Sankor/Kowa Anamorphic Lens Discussion and Footage

By the way guys, it was great to see the footage that you've all gone to the trouble of uploading. I want to add more Kowa stuff, but I'd like to wait until I get step rings.
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I will also say that I hope above all that other people who have a desire to shoot anamorphic will watch this and have a reference point. I saw the Iscorama footage and really liked it. It is 1.5 I believe. I wasn't real certain what I thought of 2x. Also, I wasn't even sure if a Sankor 16C would work. To be honest, I didn't even know if it would focus, or even fit right. After I got it I wasn't sure if it could focus sharp enough. After using it, I can see that it is workable....that doesn't mean it's enjoyable. (to work with or to look at)

I hope others will find the information that they are looking for by looking at my footage. (Hate it? Like it? Not sure?) Hopefully this will help them decide what works for them.

I am looking forward to seeing your Kowa's footage. I almost got one of those, so it will be interesting to see. :)
 
i was thinking - if a new anamorphic mount was made wouldn't make more sense if it was REAR mounted? that would solve alot the problems.
 
Rear mounted anamorphic adaptors perform differently. The most advanced panavision lenses put the anamorphic element in the middle. These crazy flares everyone are crazy about aren't as interesting with rear mounted adaptors.

Also, adding on to the rear of a lens is not helpful when reflex viewing systems are on use....

But there are Russian cine lenses that use this method to adapt zoom lenses to anamorphic use - they are not popular, and not as sharp as other lenses. It's possible, but generally not preferrable.
 
Unfortunately there is not enough flange distance to mount, and then the sensor area is too large so vignetting would be extreme.
 
Even if they release this adapter for the 7D... it won't be cheaper than the 4/3ds version... which is what... US$1300. On top of that calculate in some thousand $ for a good PL lens, otherwise it wouldn't make sense to use this adapter.
And since Red came along PL lenses are getting scarcer and more expensive. A set of Zeiss MK3 primes, 8000 Euros anyone? hahahaha. Not anytime soon.
I'm wondering, anyone having this kind of money would have the money for a proper camera body that goes with it and not using a stills camera on it?
 
I went out as said, took my Mark 2, Nikon 35F2.8 and the generic adapter. Don't know if I have time to edit and post some footage tonight so I'll give you some stills as teaser instead ;)

I have to say on a first glance the footage looks better than I thought it would.

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That's AWESOME Marc!!! Hong Kong is the SHIZ-NIT! VERY COOL! I'm excited to see your footage. Didn't you say that the threading on this is 52mm? So you just screw it on a BANG! You're good to go? Also....you don't have to focus on the adapter right? Thanks for posting pics. I look forward to seeing footage!
 
Don't hold you breath for a PL adaptor with the 7D. It has the same chassis as the 50D, and the only example I have seen that worked with that camera was when someone took a dremel tool to the beast and went to town.

Adding optics is a possibility though, but it slows down the speed of the lens by one stop. Come to think of it, that might not be too bad a trade-off if it gets one the ability to pull focus in a professional manner. When you absolutely had to shoot at f 1.2 you could always switch back to still camera glass I guess.

We're getting off topic however. (Matty, are you saying this is a PL mount anamorphic lens on a Lumix camera?) It looks a little soft for such an expensive lens... but impossible to judge here. Tell us more, and post something with full quality of you can, please.

It seems like one obvious are to explore is BNCR mount lenses and also OCT-19 mount glass. I've made some basic inquiries in that general direction and awaiting more definitive answers but the theory is good...
 
HHL said:
That's AWESOME Marc!!! Hong Kong is the SHIZ-NIT! VERY COOL! I'm excited to see your footage. Didn't you say that the threading on this is 52mm? So you just screw it on a BANG! You're good to go? Also....you don't have to focus on the adapter right? Thanks for posting pics. I look forward to seeing footage!
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Thanks for saying so. I was actually surprised, it's relatively sharp, but it depends on the lens you use. I had not so good results with another lens tested. Also there is some obvious barrel distortion and it gets quite soft at the corners. I can imagine this as a great setup for music videos.

Yes, the generic adapter has a rear thread of 52mm (and comes with step down rings so you can use it on other sizes as well). You don't have to focus it, that's why I meant it's good for guerilla style shooting, which I did today.
The front rotates, so I simply screw it on my lens, align the front and then tape it down with gaffer tape (so it doesn't misalign). This worked like a charm.

Anyway, it's really late over here... I'll edit some footage and post tomorrow.
 
Jean Dodge said:
...
We're getting off topic however. (Matty, are you saying this is a PL mount anamorphic lens on a Lumix camera?) It looks a little soft for such an expensive lens... but impossible to judge here. Tell us more, and post something with full quality of you can, please.

It seems like one obvious are to explore is BNCR mount lenses and also OCT-19 mount glass. I've made some basic inquiries in that general direction and awaiting more definitive answers but the theory is good...
Click to expand...

Yes Matty, your lenses are too rich for this thread :D hahahaha.
But I'd really like to know which lens it is, I also think it looks a bit on the soft side.
 
I think it's more shallow/out of focus a bit.
The fall off is really dramatic with anamorphic. That was using available light at night WFO on a 50mm t3
 
Yeah, focusing HD with fast aperture on the "tiny" screens can be difficult, I ran into problems myself and only noticed afterwards when checking on the computer. I suppose you're talking about a Zeiss prime, S16 or S32?
 
The Lomos are decent quality lenses, but the point for all of these lenses is that you need to know they won't perform well, no matter how well they are made, at wide open apertures. None of them do - some may be better than others but all are not built for that type of shooting. The nature of the lens is that it will always be soft wide open... two stops down at least from wide open is where the anamorphic lens begins to perform as the manufacturers intended them to.

What's at issue here however seems to be "what can we get away with?" at various given levels of presentation. If vimeo is the highest quality presentation you will ever achieve, the answer is, you can get away with quite a bit.
 
Last year I shot with the elite anamorphics and they were indeed sharp wide open.
The lomos however are not.

Can't wait to test them with some sunlight.
 
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