Anamorphic Advice? Century 16:9 adaptor + Nex 5N

R

richg101

Well-known member
Hi Guys.

I have just acquired a Century 16:9 anamorphic adaptor to try on the NEX 5N. I had to fashion a 49mm thread to allow it to be fitted to my lenses. Now its on I am finding it is performing rather well!. Not tack sharp, but has a filmy sort of softness in a good way I guess.

I have noticed certain lenses work better than others. In particular the sony kit lens works very well when set to around 35mm, performance and sharpness seems to trail off as you move away from the 35mm sweet spot. At 18mm there is a bit of vignetting but zoom in a bit to about 24/28mm and its gone. The smaller the aperture, the sharper the image is.

I would have expected the adaptor to work best at a higher magnification such as 55mm, but this is not the case at all. My third party lenses such as helio 58mmf2 and zuiko 50mmf1.4 cant touch the sharpness of the sony 18-55kit lens even when the apertures are closed to the same point. the helios flares like crazy and almost loses the signature blue line flare. The zuiko is alsmot as bad.

What is it about the sony lens that might be making it work better with the century 16:9 adaptor? As I would like to find a sturdy prime 35mm lens with similar characteristics as that of the sony kit lens 'sel1855' which will be happier to support the added weight.

I would also like some advice on how to get the most from the optex/centure style 16:9 adaptors when used to achieve 2.35:1 format from a 16:9 sensor. I understand the software processing, de-sqeezing, setting frame size in premier etc., but id like some help on how to select suitable prime lenses to obtain best perfromance from this comact a cheap anamorphic adaptor...

ps. I paid 20.00gbp for the adaptor from a nice guy in london! I thought that was a pretty good price:)
 
Hi There.

Thanks for the links. the vid showing diopters and achromatic filters is a real eye opener!. I'm happy with what i got so far, and the cheap price i paid for the lens itself free's up some funds for a close up filter + diopters.

Mine is the less desirable 'sony bayonet' version, but it was easy to add a 49mm filter thread with a bit of epoxy. i'll post up samples of the video i got with it so far.
 
The best thing to do is stop down your lens to around f4-f5.6. This is the ideal starting sharpness range for the Century and Panasonic anamorphic adapters in my testing. You could go lower, of course, but you'll have to be sure to keep an extra good eye on your focus, especially with a squeezed image on the screen. As far as ideal lenses, I've had mixed results. The best so far have been my Nikon 50mm 1.2 and a cheap $20 Tokina 28mm 2.8. My other primes were too big to try and my zoom collection seemed pretty much okay with the adapters, the ideal being my Soligor 35-70 2.5 as I can use the full range of the lens with the adapter of choice. Longer zooms, like my Tamron 28-300 and Tokina 80-200 2.8 are okay up to around the 180-200mm range but then the image starts to be unusable after that due to focus limitations but, thankfully, I don't film too many things on the longer end anyway. Simply put, the overall thing is that some lenses will simply work better than others when using anamorphic front adapters, that's just the natural limitation as far as optics go, hence the use/need for diopters in certain situations.
 
Resurrecting this. The tip about starting at f4 seems to follow what I am seeing with mine. Was just looking for confirmation that my adapter was working as intended.

That said, still kind of a "soft" image that required changing the contrast in my GH2, but should be workable for what I want to do. Also very yellow, but nothing a white balance can't fix.

FYI, I bought the less desired bayonette version too, machined some holes and screwed a 58 to 77mm reducer on the back to spin onto my lenses. Need to put another step up ring on the front so I can mount a diopter when needed. Also need to make a lens bridge to support the extra weight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top