Anamorphic lens kits are becoming easier and more than accessible. With anamorphic feature-driven cameras like the Panasonic GH5, the flexibility of Canon Magic Lantern, and inexpensive and bachelor prime lenses, anamorphic shooting is possible and affordable with almost any DSLR or cinema camera.

Desirable anamorphic effects- compressed, oval bokeh, streaky flares, and other natural characteristics offering a unique aesthetic that can fit perfectly with the right grapheme or story. These characters cannot be easily replicated by other means. And when shooting with a high quality anamorphic lens, your DSLR rig is transformed into a pure cinematic paintbrush. You tin can even control the amount of flares that your lens gets by removing your anamorphic lens coatings.

This article will evidence you the components of an anamorphic lens kit so you lot can get started shooting anamorphic easily without barriers and obstacles.

The Basics of An Anamorphic Kit

  • The DSLR or Movie house Camera. GH5, GH4, Black Magic, and Canon all work well
  • A prime lens for the camera (preferably, around 75-80mm or longer)
  • An anamorphic lens kit to attach to the front of the prime lens.
anamorphic lens kit
A basic Isco Anamorphic Lens kit on the Sony A7s

Each of our anamorphic lens kits include:

  • The clamp that connects the anamorphic to the front filter thread of your prime lens
  • The anamorphic lens
  • A non-rotating front filter thread or front filter clamp for attaching filters or unmarried focus solutions
  • Optional- a lens component that turns the kit into a unmarried focus setup
  • Optional- a lens component that allows you to accomplish wider shots

I: The Photographic camera

Of class, the photographic camera is a critical component of the anamorphic lens kit. Cameras with smaller sensor sizes tend to piece of work ameliorate, due to the minimum focal length required in anamorphic shooting. Notwithstanding, cameras such equally the Sony A7s or the Canon 5D line tin exist configured to piece of work well with anamorphic lens kits.

The Sony A7s for anamorphic lenses
The Sony A7s for anamorphic lenses

Currently, the all-time DSLR camera we could recommend for shooting anamorphic is the Panasonic GH5 with upgraded v2 firmware. The Canon Magic Lantern and Blackness Magic Ursa and Pocket likewise can work very well.

Desirable camera options include:

Shooting in 4:3 mode

Shooting in a more vertical attribute ratio helps avoid vignetting and desqueezes to a nice 2.66:1 attribute ratio.

4:three mode in 3k- unsqueezes to 6k. Yous can fifty-fifty shoot 60p slow motion.

Tele-convert manner

Cameras similar the Panasonic GH5 and GH4 line, Catechism with Magic Lantern, and the Sony A7s let natural lens extension via sensor to avoid vigetting and use wider lenses.

Desqueeze mode

The GH5 v2, Kinefinity cameras, and Black Magic all have camera options to desqueeze 2x anamorphic lenses in camera- making information technology easier to check alignment and etch shots. If you don't take i of those cameras- no worries. Many field monitors like the Black Magic Video Assist, Modest HD 501/2/701/ii or the Cineroid EVF all take anamorphic desqueeze options.

2: The Prime Lens

The 2d component of an anamorphic lens kit is the prime lens. Zoom lenses can be used, but are less desirable for a few reasons outlined hither.

Generally, you will want to shoot with lightweight prime lenses with single coatings. This ways vintage lenses- nosotros have assembled a guide for prime lenses for here.

The Jupiter nine 85mm f/two with many aperture blades.

The front filter of your lens MUST not rotate when focusing, or else anamorphic lenses volition be impossible to pair with that lens. Lenses that extend when focusing are OK.

You will also need to select appropriate focal lengths of the prime lenses according to your sensor size. Since this tin vary so greatly, check out our anamorphic estimator hither to input the parameters for your photographic camera to determine what lenses will work for anamorphic.

Old Russian (Soviet) and Japanese prime lenses pair well with anamorphic lenses. The Helios 44-ii, Jupiter-9, and Nikkor lenses are excellent choices and work with almost any camera setup and anamorphic lens.

Three: The Anamorphic Clamp

Once you have selected your prime lens, you now need a way to attach an anamorphic lens to the forepart of the prime lens. This is accomplished by the anamorphic clamp.

The anamorphic clamp has rear threads that screw on to the front end filter thread of your prime lens.

Anamorphic clamps come in may different sizes and formats. Our own clamps in our Set to Shoot kits (also bachelor separately) are built to arrange the exact anamorphic lens that you lot will use and practice not use any screws that may damage the lens. They will work with both threaded and non-threaded setups and allow for minimum distance between the front of the prime lens and the rear of the anamorphic lens.

About common sizes for anamorphic clamps are 52mm, 58mm, 72mm, and 77mm. You must lucifer thread sizes with the front end filter of your prime number lenses. For example, the Helios 44-ii lens has a 49mm front end filter thread, while our pop Isco Micro Anamorphic Lens kit comes with a standard 58mm clamp. In this scenario, you volition demand to buy a 49mm-58mm footstep up ring and yous volition be good to get.

Step upward and stride down rings are bachelor in almost any size for a few dollars on eBay or Amazon.

IV: The Anamorphic Lens

The anamorphic lens is the office of the kit that actually performs the telescopic (stretch) to the image. It creates the flares, compressed bokeh, and compression that give anamorphic setups the desirable cinematic wait. The lens is attached via the clamp to the prime number lens.

Anamorphic lenses come in a variety of scopes: 1.33x, 1.5x, one.75x, and 2x. The 2x telescopic is the classic wide anamorphic wait established by Hollywood filmmakers and provides the strongest anamorphic effect. Producers and filmmakers desired a way to describe audiences to a wider cinema format in the 1950s, still withal shoot on Super 35 flick stock. The history of how anamorphics came to be are explained in further detail in our article here.

A Black Magic Pocket with the Isco Micro

Almost all anamorphic lenses bachelor for sale on the used market practice not include any front filter thread. While not required to shoot anamorphic on your DSLR, if you want to utilise whatsoever filters, single focus attachments, or the SuperScope on your setup, y'all will need some way to adhere these to the front of your anamorphic lens kit.

All of our Ready To Shoot kits available for sale have a non-rotating front filter modification built direct into the lens. Other clamping solutions are bachelor from other manufacturers also. This ways that yous can buy a dual focus now, then invest in a unmarried focus anamorphic solution or SuperScope afterwards.

If y'all do not have a front filter thread on your anamorphic lens, but still would like to employ a unmarried focus attachment or a SuperScope, we also accept a seamless, no-spiral anamorphic front filter clamp available here.

V: The Single Focus Attachment Lens

At present that we have our anamorphic lens safely attached to our prime lens, we now take a prepare to shoot setup! You are good to get and start shooting anamorphic on your DSLR or movie theater photographic camera immediately.

Nevertheless, focusing your lenses will at present exist handled differently. Because the anamorphic lens is an attachment that only performs a scope (stretch) effect, both lenses will demand to be focused to achieve focus. This isn't challenging if you follow the anamorphic focus method we describe hither, just it does prevent rack focusing and makes gimbal or run-and-gun style shooting more difficult (just even so possible)

As we draw in detail in our commodity on single focus anamorphic here, single focus capability can be achieved on nearly whatever anamorphic lens setup available. By attaching an changed set of diopters in front of whatsoever lens, focus tin be inverse by varying the distance betwixt those two diopters.

Nosotros congenital a Single Focus attachment lens in 58mm size to be able to perfectly attach to the Isco Micro or similar anamorphic lenses and attain single focus. Simply set your infinity bespeak by focusing your taking lens and anamorphic lens, and the single focus zipper will handle all focusing. The Unmarried Focus Zipper has a non-rotating 58mm front filter thread if you would like to add whatsoever additional filters or a SuperScope.

Lenses such as the rare Iscorama 36 or our Custom Single Focus anamorphic have this capability built directly into the lens and do non require an attachment. But set the taking lens to infinity and all focusing is accomplished by the anamorphic lens.

VI: The SuperScope Lens

One of the frustrations with shooting with 2x anamorphic is the need for shooting with longer taking lenses. While DSLR cameras such as the GH5 and other micro iv/3 cameras are less restricted by this, information technology does make capturing extra wide shots more than hard.

For this, we developed the SuperScope lens that attaches to the forepart of the anamorphic, multiplying your field of view by 1.5x. Because this is performed afterthe scope, it does non affect the anamorphic stretch gene or add together vignetting (Nevertheless, if you are near the very terminate of your range of prime lenses that you tin utilise, then it may introduce vignetting. Check our anamorphic lens calculator to see if you lot are in a safe range.)

For instance, a 50mm lens on a Panasonic GH5 behaves like a 100mm lens (full frame equivalent). A 2x anamorphic lens will bring that effective focal length back to 50mm. A SuperScope will brand that effective focal length now 33mm without introducing whatsoever vignetting.

An Isco Micro Crimson with SuperScope and Single Focus Adapters

Our updated anamorphic calculator now includes SuperScope calculators. Check it out to see how information technology tin piece of work with your DSLR and prime number lenses.

The SuperScope has a rear filter thread of 58mm and a front filter thread of 86mm. A 58mm rear thread allows you to easily adhere it to our Isco Micro kit, or our Isco Micro Unmarried Focus kit.

Isco Micro without SuperScope on GH5
Isco Micro with SuperScope on GH5

When to use these options

The SuperScope and the Single Focus zipper can be paired together, individually, or not used at all. We have built our kits to be modular and flexible for nearly whatever shooting need, photographic camera, or prime lens setup.

For instance, you may desire the convenience and look of an anamorphic lens with single focus and SuperScope for shooting run-and-gun action scenes. But when shooting on a gimbal or slider, you lot may desire to go equally lightweight as possible, and remove both the Unmarried Focus zipper and the SuperScope.

Or perhaps you are shooting nature scenes or landscapes where your focus is almost e'er set to infinity. For this shoot, you can just attach the SuperScope straight to your anamorphic lens and take a more compact, faster setup.

Isco Micro Red with clench and SuperScope

For those looking to get started with a cost-effective anamorphic setup, you tin can purchase a clamp and b-stock anamorphic lens separately. This will be a toll-effective manner to become into high-quality anamorphic shooting without requiring a larger budget. With this setup, you will not be able to add together single focus or SuperScope later on.

Boosted Anamorphic Resources

And that's all! The only accessories we might recommend would be a Gini-Rig to assistance support your setup. Generally an anamorphic kit will non require back up, but when adding both a single focus and a SuperScope yous may adopt to add a lens back up to help proceed stress off of the camera lens mountain.

Also exist certain that yous have plenty step upward and step down rings to experiment with your anamorphic lens kit on a broad multifariousness of prime lenses.

If you are interested adding anamorphic lenses to your cinematography toolbox, please visit our anamorphic lens store for demos and examples. Nosotros have spent several years collecting, modifying, and testing anamorphic lenses to weed through the junk, make needed modifications, and gather gear up-to-shoot packages.

If yous are interested in learning more than on working with anamorphic lenses and DSLR, delight cheque out our anamorphic tutorial blog for more than anamorphic tips and tutorials!

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