GH4 Any suggestions on good anamorphic lenses? From affordable to unaffordable...

Elmer_Lang

Elmer_Lang

Well-known member
Hi
Am only considering the possibilities of anamorphic lenses for my GH4. Any suggestions on ones affordable to unaffordable?
Excuse my ignorance, but does one only use them with 4:3 formats?
best
elmer
 
This is a very, very new segment and until Panasonic announced the 2.2 firmware and Veydra announced they were working on an anamorphic prototype, no one even thought of the possibility of an affordable anamorphic lens. No one has seen the Veydra anamorphic prototype, until it is released the only options that exist are extreme high end.

https://www.abelcine.com/store/Arri-Zeiss-Master-Anamorphic-Primes/

http://www.abelcine.com/store/Angenieux-Optimo-Anamorphic-30-72mm-2S-Lens/

You got various options like Cooke, Schneider, etc. All of them are in PL mount and can be adapted to MFT with an adapter.

Because of the cost, I don't know anyone besides rental houses that would actually pay to own these, but I think I've seen people post on here that do own these or have owned them at one time. Renting 'em when you have a shoot that requires them would be the best way to go imo. *shrugs* Are you a DP for an upcoming project?

edit: oh yeah, you can always get the SLR Magic anamorphot adapter that screws onto the front of any lens, but that has it's disadvantages too.
 
By a bit much, I hope you don't mean the price. Because the price of the SLR Magic adapter is chump change compared to a $40,000 Arri lens! Seems like we get spoiled by choice really quickly..
 
Lol. Sadly, I do. And the Arri lenses are further than the top of Mt Everest. And I don't mean 29,006 ft, I mean ±12,000 miles and 29,006 ft.
 
elmerlang said:
Hi
Am only considering the possibilities of anamorphic lenses for my GH4. Any suggestions on ones affordable to unaffordable?
Excuse my ignorance, but does one only use them with 4:3 formats?
best
elmer
Click to expand...
If you use anamorphic 2.0 on a 4:3 image, you get a 2.66 Cinemascope perspective. On a 16:9, the same lens will give you ~ 3.3, which is a tad odd. But you can get a 2.66 by using a 1.5 anamorphic off a 16:9 too. It's just that 1.5 will look different than a 2.0.
 
elmerlang said:
Lol. Sadly, I do. And the Arri lenses are further than the top of Mt Everest. And I don't mean 29,006 ft, I mean ±12,000 miles and 29,006 ft.
Click to expand...

lol so you want something that usually costs $40,000 for less than $849? i'm broke so i guess i can kinda understand how you feel but jeez man! like i said, don't buy, rent!​
 
There are cheap options if you're looking to play around with anamorphics. Would I shoot a feature on one? Nope, but I do own one for my Canons and it's a lot of fun for personal stuff. Not sure how well it adapts to M43 since I don't have one right now, but if you look around for anamorphic projector lenses and redstan clamps you can put together a fun little kit for a few hundred bucks.
This is a little test shot a few years ago on a Sankor 16c anamorphic attached to an old Russian Helios lens on a Canon 7D:
https://vimeo.com/25380706
 
The SLR Magic is a good bet for the GH4 (use a 50mm taking lens). It's going to be easier to focus then the new wider version to be released in September.
If you just want to experiment you can find the used ISCO 2x Anamorphic all over eBay beginning at around $229.
Best.
 
Veydra hopes to release their 2x 25mm anamorphic in early 2016. They said it will be $5,000 or less, and they were hoping it will be much less. For me, if they can bring it in at $3,000 or less I'll get it. If it's more than that I'll go with the SLR Magic 2x and their rangefinder.
 
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