Trouble getting sharp images with SLR Magic anamorphot

[William Reynish]

Hi,

im an owner of the anamorphot + diopter set. However, I can't seem to get sharp images with it. Im not sure if there's something wrong with my sample, if my taking lens is a bad match or that I'm doing it wrong.  

Anyone with some tips for sharpness on the anamorphot?

 

taking lenses tested:

-Pentax 50mm M 1.7

-Nikon 60mm 2.8 macro

Tested on Sony A7s

 

W

[raf702]

Post some sample shots, what f-stop are you shooting at? 

[Guest]

I gave mine away because its a POS imo. Worth 1/100 the amount they demand.

[shanebrutal]

I think it's down to the taking lens. I can get decently sharp images even without diopters depending on which prime i'm using. Helios 44-2 seems to work nicely, canon FD 35mm f2 also is sharp. I'm using this on a gh4. I haven't tried their diopters but remember they will limit your focus range to  fairly close. And try stopping down your lens when not using diopters. I think the instruction page it comes with says no faster than F2.8 at the extreme wide end and like F5.6 for 50mm. I have gone faster and still had good results though.

[nahua]

Understand that the SLR Magic isn't sharp with lenses faster than F2.8.  Check out my video below, you'll see that a lot of lenses wide open just aren't sharp.  That's the nature of anamorphics, very few of them are sharp at F1.4 or F2.0.  Usually the projector lenses are OK with wide open apertures, but the SLR Magic isn't.  You usually need to stop down to F4 or F5.6 even F8 to get sharp results.  Make sure you do a lot of tests.  Also - Full Frame (like A7S or Canon 5DmkIII) gets worse results.  Smaller sensors like GH4, BMPCC are better suited for anamorphics.  If you don't like the SLR Magic, then it's time to consider something else.

 

[William Reynish]

Yeah, does seem to vary with different taking lenses. Just ordered the Pentax-M pancake 40mm f 2.8 to test - I heard that pancakes are good for anamorphics. We'll see

[William Reynish]

The official instructions tell you to not use wider than 2.8 up up till 50mm, but I find it's very hard to get sharp results with 50mm lenses set to 2.8. 

[William Reynish]

Here are some examples of the troubles I'm having. Taken with the Nikon 60mm f2.8 macro.

 

Anamorphic off at f5.6.

Full 4K image:

1:1 crop:

 

Anamorphic with close focus diopter on at f5.6.

Full 4K image:

1:1 crop:

[nahua]

You can shoot at F2.8 for some lenses.  I shot with a Nikon 50mm F1.8 at F2 and F2.8 with good results.  Remember that you need to make sure that the Near/Normal focus is used correctly.  It adjusts differently with different taking lenses. 

[ken]

Imo, macro lens is not suitable as taking lens(it has deep front glasses), unless you mods it as I did.  Because it is difficult to mount the anamorphic lens close to taking lens front glasses.  As I know, SLR is the sharpest 1.33x lens.  But all 1.33x lenses are not sharp as 2x dual focus lenes for sure.

[griplimited]

I don't own the SLR Magic, but are their diopters any good or better sticking with Tokina and the such?

[William Reynish]

griplimited: The diopters seem ok. Trouble is that I can't really get it to be sharp under any circumstances. But the diopters don't seem to make it any less sharp

In fact, the SLR Magic diopters were used on this video, which does seem nice and sharp (doesn't use the anamorphic though):

 

I've got a Pentax 40mm pancake lens coming tomorrow. Hopefully that will work better with the anamorphot and actually produce sharp results at f4, let alone f2.8. We'll see. 

[nahua]

The taking lens does make a difference.  Even the much touted Helios 44-2 has to be at F5.6 or F8 to be sharp, with or without diopters.  Yes diopters help with sharpness somewhat, but it doesn't really help for shooting wider than F2.8 on some lenses.  You just have to test lenses out to see which works.  If you do a forum search there was a thread when the Anamorphot first came out with compatible lenses listed.

[sarwanov]

Just wanna say that you did your best with such important post

[William Reynish]

Just wanted to chime in again with an update: I've figured out the main reason why the Anamorphot was never getting sharp. The front element of the adapter is loose, and was slightly off! 

Now that I rotate it back it seems better, but it's not viable to use it like this, as its impossible to use in practice. It means I've not essentially got three focus rings: the taking lens, tha anamorphot and the anamorphic front element. It was already hard to use with two focus rings, three is not going to work.

Either the build quality is not that great of I just got a lemon. I've not used the lens once on a shoot, so I haven't put any strain on it at all. 

Also, the focus ring on the anamorphot sounds like it's not right. I'm going to return it, and I don't feel very confident in getting a second copy, as there are two issues with this one (focusing ring and front element not correctly aligned) after not even having used it once.

Anyone else having their anamorphots fall apart after taking them out of the box?

-W

[nahua]

I would send it in for repair.  They are very good with their service.  I sent mine in after I dropped it and they repaired it within a week.

[Andrew - SLR Magic]

Anamorphic lenses do not work too well with macro or zoom lenses due to position of the entrance pupil. Pancake lenses and regular prime lenses work better with Anamorphic lenses.

If you do a quick search on "SLR Magic Anamorphot" at vimeo.com or youtube.com there should be many samples posted by our volunteers or customers. If you are unable to achieve similar results the lens is probably defective. Sometimes a lens may have been mishandled during shipping causing a lens to be out of alignment and it is best to exchange it with the store you bought it from. If it is past the return period you may ship the lens to us for a check-up.