SLR Magic Anamorphot CINE PL Set 35/50/70 - a shoot in London and Brighton with the Sony A7S II and Samsung NX1

[Andrew Reid]

The new titanium PL mount SLR Magic Anamorphot cinema lenses are designed for RED users, Arri and Canon professionals. They're also a great fit for the Sony A7S II and Samsung NX1.

Read the blog post here

[Geoff CB]

Nice work here Andrew with the NX1. The first tests I saw of these were unfortunately of the 35mm wide open on a Full Frame camera. Needless to say that did not make a great first impression. They look very nice in your tests. Did you shoot the majority of it at 5.6? I do hope they eventually ad a 28 to this group, 35mm with a 1.33 stretch is not enough for some narrative projects. 

[iamoui]

Beautiful! I'm curious about the settings, both in-camera and FilmConvert profile, you used. Did you use the Log LUT? Judging from the pictures on the blog post you recorded to ProRes on the Atomos? Which flavor of ProRes? 

Thanks in advance!

[Andrew Reid]

A7S II was Shogun, but the Brighton video above was all NX1 internal H.265.

[premini]

I guess these lenses, as you said, are strictly for rental purposes. Any enthusiast, like me, can live with the "workarounds", as you said, of getting a separate adapter and a single focus adapter instead of spending that amount of cash

 

[Mattias Burling]

Looks nice. Would love to have them, but as you say, more of a rental.
NX1 looks fab as usual.

[premini]

oh, and I dislike the flares with all my heart :D

[Andrew Reid]

41 minutes ago, premini said:

oh, and I dislike the flares with all my heart :D

You can't dislike flares. That's like saying you dislike the colour 'green'.

You just haven't seen the RIGHT flares.

Used the RIGHT WAY.

[Geoff CB]

20 minutes ago, premini said:

oh, and I dislike the flares with all my heart :D

Actually this I agree with. That blue flare might be fine for your target audience of the SLR Anamorphot looking for the old school look but having that in $5000+ cinema glass... I put up with it on the Anamorphot, I'm angry it remains on these lenses as the only option. I wish you had the option to get them without it.

[premini]

6 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

You can't dislike flares. That's like saying you dislike the colour 'green'.

You just haven't seen the RIGHT flares.

Used the RIGHT WAY.

Sorry, i am saying that I dislike these flares.

[Mattias Burling]

9 minutes ago, Geoff CB said:

Actually this I agree with. That blue flare might be fine for your target audience of the SLR Anamorphot looking for the old school look but having that in $5000+ cinema glass... I put up with it on the Anamorphot, I'm angry it remains on these lenses as the only option. I wish you had the option to get them without it.

But they are in $5 000 000 000 lenses as well. What Anamorphic lenses do you mean are without the anamorphic flare?

[Geoff CB]

3 minutes ago, Mattias Burling said:

But they are in $5 000 000 000 lenses as well. What Anamorphic lenses do you mean are without the anamorphic flare?

They added the flare purposefully, I think they should add the option to get these lenses without the flare coating on them. 

 

[premini]

+1

1 minute ago, Geoff CB said:

They added the flare purposefully, I think they should add the option to get these lenses without the flare coating on them. 

 

 

[Mattias Burling]

5 minutes ago, Geoff CB said:

They added the flare purposefully, I think they should add the option to get these lenses without the flare coating on them. 

 

Ok but name one anamorphic lens without it?

[Geoff CB]

58 minutes ago, Mattias Burling said:

Ok but name one anamorphic lens without it?

Zeiss Master Anamorphics

[Jonatan]

27 minutes ago, Geoff CB said:

Zeiss Master Anamorphics

Exactly. They added a flare set last year to accommodate the need for flare situations.

 

 

[TomazK]

@ Andrew: Philip Bloom caled he wants hes location back

[Andrew Reid]

5 minutes ago, TomazK said:

@ Andrew: Philip Bloom caled he wants hes location back

He can have it

[Caleb Genheimer]

Quality 2X lenses still need to happen IMO. The real enduring highlight here is once again the NX1. Don't get me wrong, SLR Magic have done a lot for the Anamorphic community, and their Rangefinder is the best thing since sliced bread. But when it comes to their anamorphics, they just don't fit what I'm looking for, and they really don't offer anything over a good projection Ana either. 2X is the whole point. With 4K so accessible, just shoot spherical with a streak filter and crop. 

 

Speaking of of streak filters, that's what SLR Magic's blue flares look like, and it's not a great look. Either clean it up with modern coatings or work some serious mojo into it. Tinting the whole shebang the same shade of blue is rather uninspiring.

 

I'm pretty sure my Kowa is still the widest 2X Ana out there, outside of a few primes from Hawk/Panovision. The LOMO 35mm is probably about the same FOV as what I have set up, and I can switch primes and do the same on full frame too. I've used the Kowa on paid projects, and it really is a viable solution until there are new anamorphics available that can truly match its versatility.

 

Anamorphic really shines when it is wide. It's not that longer lenses don't have their uses, they do. But 50mm 2X is not wide. 25mm/S35 would be the holy grail, Or 35mm, and a 3-4 lens set built on that (35/50/75/100). 

That's just my 2c on the matter. I know others love these lenses but for me they miss the mark especially at the price point. 1.33X is kinda half-heartedly anamorphic in the first place, and on top of that there's not a wide enough option in their 2X offerings. The flares feel forced/contrived, and that really makes them still feel more like SLR Magic's other prosumer priced glass. I hope they can truly graduate to playing with the big boys, but to my eyes, they're not quite there yet.

[BrooklynDan]

I think that in order to play with the big boys, you gotta cost like the big boys. There is no simple way to build 2x anamorphic primes that have any decent quality for much less than what they already cost. The 1.33x lenses look pretty good for the money, but still have considerable distortion, softness around the edges and chromatic aberration that wouldn't hold up on anything resembling a big screen.

And forget about ever seeing a decently priced super-wide-angle anamorphic prime lens. The only really good ones I've seen are the Panavision G-series 25mm and the new Cooke 25mm. The rest suffer from severe barrel distortion and breathing. Building a good wide-angle anamorphic lens is one of the most difficult assignments that a lens engineer could ever receive.