GH5 Using standard Canon Lens to record Anamorphic on GH5?

A

analogs

Well-known member
The Canon lens is bigger than the M43 lens, so is it possible that there is a way for the GH5 to record using the width of the Canon lens but at an Anamorphic resolution? I am using a focal reducer with the Canon lens?

Is the only way to simulate Anamorphic on the GH5 with non anamorphic lenses is by cropping footage to Anamorphic aspect ratios or adding black bars?

Is there an adaptor that could squeeze an EF lens to an Anamorphic Lens on the GH5.
 
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In short, no, I recommend reading about optics on Wikipedia. You will have a 4:3 aspect ratio at a slightly wider field of view due to the focal reducer and possibly vignetting.
You're better off shooting 4K DCI and using various techniques to fake the anamorphic look.

Tito Ferradans has some interesting videos on anamorphic, and also on faking the anamorphic look.
 
analogs said:
Is the only way to simulate Anamorphic on the GH5 with non anamorphic lenses is by cropping footage to Anamorphic aspect ratios or adding black bars?
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That has absolutely nothing to do with anamorphic, that simply cropping!

The key elements of what makes an anamorphic image are the different horizontal and vertical focal lengths of the lens, the non-circular bokeh, and the bright light streaks.
If you want anamorphic you need an anamorphic lens.
 
Hi Cary, yes you are right, there are other characteristics in the image that makes it anamorphic. I was trying to oversimplify if that was the only option on a GH5.

Another question, if you only had one Anamorphic lens for the M43, what focal length would be the most useful?

I heard that the Sirui Anamorphic 50mm is about 100mm in focal length when used on a crop sensor, not sure what it would be on the GH5, but would this be too big?

Thanks.
 
analogs said:
Another question, if you only had one Anamorphic lens for the M43, what focal length would be the most useful?

I heard that the Sirui Anamorphic 50mm is about 100mm in focal length when used on a crop sensor, not sure what it would be on the GH5, but would this be too big?

Thanks.
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First you have to decide what aspect ratio you want your footage to be displayed at. Anamorphic lenses produce diffrent ratios depending on their construction. 1.33, 1.5, 1.8, 2x. And they will all deliver different characteristics.

There are many videos from Sirui that show what it does. For me, 1.33x 50mm is a little long but doable. Here are some links to footage shot on a GH5 using an anamorphic adapter on a 25mm lens, which is comfortable (Mr Knoop will argue that this isn't real anamorphic footage but again, different lenses deliver different effects).

https://vimeo.com/showcase/6110216

And here is a link to video using 2.x anamorphic adapter on a Canon 50mm lens. Again a bit long but does nicely when there is space.

https://vimeo.com/205417030

One final point, you will get different results as far as FOV is concerned between shooting UHD 4K and Cinema 4K

Lots of trhings to consider :happy:
 
Focal lengths can be rather subjective, what's right for someone else might be totally wrong for you. What focal length do you typically use when you're shooting with spherical glass? You might want to do some web searches on how to calculate field of view in relation to MFT sensors and anamorphic.

You could probably rent an anamorphic lens if you just need it for one project.

I was interested in anamorphic in the early DSLR revolution, due to its ability to maximize resolution while yielding a widescreen aspect ratio, but there weren't any "affordable" options back then, and now that a number of DSLR & Mirrorless cameras have 4k DCI, I don't really have a desire to shoot in anamorphic anymore.

I'm curious what your specific reasons are for wanting to shoot anamorphic.

There's not really a right or wrong lens system, Hollywood uses both spherical anamorphic lenses; classic examples would be Ben Hur, which was shot with anamorphic lenses (Ultra Panavision 70), and Lawrence of Arabia, shot with spherical lenses (Super Panavision 70), and they're both classic epics.
 
I guess just as a creative option but after trying out some cropping methods of 2:39:1, and weighing out the costs to invest on one anamorphic lens that I would probably use once and not again after the novelty wears off, I think I will stick to my full frame lenses. Thanks everyone for their input.
 
Cary Knoop said:
That has absolutely nothing to do with anamorphic, that simply cropping!

The key elements of what makes an anamorphic image are the different horizontal and vertical focal lengths of the lens, the non-circular bokeh, and the bright light streaks.
If you want anamorphic you need an anamorphic lens.
Click to expand...

While this is absolutely true its important to point out that a lot of big budget VFX Hollywood movies also just crop down to the aspect ratio of anamorphic. While not anamorphic optically it works for movies earning well into the 100's of millions of dollars.

I wouldn't rule out cropping as a solution because it is in fact a tried and true Hollywood solution to deliver the same aspect ratio.

Anamorphic made sense years ago with film when optically stretching out was the only way to get a wider image. Now that we have such high resolution digital images cropping is not really a loss at all. In fact the DCI standard for projecting digital cinemascope is limited to 4096x1716 resolution anyway so no matter how much ones blows up the image optically once you deliver its going to be that resolution in a theater.

While cropping does not include any of the above said aesthetic qualities of anamorphic I'm still waiting for the focus group study where viewers actually care about that stuff. I personally believe this is one of those things we assume viewers love when in fact I don't think they even notice. Even I rarely watch a movie and think of a spherical or anamorphic lens while watching it and judge it based on that. If thats what I think of while watching the movie then the movie has completely failed and has become purely a technical snuff film.

There are no hard rules in Hollywood to use anamorphic or not. Its a creative choice like deciding to make a black and white movie and nothing more.
 
Imamacuser said:
In short, no, I recommend reading about optics on Wikipedia. You will have a 4:3 aspect ratio at a slightly wider field of view due to the focal reducer and possibly vignetting.
You're better off shooting 4K DCI and using various techniques to fake the anamorphic look.

Tito Ferradans has some interesting videos on anamorphic, and also on faking the anamorphic look.
Click to expand...

nice
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