I was interested in the anamorphic look. Having watched this I think I will shoot 16:9 then I can crop all footage in post production by simply placing a black border top & bottom. I know it is not ideal either since you have to shoot maybe a bit wider guessing where you will crop but it means I can shoot normally with my lenses wide open and get lovely sharp images.
comprehensive review and lovely footage. It's really giving the true anamorphic aesthetic to the image, which I wasn't expecting for that sort of price. Anymore footage would be highly appreciated since there aren't reviews out there. I would love to see how bad it actually gets going closer to wide open and would appreciate some night footage, if you have the time. Thanks for review.
Glad it was helpful! Yeah, I wasn't able to find much info on the adapter before I ordered it. No night footage to share yet because I haven't shot any. Working on a short right now and decided to pass on anamorphic because f2.8 just wouldn't cut it since most of the setting is low-light. Pairing this with a Canon, Nikon or other full-frame camera may be better for low-light shooters, however the rear thread is only 62mm so it will vignette on many wider lenses.
***** Actually, accounting for vignette on larger format cameras you end up with similar equivalent FOV compared with the wider angle lenses that can be used with the adapter on smaller format cameras. It ends up being a wash. What's actually more important is what the Anamorphic-35mm equivalent FOV is once coupled with the adapter. On MFT using a 24mm taking lens with this adapter you're looking at ~40mm equivalent in the anamorphic 35mm cine format. That's quite wide. It's not as wide as anamorphic 35mm goes but it's a very common wide. Most of China Town was shot on that single focal length, as was a fair amount of Boogie Nights and Django Unchained. It's the focal used by Wes Anderson for the exceptionally wide, beautifully distorted frames of films like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. Also, in point of fact, the 50mm rear element of the adapter (this is more relevant than the rear thread size of 62mm) is *LARGE* for an anamorphic adapter, allowing for wider taking lenses to be used than with all but maybe two others, the old LA7200 and the new Letus, both of which have ridiculously large front elements that make it difficult and extremely expensive to find compatible diopters for.
I think you have to pay more to include the adapters, which is the option I chose. If it makes you feel any better, I never found them that helpful anyway
Im still confused on the compatibility of all this. im buying the xt3 with the XF18-135mmF3.5-5.6 x-series zoom lens and this lens has a 67mm thread. so What do I get for it to work? can you post amazon links? It would greatly help me. thanks!
So if your lens has a 67mm front thread and the anamorphot has 62mm on the rear, then you'll need a step-down adapter ring to join them: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/59799-REG Now, I'm not sure how going from a larger lens (your zoom) to the smaller anamorphot will work out since the XT3 has an APS-C sized sensor. You're already going to see vignetting on the wide end of your zoom, so just depends how far you're willing to zoom in to make it disappear. Ideally you'd be starting with a lens with matching 62mm threads or smaller like I did with my Lumix camera.
I used a step-down adapter from 72mm to 62mm. This means you get vignetting on the wide end, but I was following the advice of Andrew Read from EOSHD. Losing the wide end kind of sucked, but it is convenient having a zoom lens that doesn't extend when you zoom. I found that the Lumix 14mm f2.5 lens was an excellent performer with the Anamorphot, and doesn't vignette on the edges if you take advantage of the crop in 4K on the GH4.
Not much to see; just a blurry mess. Imagine the out of focus background but applied to the foreground as well. You just can't get anything in focus no matter where you adjust the focus ring.
***** Actually the maximum stop usable at any focal length with this adapter is determined by the design of the taking lens. You're misleading your viewers in stating f/2.8 is the minimum in all cases. This is well documented. Why did you even buy this adapter if you hadn't done your homework beforehand. Your comment regarding the flare is exceptionally puzzling in this regard.
The paper documentation that comes with the adapter states a minimum 2.8 f-stop for ideal performance. Quality certainly varies from lens to lens (my Lumix 14mm pancake is very sharp at f2.5). And diopters are supposed to allow slightly wider apertures. I'm not sure what I said that was puzzling about the flare. Perhaps because I said I don't care for excessive flares in my videos? If so, I still feel the same but acknowledge that the adapter does produce blue flares for those who appreciate them stylistically.
***** It states f/2.8 as a minimum guaranteed performance. Not ideal. f/2.8 is still a very workable stop, however. Below that you're talking no lights, not low light. At f/2.8 you need a competent 1st AC if you're attempting anything real and would need a stellar AC working wider than this. But this isn't unique to this adapter or anamorphic in general and there is no reason to expect an inexpensive bolt-on to somehow perform better than your average cine-quality anamorphic lens. Anyway, I helped them write the English version of the instructions. The ideal is based on the lens design and how well it works with the adapter. It largely has to do with the complexity of the lens as well as distance between the rear of the adapter and the entrance pupil of the taking lens. My 35mm Nikkor is quite usable at f/1.7 for instance. This is why shorter focal lengths offer larger stops as well as simpler designs. I'm puzzled why you would purchase an adapter that was expressly designed to flare easily and in a Panavision-like blue tone, with coatings on the diopters exclusively designed for compatibility with this characteristic, if this is not the kind of flaring you like. Again, all of this was but a google away, obvious in the numerous tests posted to youtube and vimeo and featured on the manufacturer's website. There are other adapters that flare warmer and less. If that's your thing. Sharpness-wise, this adapter is sharper than all but the sharpest Iscorama.
Shattered Glass Productions - Try my DIY Anamorphic Adapter design. Info and Demo on my Channel, you can build it yourself for a few hundred or less (or more, depending upon how much you want to spend). Two prisms in front of any Lens allows adjustable squeeze ratio, super closeups without Diopters, miniscule light loss and low flaring. YT, Rob
I'm surprised the Sigma 18 35 works with it as they say maximun lens thread 62mm. And also surprised you didnt get vigneting at 18mm. Most people say it works at 50 mil and up.!!! Hard to understand those anamorphic lenses. Everything seems so foggy about it. If things were clearer aboit it, they would sell a million copy of those in a week.
Yeah, anamorphic shooting is a little funky. I did get vignetting at the 18mm end, so I had to zoom in to almost 25mm before it went away. I haven't heard about the 50mm and up requirement. I got a lovely, sharp image using the Lumix 14mm f2.5 with no vignetting! Granted I was shooting 4K on the GH4, so the crop factor helped
Yeah, I guess the crop factor helps. For the 50mm and up, it might be with a different camera like a full frame, or might just be another anamorphic lens, I'm not sure. I've watched too manny of those anamorphic vids, trying to understand the mystery, so I'm all messed up now. :-) I find out that all the old shit sold on eBay are old projector lenses that are recycled for SLR shooting (toke me 2 years to figure that one) and now the manufacturers caught up on the trend, but for some reasons, decided to make them too small for most lenses we use. (That one I still didn't get it). Men… I mean, make them in 80mm filter thread and everyone will buy the fuckers.!!! Doesn't take Einstein to figure that!?!? And with all of that, I've learned a new word yesterday; Diopter. Had no clue what it was. I've watched 173 vids to understand what it was. Lol…! Everyone was talking about it but nobody was explaining what it was. And now, there is the 1:33 and the X2 option. Another thing to demystify. To me the X2 shot in 4X3 with a GH4 seems to give the best result and the best aspect ratio, a little wider then 2:35 which everyone use now, even with the back bars like I've been doing for ever. Anyway thanks, your video helped me understand a little more.
Symon Says TV Diopters as I understand it are for focusing on something closer to the lens. I shot on the 1.33X adapter in my video to get 2.35:1 widescreen, but the GH4 has anamorphic settings that work with 2X adapters. I'm curious to try it at some point
Michael Lo The lens flares are minimized the more you close down the lens' aperture. You can avoid flares practically though simply by avoiding strong light sources in your shot. I found they didn't really pop up unless I was shooting directly towards a strong light source like street lights or car headlights.
Tdk Sivakumar I'm very excited to learn more about he BlackMagic 5" Monitor, but I'm not sure it will de-squeeze anamorphic footage. Outside of SmallHD and other pricier models, I was unable to find a monitor with a de-squeeze feature. If you discover anything let us know!
Tdk Sivakumar I'm not a fan of the flares either, so I just avoid light sources that point directly at the lens. Stopping down your aperture will decrease the effect as well. I have to say I sold this adapter because I found it very difficult to use in even medium-light situations due to having to stop down the aperture to at least 2.8 for decent sharpness. If you're on a different camera with a larger sensor and/or better light sensitivity then it may not be such an issue.
Blackmagic Pocket has an even smaller sensor than my Lumix GH4, so I'd anticipate you'll be hurting in low-light situations. If you're shooting in daylight then the Anamorphic may work well. One last thing to check I'd say is the size of the front threading of your lenses. The rear thread of the Anamorphic lens is 62mm, so you generally want to attach to a lens with a smaller thread size to avoid vignetting.
The Sigma won't give a good image at 1.8 I'm afraid, and even with the diopters attached I think the lowest you may be able to go is f2. That's just my experience though, however this adapter behaves very differently with different lenses. For now I'm paring it with the Lumix 14mm at f2.5 and the Sigma 30mm at 2.8. Seems to give a sharper images with more compact lenses, and the 14mm gives the sharpest image I've seen so far!
ntsan It will vignette only in a 1080p shooting mode, and I think there may have been a little bit in the UHD 4k mode. But the crop in Cine 4K is enough to solve the issue! Of course, you're essentially back to a 20mm field of view due to the increased crop factor in 4K anyway.
It wouldn't appeal to most people, unless you're going for a very specific look. I even lost interest after a short while & found the limitations to be frustrating (i.e. having to use high f-stop & difficulty focusing). But if you want that anamorphic look you see from filmmakers like John Carpenter, I think that is the appeal behind these adapters.
