@slrmagic I'vejust discovered this topic. I would like to Thank you for starting this topic, and for listening to your customers. Here is what I would like to see in an anamorphic adaptor that I would purchase:

1) Image quality to be comparable to LOMO or Panavision anamorphics (when paired with good lens of course), or at least LA7200, Kowa, Optex or Century optics.

2) Low price point. Something that average people can actually afford. $150-$200

3) "Fixed focus" like on LA7200, so that we don't need to rack focus on the lens and on the adapter itself simultaneously.

4) 1.33x so that we can shoot 2:35-1 aspect ratio. 2538:1080p on GH1 and GH2

5) Ability to work with wide angle lenses. Ideally,even with 12mmSLR magic 1.6 lens.

6) Ability to choose coating color when ordering. I, for example, liked the pink/violet flares on Apofescope. Others might like Gold, Green, Blue or multi-coloured. At the end of the day, this is an artistic tool.

7) Ability to adapt to any lens with step-down rings.

8) Compatibility with matte boxes.

If I was to buy an anamorphic adapter tomorrow, it would probably be LA7200 (if not for it's current astronomical price) or maybe Optex 1.33x. But as they are, they remain unaffordable to folks like myself.

@johnbrawley and @Burnetrhoades

I agree too many people seem to want the cliche anamorphic look (flare and ovals), and that most would probably be ok with the results from a streak and oval filter, but IMO the beautiful distortion of the out of focus areas and the oval bokeh spot from a distance light source go hand in hand. You cant have one without the other. granted a 1.33x squeeze still distorts the bokeh, but I feel you need more in order for the benefits to be worth the financial outlay. The squeeze not only distorts, but seems to apply a magical glue to the in focus and out of focus areas of your frame, while adding a 4th dimension to the image, making it that much more immersive(IMO). The less of the squeeze, the less of this effect.

This is probably my favourite footage i have shot in anamorphic :-

Apart from the oval bokeh, there is very little to make it scream out as anamorphic, it's as sharp as a normal lens, there are no flares, etc. Yet the way the main human subject it captured is (IMO) undeniably anamorphic. The way he fills the frame, and is a slightly different fatness/skinniness depending on his distance from the lens. This was a 1.5x squeeze, cropped at the edges to give 2.39:1. I imagine if this were the same lens but a smaller squeeze ratio, the effects I see would be less pronounced. sure, the full sensor would be used, and no crop would be required in order to get 2.39:1, but things wont be as obvious I don't think. 1.5x is the bare minimum for me. 1.75 would be nice. 2x is too much unless you have 4k capture and the room to crop while keeping at least full hd width.

@maxmizer of course LOMOs are awesome and it doesn't hurt to push the envelope.

If I remember right, when LA7200 wasin production the retailprice on those was like £110-£150. Now that they are out of production, the prices have sky-rocketed. But if @slrmagic could produce something to match the quality of LA7200 or Optex at a price point of £100, I'd definitely buy it.

@maxmizer

I can confirm that i bought my first LA7200 for a DVX100 less than £ 150 when it was release, the price go up after it was out of stock or after the production of the adapter stop.

Anyway actually the anamorphic is totaly overated/overpriced, people just play around to push up the price in max they can and it's totaly unfair, i remember to sell my LA7200 not even 180$ because i never like to play with the price like that.

@Kronstadt

I'm not sure that slrmagic go to listen us, you can see how much they sell the 35mm f1.7 (almost 150$) and when you know that is just a cctv based lens (you can find for 16$) you understand why they doing this. how many product i saw that was overpriced and not even good for the price they sell.

the best example of a good product, it's to check the sigma MFT, cheap, strong and very good to use. for me many company should follow them, public can't buy all the times lens at £ 1000 that just go close in quality with a £ 100 one.

Anyway i really hope slrmagic listen us and release a nice anamorphic lens for MFT (low cost) i will be the first to buy one again.

Please do not give up on your anamorphic lens!

Many here seem unreasonable if they think that a quality lens can be made for under $1000.. They need to face reality - these are not toy - they are unique optics that are out of the realm of most lens makers. I am a serious buyer of this attachment, especially if it could be made for $1000. to $1200.. I would be using it with the 4/3 version of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, as I believe many others will also.

My input would be to go with a simple,focusing 1.5X design adapter, and let us sort out the best lenses to pair it with. I would prefer at least a 72mm mounting thread, but 77mm would allow much more diversity.

But please have just the adapter do the focusing (and leave the lens at infinity), so that only one focus ring needs to be moved. We can use a diopter to focus closer.

I am not one of those wanting to increase the anamorphic flare. I am all for having the best multi coated optics possible. I can add flare and other subtleties later. But you can't take flare back once it has affected a shot! And it can ruin shots where you don't want even a hint of flare.

As a middle ground solution, you might consider a "kit" solution for optimum sharpness, where there is one adapter, but 3 or 4 prime lenses that can be paired with the adapter. These lenses could be refined for optimum optical benefit, but share just the one adapter. This would allow you to design a system of controlled lenses for critical use, but the anamorphic attachment could still be used with other lenses for versatility.

Thanks for allowing this input, but please do not stop this project, as this lens will be bought by many!

What is the difference between Sankor 16F and 16C, for example?

F has no rear thread C has 40.5 rear thread

Probably the best pairing for the LA7200 out of that list is the 14-42.

@Riker You'd do good to research anamorphics. The price of the Zeiss anamorphic you mention seems zounds above market value. Their closest focus distance is probably around 5 meters, so mostly unusable, and that's why these get far lower prices than anamorphics for 16mm or even 8mm photography. Don't pay rip-off prices for something that will not serve you good.

30 bucks?...damn...there seems to be an open season for anamorphic suckers out there...I haven't seen one single anamorphic lens under $400 in recent months...I'm not actively hunting, but I check it out from time to time, I would like to own one eventually....

It's all what you make of it - having owned LA7200, Optex various 2x lenses and 35 mm Lomo - did I make anything worthwhile - of course not lol - have I seen anything all these years anything worthwhile - not a lot! Actually Voldy has a lovely shot of a bridge through his shitty Optex - is it worth it - no idea !! Why are you shooting you through a world of nightmare glass compromises? To make it more "Filmic"? there's the rub? Loving that the speedbooster is getting more shit than anamorphic shooting - work that one out! There's an analogy with old synths and desks (analogue) and recent analog emulation plugins - where there's a phalanx of people commenting on the plugin's analogue - (ness) having never - no really never(!) having ever heard a real Fairchild, SSL, Jupiter, 303 or 909 808 - you get the picture. Same with camera's, shooting - ethics of on set - all pretty much .........

Hi everyone,

Some new updates on the project.

@kronstadt the video you found was our first prototype. it was an adapter solution. however, we noticed two problems with an adapter. First issue is glass combination leading to compromise as @soundgh2 mentioned. Second issue is possibly a non-optimal set up (alignment) between the anamorphic adapter to the lens. We are now onto our second prototype. It is quite different to our first one. The second prototype no longer has the anamorphic mump. The IQ is slightly improved due to being an anamorphic lens solution for micro four thirds mount. Just curious, is there anyone here with experience in filming anamorphic and currently in Hong Kong at the same time?

Best Regards., Andrew

@soundgh2 lol. +1 for your post above.

Having worked with the cream of the crop of anamorphics: The Panavision Primo, E and C series Anamorphics on Hollywood productions, there are definitely compromises. Even the Depth of focus behind the lens has a slight bow in it, then focusing it on a flat sensor, making edge to edge sharpness difficult to achieve. We'd project the lenses, look at them on a collimator, then tweak the flange focal distance in the camera to compensate, shoot a test, wait a day for the lab to develop it, screen it, and so on. And Forget about using them at f1.9 and then projecting it on a 100' screen and it being perfect.

The MB speedbooster ( @Brian202020 ) and the use of Anamorphic (w/without diopters) is bring all these issues to the advanced DSLR user, but, few know what I am talking about.

Speedbooster adjustment suggestion: http://personal-view.com/talks/discussion/comment/132764#Comment_132764

We received some emails regarding the adapter solution. There had been requests for a single focus adapter. This is what we came up with and some feedback would be good.

The first solution is more of what was hoped for. The second solution is a mod we made to the first solution as we think it is a more convenient option.

The adapter now is 1.33x and can work up to 23mm with our SLR Magic HyperPrime 23mm F1.7 micro four thirds.

Prototype solution 1) Single focus solution: Adapter is fixed like the LA7200 and you focus with the taking lens. The focus can work from 2.8m to infinity at f2.8 with decent IQ. Shooting closer than would require expensive and hard to find anamorphic diopters.

Prototype solution 2) Single focus solution: Adapter is fixed like the LA7200 and you focus with the taking lens. The focus can work from 2.8m to infinity at f2.8 with decent IQ. If shooting closer than 2.8m, we have a macro focus mode where we allow the adapter to have a focus ring to move with focus markings that need to be matched with the taking lens. The macro mode can focus down to 0.9m as long as the taking lens can focus down to 0.9m as well. The design is similar to a dual focus design but not quite the same mechanically. The cons are some may think it is a dual focus design. The pros is the option to not buy diopters or having to change different diopters when needing to shoot closer than 2.8m

Hope everyone can pitch in with opinions with the two adapter solutions or if we should stick with our single lens solution.