the same lens, and have a small-ish form factor that may make them most suitable for anamorphic video. I'll let you know if I can find it.

Keep an eye out for Sankor/Singer 16, Proskar Ishico, Elmoscope or Eiki. I have not used these myself but I have seen some samples and they are said to be pretty solid for the price.

Thanks for your reply (and for the PRISTINE 50mm in OCT18 that I bought from you). If you can ever swing it, a breathing comparison test would be very useful!

See this thread: http://www.eoshd.com/comments/index.php/topic,754.0.html