Bolex Möller x1.5 16/32/1.5x - Sony Zeiss 55 1.8 in AF

Dick Sweeney · June 23, 2017

Firstly I'd like to say that Ive been a long time lurker on this site - and Ive learned a lot. I'm a pro photographer thats recently been steered towards producing moving images for the peeps i work for but also have been a huge fan of the medium from a very early age. Ive learned so much from this site and others like it and appreciate the knowledge base that these places are - so thanks to all the effort that peeps go to share their acquired knowledge. Its no turn to share some of my findings...

Heres my notes on my experience after one night shooting with this in stills mode

Bolex paired with -Sony Zeiss 55 + Sony A7R2

Grain / noise could be reduced using A7S2 - Was shooting at night at 3200 min

Need to stop down - hard to nail focus wide open - F3.5 seems like sweet

Oval Bokeh is present - but one needs separation - a longer lens would be of more benefit

Close focus as in head in frame looks possible

On full frame - one needs to shoot at Super 35 - to crop out vignette

Was shooting at night at 3200 min

The alignment has to be right - otherwise verticals slant - although that does it give it a weird cinematic vibe

AF works quite well - so does focus peaking - although one needs to nail the ana lens focus first. Its not always easy to discern the difference between the squeeze and the lack of focus
To shoot motion one probably needs a monitor/stills in a pro way. Focus was at times easy - just point and fire - while other times impossible ?

AF possibilities like eye tracking and high end AF solutions could be used - need to test these.

Photoshop actions can be applied for the desqueeze quite easy - I’m going to see if I can apply an action to build the black bars.

Flares are present - some sources flare without being in the frame - while others less so in the frame. Flares are blue and sometimes red.

Looking at the images - it make sense to really think in this format - its strengths and weaknesses - to be able to pre visualise. The same with any photographic tool.

One unique thing about this format is the ability to point your viewer into areas of the frame that are very relevant to the story - that i think is a pretty important note. I can see by some of theses test shots exactly where a person would be within the composition. Also leaving some space in this potentially busy format for a person might be necessary or not - one could intentionally confuse the viewer too.

Onwards and upwards - need to try a few more lenses. Next on the list an 100mm Macro Canon 2.8 AF.