Getting Oval Bokeh with SLR Magic 1.33 Compact

[rjderama]

Hi all, 

I'm learning using my a6500, a Sony FE 28mm f2.0 and Sony 55 f1.8, and an SLR Magic Anamorphot 1.33 40 Compact.

It's great for a beginner like me as autofocus works, setup is pretty easy, and an external monitor desqueezes the image so I know what I'm gonna get when I take it into post.  The only thing It doesn't provide is the oval bokeh (and the electric blue flares it produces are that great either).  I'm tinkering with a Vid Atlantic bokeh filter placed both at the front of the Anamorphic and in between the taking lens and the Anamorphic.  No go at the front.  In the middle, the filter is so reflective that it produces secondary flares/relections that ruin the image.  

Can anyone help bring this Franken-Setup to life LOL?  Should I sand down the bokeh filter to make it less reflective?  Should I try to put the filter on the rear element of the taking lens like a cinemorph filter mod?

Thanks in advance!

RJ
 

[Hans Punk]

Adding oval discs to anywhere other than at a lens at aperture location will introduce considerable light loss and added vignette. Solution is to locate oval aperture directly - or at the closest point to aperture level (as mentioned by whoisjsd). Easiest and cheapest is to modify a Helios 44 lens this way, and to use that as your taking lens. See diagram below to see highlighted area for proper oval aperture placement in Helios 44 (or any similar Double-Gauss lens design):

 

With an oval aperture correctly installed and orientated, the effect is increased oval bokeh on a 1.33x anamorphot, and a sharpening effect due to the taking lens effectively being stopped down on the horizontal axis (yet maintaining near full height aperture). Here is a crappy sample of my 1.33x Century with Helios 44 with oval aperture installed...ignore the softness of the image, the proximity of the subjects was too close for sharp focus...but you can clearly see the improvement in bokeh definition:

 

[rjderama]

14 hours ago, Hans Punk said:

Adding oval discs to anywhere other than at a lens at aperture location will introduce considerable light loss and added vignette. Solution is to locate oval aperture directly - or at the closest point to aperture level (as mentioned by whoisjsd). Easiest and cheapest is to modify a Helios 44 lens this way, and to use that as your taking lens. See diagram below to see highlighted area for proper oval aperture placement in Helios 44 (or any similar Double-Gauss lens design):

 

With an oval aperture correctly installed and orientated, the effect is increased oval bokeh on a 1.33x anamorphot, and a sharpening effect due to the taking lens effectively being stopped down on the horizontal axis (yet maintaining near full height aperture). Here is a crappy sample of my 1.33x Century with Helios 44 with oval aperture installed...ignore the softness of the image, the proximity of the subjects was too close for sharp focus...but you can clearly see the improvement in bokeh definition:

 

That’s the fear that I had. A Helios 44 Woth an oval bokeh disc seems to work wonders. And since the laws of physics can’t be bent, having the disc at the aperture blades is my goal then. However, since I want to continue using my Sony lenses due to AF< Ill try a disc at the rear element just for fun, while grabbing a Helios and modding it. And I’ll also see if A used Sony FE 28mm shows up used and sacrifice it to the Gods in an attempt to mod that. Hahaha

[Hans Punk]

AF with anamorphic is generally extremely hit and miss, although with a 1.33x it can work pretty well. Modern MC lenses also don’t flare as well as anything vintage. Even if you don’t care much for flare, the look that you can get with older manual lenses is well worth the effort...a Helios 44 with an oval inside is about as good as Century/SLR/Optex 1.33x can ever look IMHO. Saying that, I bought a cheap Chinese nifty fifty f1.8 knockoff and put an oval inside and that works surprisingly well as an AF taking lens...the simplistic coatings also did not kill the flare too much either. But you can’t really beat the look of using an older manual lens.

[zerocool22]

Honestly the slr magic anamorphic adapters are shite. The slr magic rangefinder is shite. Im never buying anything from slr magic again.

[rjderama]

Noted. As a beginner, I’m sure I’ll figure out why you, and maybe others, believe this. 

But on another note, do I get a Helios taking lens with or without a filament since the SLR magic adapter flares already?