Dick Sweeney

So your Rokkor 58 1.2 ends up being .1.  or a  .95 !!!!    IS anything in focus with it wide open - I'm sure it would look lovely !  The Porst 1.2 should be nice - I need to play with mine a bit more - I wasnt that keen on the top and bottom edges being so soft..... but my test was very basic.

"no need to torture your stills camera" - if only i would have known !     So what your saying is that the strobe effect - only showed every sixth frame ? Was it super clean and regimented - or did it have an organic "hand made" vibe ?

I shot as jpeg and even then it killed a mac and my camera - 55000 frames all up. We edited through bridge in terms of what was needed to fit the shot list - and then looked at the sequence and then stripped out frames to make the cut and paste effect more pronounced ( so to speak ). Actually as I progressed through the campaign of x3 I became more cinematic - by default - but it wasnt porbably what they needed - so we had to strip it down even more to make it more random......the finally cut was passed onto a pro.

1 hour ago, SigurdW said:

Lovely! Nice to see some hints of wide angle distortion as well. You had to crop a bit in post, right? If not, I want in on this fun!

Well no - not really on any post crop - this was shot at 100 FPS - and the A7S2 naturally gives you the crop on the sensor - at 1080. To be honest its all I'm good for atm - as my machine can only handle 1080 and 4k is a nightmare. I'm getting my head round the proxies slowly - along with all the other massive learning curve. BUT that lens is a legend and it is tiny. Almost too small. I'd be keen to try other lenses though too - as the light is special - and i'm using special sauce EOS HD Canon Log - what ever Ive done - something in the mix is working FYI - no LUT or grade applied other than some matching up from cut to cut. I still need to get that IBIS / IS sorted though - although I was filming after a fair bit of cycling and i was cycling chasing the light.....

heres a review of said lenses - its loved as a landscape lens https://www.pentaxforums.com/lensreviews/SMC-Pentax-K-28mm-F3.5-Lens.html

Looking a bit shaky - but this is a nice lens at 100FPS the Pentax K 28mm 3.5. The shimmering warm flares at the start are nice - obviously some reflection off the water.

I shot this a few years ago now -

and this one...

What is the consensus - when manually setting the focal length - plus using the cropped mode in both Super 35 and the slomo - plus obviously the added ana lens. Ive been kind of doubling the lengths so far - in a general kind of way. I'm presuming that the IBIS takes on board the actually length as an approximation and counters the tilt and shake by applying the opposite on the chip plane. Sometimes my stuff looks stabilised and others shaky.

It would be to here

What length added in to say for a 50mm Plus Ana ?

And then say the same set up but then add in the S35 crop mode ?

And then same again without the S35 - but the Slo Mo 120 FPS crop on the A7S2.....

Or just stick on some sticks !

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/aug/01/how-we-made-full-metal-jacket-stanley-kubrick-matthew-modine

Thanks for the info @SigurdW - It might be worth me having a look at the pancake lens - I dont think it would be any harder to focus with than the Contax Zeiss 45. - as that focus ring is tiny. I'm sorting out all these lens tests - so I know whats good for stills (my career) - Sharp and fast and then for motion which can afford to be more poetic and with a little more give in terms of requirements. I did notice that in some ways the Nikon 100 was sharp etc but it still needed due care and consideration as at 2.8 and inifinity on the anamorphot - it still wasnt infinity on the taking lens - which caused some soft issues........ flares were good - although I was too late for them at the sunrise. And yes Sigur Ros...... i think the guy went on to do Rice Boy........ both lovely music !

How was the focus though - I kind of gathered that most of my tests so far I've had to go into cropped mode around this focal length. Besides the vignette was the experience a good one and the look and ease of use good @SigurdW     FYI loved your Lofoten clip.  Was it Mum or Riceboy Sleeps music 

Yes that's what I thought keessie65. I've been researching them all day. I love pancake lenses. One of my faves is the Minolta 45 f2 and the contax zeiss 45 2.8.  The problem with the Zeiss though is the width of the focus grip and I wonder if I will have a similar problem with the Nikon pancake. I can't wait to test the 100 2.8 on something other than the close up and technical shots I've ran with today. I'm hoping it has some nice character and I can see it flares easily. And veiling flare which I like. 

Just think I've found a great lens for my set up that ticks many boxes - close focus yes - sharp wide open at 2.8 yes - small for its focal length yes - and it appears very little distortion with the Bolex - its the Nikon 100 2.8 E series - also no additional stepping rings from my clamp to lens.... havent tested the character of it yet - just the nitty gritty. I hope this to be my base standard for a solid sharp bright lens on the anamorphot. The Sony Zeiss was holding that position but it was an AF lens that could be easily knocked out of focus etc I'm keen to look at some others in this range - although I know f all about Nikons...... happy to hear some thoughts on similar Nikons with these capabilities. Especially around the 40mm - 60mm mark...

Heres some tests with the DSO FF58 (superlowcontrast) stunning thing - need to go sparingly - but when it hits the mark its wonderful... I need to run further tests - see if i can control the flare at times.. but like look these are like paintings - something some where is in focus - I'm not sure where though but thats half the charm. I'd like to test this with a person etc..... of and the colours - not sure what was happening there but - I'm blown away by the pallette...

A few more lenses tested - Contax Zeiss 85 / Pentacon 6 Zeiss Medium Format / Porst Colour.....

Heres some with the Minolta MC 85 1.7 - similar kind of flares as the 58 1.2 - perhaps not as crazy. A weird vertical flare is produced. Again stopping down helps sharpen the image but does loose that funky rendering - like a painting at times. F4 seemed to be a sweet spot. I think this would be a great portrait lens.

Heres a few lenses tested in stills mode - The Sony Zeiss 55 1.8 is sharp as - where as the Minolta MC 58 1.2 is loose and funky as hell. I need to get the Novoflex Minolta adaptor to iron out some of the issues - most of the funk lies at 1.2 - stopping it down reduces the life out of it - I think at F2 a happy medium can be struck although you loose those blacks which have that nice veiling flare.

Heres some lens tests with the anamorphot - some come good easy with the focus others not...... the Sony Zeiss is SHARP ! and the AF handy. The Minolta 45 very small and renders well and close focus and sharp with nice flares. The Jupiter 85 is lovely - crazy organic - i think best for middle distance person with focus on them wide open ish. If its close to inifinity then the organic renders a bit too funky for my like. I need to test the Minolta 58 and the Canon 100 macro more........

Nice - I like the footage of the stuff going round - and especially when the camera is moving. The look - is great - along with the colours of the sensor too.The jittery footage was a bit of a distraction. Love the mix of music and atmos.... I'd be keen to see some minimal depth of field stuff - wide open or close to get a sense of the out of focus vibe.

FYI - Im in the same boat as yourself starting out in the anamorphic world - I'm going to use mine on a gimbal on on a monopod with feet....... also the motion control app with the camera from my phone - so a mix of movement but controlled a little...... lets see

Firstly I'd like to say that Ive been a long time lurker on this site - and Ive learned a lot. I'm a pro photographer thats recently been steered towards producing moving images for the peeps i work for but also have been a huge fan of the medium from a very early age. Ive learned so much from this site and others like it and appreciate the knowledge base that these places are - so thanks to all the effort that peeps go to share their acquired knowledge. Its no turn to share some of my findings...

Heres my notes on my experience after one night shooting with this in stills mode

Bolex paired with -Sony Zeiss 55 + Sony A7R2

Grain / noise could be reduced using A7S2 - Was shooting at night at 3200 min

Need to stop down - hard to nail focus wide open - F3.5 seems like sweet

Oval Bokeh is present - but one needs separation - a longer lens would be of more benefit

Close focus as in head in frame looks possible

On full frame - one needs to shoot at Super 35 - to crop out vignette

Was shooting at night at 3200 min

The alignment has to be right - otherwise verticals slant - although that does it give it a weird cinematic vibe

AF works quite well - so does focus peaking - although one needs to nail the ana lens focus first. Its not always easy to discern the difference between the squeeze and the lack of focus
To shoot motion one probably needs a monitor/stills in a pro way. Focus was at times easy - just point and fire - while other times impossible ?

AF possibilities like eye tracking and high end AF solutions could be used - need to test these.

Photoshop actions can be applied for the desqueeze quite easy - I’m going to see if I can apply an action to build the black bars.

Flares are present - some sources flare without being in the frame - while others less so in the frame. Flares are blue and sometimes red.

Looking at the images - it make sense to really think in this format - its strengths and weaknesses - to be able to pre visualise. The same with any photographic tool.

One unique thing about this format is the ability to point your viewer into areas of the frame that are very relevant to the story - that i think is a pretty important note. I can see by some of theses test shots exactly where a person would be within the composition. Also leaving some space in this potentially busy format for a person might be necessary or not - one could intentionally confuse the viewer too.

Onwards and upwards - need to try a few more lenses. Next on the list an 100mm Macro Canon 2.8 AF.