Caleb Genheimer Posted May 31, 2019 Share Posted May 31, 2019 Hey all! I’ve been doing some soul searching lately... they say the camera lens is the window to the soul, right? Anyway, seeing as my current cameras both have multi-aspect micro four thirds sensors (GH5S and Pocket 4K), I’ve been planning to update my taking lenses for anamorphic. I use a Kowa 16-H which is fantastic, and the SLR Magic Rangefinder, which works well in most cases. I messed around some with old primes that I have kicking about, and determined that the right 28mm lens just MIGHT squeak by in anamorphic mode on the GH5S, and would probably work perfect on the Pocket. I was also after a native mount pancake, because let’s be honest. On gimbals, the typically long and front-heavy anamorphic setups just don’t work well. I have a Ronin M (not a small gimbal by 2019 standards), and I have to add a lot of ballast to BARELY make the Kowa work. The gimbal strains hard and can’t tilt to vertical. Well, a short google later, and I ordered a Meke 28mm pancake on Amazon. What the heck, it’s really cheap, doesn’t hurt to try it right? Well, it just showed up, and it works PERFECT. If you have a Kowa 16-H/8Z, I highly recommend snagging one of these. As with anything on the wide end, it vignettes pretty hard with the Rangefinder mounted, but with just the Kowa, it’s clean as a whistle (cropped to 2.39 of course.) This will be my new go-to for gimbal work and for wide establishing shots. I have yet to test it on faces, but it’s probably perfect for that near fisheye mumpy up close look. If I get in a tight corner, I’ll be relieved to have this (literally) in my back pocket. My only gripe is that they don’t also have a 35mm/40mm/50mm pancake set, because a range of pancakes this small would be gamechanging for anamorphic adapter users. I never thought I’d have a Kowa setup as small as this. It’s crazy. Until a new anamorphic beats the Kowa for width and quality, I’m sticking with it. leslie, webrunner5 and jackch2n 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leslie Posted June 2, 2019 Share Posted June 2, 2019 good to see someone trying out new things. let us know how it goes on the p4k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SebYT Posted June 3, 2019 Share Posted June 3, 2019 Wow that is really interesting! Thanks for sharing! So if my math is correct, that would mean you actually end up at a full frame equivalent horizontal field of view of 28mm? 28mm lens x 1.8 (crop factor of GH5s) / 2 (anamorphic stretch factor) / 0.9 (cropping sides to get 2.39:1 aspect ratio) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Genheimer Posted June 4, 2019 Author Share Posted June 4, 2019 I will! Got a lot going on this week but I’m hoping to squeeze in a test video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackch2n Posted September 17, 2020 Share Posted September 17, 2020 On 6/1/2019 at 4:30 AM, Caleb Genheimer said: Hey all! I’ve been doing some soul searching lately... they say the camera lens is the window to the soul, right? Anyway, seeing as my current cameras both have multi-aspect micro four thirds sensors (GH5S and Pocket 4K), I’ve been planning to update my taking lenses for anamorphic. I use a Kowa 16-H which is fantastic, and the SLR Magic Rangefinder, which works well in most cases. I messed around some with old primes that I have kicking about, and determined that the right 28mm lens just MIGHT squeak by in anamorphic mode on the GH5S, and would probably work perfect on the Pocket. I was also after a native mount pancake, because let’s be honest. On gimbals, the typically long and front-heavy anamorphic setups just don’t work well. I have a Ronin M (not a small gimbal by 2019 standards), and I have to add a lot of ballast to BARELY make the Kowa work. The gimbal strains hard and can’t tilt to vertical. Well, a short google later, and I ordered a Meke 28mm pancake on Amazon. What the heck, it’s really cheap, doesn’t hurt to try it right? Well, it just showed up, and it works PERFECT. If you have a Kowa 16-H/8Z, I highly recommend snagging one of these. As with anything on the wide end, it vignettes pretty hard with the Rangefinder mounted, but with just the Kowa, it’s clean as a whistle (cropped to 2.39 of course.) This will be my new go-to for gimbal work and for wide establishing shots. I have yet to test it on faces, but it’s probably perfect for that near fisheye mumpy up close look. If I get in a tight corner, I’ll be relieved to have this (literally) in my back pocket. My only gripe is that they don’t also have a 35mm/40mm/50mm pancake set, because a range of pancakes this small would be gamechanging for anamorphic adapter users. I never thought I’d have a Kowa setup as small as this. It’s crazy. Until a new anamorphic beats the Kowa for width and quality, I’m sticking with it. Hi Caleb, thanks for the test! Can I know is the top image using e-stabilization while the bottom one is without e-stabilization? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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