Any one know anthing about this lens? Animorphic zoom

[EndCredits]

Hi guys,

 

Purely an academic question but I'm curious about this lens:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LOMO-Arriflex-20-120mm-f-3-3-PL-Anamorphic-cinemascope-Panavision-Lens-RED-Arri-/121052730025?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item1c2f4e12a9

 

Ive been interested in anamorphic lenses for a fair while now but never pulled the trigger on buying one. I'm not planing on buying this one ether as its way beyond any price I could justify. But I was interested if any one had any info or opinions about it.

 

Is it really an Arri lens?

Wouldn't something like this solve the dual focusing issue that many lens + anamorphic adapter combinations have?

Wouldn't it also solve the problem of chasing down an entire set of prime lenses?

Whats that "1,2,3,4,5" Bit behind the aperture on the barrel all about?

Is it an attractive option to you guys? (ignoring the price)

 

Any thoughts...

[QuickHitRecord]

It's a huge anamorphic zoom in PL-mount (hence the Arri sticker). The seller is looking for about $2000 more than the lens is worth, which is is why no one has purchased it. It's been listed for close a year now, or perhaps even more:

 

http://youtu.be/UJICDqXSx_I?t=16s

 

If it's like the other Lomo zooms, it will exhibit heavy breathing while rack-focusing, which isn't a look that many people want. Also, as an older zoom lens, you'll likely have to deal with a lot more distortion and CA than current lenses, and I doubt that it's truly parfocal.

 

No idea what the numbers mean...

 

I love Lomos but I'd pass on this monster and get something smaller, cheaper, and more fun.

[Caleb Genheimer]

Why do you assume it will breathe heavy? Is it a LOMO through-and-through, falsely stickered as ARRI, or is it ARRI glass with a LOMO rear anamorphic adapter?

 

I've been unable to find any good examples of footage from these LOMO (or other rear anamorphic) zooms, and in theory they've intrigued me quite a bit. Do they still exhibit the strange compression of out-of-focus areas and oval points of light? It would make sense that they don't flare nearly as much due to the anamorphic not being on front, but I could take or leave horizontal flares, TBH. Particularly the 20-120mm LOMO zooms that shows up on eBay have tempted me because of their f2.5 aperture. That's a pretty good aperture for a zoom, and 20-120mm is no range to be scoffed at. 20mm is wider than most other anamorphics (except for the DV ones), and 120mm is certainly a telephoto focal length. 

[Bioskop.Inc]

Think this question has been asked before (or was it about the Isco's this seller has listed as well) & Alan (Redstan) gave an answer - so have a dig through the posts in this section.

 

But as QHR has stated, this seller has been trying to flog these for a while, with no takers - if you are interested see if he'll lower the price.

[EpicFanBoy]

This zoom is 100% Lomo/Russian. Arri (rental) probably bought a load of them and re-badged for rentals. That was quite common with good Russian lenses (a lot of the Lomo Roundfront anamorphics were housed into new bodies - like the JDC's).

 

The zoom is high quality - it's cinema glass and is actually a spherical. It is parafocal and is one of the best engineered Lomo zooms. it's only weakness is in the loose zoom assembly that can be damaged in transit (if it isn't taped up)... it doesn't have a lubed style zoom that accelerates and decelerates (friction), but instead has a single fast action (useful for crash zooms - LOL!).

 

It doesn't breath much at all and it feels pretty much like the OCT-19 style Lomo sphericals.

 

When it is coupled with a rear anamorphic adapter (they were made for this lens), it changes from a 20-120 T3.3 to a 40-240 T4.5. You gain distance but loose quite a bit in stop terms (as is normal).

 

Using the rear anamorphic adapter method, you do not get any blue streaks, horizontal flare or oval bokeh... you don't get any veiling type flare either. All these (much loved) elements are actually related to the anamorphic element being in the front. When it's at the rear, light transmission is reduced and the image is only squeezed before it hits the film (or digital sensor).

 

As was common in the film days (pre digital) you'd often mix front and rear anamorphics, as it was all about getting the image squeezed optically onto film... and not about the lens style effects.

 

This particular 20-120 should be labelled as 40-240 (T4,5) with rear anamaorphic adapter  It's BEEN overpriced for the last year or so, but, when it hits $4.5K, it'll be worth it, the rear anamorphic alone is worth $1.5K-$2K.

 

The numbers that one poster refers to (on the rear) are one of the hidden gems about this lens. It has a built in diopter function (that works ion both spherical and anamorphic mode)... so you get variable diopter strengths too :)

 

Hope that clarifies/helps :)

 

Here's some info on Reduser about it. - http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?94506-Anamorphic-Zoom-Lens-up-to-5500-USD and another one for slae at Reduser - http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?88333-Lomo-20-120-Zoom-(Anamorphic-and-Spherical)-PL-Mount-Recently-Serviced-by-Duclos

[Caleb Genheimer]

Thanks for the rundown! I kinda suspected all that stuff about rear-anamorphic lenses not having all the "loved" anamorphic attributes, but nobody has ever confirmed that.

[EndCredits]

Thanks every one for the info. I managed to dig up some of the same info that has been said. Its interesting at how varied he builds are on lenses of the same series. I'm not interested in buying it, even at a much lower price, just curious.

 

The extra stop and focal length crop/zoom with the adapter is interesting. As is reports that some of the lenses are very affected by moisture and require "purified gasoline" to clean them as water can make the elements dissolve. Sounds rather odd to me. Just more info that makes it even more interesting I guess.

[EpicFanBoy]

No problem - glad to help :)

 

In regards to the purified gasoline vs water, that's because you can't guarantee the water is clean of other trace elements and these might react with the coatings on lenses... not melt the glass elements (that's a new one for me!) - but incorrect cleaning can damage (beyond repair) the original coatings on older Lomos.