Vid Atlantic Lens Sales

[achernich]

Does anyone have any opinion on these Isco lenses that vid atlantic sells from their site.  Are they worth it?  I am so new to anamorphic that I am really just trying to gather as much information before I make a purchase.  I am shooting with a 5D Mk III and so I am really looking for the right adapter to fit what I have.

 

http://www.vid-atlantic.com/lensshop.html

[Julian]

They are pretty expensive. If you have the time, read a lot about the subject (start with all the topics in this forum... ;)) and try to figure out how much a certain anamorphic is worth. That's quite difficult, because prices vary a lot... but still.

 

The Kowa for B&H is a good lens to start with I think. Reasonable size, and if you're lucky you can buy one for a good price.

http://www.eoshd.com/content/558/kowa-anamorphic-lens-review

 

But prices vary a lot, I see them going sometimes for € 200 but also for € 600 or more..

[Vid-Atlantic]

I know that you're looking for info or opinions from others, but if you dont mind us chiming in...we only have a few of these lenses remaining. We bought most of them for a large multi-cam project and we don't make a lot of money when we sell them off.

 

They also include a full mounting clamp kit and no need to worry about receiving a soft lens that wont work as they've been tested and used by us. And of course an option to return it.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

[achernich]

I know that you're looking for info or opinions from others, but if you dont mind us chiming in...we only have a few of these lenses remaining. We bought most of them for a large multi-cam project and we don't make a lot of money when we sell them off.

 

They also include a full mounting clamp kit and no need to worry about receiving a soft lens that wont work as they've been tested and used by us. And of course an option to return it.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

Yeah this helps a lot!  How is the lens flare on the Isco 1.75x compact lenses?

[Julian]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ISCO-65mm-Cinemascope-Ultra-Star-PLUS-2-1-Anamorphic-Projection-Lens-/321103768417?pt=AU_Lenses&hash=item4ac346ab61

[Vid-Atlantic]

Yeah this helps a lot!  How is the lens flare on the Isco 1.75x compact lenses?

 

They're multi-coated lenses so they dont flare quite as easily as a Lomo anamorphic attachment or even some of the Sankors we've seen, but its certainly comparable to the Kowa B&H, Kowa 8Z/16H...also in terms of sharpness. If flare is what you're after, then maybe these arent the lenses for you. But if the overall look and sharpness is what you need, these are great.

[JohnBarlow]

I have one of these ISCO scopes. It says Cinemascope so I presume its 2x. Only thing is, I cant get the back lens off - I have taken out the little 1mm screw but the back lens wont budge. Its probably baked on from the heat of the projector lamp.

 

They flare like crazy with a HID flashlight

[tony wilson]

if it is the red isco it is a fine optic but the coatings are zeiss recipe so we have to assume flare is treated as error a flaw  which is a zeiss position.

if it flares at all it is a contaminated compromised flare.

not a patch on the mighty heavy beast hypergonar

[dahlfors]

I have one of these red Isco Ultrastars, and that's a lens I'll never sell :)

 

A major plus is its sharpness. I think this is among the sharpest decently priced anamorphics you can get. These would behave beautifully with a 4k sensor.

 

I've seen the gold and red Ultrastars go for far cheaper prices on ebay, around 300-400 usd or so (that's without clamps or anything). Vid-atlantic tell theirs are tested and comes with clamp, so I guess that's worth something.

 

In my opinion the Ultrastars are very underestimated. For a sharp & nice 1.75 - 2x (I'm a bit unsure about the exact scaling ratio in fact, haven't done the circle test) image they are very good. The only major downsides to me is 1) dual-focus and 2) aligning lens quickly to different lenses. For me flares aren't that important, but if I'd be looking for flares, I'd look for some other single-coated anamorphic (yes - with strong lights, you can get flares out of it, but it's quite flare-resistant).

 

My setup is a bad one: I got a clamp that I attach to the anamorphic, that I then screw onto the lens. So every time I want to align it on a different taking lens, I need to fiddle with the screws on the clamp.

Apparently Andy Lee (http://www.eoshd.com/comments/user/19952-andy-lee/) on this forum has a nifty rig solution for that.

 

I've used mine with 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor on APS-C crop. On a DSLR fullframe sensor a 75mm lens would be the widest you can use. On the D800 I've used my 85mm AI-S Nikkor f/2, which happens to be my favourite taking lens both for this Ultrastar as my real Iscorama.

 

I dug up my first test shots with this lens for you and uploaded a gallery with them (the spots visible on some of the shots are some spots before I cleaned the sensor):

 

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:274]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:270]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:273]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:269]

[sharedmedia=gallery:images:275]

 

Those are stills taken with my D200 + 105mm f/2.5 AI-S Nikkor on quite a high ISO for that old sensor from 2005, also with quite the jpeg compression. Still, should give you a bit of an idea about the lens.

As a bonus, I noticed a car wheel in one of the shots, so should be possible to roughly figure out the approximate squeezing ratio.

[JohnBarlow]

I cant speak for the red iscos but my gold one is a direct copy of my 1954 H Chretien Benoist Berthiot Cinemascope 16m/m, sometimes known as a Hypergonar. Its the one which has engraved on the back tube that you must not use this lens for commercial purposes (ha!), which probably had something to do with a contract that was signed with 20th Century a year earlier and also upstaging their Superama line.

 

Anyway its the same recipe, lenses , track length etc