The super-rare "Baby Kowa" 2x Anamorphic-8 adapter...WOW!

[Chronoscope]

Designed for super8 cameras....the smallest 2x scope out there.

And believe it or not?  This thing is superior to the much-drooled-over baby hypergonar. Significantly so.

I own two baby kowa 2x's, and one baby hypergonar....all of them are in near-new condition. The hypergonar was practically "New Old Stock" shape.

Anyway, here's a couple pics of it mounted tucked inside a Rapido FVD8a, along with a screengrab of fellas on the porch talking. Also some pics from around the net of what the baby kowa looks like by itself (since mine are mounted in rapido FMJ, dont feel like removing right now)

Shot not lit or anything...just stuck a camera there and recorded a bit; GH5 was on Natural profile, in 4:3 "4k anamorphic" mode (3328x2496), ISO 800.

Taking lens is a Canon nFD 50mm f1.8, mounted on a 0.71x Zhongyi speedbooster. Aperture was set at 2.8 (on the lens).

Yup...the baby Kowa is able to cover 50mm at around APS-C/S35, with no real vignetting/portholing on corners/sides. The sides have been cropped to achieve 2.35, but the cropped portions were fully visible. Of course...such coverage requires careful choice of taking lens, with a small front element that is very far forward so kowa rear lens can be very close.

The flares are soft, understated, and beautiful...pinkish purple.  I'll upload a test clip showing that off as soon as I get a moment today.

 

[Chronoscope]

Here is some simple test footage of the baby kowa, as promised!

Taking lens is a Canon nFD 50mm f1.8, mounted on a 0.71x Zhongyi speedbooster. Aperture varied between around 5.6 to 8 (on the lens, pre-speedboost).

GH5 Camera settings: Natural profile, ISO 200, 4:3 "4k Anamorphic" mode (3328x2496).

Desqueezed in Resolve, cropped sides to 2.35, rendered in DCI 4k 'scope (4096x1716).  Slight contrast and exposure adjustments, slight sharpening added. Otherwise straight out of camera.

 

[au8ust]

Nice and sharp!

I have one on the way but the shape isn't as good as yours. These are really nice gems!

[Chronoscope]

 

18 minutes ago, au8ust said:

Nice and sharp!

I have one on the way but the shape isn't as good as yours. These are really nice gems!

Yes, they truly are amazing little jewels...

It's quite incredible how wide these tiny things are actually able to go...although at wider end edge distortion gets really unusable.

I'd say on the nFD 50mm here, the distortion is JUST at the very edge of what I'd deem usable without being insanely disruptive. But it can go wider. Ive used it on Olympus 30mm Macro lens (native MFT lens) and it does not vignette.

I actually quite like the funky distortion and surreal bending...and this lens is actually able to maintain incredible detail, which makes for an interesting combo.

And most of all....this thing introduces so little in the way of CA, it's amazing. No real fringing to speak of, especially compared to other smaller adapters.

[Ian Edward Weir]

Nice lens but I must say that shots have been fired 😉 I own the Baby Hypergonar and did own the Kowa 8 2x before I sold it. I would slow down with the Baby Hypergonar bashing. First of all, my copy and another friend who has the same lens both confirm that we could not reach infinity with the Kowa 8 2x. It is a lovely lens and you have produced some really nice images but nobody puts my Baby Hypergonar in the corner 😉

[Chronoscope]

hehehehe.

Interesting, dont recall any problem with it but let me actually give infinity a bit more of a proper test.

WE'LL DO A SHOOTOUT!!

scifi-Old-west style, pewpewpew (anamorphic laser-beams)

[Ian Edward Weir]

1 hour ago, Chronoscope said:

hehehehe.

Interesting, dont recall any problem with it but let me actually give infinity a bit more of a proper test.

WE'LL DO A SHOOTOUT!!

scifi-Old-west style, pewpewpew (anamorphic laser-beams)

Your on! Baby Hypergonar locked and loaded. 

[Chronoscope]

My second one is off having a bit of internal dirtyness cleaned up at Rapido (looks to be in fantastic shape and should clean up to extremely good shape).

I am curious to see how second example will perform in comparison.

I will also have to get out my baby hypergonar and give it another go.

Need some taking lenses that match baby anamorphics better...best I have are FD 50mm 1.8, and olympus 45mm 1.8 (M4/3).

Any other recommendations with properly small-sized and forward-located front element?

[Ian Edward Weir]

3 minutes ago, Chronoscope said:

My second one is off having a bit of internal dirtyness cleaned up at Rapido (looks to be in fantastic shape and should clean up to extremely good shape).

I am curious to see how second example will perform in comparison.

I will also have to get out my baby hypergonar and give it another go.

Need some taking lenses that match baby anamorphics better...best I have are FD 50mm 1.8, and olympus 45mm 1.8 (M4/3).

Any other recommendations with properly small-sized and forward-located front element?

The Olympus 45mm f1.8 sounds nice. The Olympus Pen F 38mm f1.8 is a personal favorite of mine. Cheap, sharp and full of character. Other wise I use machine vision c-mount lens. 

 

[au8ust]

 

Just got one today. Looking to get a proper clamp for mine.

 

I found this on the Anamorphic Shooter group on FB. It doesn't seem to be the one from Rapido. Looks more like redstan but I don't recall if redstan made any of these.

[Chronoscope]

Think i saw one for sale a few weeks ago, maybe was this one...i stayed away from it, as the rear end looked odd; longer...different from the 2 examples I have.

Not sure on the mount/clamp though.

[Cosimo]

the rare anamorphot 22/1.5x Zeiss ikon beats both of them, sorry! 😉 

[tweak]

I've had 8 Kowa-8s (also 8Bs in there). Sample variance is huge. Flares can be all different colours, sometimes matching front to back, sometimes not. Some are much sharper than others even when tuned (normal with all scopes). I kept these in the shadow a long time, but when I first stumbled on one I couldn't find even one picture of one on the internet, or even a single word that they existed, it felt like digging up treasure.

I've made some videos with them, but prefer the isco 8s too be totally honest (although how wide a kowa8 can go if you know the right taking lens is pretty amazing).

This whole film I shot with Kowa-8s -

 

[Cosimo]

20 hours ago, Cosimo said:

the rare anamorphot 22/1.5x Zeiss ikon beats both of them, sorry! 😉 

Obviously I was just joking with my statement because I think that each of these little beauties has its own character and that it is up to those who use them to enhance their characteristics and make good use of them artistically in what they want to represent.
 

[PannySVHS]

Darn, what a thread! Tasty as tasty  anamorphic can be! Whatever that means.  It means: Wow!:)