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SLR Magic has 3 new anamorphic lenses in m43 mount


Flynn
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In other news at the complete opposite end of the price spectrum:

http://www.vantagefilm.com/en/news/minihawks-proof-of-performance-10456

New MiniHawks from Vantage Film. Compact. High Speed. Zero breathing. Super Close Focus. The set includes a 180mm prime at a jaw-dropping T1.5. The video they made contains some of the richest, most stunning anamorphic imagery I've ever seen. They'll probably cost six figures. Per lens.

Brave of them to shoot a car with so much chrome at T1.5!...showed a fair bit of purple fringing (to be expected) on high con edges. T2.8 + looked great though, especially that 40mm.

Generally too sterile and sharp IMHO, 'show me the face, not the makeup' as they say.

Focus pullers probably can use facial hair as focus peaking...not a great sign on a female lead.

Something new and funky going on in the optical transport by my guesstimate, meaning that amount of close focus is causing considerably lower ovalised bokeh on some focal lengths. 

Much prefer the vintage '74 range that they do, they seem to take the edge off digital in a very beautiful way. 

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Is it just me or those mini hawks don't seem to have "enough anamorphic look"? the 35, 40 and 50... the fact that they don't breathe, don't flare and don't have 2x anamorphic blur unless super close focus, they almost look like what you get with a filter with oval bokeh cut in front of a spherical... On the other hand, what a great focus puller work at display on that promo!!

After watching the footage a couple of times, it seems to me that these lenses actually look kind of spherical wide open. But only wide open. As soon as you stop down, the ovals start to get skinny. You can see that 40mm at 1.5, 2 and 2.8 in that video. It actually looks most anamorphic at 2.8. Very unusual and unique, and the opposite of how most high speed anamorphics work. And the fact that they hold focus across the frame at T1.5 is amazing. While high speed anamorphics have been available for a long time from companies like Panavision, Technovision and Joe Dunton, using them wider than T2 was wishful thinking. They never really worked at that stop. Panavision's T1.1 Ultra High Speed C-series looks ghastly wider than 1.8. These MiniHawks look more than acceptable. It's definitely some new ground for 'Scope photography.

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Brave of them to shoot a car with so much chrome at T1.5!...showed a fair bit of purple fringing (to be expected) on high con edges. T2.8 + looked great though, especially that 40mm.

Generally too sterile and sharp IMHO, 'show me the face, not the makeup' as they say.

Focus pullers probably can use facial hair as focus peaking...not a great sign on a female lead.

Something new and funky going on in the optical transport by my guesstimate, meaning that amount of close focus is causing considerably lower ovalised bokeh on some focal lengths. 

Much prefer the vintage '74 range that they do, they seem to take the edge off digital in a very beautiful way. 

I think that these have plenty of character. The lens designers at Hawk know how to build character into their lenses. They don't try to scrub away every trace of personality like Zeiss. In this test, you can see a touch of barrel distortion on the 35mm, a bit of halation here and there, a touch of flare. Sharpness doesn't hurt. Don't forget, these lenses are built for cinema. They need to be sharp on large screens, potentially even IMAX-size screens. You can have all the funk and personality you want, but if it doesn't hold up at 50 feet-plus, it doesn't really work.

For all the fascination with all the weird and odd-ball old glass out there, and now with turning adapters into functional prime lenses, if you're shooting a big anamorphic movie (which these lenses are obviously aimed at), you need that edge-to-edge sharpness, which these lenses seem to have down. Only Panavision and Hawk seem to have really cracked this balance between character and sharpness. Zeiss Masters obviously look too sterile, the new Scorpios are duds, and I'm beginning to dislike the Cookes. Soft wide-open, but with bad pin-cushion distortion. Just weird and unseemly.

Speaking of Hawks, I was fortunate enough to work with a set of V-series anamorphics once. Crazy barrel distortion and massive breathing. Soft as hell wide-open. Heavy beasts too. I still loved them. I also got to test V-Lites. Better in every way, and half the weight. Hawk has really come a long way from rebarreling Lomos and calling them C-series.

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Don't Get me wrong, i almost can't believe they were shooting with these wide open at t1.5, and in that aspect they are certainly pro lenses ready for a feature film. I just think they don't convey the same image of an anamorphic movie that I have in my head, meaning "the graduate" or "close encounters" or "alien" or "blade runner", even "the devil's advocate" with its deformed hexagonal or octagonal shaped bokeh have. It is just MY opinion, and if I were to shoot a Hollywood feature, I certainly use these mini hawks, knowing the whole project would look safe for a mainstream blockbuster, however if I were called to do an Indy feature, I would try renting a set of kowas or even gamble on the slr magics with pleasure... That's how I see it.

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Don't Get me wrong, i almost can't believe they were shooting with these wide open at t1.5, and in that aspect they are certainly pro lenses ready for a feature film. I just think they don't convey the same image of an anamorphic movie that I have in my head, meaning "the graduate" or "close encounters" or "alien" or "blade runner", even "the devil's advocate" with its deformed hexagonal or octagonal shaped bokeh have. It is just MY opinion, and if I were to shoot a Hollywood feature, I certainly use these mini hawks, knowing the whole project would look safe for a mainstream blockbuster, however if I were called to do an Indy feature, I would try renting a set of kowas or even gamble on the slr magics with pleasure... That's how I see it.

That image in your head is thanks to these babies:

1_C-Sieries_ana_0_RGB012011_zpsvjbdqya8.

And the optical design is trademarked and patented, so you couldn't replicate that look even if you tried. The SLR magic lenses tried to replicate that classic blue flare, but it came across as forced and overdone. The successful anamorphic systems out there (including the new Zeiss and Cookes, which have been selling like hotcakes) create their own unique look and don't try to copy the uncopy-able.

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I agree, Hawk know what they are doing for sure. 

Wonderfully, Lens character/personality are subjective terms and have their own value in every cinematographers palette (if he or she has the luxury of choice that is). Good thing is there are different looks for different cooks, not all jobs warrant low-con funky looks and flare-a-go go, so these Hawks will sit nicely with many productions I imagine.

I'm personally looking forward to all the weird and odd-ball old glass funk and personality from 65+ year old APO Panatar Anamorphics + Ultra Panavision 70 in The Hateful Eight.

That should hold up at 50 feet-plus. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A set of 5 Hawk V-Lites just came on sale online:

http://www.fjsinternational.com/lenses.html

The price: A mind-melting 335,000 euros. To put that in prospective, that's 67,000 euros each. Or nearly the cost of a brand new Zeiss Master Anamorphic and a new Cooke Anamorphic combined.

Clearly, the cost of making lenses with traditional character and modern quality is seriously astronomical.

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  • 4 years later...

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