In pursuit of maximum cinema

[kye]

On my last trip I shot with the GH7 >> Voigtlander 42.5mm F0.95 >> Sirui 1.25x anamorphic adapter, and was really taken with the images, which remind me of 90s/00s cinema.

But the setup was big, heavy, and didn't have as much shallow DOF as I wanted as I was shooting a lot of compositions at a distance without having many/any things in the foreground.

Optically it's equivalent to a 68mm F1.5 on FF.  A good horizontal FOV, although it's a 'between' amount and I would go wider and crop rather than going tighter.

Physically it's large and heavy, weighing 2.1kg 4.6lb and with the 82mm front gave me very little stealth factor, further justifying shooting street with such a long focal length.  Despite me shooting in busier areas and stopping when I first come upon a composition, people clocked me very frequently.

In terms of the brief, I think that I want:
- similar horizontal FOV (H-FOV)
- shallower DOF
- similar softness (the Voigts are nicely soft wide open, taking off the digital edge beautifully)
- funkier bokeh, preferably stretched consistently vertically rather than swirly / cats-eye
- smaller / lighter
- not thousands of dollars

I'm pondering how to get there, I've figured a few potential pathways...

Vintage speedbooster - GH7 >> Speedbooster >> ~50mm F1.4

I already own a M42-MFT speed booster, which combined with a ~50mm F1.4 lens would give a 71mm F2.0 FOV.  This is slightly deeper DOF but is only a AUD200 or so, and when combined with an oval insert, can give great bokeh.  This is a proof-of-concept shot with a M42-MFT speed booster and a 50mm F1.8 lens with a couple of bits of paper stuck to the rear lens element:

This is definitely a vintage / funky approach, but isn't so fast.  

This leads us to the elephant in the room, which is that while MFT is excellent at a great many things, very shallow DOF isn't really one of them.  We are using a 0.71x speed booster already but need to decrease the crop-factor further.

Vintage speedbooster + wide-angle adapter - GH7 >> Speedbooster >> ~50mm F1.4 >> Wide-angle adapter

If we add a 0.7x wide-angle adapter (WAA), we end up with a crop factor of 0.995, which is essentially FF.  This seems promising as TTartisan noticed that everyone-and-their-dog wanted a longer telephoto lens to go with their M42 Helios, and gifted us an M42 75mm F1.5 swirly bokeh master.  Combined with the SB + WAA that gives us a 75mm F1.5 which is a bit longer than I'd want, but is interesting.

BUT, and it's a big but (I cannot lie)

Spherical wide-angle adapters seem to be universally rubbish.  I bought two ultra-cheap WAA and they were rubbish (when shot with a fast lens wide-open anyway) which is to be expected, but recently I snapped up a Kodak Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 0.7x 55mm adapter, which should be a fine example of the breed, and it was also pretty rubbish.  Certainly, more 'vintage' than I am looking for.  Subsequent research lead me to conclude that people stopped making these adapters once the mirrorless revolution happened and people stopped using fixed-lens camcorders.

I'd be happy to be proven wrong.....

However, there is one type of wide-angle adapter that is available with modern optical standards, and that's the anamorphic ones, which leads us to...

More anamorphic - Blazar Nero 1.5x anamorphic adapter

This is probably my ideal anamorphic adapter in many ways (but one) as it's smaller and lighter than the Sirui, isn't quite as sharp (I don't mind) and has more squeeze to-boot.

If I use it on my 42.5mm Voigtlander lens it widens the HFOV compared to the Sirui (not ideal) and also doesn't change the DOF.

If we combine its 0.667x HFOV boosting with my 0.71x speed booster we get a crop factor of 0.95 - wider than FF!  So, combined with that 75mm F1.5 TTartisan lens, that's a 71mm F1.4 equivalent.  Compared to the 68mm F1.5 we started with that's only a slight improvement in DOF, and only a slight improvement in size and weight, but we've paid the better part of AUD2000 to do it.

...and for that kind of money, we can just buy a FF camera.

Go Full Frame - but what to buy??

Remembering our original goal, the option that stood out to me was the Lumix S9.  It's small, has a flippy screen, and is within consideration at around AUD1500 used.  The OG S5 is similarly priced and I hear it has some good mojo.  There might be others too.  Ideally, I'd go with a smaller body, as if I'm paying this much for a new system, starting with a GH7-sized body seems counter-productive.  

The S9 is very similarly sized to my GX85 and here's a comparison of sizes...   [GH7 + Voigt 42.5/0.95 + Sirui] vs [GX85 + SB + 50mm F1.8]:

The weights are similar - those setups are 2110g vs 800g - more than 2.5x the weight.

In terms of lens options, this is a world I am unfamiliar with, but considering we've just blown most of our budget on the body (and spare batteries etc) lenses can't cost too much.  Considering I am inclined towards cheap/funky/vintage MF lenses, I figure the options include things like:

• Vintage 50mm F1.4 lenses (like a Takumar) on a dumb adapter
• The swirly 75mm F1.5 TTartisans on a dumb adapter
• The 7artisans 75mm F1.4 in L-mount

These aren't shallower DOF at all!  FF is a lie!  (I kid.. well sort-of anyway)

Even if I spring for more expensive options like a 50mm F0.95 that still has deeper DOF due to the shorter focal length, and it doesn't look like F0.95 lenses for FF are affordable for anything other than 50mm.  

If I start adding serious weight again with things like a Sirui 150mm T2.9 1.6x and then attach my 1.25x to it, I'd end up with a 150mm T2.9 2x anamorphic lens, which has a HFOV of 75mm T1.45, but the combo weighs almost as much as my GH7 rig does in total!  No wonder the replacement series from Sirui were made from carbon fibre!
Perhaps the only real jump in shallower DOF is to combine FF with an F1.4 prime and an anamorphic adapter, like FF + MF 85/1.4 + Sirui 1.25x adapter which would give an HFOV of 68mm F1.1, which is definitely faster.  If this was the S9 then it would be smaller and lighter, but is still 75% of the weight and most of the size of my GH7 rig.

But I suspect there are better more 'inventive' options.   I want cheaper and lighter and I'm willing to 'pay' for it in image quality (actually I'd PREFER less sharp glass with more funk) so there have got to be other paths too.
One I can see is to continue the speed-boosting pathway with a L-mount speed booster like 0.71 EF-L / FD-L / PL-L / NIK-L and then pair it with a ~100mm FF lens that might have a greater than FF image circle and not only get a shallower DOF but also get to see some funk at the edges (or even the actual edge of the circle which might be really cool).  Unfortunately vintage 100mm F1.4 lenses don't seem to be common or cheap.

My current leanings are to accept defeat and just go with the [GH7 >>  M42-MFT SB >> oval cutout >> vintage 50mm F1.4 Takumar] option, which gives a 71mm F2.0 FOV, and only costs a couple of hundred dollars.

[MrSMW]

I think your current GH7 set up is giving you all of the cinema already, but an S9 could be an exceptional full frame option  in a pretty small package.

There’s a new TT Artisan 40mm f2 which suits it perfectly and is cheap and has ‘character’. It’s decently sharp and contrasty but also has a certain glow to the highlights reminiscent of a subtle mist filter. 

Sharp of course is not necessarily a desirable requirement for ‘cinema’ but it’s something that is easier to dial back than add.

The main appeal of this set up for me is it’s pretty small and pretty small means more likely to take it everywhere and use it and it has that ability to be both a personal/family camera and decent cine camera as you wish.

I had been using mine as an A/B cam for work but now repurposed it as a personal/C cam with either the Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 for cropped video or when I pick it up, this new TT Artisan.

Also toying with getting a Thypoc Simera or two for my slightly more pro S1RII’s and turning my S9 back into my working B cam purely for autofocus situations.

Options options options…