Zen - Shooting anamorphic in Shanghai with an Iscorama and $20 lens

[Andrew Reid]

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[url="http://www.eoshd.com/anamorphic-guide"]Find out more about anamorphic shooting in my book, the EOSHD Anamorphic Shooter’s Guide 2nd edition[/url]

I was in Shanghai for most of November. Shanghai is a monstrous megapolis of concrete really and not quite what I was expecting. It is FAR rawer than Tokyo or Taipei and a lot of the old cultural relics have been swept away – but it was a very interesting place to visit and to film footage in. Down the road there was the [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jade_Buddha_Temple"]Jade Buddha Temple[/url] in Jing’An district which is part tourist destination part temple of worship for the local Chinese, I took a look inside…

[url="http://www.eoshd.com/content/5963/shooting-anamorphic-in-shanghai-with-an-iscorama-and-20-lens/"]Read full article[/url]

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[Guest jean-baptistelefournier]

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As concerns cropping out the borders to get a full 1920 x 520 file without letterbox you may use Quicktime Pro (which means Quicktime 7) Apple has cut off all the (very) useful features in Quicktime X but you should find Quicktime 7 set up among the “extra” setup (I’m not sure how it’s called in English) on Mac Os installation DVD.
Otherwise After Effects allows you to export even more fancy formats and resolutions.

In the end, I wonder if cropped or letterbox video are displayed the same when diplayed on full screen mode on Vimeo
Best

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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I would have done this, but actually prefer to keep the black borders. It looks a little lost otherwise.

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[Guest jean-baptistelefournier]

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I like to enjoy good videos on full screen mode (scaling switched off) and since both versions are displayed on a black background it think it’s pretty much the same in the end.

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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Yep – true. Another reason why I couldn’t be bothered with the hassle of cropping it in the end [img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif[/img] It used to be that Vimeo had some kind of bug that played back black border videos very poorly with a very low bitrate, but that is fixed now.

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[Guest enfee]

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hey guys, i´m new here. i would like to ask what is anamorphic good for? i only readed something about good lens flares. thanks

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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It is a lot of specific things that add up to a more cinematic feel to images not just the horizontal flare. Different looking bokeh, different geometry to the shot, depth, wideness, aspect ratio and a wider field of view without sacrificing aperture speed.

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[Guest PGurung]

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I love how the feel of the whole piece. The smoke adds a really cool ambiance.
Idk if ya read my twitter reply to ya… but for the sake of knowledge here’s how i do my anamorphic crop in CS5:
i. set my sequence to the desired aspect ratio
ii. When exporting manually type the frame dimensions in the video export options.
iii. Select “Square Pixels” as your aspect ratio.
Hope that helps.

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[Guest stoneinapond]

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Having been to this temple about a year ago, I was excited to watch your video. And while the images you captured are beautiful, the cropping does a disservice to the size of the place and some of the statues, mostly due I think to the Helios’ 116mm equivalent focal length. Great as part of a narrative, but unfortunately not as document of the place. Also I didn’t like your choice of music. I purchased a CD in Shanghai to find the right music for my small “holiday” piece that I think better reflects the grandeur and dual nature of the place.

But lest I sound too negative, I’m sure for people who do not know the place, your video is a beautiful experience. And if I may say so, immaculate shooting. Love that Soviet glass!

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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There’s no cropping with an anamorphic lens. The Helios is 58mm even by 35mm standards on the GH2 with the 2x anamorphic because the anamorphic widens the field of view by a factor of 2. By the way this temple isn’t very big… it is tiny. A wide angle option can be useful but I have some shots with the Olympus 12mm wide angle at the same temple and I much prefered the 58mm with anamorphic footage. For wide angle anamorphic the LA7200 has the coverage on wider lenses where the Iscoramas vignette.

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[Guest demetris]

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“When pairing an anamorphic widescreen lens with a nice fast prime, you throw the logic book out of the window. What you should look for is the simplest and most primitive optics with the least coating. The Helios 44M is perfect for this.”

Unfortunately I have no experience shooting with anamorphic lenses, could you elaborate a bit more on this please. What would be the problem with nice glass?

The only thing I can think of is that better lens coating produces less flare whereas the use of anamorphic lenses is famous for producing extraordinary flares… but that’s not the case here.

Your video for the most part is dead crisp! I didn’t expect such a performance from Helios 44M especially when combined with anamorphic glass that is supposed to take away some crispness.
By the way this is one of your best videos.

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[Guest josef]

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Andrew,

Nice work as I always find you do. I was in that same temple almost three years ago. It struck me how important Buddhism still is to a small (but hopefully growing) segment of the Chinese population.

On my trip I was shooting on a HVX200 at that time. I hadn’t made the jump to DSLR shooting yet. So by way of HVX200 to GH2 anamorphic comparison (32.5 – 423mm vs 58mm in 35mm equivalent) for those that were interested in seeing how “wide” the anamorphic is, here is my “vacation” video from the same temple. I was on a bus tour, so had to run through and didn’t have time for a tripod or slider. Sorry for the non stabilized shots [img]http://www.eoshd.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif[/img]

http://vimeo.com/7606600

Josef

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[Guest Andrew Reid]

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Says ‘private’ video mr!

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[Guest enfee]

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thanks

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[Guest Reinout]

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Yeah, I really start to see that difference, even though it’s hard to really pinpoint. But there definitely is a difference in geometry and depth which just ‘feels’ instantly cinematic. The un-cropped widescreen and horizontal flares are really just icing on the cake, to me the real cinematic quality is in that different ‘look & feel’, flares or not.

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[Guest jdd]

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Hey Andrew!
I bought your Anamorphic Shooters Guide on google checkout on friday, and haven’t gotten and info on where to download it! I cant wait to get reading, how do I get it?

thanks for any info,
jordan

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[Guest B3Guy]

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Anamorphics do something to the light entering the lens that most lenses are not really designed to work with. Luckily, anamorphics are designed to do this in a way that does work with most lenses, but a more complicated modern lens has more elements, is doing many optical corrections. The anamorphic messes with all of these, so throw them out the window. An older good condition lens will be far simpler in optical design, with fewer corrective elements for the anamorphic to “mess with”. Anamorphics do a lot of junk, pulling more light from wider. The one that comes to mind as most potentially problematic is the curving of the FOV. Im no rocket scientist, but I would suspect that complex elements like asphericals and others might not be too happy with that.

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[Guest josef]

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Sorry been a few years since I’ve looked at that. Video is public.

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[Guest jgharding]

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Some lovely compositions there, really pretty images, how amazing it all looks in such a wide ratio. It’s odd the effect that anamorphic has, hard to pin down but it’s kind of otherworldly…

What on earth bitrate is this, it’s so detailed!? :0 The more GH2 footage I see with the newer hack the more I wanna switch from the EOS when time/money allows me to buy and learn a new body

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[Guest StenR]

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Fabulous images, but you lose pixels if you don’t have an anamorphic projector.

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