ISCO Anamorphic Projection lenses

[tony wilson]

this is a very rough prototype and it seems quite easy to use it has sent me slightly bonkers to be honest and wiped me out financially.
every bit of glass has to have wave errors cut out and polished sometimes reducing the optic down quite drastically

these will never reach isco quality but will be better than panasonic,optex and century.
it should be much easier to use than a sankor or kowa
1.75x compression but i have some optics to get me to 1.33x and 1.5x
i had a pathetic response from vimeo anamorphic group which seems to have a lot of non anamorphic clips on it.

[QuickHitRecord]

Tony, I'd love to see some tests of your new lens. It sounds really promising. I'm sure that you've seen A. Safari's video on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/43590845

And you're right, there's not much going on in the Vimeo anamorphic group. This seems to be the best place to talk about anamorphic lenses right now.

[tony wilson]

that video is great he has a great attitude.
i thought about using concrete then saw his video and thought of wood then i remembered wood rot and the death watch beatle and wood worm : )

[OzNimbus]

I'd like to get on the list as well, please!

[Julian]

I bought a Minolta MC Rokkor 58mm f/1.4 on eBay and gave it a spin with my ISCO Projection Anamorphic. I wanted to see how it handles big apertures.

These are still images (Panasonic GF3). Most of them at f/2.8. I put in one shot at f/1.4. The photo's look really sharp to me. I also got footage, i'll be putting it together and posting it later.

Click for [b]big[/b]!

[img]http://www.eoshd.com/comments/uploads/gallery/album_11/gallery_20742_11_24365.jpg[/img]
f/1.4

[img]http://www.eoshd.com/comments/uploads/gallery/album_11/gallery_20742_11_396533.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.eoshd.com/comments/uploads/gallery/album_11/gallery_20742_11_87178.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.eoshd.com/comments/uploads/gallery/album_11/gallery_20742_11_316443.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.eoshd.com/comments/uploads/gallery/album_11/gallery_20742_11_843659.jpg[/img]

[Julian]

Here's the footage:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39xXBLVCbUI[/media]

[septemberdawn]

Not bad at all :)

[OzNimbus]

Beautiful shots, Julian!

[Julian]

Thanks! I'm pretty pleased with the quality as well. Although i'd love to use it on another camera than the GF3, the video resolution of the GF3 isn't very good.

[Julian]

Re-edited the footage for the Vimeo Weekend Challenge (theme: wetter is better) with some music :)

[media]http://vimeo.com/47894802[/media]

[dahlfors]

Great shots!

I've shot quite a bit with mine lately as well on the D800, mostly using a 105mm f/2.5 Nikkor lens. Except the double focusing I haven't really found many weaknesses with my Isco projection lens. Just wish I'll soon be able to stay at home for some weekends soon and get some time to edit the footage as well. All work and no play... :)

[imsamjacob]

Hello,
I have a question for you guys, perhaps you could answer a few of mine?

TO skip the introduction, go straight to my Number Listings below...



First of all, I don't own an anamorphic lens, and have only read how they work and varies things.

I'm about to do direct a film of mine, and I want this anamorphic look for specific scenes. (Which, I'd like to buy one for this project)

So, I'll be shooting on a Blackmagic, which is Micro Four Thirds.

I've read a bit about Anamorphic filters, (being the isco 2x, isco 1.75, Howell & Bell, other brands and aspect ratios, ect...) and I've read about the actual ANAMORPHIC lenses, (such as ISCORAMA, ect) following me?

I honestly don't know where to go for what. If I'm shooting at 2k Res, I'd like a SHARP image, which I overheard ISCORAMA is good for that, and I also want to be able to rack focus. Can this NOT be done on a filter? (and WHAT is a filter?) is a filter just a projection lens? Madness...




So that's a big clunky few paragraphs full of statements of my knowledge leading up to my question.

To put it simply

1. What's a good sharp anamorphic lens that I could still find and buy that rack focus's ?
2. Do the filters not rack focus?
3. Are filters merely projections lenses?
4. If anamorphic LENSES are too expensive, which filter SHOULD I get?

[dahlfors]

For generic info on anamorphics, I'd really recommend Andrew's guide: http://www.eoshd.com/anamorphic-guide

 

That's about as good of a starting point for learning more about anamorphics as there is.

 

This thread is about Isco projection lenses - none of these will be able to do rack focusing. You need an AG-LA7200, a real "Iscorama" (not ISCO branded projection lenses), or some even more expensive anamorphics to be able to do that.

 

You can do rack focusing with filters like the Vid-Atlantic Cinemorph filters - and those will give you the oval bokeh similar to anamorphic.

[Tito Ferradans]

A (usually) cheaper alternative to the LA7200 are the Optex/Soligor/Century Optics, 1.33x stretch.

 

dahlfors said answered everything else. :)