Baby Hypergonar aka The World's Smallest Anamorphic Lens (?)

[QuickHitRecord]

Seb Farges has been posting videos shot with this lens for quite a while now. I thought that it was impressive so I picked one up for myself. I believe that it may be the smallest anamorphic lens in the world. It is TINY. It's an interesting little beast (completely different from it's grandfather, the Hi-Fi 2) but I think that the footage has a nice, soft look to it! The Baby Hypergonar seems to work best in broad daylight between f8 and f16, but with the +0.4 achromat attached, I can take it all the way down to f1.8 on my Konica AR 40mm and still have pretty sharp results (and a five-foot rackable range that expands as I stop down). I should mention that there is no focus ring. You just shoot through the anamorphic.

The lens vignettes very slightly on a 35mm lens (MFT), and the image bends at the sides ala wide angle a little much for my taste. At 40mm, I think that it looks good. And of course, 50mm works well too. Someone recommended trying it with a Nikkor 55mm Micro, which I did, but I was not impressed -- the extended barrel of that lens makes for a great place to conceal a tiny anamorphic like this, but you just can't get the anamorphic close enough to the taking lens.

The flares seem to be soft, streaky blue and segmented white (or sometimes both at the same time). I find them to be very pleasing.

The 1.75x crop vs the 2x crop that is a characteristic of so many other lenses is surprisingly more manageable, though I do find myself often shooting distorted, without an external monitor, just to have easy access to the magnified focus assist.

Here's some footage that I shot this past weekend with this lens (attached to my Konica):
 

http://vimeo.com/45483904

[Andrew Reid]

Did you get yours on eBay? I'm trying to find one of those at the moment. Very interesting little lens and 1.75x pretty much unheard of.

[QuickHitRecord]

[quote name='EOSHD' timestamp='1341923012' post='13673']
Did you get yours on eBay? I'm trying to find one of those at the moment. Very interesting little lens and 1.75x pretty much unheard of.
[/quote]

Yes, I got mine on eBay a couple of months ago. In the past month, I have seen three up for sale for much less than I paid for mine. There's a rumor going around that there were only 50 of them made, but it seems that there are more of them out there than I had realized.

[itimjim]

I'd be surprised if it's significantly smaller than the Bolex 8/19/1.5x, which in my opinion is one of the finest anamorphics money can buy, except it's larger brother the 16/32/1.5x. Except from being a dual focus system, it out performs the ISCO easily as far as I'm concerned, and can be used down to 22-28mm (depending on the lens) and up to f1.4 (or more) without even flinching.

1.5x is much more 'generally' useful than 2x too, unless someone comes up with a nice proper 4:3 patch for us.

[tony wilson]

all the optics mentioned will be improved by the use of mild close up lens.here is my info on the subject.i have 3 and i would say it is the best of the tiny 8mm film format bunch.the iscomorphot 8 is a little bigger but suffers from bad smearing because the focal length of the optics and materials used.materials where different on the baby hypergonar.all suffer because of tiny back optic sizeevery company had to use different materials and methods to avoid patent law.understand that the fact that these work on a gh2 is a miracle in itself.a 1950s standard 8mm film camera format is super small.the tiny focus iscomorphot are a higher quality optic in the quality of materials used but i believe the none focus hypergonar used with low power close up lens will give better results.bolex mollers have is focus adjustment again the 1.5x moller will destroy iscomorphot 8.a non damaged working bolex moller is gone beat most things.for it's size the baby hype : ) is a stunner.that french guy chretien was the man.it is such a modest little thing to look at it's power lies within the mathematical equations, of glass type,focal length and superb quality control of such tiny optics.this is not a mass production item.these where in fact a proofing run testing the market.[b] [/b]


[b]baby hypergonar cinemascopic brothers 2 of 50 made.[/b]the smallest cutest anamorphic in the world.50 of these optics where made around 1956 by Henri Chrétien company benoist s.t.o.p paris.classic hypergonar double element design.heavily revised and miniaturized by Chrétien at Villa Paradou, Cap Ferrat.design was fixed position non adjustable focus elements with distance set in the 9-11 feet range.using taking camera lens focus can improve sharpness under 10 feet as can f stop.use of an anamorphic achromatic close up lens takes the lens to another level.these where made for the popular home movie amateur regular 8 (standard 8) film format and french 9.5mm format.production was cancelled very quickly because of lack of sales and hollywood patent restriction.chretien's sale of the hypergonar patents and cinemascopic concepts to 20th century fox meant he could only sell these babies at home and a few french colonies and only for amateur use.the small anamorphic home movie market quickly became dominated by moller and isco of germany who could sell any place in the world with no restrictions.moller's bolex deal was the deal breaker as bolex was the greatest 8mm and 16mm compact camera maker.benoist went back to making massive cinemascope projection lens under hollywood license and 16mm spherical cine lens.these baby optics where found in a basement in the paris in the late 70s and rebuilt sold off cheap in the 1980s for single and super 8 film use.because of tiny size and modest looks many would have been smashed broken and thrown in the dust bin.classic reason people thinking that this is a lens.if you hold this in front of a camera body you get a blur.so if it is a blur it is broken so these have been dumped by some bozos.the blur is because this is an adapter system you need a regular camera lens behind the hypergonar called the taking lens.when used with a + 0.4 or +0.5 tokina close up lens these are pretty sharpthese are very very rare now.

[itimjim]

I have the 72mm Tokina ATX-PRO +0.4 Achromat and can vouch for it's power. You do lose infinity though, so they're only ideal in a certain range and can't be used to improve the image after its range.

[tony wilson]

the baby hypergonar needs a mild close up if you want to use it at it's best.it becomes very sharp.
having a f8-16 lens is not my idea of fun
i believe seb relies on very heavy f stop for focus and no close up lens.
his work is simply superb but image softness would be an issue on long edit shot holds.

baby hypergonar with the 0.5 close up on you can get close to infinity by stopping down a 50mm.
as people are proving with clips this baby is the most fun quality tiny anamorphic.
the 1.5 bolex moller is better but it is a lot more fiddly


old movie close up optics around the +0.25 power would be handy but a lot are over 100mm in size which would look wacky with a tiny anamorphic

[QuickHitRecord]

[quote name='tony wilson' timestamp='1341934549' post='13695']the tiny focus iscomorphot are a higher quality optic in the quality of materials used but i believe the none focus hypergonar used with low power close up lens will give better results.[/quote]

I will be able to test these out side by side very soon. ;-)

[quote name='tony wilson' timestamp='1341934549' post='13695']50 of these optics where made around 1956 by Henri Chrétien company benoist s.t.o.p paris.[/quote][list]
[*]You have three.
[*]I have one.
[*]The person that I bought it from has one.
[*]Seb Farges has one, and he sold a second one that he found.
[*]eBay has had listings for three in the past month.
[/list]
That's already ten. Do you really think that there only fifty of them out there?

[tony wilson]

I will be able to test these out side by side very soon. ;-)

if you are referring to any of the super small iscomorphots the focus one is kind of ok the sealed one is pretty grim and was sold with various tiny screw in diopters.
really does need some serious f stop action



50 lens of the tiny hypergonad most ended up in the uk.
my guess only another 15 will ever crop up.
the others will be in land fill or cracked or scratched or at the bottom of the sea .

[QuickHitRecord]

[quote name='tony wilson' timestamp='1341955321' post='13710']the others will be in land fill or cracked or scratched or at the bottom of the sea .[/quote]

I sometimes wonder about all of the good glass out there that gets thrown out every year by people who simply don't know what they have. It is heartbreaking.

[tony wilson]

i know a guy that chucked 3 of the tiny moller 1.5x lens in the bin cos he said they where a little soft.
he thought they where like the iscorama he fiddled with the single focus got a soft image and blamed the gear.
i felt like killing him.


4 months before the release of the gh1 i sold an angenieux 0.95 and a tiny moller 1.5x anamorphic to a guy in austrailia.
the angenieux sold for £87 quid and the seriously lovely moller went for £60.
i had them for my bolex but was not using it.
listed the bits on ebay went off on a job came back to my horror only a couple of bids on each 1 guy got both lens.
gh1 changed everything for this stuff.

[Andrew Reid]

10x more expensive... That is supply and demand for you :) What a bugger. The Iscoramas used to go for £200. I got my Centa Vision 2x for £100, from someone bored of using it to project things against a wall. I've been searching for the same ever since but eBay's completed items search ruins it all!!

[tony wilson]

your centavision is stupid rare..
nearly all the centavisions around are kowa bell howell types..you have the isco kowa frankenstein one serious optic.
i would be surprised to see another like yours on ebay.
and all for the price of a proskar : )

here is a few little amanorfical opticul nik naks

[Seb Farges]

I am one of the happy owner of the baby Hypergonar 1.75X and had the luck having it for 40€ in september 2011 on Ebay... For me this lens is perfect, it took time for me to found the perfect combination for it, and I have found it two month ago. I'm sure it is the smallest, at least the lightest : 53 grams !!!!

Here is my set, there is no vigneting at all if the two lenses are close, even at f/16baby hypergonarVoigtlander 40mm f1.4 Nokton Classic pancake lens

F Clamp (52mm thread) : [url="http://cgi.ebay.fr/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230820951874#ht_2622wt_1332"]http://cgi.ebay.fr/w...#ht_2622wt_1332[/url]

two spacers :
one 14mm (52mm thread) : [url="http://www.ebay.com/itm/52mm-Extension-Tube-Spacer-14mm-Deep-/160830290140?pt=US_Camera_Camcorder_Accessory_Bundles&hash=item25723b78dc#ht_1779wt_1098"]http://www.ebay.com/...#ht_1779wt_1098[/url]
one 7mm (52mm thread) : [url="http://www.ebay.com/itm/52mm-Extension-Tube-Spacer-7mm-Deep-/160830290068?pt=US_Camera_Camcorder_Accessory_Bundles&hash=item25723b7894#ht_1779wt_1098"]http://www.ebay.com/...#ht_1779wt_1098[/url]
one step up ring 43mm to 52mm

So you have the Voigtlander lens, the step up ring, the two spacers and the F clamp and the hypergonar will be safeAt the top on the hypergonar I put a 39mm neutral filter (with rubber tape), it fits the end of the front F clamp, then a 39mm to 52mm step up ring to be able to put a variable ND filter for example...Et voilà ! The perfect pocket anamorphic set :)

Seb Farges (and not Seb Fargas ;) )

www.vimeo.com/album/1834786

[QuickHitRecord]

Thanks for sharing your Baby Hypergonar setup, Seb.

I've had great luck with the Konica AR pancake, also in 40mm. I will have to try out the Voigtlander as well.

Sorry for misspelling your last name!

[andrew00]

Hey Seb and other guys,

How do you find focusing with the Gh2, esp with the anamorphic going? Is it hard to find focus?

I have a Nex-7 I was planning on shooting a short with, I find the focus peaking really useful, which is why I'm interested in the Gh2 focusing.

The Nex-7 overheats, which is a problem for long takes, esp as I want to do an improvised dialogue short!

(Oh and I should also say I am considering an anamorphic adapter for the Nex-7 too hehe, whatever works!)

[Rudolf]

This is a great thread! Thanks a lot for all your input and experiences.
And of course for your video QuickHitRecord - very nice!
I was never really confident of the handling and had some issue with clamps.
Therefore I very rarely used the Baby... I only checked out the Canon 1.4 50mm.
I am also looking forward to check the Konica 40mm and maybe it is also possible to
mount a Thorium Canon 35mm with (sligthly) vignetting???

However I want to say especially THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Seb for his setup.
I am still interested if anybody has tried it on a c-mount lens? Mine came with an appropriate adapter/clamp.

And thank you Tony: As you suggested I will sell all the other Pany, Sankor etc stuff
except Iscorama and this lovely piece of art.

rudolf

PS Seb: I really love your work. You have also a very cute daughter - "unfortunately" I have two sons: the 3 years old
one is too wild for posing in front of the camera and the other one is 16 and for him I am far too embarassing.... to join me :)

[QuickHitRecord]

Rudolf, I am so glad that some of this was useful to you. It has certainly been a learning experience for me. I have the Thorium Canon 35mm and I think that it vignettes slightly. But the 40mm however does not vignette.

[Rudolf]

QuickHitRecord, your footage with the Konica looked very nice (as I mentioned above) and therefore I am not really sad
if the 35mm will not work. I am looking forward for the Konica now! Maybe there are some instrestring alternatives for the
Hypergonar...
I would like to go as wide as possible for a simple reason: I would like to use a rather small setup without a tripod or any
other stabilization and I think it becomes easier to get a less shaky image with wider lenses. Or maybe I should not drink
so much coffee?
However I am often tired of carrying around kilos of bags with camera, tripod, half a dozen lenses et cetera (I often carry
nearly all my equipment around because I might need a slider and a matte box and the 500mm tele-lens... :wacko: )

Off topic: today afternoon I met a very nice guy from Tuscon at the playground. Wether was very nice and I decided to go
out with my little son. So the man from Tuscon did. And it happened we began to talk and he told me is a professor and doing
stuff with astronomy (sometimes he is working with Hubble for example).
And as I was writing here just hours ago I smiled and asked him about Professor Chretien: Of course he knew about him.
But he has not heard that he developed the anamorphotoscop B)

[QuickHitRecord]

[quote name='Rudolf' timestamp='1343935581' post='14869']QuickHitRecord, your footage with the Konica looked very nice (as I mentioned above) and therefore I am not really sad
if the 35mm will not work. I am looking forward for the Konica now! Maybe there are some instrestring alternatives for the Hypergonar...
I would like to go as wide as possible for a simple reason: I would like to use a rather small setup without a tripod or any other stabilization and I think it becomes easier to get a less shaky image with wider lenses. Or maybe I should not drink so much coffee?
However I am often tired of carrying around kilos of bags with camera, tripod, half a dozen lenses et cetera (I often carry nearly all my equipment around because I might need a slider and a matte box and the 500mm tele-lens... :wacko: )[/quote]

It was also my hope that a shorter focal length would help me control camera shake, but I just brought my Baby Hypergonar along with me to a week of hiking in the Tetons (Wyoming) and even at 40mm, and after reviewing my handheld footage, I highly recommend a tripod. Somehow the rolling shutter becomes much more pronounced with the Baby on the front. I know that it's probably not what you want to hear! The good news is that it looks enough like a standard camera lens that you won't attract much attention with it.

[quote name='Rudolf' timestamp='1343935581' post='14869']Off topic: today afternoon I met a very nice guy from Tuscon at the playground. Wether was very nice and I decided to go
out with my little son. So the man from Tuscon did. And it happened we began to talk and he told me is a professor and doing
stuff with astronomy (sometimes he is working with Hubble for example).
And as I was writing here just hours ago I smiled and asked him about Professor Chretien: Of course he knew about him.
But he has not heard that he developed the anamorphotoscop B)
[/quote]

My first and cheapest anamorphic lens was the enormous Hypergonar HiFi-2 (I like to think of it as the Baby Hypergonar's Grandfather) by Henri Chretien, and it is also an incredible lens. The man was a genius!