Sankor/Kowa Anamorphic Lens Discussion and Footage

youngindiefilms said:
My Japanese is not that good as that I could read everything on there. I never had one of those lenses unfortunately but if it says the front is detachable that should be correct. But aren't you going to use it as is? You want to use the anamorphic element on another lens?
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Hi Marc,

the quote is from the Captain Jack page. And yes, I hope to use it on a few different lens that have recessed front elements - the Nikon 50mm 1.8, the Vega 12b 90mm 2.8 and the Tair 11A 135mm 2.8.

That should give me effective focal lengths on the horizontal axis of around 35, 60 and 90mm.

Time will tell!
 
Here is a Sankor 16C low light test. (Sorry the music is the same as the prior movie.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG7CzO7RZY8

I still don't have the adapter to attach this, so I'm still holding it with my hand. This test is a low-light test. I just wanted to get a look at true 2x Anamorphic. (last upload was actually around 1.5x) ...this one's for you hyalinejim! (you mentioned this 1.5x last time...I tried a little different export method)

I also wanted anyone intersted to see it perform in low light. As well as getting a look at the absence of lens flares....I found that it needs to be a much stronger light source.

Also note that this footage has not be color corrected or processed. One final note, this was shot on a D90 with a 55-200 DX lens. With a Sankor 16C handheld infront of other lens. F4.0 mostly, ISO 200...
 
Hey Akira! VERY nice flares! Have you also noticed that you have to have the light source very strong, and it has to be almost DIRECTLY into the lens? Anywho...VERY NICE!
 
I took my Singer 16D to a shop today, had it measured, double checked myself. It's a 50mm with a metric 0.75 pitch. I asked them to make an adapter to 52mm, will take approx. a month.
 
youngindiefilms said:
I took my Singer 16D to a shop today, had it measured, double checked myself. It's a 50mm with a metric 0.75 pitch. I asked them to make an adapter to 52mm, will take approx. a month.
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Hey that's good news, hope it works and all will be good with the world. :thumbup:
 
HHL said:
Here is a Sankor 16C low light test. (Sorry the music is the same as the prior movie.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG7CzO7RZY8

I still don't have the adapter to attach this, so I'm still holding it with my hand. This test is a low-light test. I just wanted to get a look at true 2x Anamorphic. (last upload was actually around 1.5x) ...this one's for you hyalinejim! (you mentioned this 1.5x last time...I tried a little different export method)

I also wanted anyone intersted to see it perform in low light. As well as getting a look at the absence of lens flares....I found that it needs to be a much stronger light source.

Also note that this footage has not be color corrected or processed. One final note, this was shot on a D90 with a 55-200 DX lens. With a Sankor 16C handheld infront of other lens. F4.0 mostly, ISO 200...
Click to expand...

Cool low light stuff. Love candle lit shots. Yeah the Sankor needs pretty strong light sources for flares, must be coated with something. I noticed your footage looks a tad over-squeezed to me though. How wide are you going in post?
 
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My Kowa 16-H arrived today!

I haven't had much of a chance to test it as I'm at work and only have a 17-35mm with me. Based on a quick test handholding the Kowa in front of it, I reckon you may be able to get away with using it on a 50mm, as long as you can get the lens elements close.

This is assuming that you are going to crop to 2.66:1 in a 1280x720 project, and not leave it at the extreme 3.6:1 that you get in a 1920x1080 project.

If this is true (and I'll report back when my step down ring arrives - everyone's waiting for a step down ring!) it also means you could use it at 35mm on a 7D, D90 and I don't know if the GH1 is crop sensor or not.
 
Cool low light stuff. Love candle lit shots. Yeah the Sankor needs pretty strong light sources for flares, must be coated with something. I noticed your footage looks a tad over-squeezed to me though. How wide are you going in post?
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Thanks Akira! ...and thanks for the question. I've been "squeezing" it 200%. I'm using CS4...though and I'm not sure if my workflow is quite right. This next weekend I'll document what I'm actually doing....maybe it will help someone else, or maybe we'll find that I'm doing something wrong. :)

Thanks again Akira. I think I'm going to receive my Iscorama late this week or early next week....so I'll post some footage with that and compare it side by side with my Sankor. I realize that I'll have to squeeze it less because it "compresses" the image less. Thanks for your comments and input on the low light stuff.
 
hyalinejim said:
My Kowa 16-H arrived today!

I haven't had much of a chance to test it as I'm at work and only have a 17-35mm with me. Based on a quick test handholding the Kowa in front of it, I reckon you may be able to get away with using it on a 50mm, as long as you can get the lens elements close.

This is assuming that you are going to crop to 2.66:1 in a 1280x720 project, and not leave it at the extreme 3.6:1 that you get in a 1920x1080 project.

If this is true (and I'll report back when my step down ring arrives - everyone's waiting for a step down ring!) it also means you could use it at 35mm on a 7D, D90 and I don't know if the GH1 is crop sensor or not.
Click to expand...

I did several tests with my Singer 16D on my Olympus Pen (=4/3 sensor). I tried a 35mm lens (which becomes 70mm), filter size is 52mm so the lens has a little wider diameter than the anamorphic lens. It vignettes quite a lot, depending on the focus setting on the Singer. If I close focus it I get less vignetting, at infinity it vignettes like hell.
In that regard I see black using this anamorphic adapter (and all the similar ones) on APS-C with anything wider than 80mm (and wider diameter than 52mm).
 
OK, here's the deal with the Kowa 16H - you can just about use it at 50mm, if you are willing to crop the footage to 2.66:1.......and you may also need to enlarge it a tiny bit just to clear the edges, unless you can get it closer to the glass than I could with my Nikon 50mm 1.8

Test footage is here with more info:

http://www.vimeo.com/6489768

The two biggest issues I see with this adapter is that it's very soft when shooting with the lens wide open, and the barrel distortion is fairly prominent.

The best bit is that the flares are beautiful!

Further updates when step rings arrive to try it on different lenses.

Everyone's waiting for step rings!!!
 
hyalinejim said:
OK, here's the deal with the Kowa 16H - you can just about use it at 50mm, if you are willing to crop the footage to 2.66:1.......and you may also need to enlarge it a tiny bit just to clear the edges, unless you can get it closer to the glass than I could with my Nikon 50mm 1.8

Test footage is here with more info:

http://www.vimeo.com/6489768

The two biggest issues I see with this adapter is that it's very soft when shooting with the lens wide open, and the barrel distortion is fairly prominent.

The best bit is that the flares are beautiful!

Further updates when step rings arrive to try it on different lenses.

Everyone's waiting for step rings!!!
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awesome look! CC is great. I see vignetting is still an issue even with the crops but that still looks really awesome. Great work. I went to the hardware store and picked up some things like rubber plumbing couplings, ties and bolts and have made a badass makeshift mount until the step rings come. I'll shoot some footage with it this week. :beer:
 
I went to the hardware store and picked up some things like rubber plumbing couplings, ties and bolts and have made a badass makeshift mount until the step rings come. I'll shoot some footage with it this week. :beer:
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We're looking forward to seeing it Akira!

ps....maybe some pics of your "rig" job with the hardware stuff? (I'm not sure my step up ring is going to be the right size after seeing the problems you all have had...)
 
OK, here's the deal with the Kowa 16H - you can just about use it at 50mm, if you are willing to crop the footage to 2.66:1.......and you may also need to enlarge it a tiny bit just to clear the edges, unless you can get it closer to the glass than I could with my Nikon 50mm 1.8

Test footage is here with more info:

http://www.vimeo.com/6489768

The two biggest issues I see with this adapter is that it's very soft when shooting with the lens wide open, and the barrel distortion is fairly prominent.

The best bit is that the flares are beautiful!

Further updates when step rings arrive to try it on different lenses.

Everyone's waiting for step rings!!!
Click to expand...

Nice flares indeed! Thanks for posting this for us. I think I like the overall look of the Kowa 16H. Good to know all of the viable options. It's also good to know it's limitations and problems. Thanks again for the post and footage.
 
hyalinejim said:
OK, here's the deal with the Kowa 16H - you can just about use it at 50mm, if you are willing to crop the footage to 2.66:1.......and you may also need to enlarge it a tiny bit just to clear the edges, unless you can get it closer to the glass than I could with my Nikon 50mm 1.8

Test footage is here with more info:

http://www.vimeo.com/6489768

The two biggest issues I see with this adapter is that it's very soft when shooting with the lens wide open, and the barrel distortion is fairly prominent.

The best bit is that the flares are beautiful!

Further updates when step rings arrive to try it on different lenses.

Everyone's waiting for step rings!!!
Click to expand...

That was a very good effort and well done hand held. But as you said, barrel distortion is very visible, at around 1 minute mark you have some nasty vignetting. That's what I meant earlier, when you focus to infinity you get more vignetting.
And that cropped to 720 resolution. :(
I wont use mine for serious film making, will wait for something else (new Isco?) and use the Singer for fun only.
 
Regarding the 720 crop, in terms of pixels the information is all there vertically to do a 2880x1080 project, although horizontally it is obviously a 2x conform.

The problem is that the adapter is probably not sharp enough to resolve that amount of detail of the larger project.

I'll see how the Iscorama compares.
 
OK! My iscorama just arrived! 5 days from Japan to Ireland.

It is indeed an Isco 36 and detaches from the front of the Exakta 50mm 2.8.

I'm at work right now and don't have my camera, but I can tell that it's a beautiful object, solidly built, smooth focusing ring but with a long throw, easy to centre and the quality of the optics appears to be excellent - it seems to be far sharper than the Kowa.

If the weather holds up here I'll post some sample footage this evening.

Again, I'll be hand holding for a while I suppose until the step rings arrive. Also ordered some diopters (+1, +2 and +4) as I think the focus scale goes from 6ft to infinity.

It might be worth trying the diopters with the Sankor and Kowa too.
 
After seeing that everyone else was having problems with their step up rings, (mine are actually step down rings)....I wasn't shocked to have the same problem. :(
The Sankor 16C is NOT 42mm. :( The next step down is 40.5. I'm not holding my breath that this will work either...(based on other's experience on this forum) But I'll have to give it a try.
 
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