Tito Ferradans

Hey y'all! After a long time playing and testing, I made a flowchart that guides you through the process of buying scopes. This is mainly aimed at beginners, but I'm hoping it can at least be fun for experienced shooters too. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=15998
Thanks!

Hey y'all! After a long time playing and testing, I made a flowchart that guides you through the process of buying scopes. This is mainly aimed at beginners, but I'm hoping it can at least be fun for experienced shooters too. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=15998
Thanks!

That's awesome Tito!  Make sure you copyright that before animorphicstore puts it on his site and claims it as his own :P
 
"Do you hate Communism?"
Hilarious!

Hey y'all! After a long time playing and testing, I made a flowchart that guides you through the process of buying scopes. This is mainly aimed at beginners, but I'm hoping it can at least be fun for experienced shooters too. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=15998
Thanks!

Hey y'all! After a long time playing and testing, I made a flowchart that guides you through the process of buying scopes. This is mainly aimed at beginners, but I'm hoping it can at least be fun for experienced shooters too. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
http://www.tferradans.com/blog/?p=15998
Thanks!

The Isco 2000 is not focused to infinity by default so it requires modding. I sold all of my Isco 2000's before single focus solutions were a thing, so I never tried it.

@Tito Ferradans made his version, too!
 
Though, it's very nice to have a different POV.
The more you see how it should be done, the less you improvise while having bare glass elements in your hands.

Wow, too many things to address. This forum is getting fun again! Thank you so much for all the input and keeping the argument civil (we have all seen how these conversations can go).
I can't disagree with you on everything. If you're here on EOSHD and you have an opinion, you're not a vanilla shooter. ?
After too many years of shooting with adapters, what I look for in a lens is not really the end result but a framework that supports improvement. The Sirui has it (so does the Iscorama). Last night I slapped in an oval insert at the aperture and made bokeh 2x. It got a lot better. Then threw in some focus and iris gears just for the fun of it and some filtration.
The image is on the sharp side, so I mounted a vari-nd (since I don't want the ovals to change with the aperture) and a BPM 1/4.
Things got more interesting when I put on a 0.8x wide angle adapter, which works great and degrades sharpness a bit more. The image is looking a lot more organic and that's what I wanna show on my next video.
Now to beat down the Iscorama a little bit more, 1.5x is not that much squeeze either for bokeh, plus minimum focus at 2m and rotating front/extending body make life a lot harder. It's not a perfect lens from the start. The pre-36 also has that weird box-shaped flare. Nonetheless we have solutions for most of these problems. The Maxiscope/Proxiscope addresses minimum focus and focus gears, plus mounting to rails to speed up lens changes, the newest Van Diemen rehousing fixes the rotating front and the long focus throw, another mod fixes the box flares. But still, paying $2k (cheap!) for it only puts you at the bottom of a hill to climb and make it "perfect" (lots of airquotes here). It also only goes as wide as 40mm on FF and no one fixed that one yet. hehe
I agree with this too. I'm drafting a new series of videos for next year, focused more on the anamorphic feel than the gear itself and the cornerstone aspect of it is that by embracing scope we're embracing artifacts and losses in IQ. That's what we want. Fortunately, if a lens is sharp there are plenty of tools to unsharpen it. The other way around is a bit trickier.
You can always blur a focused shot, but you can't recover one that was shot out of focus. ? 
Bringing this lens to the indie people is what makes the difference. Anamorphic has always been the snob aspect of cinematography and I strongly disagree with "this is expensive to keep the masses out". That's the core thought that got us in bad shape about... everything in history.
As for preferences, we shouldn't dismiss someone else's style just because it's not what we are trying to do. (Unless that person is the owner of The Anamorphic Store. In that case, dismiss them immediately. Ripoff)
This is EXACTLY my point in this whole thing. Some people might not like it (I still don't like Blackmagic Cameras very much), but it's important to acknowledge their importance in the grand scheme of things. This lens is an evolution of a movement that I'd say SLR Magic started, by manufacturing new, cheap anamorphics. That improved with the GH4's anamorphic mode and it took a sharp turn up when Atlas came into the game. Vazen is also part of it, and Sirui brings this into the hands of people who couldn't afford any of the previous options. Competition is the only way to make anamorphic cheap and I'm super glad to see it happening. I hope we soon see other focal lengths or other brands jumping onto this train.

I like the video. I was paying attention to their edits more than the lens though. hahaha. I think they did a good job of explaining what it is and what it does. Some small misconceptions here and there, but nothing terrible! hahaha
As for the crop factor, it is a bit confusing. The BMPCC4k has a crop of 1.9x, so I guess what they were talking about is that an APS-C crop on top of their crop makes it 1.25x more intense. That makes no sense. It's just confusing math. If you're unsure about coverage, my video has the coverage in FF and you can get any conclusions from there. ?

I waste no time! hahaha. Mine is the final version. Bokeh depends a lot on the focused distance, smoother the further away you focus and really cat-eyed on the sides when at min focus. There's a sweetspot somewhere in the middle. As for flare, many things can be influencing your perceived difference, from white balance to color correction.
 
What @kye said. Pushing the hues all the way around is pretty extreme and bound to give you poor results. You can still try it. hahaha
 
You're welcome!

I waste no time! hahaha. Mine is the final version. Bokeh depends a lot on the focused distance, smoother the further away you focus and really cat-eyed on the sides when at min focus. There's a sweetspot somewhere in the middle. As for flare, many things can be influencing your perceived difference, from white balance to color correction.
 
What @kye said. Pushing the hues all the way around is pretty extreme and bound to give you poor results. You can still try it. hahaha
 
You're welcome!

Thanks @Tito Ferradans : -)

Aw yeah! ?
 

My pledge was at the super early bird tier level, which is the same moniez as the secret perk for people who subscribed in advance (US$549). As I did not use the special link myself, I can give it to you to take one spot (shouldn't go public with the link tho, for the sake of the other early pre-launch subscribers who were not able to back just yet, but there are quite a few left) if that helps. Always recommend the out/in principle. Sell off something and use it to buy something. Must be something around you don't really use and can be turned to funds.

I just find a few comments here no less funny instead as well... ; ) Content is king not for anamorphic peepers, I see : D No worries, who professionally shoot taking care of anamorphics, they care much less, I will dare to write or nobody can't focus on the craft at all before to come here and read these boards! :- D
When I was in the film school, a few colleagues of mine were used to spend a couple of rehearsals, literally, to choose the best for their casual look in the front of the mirror... LOL Such vibe reminds me that : X
 
As foot note, nice to see you @Tito Ferradans over here along your insights, be who you are, no one cannot say anything much different than but thanks, it's a pleasure to read your thoughts on so unpretentious topic, you da man! : ) @kye you're the voice of the reason, thanks God you exist! : -)

@Rudolf I appreciate your points and the way you laid them out. Indeed Isco has the longest track record and it was never cheap.
My biggest point for Sirui is that they made it in a way that anyone can just pick one up and start shooting. There's not much of a learning curve as there is with adapters, and that's good for us because it pushes everyone forward. We might (hope to) see something that bests Isco some day. The Aivascope 2 did a pretty decent job, for example. ?

It is rather funny and a good amusement that these discussions are popping up again and again. At least every time when there is a new cheap solution. And in the meantime we had so many "game changers" that I already forgot the name of the game. Thank you Tito, for sharing your experiences. Tinkering with that kinda stuff is also a good amusement for many people: Adding inserts, filters, grease on the glass and even bigger bumper stickers "super-duper-anamorphic". Sorry didn't want to be offensive. This Siriu seems to bit a show off lens compared to what it does. These Suriu, FM lens, SLR, Vazen, Bolex-System Möller, Isco-Göttingen, Century, Optex, Pana LA7200, bla bla bla they are all toys and we like to play. It should be mentioned though that Isco had the longest experience in anamorphics and developed the most versatile best all around system. They put in the biggest effort. They offered everything the photographer (development on special paper) needed as well as for the small gauge shooter. Including solutions for cameras an projectors. Their program included trips and workshops. It was addressed to the wealthy enthusiast. Looking at old price list the prices were always very high. Throughout the range quality was incredible. My Isco-LeitzCinegon combo is the sharpest you can get for super-8. They made special stuff for Beaulieu. Schneider Optivaron with the 54 is a dream. And you know the good diopters Tito.
That all was not enough! You know how the Iscorama-dream ended. As so often the quality was too pricey.
To sum it up: There is no evolution/revolution! It is just getting cheaper because of chinese production and inferior quality. But that is for sure ok! Diversity is good. And if you shoot in 4k, 8k or whatever... who cares. But when Caleb shoots 16mm he needs something proper as he mentioned. 
And keep in mind: Some day you could be in need of other focal lengths. And then the price advantage will decrease as you have to buy more lenses.
So a maybe not so cheap adapter could be the toy of your life. 
But for many it is the search, the hunt and the tinkering what it is all about. 
I like good movies. I think 99% don't care if their favorite movies are shot spherical or whatever. But it is a difference if you project a "real" movie in anamorphic.
I like your work Tito!!! ? 

Wow, too many things to address. This forum is getting fun again! Thank you so much for all the input and keeping the argument civil (we have all seen how these conversations can go).
I can't disagree with you on everything. If you're here on EOSHD and you have an opinion, you're not a vanilla shooter. ?
After too many years of shooting with adapters, what I look for in a lens is not really the end result but a framework that supports improvement. The Sirui has it (so does the Iscorama). Last night I slapped in an oval insert at the aperture and made bokeh 2x. It got a lot better. Then threw in some focus and iris gears just for the fun of it and some filtration.
The image is on the sharp side, so I mounted a vari-nd (since I don't want the ovals to change with the aperture) and a BPM 1/4.
Things got more interesting when I put on a 0.8x wide angle adapter, which works great and degrades sharpness a bit more. The image is looking a lot more organic and that's what I wanna show on my next video.
Now to beat down the Iscorama a little bit more, 1.5x is not that much squeeze either for bokeh, plus minimum focus at 2m and rotating front/extending body make life a lot harder. It's not a perfect lens from the start. The pre-36 also has that weird box-shaped flare. Nonetheless we have solutions for most of these problems. The Maxiscope/Proxiscope addresses minimum focus and focus gears, plus mounting to rails to speed up lens changes, the newest Van Diemen rehousing fixes the rotating front and the long focus throw, another mod fixes the box flares. But still, paying $2k (cheap!) for it only puts you at the bottom of a hill to climb and make it "perfect" (lots of airquotes here). It also only goes as wide as 40mm on FF and no one fixed that one yet. hehe
I agree with this too. I'm drafting a new series of videos for next year, focused more on the anamorphic feel than the gear itself and the cornerstone aspect of it is that by embracing scope we're embracing artifacts and losses in IQ. That's what we want. Fortunately, if a lens is sharp there are plenty of tools to unsharpen it. The other way around is a bit trickier.
You can always blur a focused shot, but you can't recover one that was shot out of focus. ? 
Bringing this lens to the indie people is what makes the difference. Anamorphic has always been the snob aspect of cinematography and I strongly disagree with "this is expensive to keep the masses out". That's the core thought that got us in bad shape about... everything in history.
As for preferences, we shouldn't dismiss someone else's style just because it's not what we are trying to do. (Unless that person is the owner of The Anamorphic Store. In that case, dismiss them immediately. Ripoff)
This is EXACTLY my point in this whole thing. Some people might not like it (I still don't like Blackmagic Cameras very much), but it's important to acknowledge their importance in the grand scheme of things. This lens is an evolution of a movement that I'd say SLR Magic started, by manufacturing new, cheap anamorphics. That improved with the GH4's anamorphic mode and it took a sharp turn up when Atlas came into the game. Vazen is also part of it, and Sirui brings this into the hands of people who couldn't afford any of the previous options. Competition is the only way to make anamorphic cheap and I'm super glad to see it happening. I hope we soon see other focal lengths or other brands jumping onto this train.

Wow, too many things to address. This forum is getting fun again! Thank you so much for all the input and keeping the argument civil (we have all seen how these conversations can go).
I can't disagree with you on everything. If you're here on EOSHD and you have an opinion, you're not a vanilla shooter. ?
After too many years of shooting with adapters, what I look for in a lens is not really the end result but a framework that supports improvement. The Sirui has it (so does the Iscorama). Last night I slapped in an oval insert at the aperture and made bokeh 2x. It got a lot better. Then threw in some focus and iris gears just for the fun of it and some filtration.
The image is on the sharp side, so I mounted a vari-nd (since I don't want the ovals to change with the aperture) and a BPM 1/4.
Things got more interesting when I put on a 0.8x wide angle adapter, which works great and degrades sharpness a bit more. The image is looking a lot more organic and that's what I wanna show on my next video.
Now to beat down the Iscorama a little bit more, 1.5x is not that much squeeze either for bokeh, plus minimum focus at 2m and rotating front/extending body make life a lot harder. It's not a perfect lens from the start. The pre-36 also has that weird box-shaped flare. Nonetheless we have solutions for most of these problems. The Maxiscope/Proxiscope addresses minimum focus and focus gears, plus mounting to rails to speed up lens changes, the newest Van Diemen rehousing fixes the rotating front and the long focus throw, another mod fixes the box flares. But still, paying $2k (cheap!) for it only puts you at the bottom of a hill to climb and make it "perfect" (lots of airquotes here). It also only goes as wide as 40mm on FF and no one fixed that one yet. hehe
I agree with this too. I'm drafting a new series of videos for next year, focused more on the anamorphic feel than the gear itself and the cornerstone aspect of it is that by embracing scope we're embracing artifacts and losses in IQ. That's what we want. Fortunately, if a lens is sharp there are plenty of tools to unsharpen it. The other way around is a bit trickier.
You can always blur a focused shot, but you can't recover one that was shot out of focus. ? 
Bringing this lens to the indie people is what makes the difference. Anamorphic has always been the snob aspect of cinematography and I strongly disagree with "this is expensive to keep the masses out". That's the core thought that got us in bad shape about... everything in history.
As for preferences, we shouldn't dismiss someone else's style just because it's not what we are trying to do. (Unless that person is the owner of The Anamorphic Store. In that case, dismiss them immediately. Ripoff)
This is EXACTLY my point in this whole thing. Some people might not like it (I still don't like Blackmagic Cameras very much), but it's important to acknowledge their importance in the grand scheme of things. This lens is an evolution of a movement that I'd say SLR Magic started, by manufacturing new, cheap anamorphics. That improved with the GH4's anamorphic mode and it took a sharp turn up when Atlas came into the game. Vazen is also part of it, and Sirui brings this into the hands of people who couldn't afford any of the previous options. Competition is the only way to make anamorphic cheap and I'm super glad to see it happening. I hope we soon see other focal lengths or other brands jumping onto this train.

Wow, too many things to address. This forum is getting fun again! Thank you so much for all the input and keeping the argument civil (we have all seen how these conversations can go).
I can't disagree with you on everything. If you're here on EOSHD and you have an opinion, you're not a vanilla shooter. ?
After too many years of shooting with adapters, what I look for in a lens is not really the end result but a framework that supports improvement. The Sirui has it (so does the Iscorama). Last night I slapped in an oval insert at the aperture and made bokeh 2x. It got a lot better. Then threw in some focus and iris gears just for the fun of it and some filtration.
The image is on the sharp side, so I mounted a vari-nd (since I don't want the ovals to change with the aperture) and a BPM 1/4.
Things got more interesting when I put on a 0.8x wide angle adapter, which works great and degrades sharpness a bit more. The image is looking a lot more organic and that's what I wanna show on my next video.
Now to beat down the Iscorama a little bit more, 1.5x is not that much squeeze either for bokeh, plus minimum focus at 2m and rotating front/extending body make life a lot harder. It's not a perfect lens from the start. The pre-36 also has that weird box-shaped flare. Nonetheless we have solutions for most of these problems. The Maxiscope/Proxiscope addresses minimum focus and focus gears, plus mounting to rails to speed up lens changes, the newest Van Diemen rehousing fixes the rotating front and the long focus throw, another mod fixes the box flares. But still, paying $2k (cheap!) for it only puts you at the bottom of a hill to climb and make it "perfect" (lots of airquotes here). It also only goes as wide as 40mm on FF and no one fixed that one yet. hehe
I agree with this too. I'm drafting a new series of videos for next year, focused more on the anamorphic feel than the gear itself and the cornerstone aspect of it is that by embracing scope we're embracing artifacts and losses in IQ. That's what we want. Fortunately, if a lens is sharp there are plenty of tools to unsharpen it. The other way around is a bit trickier.
You can always blur a focused shot, but you can't recover one that was shot out of focus. ? 
Bringing this lens to the indie people is what makes the difference. Anamorphic has always been the snob aspect of cinematography and I strongly disagree with "this is expensive to keep the masses out". That's the core thought that got us in bad shape about... everything in history.
As for preferences, we shouldn't dismiss someone else's style just because it's not what we are trying to do. (Unless that person is the owner of The Anamorphic Store. In that case, dismiss them immediately. Ripoff)
This is EXACTLY my point in this whole thing. Some people might not like it (I still don't like Blackmagic Cameras very much), but it's important to acknowledge their importance in the grand scheme of things. This lens is an evolution of a movement that I'd say SLR Magic started, by manufacturing new, cheap anamorphics. That improved with the GH4's anamorphic mode and it took a sharp turn up when Atlas came into the game. Vazen is also part of it, and Sirui brings this into the hands of people who couldn't afford any of the previous options. Competition is the only way to make anamorphic cheap and I'm super glad to see it happening. I hope we soon see other focal lengths or other brands jumping onto this train.

Wow, too many things to address. This forum is getting fun again! Thank you so much for all the input and keeping the argument civil (we have all seen how these conversations can go).
I can't disagree with you on everything. If you're here on EOSHD and you have an opinion, you're not a vanilla shooter. ?
After too many years of shooting with adapters, what I look for in a lens is not really the end result but a framework that supports improvement. The Sirui has it (so does the Iscorama). Last night I slapped in an oval insert at the aperture and made bokeh 2x. It got a lot better. Then threw in some focus and iris gears just for the fun of it and some filtration.
The image is on the sharp side, so I mounted a vari-nd (since I don't want the ovals to change with the aperture) and a BPM 1/4.
Things got more interesting when I put on a 0.8x wide angle adapter, which works great and degrades sharpness a bit more. The image is looking a lot more organic and that's what I wanna show on my next video.
Now to beat down the Iscorama a little bit more, 1.5x is not that much squeeze either for bokeh, plus minimum focus at 2m and rotating front/extending body make life a lot harder. It's not a perfect lens from the start. The pre-36 also has that weird box-shaped flare. Nonetheless we have solutions for most of these problems. The Maxiscope/Proxiscope addresses minimum focus and focus gears, plus mounting to rails to speed up lens changes, the newest Van Diemen rehousing fixes the rotating front and the long focus throw, another mod fixes the box flares. But still, paying $2k (cheap!) for it only puts you at the bottom of a hill to climb and make it "perfect" (lots of airquotes here). It also only goes as wide as 40mm on FF and no one fixed that one yet. hehe
I agree with this too. I'm drafting a new series of videos for next year, focused more on the anamorphic feel than the gear itself and the cornerstone aspect of it is that by embracing scope we're embracing artifacts and losses in IQ. That's what we want. Fortunately, if a lens is sharp there are plenty of tools to unsharpen it. The other way around is a bit trickier.
You can always blur a focused shot, but you can't recover one that was shot out of focus. ? 
Bringing this lens to the indie people is what makes the difference. Anamorphic has always been the snob aspect of cinematography and I strongly disagree with "this is expensive to keep the masses out". That's the core thought that got us in bad shape about... everything in history.
As for preferences, we shouldn't dismiss someone else's style just because it's not what we are trying to do. (Unless that person is the owner of The Anamorphic Store. In that case, dismiss them immediately. Ripoff)
This is EXACTLY my point in this whole thing. Some people might not like it (I still don't like Blackmagic Cameras very much), but it's important to acknowledge their importance in the grand scheme of things. This lens is an evolution of a movement that I'd say SLR Magic started, by manufacturing new, cheap anamorphics. That improved with the GH4's anamorphic mode and it took a sharp turn up when Atlas came into the game. Vazen is also part of it, and Sirui brings this into the hands of people who couldn't afford any of the previous options. Competition is the only way to make anamorphic cheap and I'm super glad to see it happening. I hope we soon see other focal lengths or other brands jumping onto this train.

i feel everyone else has just blogged about It, tito is the only one that bothered to do anything in depth about it. its easy to see the difference in between bloggers and people that actually have a passion for something.

I thought that was gonna shock everyone, but you're the first one to comment on it! hahahahaha
Ohhh, thank you so much man!
I reached out to SIRUI as soon as the first article about the lens came out. I'm also not a huge fan of the indiegogo campaign (too "flashy") and after watching all the other reviews I knew exactly what I needed to cover on mine: the technical stuff only hardcore anamorphic people would think about. For the new vanilla shooters out there, most of the stuff I'm highlighting is TMI. ?

I thought that was gonna shock everyone, but you're the first one to comment on it! hahahahaha
Ohhh, thank you so much man!
I reached out to SIRUI as soon as the first article about the lens came out. I'm also not a huge fan of the indiegogo campaign (too "flashy") and after watching all the other reviews I knew exactly what I needed to cover on mine: the technical stuff only hardcore anamorphic people would think about. For the new vanilla shooters out there, most of the stuff I'm highlighting is TMI. ?

Interesting to note that 1.26x close focus squeeze.