GH4 A Different Anamorphic

stoneinapond

stoneinapond

Veteran
Had the opportunity to play with one of SLR Magic’s new Anamorphic lenses for a few hours last Saturday. Usually 1.33x lenses are recorded to a 16:9 aspect ratio to get the Cinemascope look after de-squeezing. This time Andrew Chan of SLR Magic suggested we try recording to the 4:3 ratio normally reserved for 2x lenses.

The result is a 16:9 image (when de-squeezed) but with an anamorphic look.

Panasonic GH4 set to 4/3 mode with an SLR Magic 35mm T2.4 Anamorphic lens, captured in 4K UHD with V-Log L profile in 10-bit, 4:2:2 to an Atomos Ninja Assassin. Also used, Movcam wireless follow focus and Westcott Flex LED lights. (And it was the coldest day of the year!)

https://vimeo.com/155774018
 
Greg_E said:
What is the cost of the lens? Are they really on the market yet?
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Not quite for sale yet, but should be soon. As to cost, well I was told a price in a noisy restaurant but didn't want to hear it. :tongue: I'll let the company announce the cost.

I think these are mostly rental items unless you're independently wealthy. Beautiful glass though.
 
stoneinapond said:
That's actually a great little camera. But you posted in the wrong thread.
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Whoops ... how did that happen? I was linking to the Adorama SLR Magic page - prices are from ~ $899 (for the 50mm, IIRC) to $1,299 for the various packages.
 
DLD said:
Whoops ... how did that happen? I was linking to the Adorama SLR Magic page - prices are from ~ $899 (for the 50mm, IIRC) to $1,299 for the various packages.
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What you're looking at are their anamorphic adapters which are mounted onto various taking lenses. The lens used in this post is a completely different beast. The three lenses in the series are dedicated anamorphic lenses, with PL mounts. The 50 and 75mm will cover full frame sensors, while the 35mm (the one I used here) is for S35 maximum. All can be mounted to m43 with adapters that the company also makes. They are also constructed to deliver similar oval bokeh characteristics that are usually found on 2x anamorphics. As I tried to imply, these are expensive optics. I don't want to say how expensive since the company may change the price at some point, but they are expensive. And rightly so.

Whether that's fair to the rest of us is another story. :happy:
 
Too bad they couldn't make them in a lower price range like so many of their other lenses. Wonder when Samyang will make an anamorphic series in their DS line (not the XEEN).
 
VERY nice look for a Panasonic. But then again, SLR Magic is not playing around.

Yeah, from what I've heard these lenses fall into the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" category. Like ALL serious anamorphic lenses.
 
DPStewart said:
VERY nice look for a Panasonic. But then again, SLR Magic is not playing around.
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The Panasonic GH division has for some time been working with SLR Magic on the whole issue of anamorphic lenses. As a side note, one of the reasons Andrew was in New York was to swap out a bunch of lenses the BBC had purchased for the new versions. Apparently the beeb has also purchased Elvis' Fleetwood and equipped the inside of it with three GH4s with anamorphic lenses and another GH4 outside. The idea is to travel around the US for a year and a half and film the trip with the lenses. Sounds insane…..
 
stoneinapond said:
What you're looking at are their anamorphic adapters which are mounted onto various taking lenses...
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I understand that. I was just trying to find anything related to SLR Magic and that was the page I stumbled upon while reading about their new product. The assumption is that, whenever SLR will price and make these new lenses available for purchase, that will be their most frequently visited reference page. But, as I was searching for several items at the time, my mouse clicks led me astray and led me to post a competely unrelated item.

Wow ... long explanation, huh?
 
Personally I would really like to see Panasonic themselves develop some native electronic anamorphic lenses for the GH4/GH5. Its pretty clear they view anamorphic as a thing because they have worked to build anamorphic into the camera. Imagine having the same level of quality from a native m43 lens but as anamorphic. For me the big advantage would hopefully be that Panasonic could develop wider angle anamorphic lenses with the same optical quality we expect from native lenses. Currently 35mm is a bit on the tight side for a m43 sensor.
 
Don't forget that anamorphs give you a wider field of view than normal spherical lenses, so while 35mm is still a little tight, it's not like a short tele (70mm). Fooling with my 1.33x converter on a 24mm lens shows a fairly wide angle on my GH2, but that also might have been using the Lens Turbo for another .72 factor.
 
Thomas Smet said:
Personally I would really like to see Panasonic themselves develop some native electronic anamorphic lenses for the GH4/GH5. Its pretty clear they view anamorphic as a thing because they have worked to build anamorphic into the camera. Imagine having the same level of quality from a native m43 lens but as anamorphic. For me the big advantage would hopefully be that Panasonic could develop wider angle anamorphic lenses with the same optical quality we expect from native lenses. Currently 35mm is a bit on the tight side for a m43 sensor.
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Funny you should mention this. I was told the other day that the SLR Magic 2x adapter is fully compatible with the Panasonic 35-100mm f/2.8. Since is was on sale last week I dug deeper into my finances and picked the lens up. And you know what? It works. Since the zoom is internal rather than a barrel extension, the combination provides an effective 35-100mm anamorphic zoom. The good news is that image quality is really nice with the sharp Panasonic image tempered by the anamorphic adapter. It also auto focuses at the wide focal lengths and provides a modicum of image stabilization when hand held.

The down side is that at the far zoom range the image is soft and auto focus doesn't work anywhere where the adapter's fine focusing needs to be used. Still, I'm very impressed and enjoying the image quality.

Greg_E said:
Don't forget that anamorphs give you a wider field of view than normal spherical lenses, so while 35mm is still a little tight, it's not like a short tele (70mm). Fooling with my 1.33x converter on a 24mm lens shows a fairly wide angle on my GH2, but that also might have been using the Lens Turbo for another .72 factor.
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The great thing about the GH2 was the oversized sensor, something I miss in the GH4. The 35mm 1.33x anamorphic on the GH4 is a little tight when shooting 4K, but still very usable. 35mm at 2x is a very comfortable FOV.
 
This wasn't shot on GH4 (A7RII) but with the SLR 35mm 1.33 PL


These are Hong Kong prices -

SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 35mm T2.4 HK$46,680
SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 50mm T2.8 HK$50,550
SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 70mm T4 HK$50,550

The current exchange rate is $7.77HK to $1US.
 
DLD said:
This wasn't shot on GH4 (A7RII) but with the SLR 35mm 1.33 PL

These are Hong Kong prices -

SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 35mm T2.4 HK$46,680
SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 50mm T2.8 HK$50,550
SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 70mm T4 HK$50,550

The current exchange rate is $7.77HK to $1US.
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This is in line with what I was told. But I have to say, I'm not a fan of these lenses when used on Sony cameras. Actually, I'm not a fan of Sony period. The barrel distortion in some of these clips is just too disturbing. Not sure if they were shot with the full frame sensor enabled or with the S35 crop, but either way, not liking the look at all.
 
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