Are smartphone anamorphic adapters the new vintage anamorphics?

[kye]

Vintage anamorphic adapters are optically imperfect in very pleasing ways, but are large, expensive, difficult to find and setup, and can be slow to use (double focusing etc).
Modern smartphone anamorphic adapters are optically imperfect too, but are small, cheap, easy to find and setup, and designed for AF cameras so should be incredibly fast and easy to use.

Of course, the first question is about coverage, and this might surprise you, but modern smartphone sensors are approaching MFT sensor size.

GX85 with 14mm F2.5 lens (no adapter) - I took a photo so this is open-gate MFT:

GX85 with 14mm F2.5 lens and Neewer 1.55x anamorphic adapter in-front of the lens (de-squeezed):

Full-sensor coverage and no vignetting visible.  Can it cover S35?  Who knows!

Looking at this image it's much blurrier on the bottom than the top, but I was just holding the adapter in place so maybe I didn't have it exactly centred vertically, but it should give an idea of the image quality.

It's obviously lens-dependent though, as this is the GX85 with the TTartisans 17mm F1.4 in 16:9 movie mode (no open gate)...  

Coverage.... isn't ideal!

However, with the 2x digital zoom on the GX85 and de-squeezed you get this:

This equates to about 44mm FF equivalent, and reminds me of some of the more funky vintage anamorphics.

Perhaps the most impressive thing is the form factor.  This is a 1.55x anamorphic setup probably more pocketable than a BMPCC4K, and that's literally got "pocket" in the name!

Those just show the adapter leaning against the lens, as I am yet to work out how to mount it properly.  The challenge is that this adapter has a 17mm rear thread which is smaller than any step-down ring I can find, so I'll probably have to go DIY to mount it.  People have suggested I drill a hole in a metal lens cap, or get the smallest step-down ring I can find and glue a washer to it where the inner diameter of the washer matches the thread size.  I'll have to experiment, but there are options.

That whole rig weighs less than my Sirui 1.25x anamorphic adapter on its own..  627g vs 744g!!

It's early days for this idea, but the coverage surprised me and I think makes it a real option for shooting actual projects.  

The fact that the 14mm looks so clean and the 17mm so dirty means that buying one of these probably gives you as many looks as you have lenses, so potentially quite a few.  I'm yet to play with how it looks at different apertures and focus distances, but they'll probably give some variety as well.  The above were shot at F5.6 or so.  If you stretch the 16:9 files from the GX85 you get 2.75:1 so super widescreen and you can crop the sides if you wanted to.  On something like the GH7 with a 4:3 open-gate it would be almost exactly 2:1, a very useful format.
It's not just MFT either.  I've heard quite a number of instances where people want to go for an older look and will use a S35 cinema camera (like a RED) in a lower resolution mode and combine that with some vintage optics to get the look they want, or used the Alexa S16 mode and S16 lenses.  Lots of cool stuff has been shot like that and when you have to de-squeeze in post then cropping a bit takes very little extra time on real projects.

In a way these are perfect for low-budget anamorphic experimentation if you're interested in optics with some character and getting a range of looks from just one purchase.

[Emanuel]

This is turning into quite an interesting rabbit hole, good call starting this thread : ) Well, at least that’s one thing we have in common ; ) the GX85 is in my arsenal too!

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That also makes the format issue particularly relevant. Since the GX85 records video in 16:9 rather than genuine 4:3 open gate, a 1.55x adapter would produce a rather extreme 2.75:1 image. The more practical 2.07:1 combination would require an open-gate body such as the GH7.

A potentially more practical option might also be one of the smartphone anamorphics with a standard 37mm rear mount, such as the Beastgrip 1.33x or 1.55x MK2. These could be attached to lenses such as the Panasonic 14mm or TTArtisan 17mm with ordinary step rings, making mounting and alignment considerably simpler than with the 17mm-threaded Neewer.