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I really like this shape in the bokeh. It reminds me of 1950s graphic designs.

I shot a lot with the GH7 + Voigt 42.5mm F0.95 + Sirui 1.25x adapter while in China and Hong Kong and loved the setup, both for the images and also the ergonomics and use, but the combo is heavy.  The glass is 1.3kg and with the GH7 the rig is over the 2kg mark (4.4lbs).
While I felt like a total bad-ass wielding the rig, and the coolness factor of shooting street scenes with hand-held anamorphic is in-arguably off the charts, it wasn't perfect.  The bokeh isn't that stretched from a 1.25x squeeze factor, and does exhibit a certain amount of swirl, I was wondering if there was a spherical alternative that would be considerably less weight to drag around the world.
This is a first experiment in that direction.  GH7 + M42-MFT Speedbooster + Meyer-Optik Görlitz 50mm F1.8, but with two small additions:

Yes, these are small cutouts of the sticky part of a post-it note stuck directly to the rear element of the glass.  These sit between the lens and speed booster.
I've tried putting cutouts onto the front of the lens (on a space UV filter) and the results are underwhelming.  This, however, looks incredible and is much more consistent in the shape of the bokeh throughout the frame.



Obviously the shape isn't ideal, as I should round it slightly and especially round the corners, but as a proof of concept, this looks promising.
More complex scenes:



Of course, these are open-gate images, and this is definitely bokeh that deserves widescreen....  and with the best grade I could manage in the Mac image Preview tool, we get this:

There is definitely something here.  More to come for sure.

Hi, yesterday panasonic finally released the firmware uodate and lumix flow update for the s5ii. I really like the app. Setup time is also fast.
As this might replace my shinobi ii for travel purposes. Allthough I need to test how long batterylife of my smartphone is while using lumix flow. Not sure if there are any other drawbacks.
But apps like these could give external monitor brands a hard time. Or at least in the consumer section.
 
Cheers

Great thread BTW.  Modern sterile images are incredibly boring.

high praise indeed, from the man who's usually the one dishing out impactful photos 😉 If i am honest, i'm quite chuffed with my shot as well lol. These cattle had been penned nearly for two weeks as the trucks couldn't get in to load and have been fed and watered every day and in that time have really settled down, being handled every day. The yards really quite long and there's about 103 cattle in there and widens out on the right hand side. Although you don't see that many in this shot.

Just watching this video here, which is about the Sirui Ironstar 35mm T1.9 1.5x lens and am amazed at how different the looks are: 
This has loads of vertical bokeh:

and yet, this has triangular horizontal bokeh (I think it's called Coma?):

I mean, seriously:

Then he compares them to the Blazar Remus which seems to have vertical bokeh that even gets more prominent towards the edges rather than less-so:



and then compare that to a swirly bokeh image cropped to a broadly similar aspect ratio and the bokeh on the very edges looks similar:


It's definitely not the same, but if it wasn't sharpened to within an inch of its life it might be a broadly similar aesthetic when put into a more normal scene.
Or this crazy combo of Helios 44-2 and Blazar 1.5x adapter, which seems to have horizontal streaking on the edges rather than vertical:


I'm beginning to think the bokeh is a lie, or potentially randomly generated!

For those who are curious, here's my 16mm B&H footage. It has been stretched and graded slightly. No sharpening or window treatments whatsoever. The panning is to show distortion and falloff:
 

 
Granted, I had to cut some corners to get here. I added a wide angle converter to the mix to get close to an S35 35mm equivalent while cropping in ML raw to 1344x1008 (I usually work with this crop). And this isn't a 50mm f/1.4 taking lens either. I find that the best taking lens for the B&H is the Olympus Zuiko 100mm on my 5D3 because it's so small and manageable. This combination gives me a neat 47.6mm S35 field of view (close enough to 50mm for me). Adding my new Sony VCL-HG0758 Wide Angle Converter brings me down to 33.33mm (S35). 
 
To answer Rich's questions as best I can:
Can they deliver this field of view/dof combination? Yes, but only with a Wide Angle Converter. Can they deliver the above without adding CA or softening at f1.4? I haven't tried it at f1.4, but it's pleasantly soft at f2.8. Can they do this on a full frame sensor? See above. Can they do this without adding vignette? See above. Can they provide this without the need for additional support? I would recommend using a support. As a former Iscorama owner, I am still pleased as punch with this lens. I love the 2x stretch and with the modification I did, it rack focuses easily. There's no additional glass elements in front of the lens to worry about unless I need to attach the the wide angle converter. It's a pretty nice lens.

@maxJ4380 love this shot.

Nice color and sharpness. I like how you used the fence rails to add an even tighter window into the frame... especially with how busy the frame is...
A window into chaos.
It also looks like a frame right out of Yellowstone.

First time in ages i got away for a few days and did a road trip out to a little country town i like to visit.
Full discloser, never really considered myself, much of a cleanliness or sterility freak 🙃. However i am liking the sirui 1.33 24mm. Probably mostly for the convenience it brings. Its not 1.5, 1.6 or 2x, and i think the anamorphic effects are kinda tame compared to those other stretches i mention.  

I liken it to stepping stones i think,  little bit different to what you'd normally see but not as jarring as 2x ( although jarring might be too strong an adjective). It will flare and do the blue streaks as well but i find the blue streaks to be less intrusive compared to what you see on youtube. I suspect the first prototypes steaked quite a lot in youtube videos, no idea if they toned them down. My experiences has been their abit more subdued.   

The anamorphics guy  Tito Ferradans has a vid on using oval cutouts in sirui lenses. I'd probably try something like that next. If i wanted a look that was closer to 2x  Its taken a while to figure this lens out and i expect i still need to do more with it to realize its potential. 

The whole sterility / cleanliness thing, is of course subjective. What you may like, i may not and vice versa. I personally don't find cleanliness and or sharpness objectional in a lens and i recently bought a lens with a whole lot of yellowing going on that most wouldn't buy. 
I think the sirui and the other modern anamorphic lenses bring convenience to anamorphics. Buying a vintage anamorphic is much like travelling down a rabbit hole. Theres lots of things to add on and sometimes that can take a while to sort out.
 Its my understanding that  1.33 are geared towards crop sensors and the bigger stretches for full frame ? of course you can mix and match,  if you so desire.
i'm on mft format and i think 1.33 stretch adds enough of a difference for me. i also suspect a 1.33 stretch is a good start, if your looking to dip your toes in anamorphics and have a crop sensor camera, but dont want to travel down a rabbit hole.  

Here's a quick test from the Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95 and Sirui 1.25x showing the overall quality and how it behaves with differing apertures.  The Voigt is sharp when stopped down, but not when wide open.  The colour shifts are from the Voigt.
F2.0

F1.4

F0.95

Here's an image from the other night to get a bit of a flavour.  I've sharpened it quite a bit in post.

I've shot with this combo on my current trip and really like it, but it's really heavy and so I've been thinking about alternatives for getting a similar look.  I'm starting to think of this as a two-part challenge: the first part is things that can only be done optically like the bokeh (size, shape, CA, etc) and the second part is things that can be influenced in post (especially the softness of the focal plane).
In this sense, I'm looking for glass that will give me the right bokeh, and can then degrade the image in post using softening, vignetting, distortion (barrel / pincushion), CA (of the whole image) etc.
I'm surprised at how much the bokeh swirls:



The fact that swirly bokeh is just anamorphic bokeh at the sides of the image, and the wider the aspect ratio you end up using in the final video the more you're cropping off the top and bottom where the swirl goes from vertical to horizontal, makes me think that a very swirly spherical lens with a wide crop might be a passable alternative.
I will be investigating my vintage fast ~50mm collection on SB when I get home.  These seem the easiest way to get soft images with character without huge weight and complexity and cost.

I'm looking around to find an example to explain this better. Most of what I'm seeing is too sharp. This is nice. I find that sometimes I actually like when anamorphic lenses having taking lenses that are focused just a little off. Here's my B&H single focus vs a Sirui 1.6x that I rented.
I'd happily just stick with the B&H if I could go wider with it. I also like what I'm seeing from the Kowa 16D in terms of character, but it's not going to play well with a ~50mm lens either.
That is a really nice lens. Very smooth bokeh, and a little CA in the bokeh wide open (which I quite like). I think those Voigtlanders are known for holding circular bokeh for longer when stopping down, a very nice characteristic for pairing with an anamorphic lens.
 I think you're onto something. Check out this video.
Tropical was the wrong word. But it's super humid! I liked in Kobe for three years.
I've owned the Helios three different times, and sold it. I just don't get along with that lens. If I can find a decent mod on a fast 35-50mm lens (with no streak), I'd consider it. From what I've seen, the mods still don't have the weirdness of true anamorphic. What Blazar is doing is really neat. I think they are doing it with their new Beetle lenses as well.

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.

Japan is not tropical at all.  Tokyo sits at 35N, a little bit North of San Diego, CA which is about 33N.  For buying used lenses, tariffs are a real motherfucker, since buying lenses used from Japan used to mean getting them for a bit less than US prices and in much nicer condition all-around.
As can my Blazar 1.33x when I pair it with one.  It's a great place to pair with an old DSO FF 58 if you can find one at a reasonable price (or just wait until Gale does another run of them, I picked one up last year over the holidays).
If playing with this, you might also experiment with a lens modded with an oval aperture or with just putting an oval cutout in front of or behind the lens.  It'll make the bokeh a little more stretched.  It's similar to what Blazar are doing with Mantis and was one of the options with the previously-mentioned DSO FF 58.  I think there are also tutorials on doing a DIY mod for the Helios 58 (the lens used for DSO) to have it.

I'm looking around at the current anamorphic landscape and finding that while much easier to work with and capable of wider angles, the new offerings from Sirui, Blazar and Laowa lack the same jaw-dropping quality that footage from the older adapters had. I find them so clean (yes, even the Blazars) that I think that it defeats the point of shooting on anamorphic. So that brings me back to the vintage adapters, which seem to have come down in price since the modern lenses have hit the market. Plus there are now several variable diopters available for single focus.
Going on character alone, what are your favorites? At one point or another, I've owned 10-20 different adapters, and I still have a modded Bell & Howell Single-Focus. But after an 11-year hiatus from anamorphic, I am looking for fresh perspectives.

The DOF adapter still seems like a crazy / borderline broken vintage lens emulation, but if that's the look you're going for then it's a good option to have.
What seems much more useful though is using it as a B or C camera, fitted with an ND and shooting manually.

Interesting idea and seems like it might work well for some situations.  
I personally always use my phone in a drop-proof case and never take it out (as that just means the fit of the case gets loose and it lessens the protection) but the idea of a clip-on / clamp-on one seems sensible.  I'd imagine that we'll see a number of third-party accessories come out for the 17 over the coming months.  When I got mine there were only Apple cases available to be delivered immediately and the delivery date for the rest were weeks away.
I took the GH7 >> Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95 >> Sirui 1.25x anamorphic adapter out for a spin in the markets last night and the images were great.  I'm not sure how much of that was due to the anamorphism of the lens, and how much it was just due to it not being pristine, but maybe that might be worth the extra fuss.

At least for the 16 Pro, there are Magsafe threaded filter adapters.  I have one that takes a 67mm filter (or is it 58?).  The only real bummer is that it can't go on with my phone in the standard Apple case so I have to pop the phone out to use it.  Mine cost $20 or so IIRC.  Maybe something like that exists for the 17 as well?

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.

Is this something? ; )
To me, this outcome doesn’t seem negligible at all. Quite the contrary.
No one invented the wheel this time. But it seems that has now been perfected, evolving in a way even the most oblivious cannot miss.
To me, it would/will likely be the 1st round :- )

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.

Absolutely.  Use a tripod or stabiliser when required and use an ND to shoot manually with the iPhone and you'll get top notch results with a very light setup.
Great to hear people using modest tools and putting out work.

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.

Tianluokeng Tulou clusters, Fujian Province, China.
These buildings have a very thick outer wall of earth and a 3-5 storey inner wooden structure that houses dozens of families.  The structure is designed to be stable during earthquakes and secure against bandits.  The oldest if the ones we visited was built in 1796.
These are just with a quick grade, mostly Resolve Film Look Creator. The DR in the scene is extreme, and while all the required info is in the files, I'm going to have to go heavy on the power-windows when I grade these properly.
Grabs from GH7 + 14-140mm zoom.








Grabs from iPhone 17 Pro shooting Prores Log with default app.
The Prores HQ Apple Log files grade really nicely, have heaps of DR, and are great to work with. The DR isn't quite as much as the GH7, but it's more than enough for these scenes.  These were graded at a different time to the above GH7 shots so probably don't match.





All-in-all, the iPhone well and truly punches above its weight when you take into account it's pocketability, the size of the sensor, and the incredible range in focal lengths.  Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get a lens that can do 13-200mm FF equivalent FOV and has exposure levels between F1.78 and F2.8 across the whole range.