Bold

retired from modding

@ScottP Sorry I don't visit the forums often these days. Although I don't make the mod anymore I still have a couple of remaining and my website's offline for now. If you're still interested shoot me a PM.

@Cosimo I applaud your work.Thank you for sharing, and contributing. For me and many others, experimentation is the cornerstone of learning about anamorphic. Non-conctructive criticism of other people's work seems petty and antithetical to the anamorphic community. Ignore the haters, and keep doing what you are doing!

@dnyanesh ambhore Finding an original silver Series VII ring replacement for the B&H is extremely rare. I've never seen one on eBay

1. I know of one resource that used to have a couple of these available. If there are any left it probably will cost around $75
2. I made a mold of my silver ring, and used it to cast some duplicates in polyurethane. Not as durable as the original. But as Tito suggested, you can attach a Series VII step up ring to it - like a SeriesVII-to-52mm for example - then use the 52mm thread for attaching other step up rings to match the various thread sizes of your taking lenses. This eliminates wear and tear on the polyurethane. I'm not sure if I have any left but I can check - lets call it $25 including shipping (U.S. only)
3. You may want to check with Jim Chang at Rapido Technology to see if he has something that will work in its place. He makes really excellent anamorphic accessories.

If option 1 or 2 interests you, PM me and I can give you further info.

19 hours ago, heart0less said:

If they weren't that big and heavy, they would certainly be far more popular. 

Big single focus solutions are also easier to get nowadays (FVD-35A), so maybe we'll see some change in the future and people will start to carry around those bazookas with them on shoots. XD 

A large majority of anamorphic shooters seem preoccupied - if not obsessed - with run-and-gun setups.  Which is totally fair, who wants to drag a heavy hand-held setup around?  But for me it has never been an issue, as my goal is to shoot narratives someday.  Narratives with pre-planned camera shots, involving tripods and other supports, where weight is far less of a concern.

In the grand scheme of things, a B&L is not that huge. Although an FVD-35A will definitely increase the weight to 5-6 pounds. Still, I bought a couple B&Ls on the cheap a few years ago, and I definitely want an FVD when I can afford it.

The 335b is another story. Combining the B&H and the Kalee, we're talking 10-11 pounds of glass.  Something for that would be for specific needs, like "I need a 24mm low light shot for this John-Car[enter-style horror film I'm shooting."

Vazen is too rich for my blood. If I could afford a Vazen, I could afford to pay a CNC machinist to create a B&L rehousing 🙂

4 hours ago, heart0less said:

So far, the widest setup I've heard of was:
Sony A7III + Helios 58mm F2 + Kowa 16-H + Century .75x WA converter that acted as both single focus and wide-angle converter (the huge one with the 3 elements, rehoused in a Pooli Century .75x helicoid).

So does that work out to about 43-44mm on full frame? Not bad!

35mm projector lenses generally let you go a wider than 16mm lenses. I've read that big 35mm scopes (Bausch & Lomb, e.g) can go as wide as a 35mm taking lens w/o vignetting (I haven't tested this myself). In this Vimeo below someone followed the 'cooking anamorphic' tutorial (a video which I can no longer find... seems to have disappeared from Vimeo) to achieve a 24mm taking lens on an m43 sensor.  Granted there's a LOT of barrel distortion (see the pillars at the 0:45 mark) and edge aberration. 

My uneducated, wild-ass guess is that unaltered, the 335b might allow for 28-30mm with little or no vignetting, as the the glass is almost 20% bigger in diameter. Using the cooking anamorphic technique of shortening the distance between the front & rear elements would definitely allow for 24mm, in theory with less barrel distortion than the B&L.

Of course this would mean it would no longer be 2x anamorphic. But if I could achieve 1.8x it's still enough to produce pronounced oval bokeh.

Shooting with M43 in 4:3 at 2x produces a 2.66:1 aspect ratio. If my math is right, shooting with m43 in 4:3 mode at 1.8x would produce an aspect ratio of 2.40:1

Again, this is all compeletely hypothetical, based on my incredibly limited (and probably flawed) understanding of lens optics 🙂

On 4/23/2020 at 8:24 AM, heart0less said:

He's your go-to guy, when it comes to affordable yet custom design regarding helicoids, clamps, etc.

Thanks, I will send him a note. I still fear that his services will be beyond my budget, but it might be worth saving up for.

In the meantime I'm still looking for ideas for doing at-home tinkering & testing with this glass. Where do the anamorphic Dr. Frankensteins shop for their parts & equipment?

My goal is to achieve a taking lens in low 20s range (24mm, e.g.) on 2x scope with a m43 sensor, without vignetting.

(Also the giant glass,100mm diameter, probably means enough light passes through to accomodate even the fastest lens.)

On 2/20/2018 at 12:43 PM, Hans Punk said:

From what I can tell, to get minimum focus on this big boy (of 1m) - the front and rear optics need spacing of approx 40mm...which unfortunately is further than the helicoid will allow without unscrewing and separating the two body halves. However if someone was to re-mount or rail-mount the optics in some kind of MacGyver fashion, you'd have a very tasty big boy focusing optic to play with.

Does anyone have any thoughts/advice on how to re-mount or re-house one of these big Varamorph bastards?

I don't think there's any kind of helicoid with a large enough diameter for this glass, and custom maching seems prohibitively expensive.

So I'm interested in finding hardware that I could re-purpose (astronomy accessories, or something similar?) to achieve 40-50mm travel distance.

My goal would be to combine such a focus unit with the absurdly giant Bell & Howell 335B. It would be the HEAVIEST anamorphic adapter ever created.  But I suspect it would also allow for a really wide taking lens without vignetting.

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!

Leslie, that is the 35mm B&H, which doesn't share any similarities with the 16mm lens in this thread.  At 6 pounds, this 35mm beast is the one of the heaviest anamorphics out there.  I don't think it would be of practical use unless you were doing tripod-mounted/narrative filmmaking.  Extremely heavy and bulky for run and gun.  It's one advantage is the enormous diameter glass.  I suspect that it would allow you to shoot with a wider taking lens than just about any other 2x anamorphic.  But because the front diameter is so big, a single-focus solution would have to be custom made.  I imagine it's focus through, but I suspect its minimum focus distance is probably between 10-20 feet.

I have a pair of these giant B&Hs, but I haven't figured out how to disassemble them...Unfortunately I don't have any time or money to do anamorphic tinkering any more, and will probably put these and the rest of my anamorphic & camera gear on eBay soon.

I wouldn't recommend buying a thing from that guy under any circumstances.  His products are overpriced and in some cases appear to be of poor quality.

I'd recommend taking a look at Rapido Technology's clamp selection instead. I have one of his clamps. He doesn't mess around - the quality of workmanship is great and the prices are reasonable.

On 12/14/2018 at 5:38 AM, leslie said:

The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to the site owner reaching his/her bandwidth limit. Please try again later

I've made some tweaks to lower my website's overhead, so for the moment the site is up and running (...fingers crossed).

Hi Leslie, thanks for the heads-up - I'm looking into the bandwidth issue and should have it resolved today.

Most projector lens designs are pretty simple and can be disassembled, cleaned, reassembled as long as you have the right tools, a good work space, and lots of patience ?

I'm sure other isco Gottengen 2x and NAP32 owners would appreciate posts dedicated to those lenses!

Cheers,

-Bold

My site is finally live now.

If you're interested in my B&H mod, you can see what I offer here.

Has anyone else been doing modding or shooting with their B&H?  Please post your footage and keep this thread going!

On 10/20/2018 at 7:49 PM, leslie said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vormaxlens-ReFocus-single-focus-module-anamorphic-variable-diopter-bluecoating/323500991806?hash=item4b5229653e:g:KtUAAOSw4M9bePVA:rk:36:pf:0

I'd avoid that eBay seller. Overpriced and poor quality.

The front element can be removed fairly easily, so it should be easy to clean,  I'm not an expert in lens fungus, but my best guess is that the impact on the image will be minimal. 

Those tabs are part of the B&H design.  For a 60(ish) year old lens, yours appears to be in pretty good shape.

Sent you a PM

I suppose it's easier to become monetarily wealthy if you are ethically bankrupt.

8 hours ago, mirekti said:

I was browsnig for anamorphic and just read this. Has there been any development on your ideas above?

mirketi, I've finished building my website (complete with shopping cart) and I've shot some more test footage.  What remains is to edit the footage it to the website along with some product photos.

The mod itself is ready and available.  I'm offering the complete mod (lens included), a modification service (send me your B&H and I'll mod it), and a mod kit (do-it-yourself). PM me if you would like details, I'm hoping to launch the website next month.

I would encourage you to experiment with it, as I don't think you're going to find anyone with hands-on knowledge.  The size, weight, and cost of this Isco has probably deterred filmmakers  from using this model Isco as an anamorphic attachment.  You may very well be the first person on this forum to try it!

My guess is that the image quality is quite good. Because of the size of the glass, I suspect you will be able to user a wider taking lens than a typical 2x scope, and that it will work well with wide open apertures.

Of course rigging this thing will be a challenge, but don't let anyone's disdain for big scopes disgourage you from forging ahead - I would love to hear what results you get, please post your discoveries!

Cheers,

|. . | .|

9 hours ago, cbh said:

I'd love to see what everyone is using in terms of lens supports and maybe look into getting a clamp+support combo.

There's another thread here that may give you some ideas.

5 hours ago, zerocool22 said:

Nice is that the 5D III ML RAW?

Nope,  just my GH4

The B&H mod in action.

Hope you all had an anamorphic July 4th!

(or July 1st, for my neighbors to the north)

nothin' fancy:

This LA7200 is over $500 above the average asking price on eBay.

You'll have better luck selling your anamorphics on this forum if your price is realistic. The same for your Rectilux.