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Hey Guys. Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for the kind write up Andrew. It's funny, this blog post and the comments about the brand name being immature coincide with my current direction as it is. ​I'll answer this rather stale and grumpy response first:) - 1. The name sums up exactly how the lenses would be considered by traditional photographers and technicians. 2. Yes I guess it was a bit of a joke at the time. 2.5years ago I started offering the lenses specifically to be used with the Iscorama in order allow a more vintage look - since I always found results from my iscorama were a little clinical when comapred to smaller and cheaper optics which might not have had the sharpness of the iscorama, but have a charming quality due to their limitations. I never intended on making more than about 5-10 of these. for a few people who shared my own feelings of the iscorama. I wanted the lomo look, but the sharpness and ease of use of the 'rama. 3. It did get your attention, as well as a load of bloggers. Though as far as I remember this was never a marketing strategy, but a bit of a childish joke since the concept was never meant to be anything more than that. If I hadn;t chosen such a ridiculous name, bloggers wouldn't have blogged it and I imagine i wouldn;t be pumping huge amounts of money into developing new optics - I'd be doing 2 weeks work a month making prototypes for dyson vacuum cleaners and doing occasional photography work. 4. As I've said, the name was never a marketing decision. It just so happens that the majority of users 'get' the fact that they're buying carefully ruined lenses. 5. The guys who make the effort to look into it deeper are the ones who seem to be enjoying the little lenses I'm making. This passion meant they were willing to pre order a wide angle attachment meaning manufacture could go ahead. No other manufacturer would even entertain developing and manufacturing a wide angle attachment of such quality. 6. Not a rebrand, but I believe the 'brand' will likely soon be a lo-fi division of a more traditional company name. Since the newly developed optics like the FF38 and FF88 as well as the TRUMP lenses I feel deserve to live within a slightly more respectful label since they couldn;t be further from shit IMO.

From my blog, eddavid.tumblr.com On a recent thread on an unnamed camera nerd user-board, a user, I will call "Johnny-Five," wrote a beautiful little message about how brand loyalty doesn't work in the world of cinematography. At the end of the day, you have a camera, lenses, and accessories, and grip and lighting and sound and they all come from different companies, from different countries. Your lights can be German, American, French - all different brands and you mix them together and they work great just as you can mix HMI with fluorescent with tungsten fresnels. Same with your lenses or monitors - on some jobs I use English lenses and on some German or Japanese lenses. I don't look at brands, I look at how good something is. "Johnny-five" got flogged on the board. "What? How can you say that? I love my company - it's my family." This is because these nerds have spent thousands of dollars and hours of time on their camera toys. Thousands of dollars investing in products. And they don't want to hear this. Imagine if someone told you that your car or your house could have been made differently. You don't want to hear it. You just spent a lot of money so don't tell me the windows can be switched out with better windows. No thank you. But it's important to hear. And hence why rental houses are so important in cinematography. Because not every camera or light or lens is the right one for each job. These companies own a variety - and they are prepared for how it all changes. Ten years ago Zeiss Standard speed lenses and other uncoated vintage glass were not as desired, but now with super sharp sensors, they rent like hot-cakes. Who would have known back then? Now part two. Everyone is drooling about two new cameras - one is named a "weapon" - the other a "mini". Both cameras don't exist. Well the mini is a prototype. But why drool until that camera exists? The same thing happened a few years ago with a few screengrabs of a camera named after a fictional mythic creature - which I will call the "Lockness Monster." It was promised to have 16 stops of dynamic range and beautiful new color and make it the greatest camera ever made. I drooled. "This is it," I mumbled to myself as I typed on internet camera nerd forums. But it wasn't. It had low light issues and the color isn't that much different than the original camera. But the biggest problem with the Lockness Monster is the same thing that plagued that camera company since they switched to a smaller body - the fan. It's loud - it's on really loudly when you rehearse takes. This is when you need intense concentration to think - to light, to block, to work with actors. You don't need a giant fan on. When you shoot a long beautiful interview at minute 20 it gets loud - really loud - and it's over - the moment. And you can't focus and concentrate because it's blowing in your ears. Who would thought the thing that makes me the most upset is a minor issue that probably could have somehow been solved? The Lockness Monster's fan may be better once the Weapon comes out - but for me, I don't care right now because it doesn't exist. I rather just keep my money and buy an older camera on ebay and figure out how to make it good. It's a lot cheaper to not be an early adopter. To let other people figure out the quirks. Because at the end of the day, any camera that can shoot log - you can make it look good with the right composition, angles, creativity, and grading. Some will look better, but at the end of the day, it's not how good something looks - it's whether there is a good story, good acting, and if you have something to say. Cinematography is always secondary to story. So please weapon, fix that fan noise.

Hi! I've got couple orders for a follow focus gear for the FM lens. Made few pieces, and accepting preorders currently to see if I should make larger next bunch now. Please contact me if you need one. http://rafcamera.com/en/accessories/ff-gears/gear-fm-lens-88-107-32mm Thanks.

Well I guess it's time to move on. Hard to argue against so much funded wisdom. Seems like I have to dump my sharp single focus 2x Cinelux / FM combo. Must be my fault that I can't produce soft, distorted images with lots of lovely CA like other recently hyped 2x double focusing anamorphics do. So the 75,-- bucks I had to spend for the Cinelux were a complete waste. Now I need to get one of those bargain Isco 36 plastic lenses. I heard they can’t do close focus below 2m without modification or diopters, but who on earth would need to get any closer? I sure hope they come with a decent user manual.

​Thank you Andrew, and very sorry if we did waste your time. I will take the blame for all this , yes you are right I should have followed you and inform you more on this. Can I please ask you a personal favor, could you or any other moderator eliminate the whole FM lounge thread please? I am tired of this arguing over stupid stuff. Please I will appreciate it if you do. Thanks very much and do forgive me if I troubled you again with all this. Best Cosimo

Excellent point. ​This is why there will always be noise on the internet with many people and their gear. Those that have "something to say" actually go out, spend their time doing it, and don't really worry too much about online forums. However, those of us, like me, that get by doing decent but somewhat unimaginative work (I'm a corporate video guy) like to chat about their stuff because we're invested into it as a way to inflate our capabilities. For example: If I win the lottery then go out and purchase an Alexa... Well, I can then be superior to my peers because I've suddenly acquired a bit of kit that allows me to be 1 or 2 steps of dynamic range better than you! Haha! I'm better! I have the best thing! Hooray! Of course, that viewpoint is mostly nonsense. But, I do have a device that potentially increases my ability. Will I, with my limited abilities, exploit that in an effective way? I'd like to think so, but I would not. Not really. But, man, I'd be emotionally invested into that potential. It would affect my perception of my capability --of my value to my profession. And that value defines my self-worth as a person. It's not just cameras, it's kind of anything materialistic, really. The thing that comes to my mind is car enthusiasts that build hot rods with all the materials they can afford, but couldn't drive around a race track to save their lives.

Hi guys there is much talk about camera gear but what i don't hear is monitor or what we use, which is as important or even more when it comes to final output. What i learned so far properly calibrated monitor is critical for color correction of our short films, music videos or what ever even for web. I know that dedicated color monitor are expensive ranging from $4000 like FSI monitors to Dolby PRM-4220 40 to 50k. I can be technology junkie and properly calibrated monitor is really important to me, i have Dell Ultra sharp u2410 10 bit ccfl for the past few days i have been trying to calibrate this monitor as close to REC 709 for HD and color correcting as possible and so far results have been really good you can only calibrate this monitor in standard mode since custom mode is broken and does not give you accurate colors, but problem with standard mode it does not give you access to RGB controls which is really important. There is way around this by accessing those controls via factory settings which is awesome. I have dispcalGUI and Argyll Color Management System which is free and i1 display pro from xrite. After calibrating to Rec 709 color space i was thinking is my monitor really calibrated or close to it. Answer is YES i used free trail of Calman Studio color checker Analysis to see if my monitor is calibrated properly to REC709 and to my surprise my colors measurement points in Delta E2000 chart are well below acceptable requirements in CIE1976 chart color looking triangle my premieres green, blue and red all fall in to that square which is a target for REC 709 if it is outside of triangle then its a problem also dots in side a square are color checker points and as you can see they all fall within the square or acceptable range The Green buttons in image My avg delta E is 1 where pro monitor is hitting 0.8 and my Max delta e is 1.9 where pro monitor is 1.7 I have provided 2 images one is my Dell calibrated and other one is LG flatron if you compare images you can see deltae2000 are way off and CIE1976 chart color is all over the place i have calibrated both monitor 4 times and result is the same dell monitor can be bought now for 300 dollars where i paid 600. Stay withing 24 inch because anything bigger color tend to shift since there is more real estate space Most of the pro monitors like FSI are 24 inch and below except Dolby PRM-4220 40 inch but at 40k you also get dolby technician to cone after 3000 hours to calibrate it which is not cheap Again i am not a pro but to me my colors specially in resolve color looks so good, blacks are black and not gray Thanks guys

Just did some research and the Iscorama's single focus mechanism patent is expired. Hopefully this will lead to some creativity on the part of new anamorphic designs.

A variation on the Flare inducing UV-Filter method established by Hans Punk. To get the Filter as close as possible to the back of the Cinelux I placed just the Filter-Glass inside the Step-Up Ring which is coupling my Lens with the Focus Module. 68mm Filter-Glass fits perfectly inside a 52mm to 72mm Step-Up Ring and leaves enough play to screw it firmly to the FM.

​My firm advice is to wait for better solutions. We're all hungry and curious for better lenses, especially 2x. I've always thought from the moment I got my Kowa 4 years ago, "if only". If only it would be a single focus anamorphic. The image is just so wonderful. I know for a fact better anamorphic solutions are on the way.... wait and see. Cosmio, the reason the thread stays is that I am not here to act as a marketing platform. You can't just suddenly delete everyone's contribution to the thread, because some people don't praise the product. Yes I personally found it "not good enough" quite simply and nor the service or communication. That's up to you to improve, not us. We are not paying for your R&D or market research. We are filmmakers who just want to get the look of anamorphic. I was interested like many in the FM, willing to take the time to explore it. That you on your part and at the Anamorphic Shop in Latvia didn't bother to provide the full kit, speaks poorly of the service aspect. If you can't even service EOSHD, what hope does a 'normal' customer have?

Andrew I understand your frustration. I feel similar sentiments since I've had to buy an Isco Ultrastar and a Schneider Cinelux, as I didn't want to take apart my Kowa or Sankor. The lack of instructions, and the feeling that it's more prototype is also a concern. But I admit that it's a first run product by a small shop of guys. I think everyone understands there are growing pains with anything that's new. We're kinda like the beta testers here. I knew that going into this and it's why I was hesitant at first to buy. In fact it wasn't until I started seeing footage from Cosimo and Hans Punk that I took the chance. I know you're used to having a "final" product to test, but this is a small shop. I think your situation is unfortunate, but that's how it goes I guess. In any case I hope Anamorphic Shop can continue to grow so that they can refine their product. I really look forward to the new designs. And I have sent them my concerns about the FM as it is far from perfect. Similar to what I told Andrew at SLR Magic about their design. Let's look towards a bright future for anamorphic lenses!

I never ever understand why a lot of hobbyists online base their opinion of a camera on some Vimeo test footage where good lighting wasn't used. Sometimes I feel the geekiness of camera tech overshadows an understanding of using light effectively, and therefore creates some kind of laziness to the prospect of actually using a light source at all. How many people can admit they have bought more camera bodies they can chew, instead of investing in a decent set of lights that will last a decade? The improvement in image won't come from the camera, it will come from your understanding of shaping light and composition to portray emotions and messages in the story. Choosing the right camera is part of that understanding.

Despite the lens being a loan, if I were a paying customer I'd be asking for my money back because Cosimo at no point before the lens shipped did you tell me the Kowa wouldn't work. I have all the emails and PMs. You kept this quiet until after the demo unit arrived on the 7th. Again it's a good job I didn't pay for it, because I would have had a bad surprise there. I was willing to help, like I am with all new anamorphic solutions, I want to try them and if they are any good help get the word out. Already this thread has had 20,000 views. Problem is the FM is not very good and I feel deceived. Also you said it would ship with the Schneider originally. If nobody at Anamorphic Shop in Latvia can be bothered to send a fully functional demo unit, then I can't review it. Simple logic really. What do you expect me to do, risk the £500 Kowa or buy a £500 Schneider myself which would be even more useless to me after I send the loan FM back!?!? Logic doesn't stack up does it!? Like I say I was willing to do the review but you shipped an incomplete kit with just the FM and no anamorphic, didn't ship any instructions and wasn't clear about which lenses I needed to use until after it plonked down on my desk in Berlin. Based on this mess I think you'd be the first to admit Cosimo that a bit more effort and a bit less hyperbole was needed to make this task of a review a bit less impossible.

​Thanks man. I agree. Lets see what happens:)

This is a very nice thread! The key is in the intentions. Of course this is about voyeurism, to look what people do normally, not in a staged situation with actors! There is nothing wrong about it! About the people not living the experience, but shooting it I don't understand them!!! I live in Rome and I see people who didn't watched directly anything. They watched it in their iPads, smartphones, camcorders viewfinders... It's pretty sad. I wonder if in their memories they include metadata like: "The first time I saw the Pantheon I just 20% of battery left and my SD nearly full" "When I arrived at the Coloseum, I made sure the UV filter was tight, format the SD and started shooting".

​Hi Andrew, I am writing just to clear everything out and let all the members know what really happened. Your demo unit arrived on the 7th of february , 3 week ago, I've never led you on anyone else to believe that the Kowa would fit inside the FM without the need of DIY hacking and I have proofs of that. I have wrote you on the 20th of january explaining which anamorphic would fit inside the FM see the attachment file. When you received your demo unit you wrote me asking for instructions on how to fit your kowa cos you couldn't figure out, remember that? I then wrote you straight away again explaining you that you would need to disassemble your focus gear in order to fit your kowa inside the FM, and that the FM was created for the Schneider cinelux, the Isco Ulrtra star in mind, and I will attach my mails so that everyone can read that I always informed you without misleading you. It's not my fault if you don't read your mails, I understand that you may have been busy and missed my mails and I am very sorry that this happened as I was keen to read your review and as you know I always wanted that. As for the sharp reply you have received from the anamorphic shop guy I wrote you another mail only last night as I was busy working, saying that words can be misinterpreted, and he didn't mean to be sharp to you, he only answered in a very simple and honest way to your question Either you can loan me an anamorphic to use it with, or I can return it." The guy asked you to return it as it was too late now to have a review and gave you his address, that's all, no need to get upset and make believe everyone that it's my fault. I hope you understand my point, and please do not misinterpreter my post too, thank you. Here are my mails that you didn't read:

I think it's reflective of the difference between do-ers and wanna do-ers. Those that are out there getting paid and shooting great stuff, great stories, working with professional crew... They're the ones who choose cameras based on each specific project. Who use an Alexa on one project, and RED on another. Then maybe film on another. And maybe a C500 asa B-cam. The camera that looks right and works the best for the project. They have good relationships with other key crew (i.e. Gaffers and Key Grips) who they call upon for help, and good relationships with rental houses where they get there cameras and other accessories from. They're professionals. Then there's those who are 'wanna doers' who spend all day on ain internet forum talking about what they'd do if they had the money/ability to shoot on such cameras. These are the people who are 'hobby' filmmakers - who buy the best gear they can afford, sell themselves as an owner-operator to get work, and are threatened by anyone who says that the camera sustem they have spent thousands on isn't perfect. It's perfectly acceptable to be a hobby filmmaker - I just wish that the masses who get overzealous would calm down and take a reality pill

With a static image you might not notice it too much, but with a flat profile the noise is much finer and tweaking color will not end up with macro bloking hell. Good luck tomorrow, I wouldnt rely on the d600 too much, get the thing done with the gx7.

It feels just right, at least judging by this video.

Two words: liquid nitrogen. No more noise, cool & sexy 'fog', and they can sell their own brand in a can (dewar). For super high frame rates you can switch to liquid helium, to get the sensor down near absolute zero. Liquid helium gets the sensor so cold it can then actually hit 16 stops of DR. This is achieved by running the sensor in Quantum qubit mode .

​I'm glad there's some people shooting on the lovely Penelope still out there. Penelope's probably my favourite camera to shoot on; it's too bad they could never get the whole Delta/interchangeable mags thing happening. The battery life on the Alexa is frustratingly poor - especially when compared to film. You could easily shoot a week or more on four batteries - you'd struggle to get four hours in some cases with four batteries on an Alexa. It's a totally different look to digital - IMO it gets silly comparing them anymore, they're totally different looks. I personally love the look of film, and don't believe there is anything in the digital realm that really matches it. Sure, there are cameras that come close in terms of colour, or dynamic range, or both - but they don't look the same and realistically it's a totally different process - you're not going to get even similar images when using a single bayer sensor.

Shooting weddings, events, or Broll for an organization with people in it, I must say, I get more and more tired of people's fear and dislike for cameras. You're an adult, get over it already. Getting the stink eye gets old after a while. Just because cameras reveal and remind you of how stupid you look and how dumb you sound, please don't take it out on me.

So many reasons. The ones we might be unaware of though are the most powerful. ​I tend to believe that this "smartphone-as-proxy-for-witnessing-life-behavior" is a kind of a psychological issue, a subliminal problem. For example, so many of us have a difficult time accepting their temporal existence. Capturing moments controls time; proves to oneself that they can govern the journey somewhat. knowhatimean? Life's nothing without death. Ying-Yang. And whatcha' gonna do about it? Answer: Instagram. Myself, when I'm actually not working I tend to leave my camera at home. I prefer flawed recollection. That said, the GM1 is one of the best stealth cams I've ever used. Nobody seriously thinks anything worthwhile is happening with that bit of gear.

Honestly I think capturing random people out on the streets in certain situations can not be called filmmaking. There is a big portion of voyeurism in the game. And it is also annoying to have more and more self righous people around capturing every stupid single moment in life with all their DSLRs, cellphones, Ipads, Googleglass, drones, Googlestreetview, satelites and whatever and published to the world next day. Just had been too a great concert and it was so annoying to see all these stupid Iphones everywhere (Why don't the people just enjoy the music and the moment for great memories?). The only good thing is that we become so used to all the surveillance that maybe one day no one cares anymore of any imaginalbe humilation in public caputred and published on fucking Youtube by hard-working filmmakers

Why is it called dog shit optics? Is it supposed to be funny? Is it supposed to get my attention? How does associating the product with dog shit making me want to buy it? It just makes me think it must be shit quality made by immature people. Best case for a re-brand ever!

Bit silly really. Majority of those app purchases are not photo/video related (game apps). Of the ones that are, a very high percentage are from demographics who wouldn't be purchasing DSLRs anyway. Takes quite a bit of imagination to come up with a conclusion that instagram is killing 6D sales or whatever. I mean, if Canon DSLRs rocked iOS do you think people would flock to buy giant DSLRs all of the sudden? Like all the baby mammas and tweens who upload stuff 200x a day would be rocking DSLRs? No. Why would a casual user want to lug around a 800g body when you can have a tiny little phone that does everything? Has nothing to do with apps; everything to do with utility and form factor. Take away the apps and everyone still wants an iphone rather than a dslr... As far as sales sucking, IDK what the data is; but around the time of the 7D, 5DmkII, T2i I would expect sales to have been humungous; the recession was coming to an end (ended?), DSLRs were rocking awesome new video, etc... I'm guessing the sluggish sales today are similar to what sales were like pre T2i/7D, ie: "normal". As for sluggish technology... Well, I actually live in Silicon Valley. Yes it is bad in the sense that if you live in a poor neighborhood, your house is worth only 1 million. Or every asshole now has to drive an EV vehicle. Or you cannot eat at a restaurant without checking Yelp. Yeah, that all sucks. But on the flip side, most of the people are extremely intelligent/creative/hard working. So, for me it is shocking how archaic Canon is w/ respect to DSLRs. I mean wtf have they done in the last 5 years? Canon should have articulating screens on everything, purchase Magic Lantern and incorporate it, and develop a half way decent sensor. And after all that, figure out a way to load Android so that people can be more social with their DSLRs (like monitor live video/menus remotely, upload to instagram, etc..). I hope Tesla gets bored and starts making cameras.

I think canon needs to achieve a much higher dynamic range now as well. I think that is a major factor in why arri dominated the oscars. Another factor that makes the arri sensor look better is its ability to clearly distinguish colors variations. See this article comparing red dragon,epic and alexa. When shoot a chart with the red epic the vector scope shows the points with much more color smear than the alexa. A smeared color patch means that hues along that smear will all look the same. There won’t be much subtlety between hues. http://www.dvinfo.net/article/ultra-hd/dragon-color-does-tungsten-or-daylight-make-a-difference.html

I like how they also list the third party products used in post. That's pretty classy of them, if it were Adobe: "EDITED COMPLETELY IN PREMIERE!"

​ No surprise there, FCPX is an excellent editing program, especially after all of the latest updates and native support for many cameras. One thing you need to understand though is all modern editing programs basically do the same thing, no real difference at all between X or Premiere, just slightly different how they work/operate