Wow, can you point me to any stills or videos with the 20+Century Optics Anamorphic? If its decent I want one. The Sankor/58mm Helios, is impossibly long to use or focus other than on a tripod.

Hey @ipcmlr, the Century I was using was the focussing version designed for the Canon XL2. It suffers quite a bit at the wide end, but 14mm is pushing most thing's limits. It works much better using a longer focal length, or ETC mode. Even then, you need to be f4 and above to avoid astigmatism.

The video EOSHD (Andrew) shot on the Oly 9-18 looks good, but it shows a lot of softness at the edges, and the CA is rescued because it's in black and white.

The LA7200 is the best focus through adapter. I have one and I'm very pleased with it. But, it's still not great at large apertures, and it's not perfect wide. But, it does produce very acceptable results in most cases. You just have to know or accept its limitations.

The best anamorphic I've used to date, that blows away everything I've used...although I've yet to use an Isco...is the Bolex 32/16/1.5x Anamorphot. It's a pain to mount (as is the LA7200) but it is simply wonderful across the frame, and more importantly at all apertures. This thing is not effected by even an f1.4 aperture. It also focuses down to about 3 foot. I can get a 28mm lens on there too, but it will slightly vignette at longer focal points (nr infinity) and narrow apertures. They are rare, but can be had for 1/3 to 1/2 the price of an Isco.

Be careful with anamorphics, they are a quick money drain that could be spent better elsewhere. But, they are beautiful....

@disneytoy

Well. Just got my generic anamorphic today and played with it for 15 minutes. It is tiny and light. About as thick as the 20mm pancake and lighter. Build quality is cheap. 52mm thread is extremely useful.

You can focus thru, flares pretty well. Waiting for an adapter so I can attach this to the 20mm pancake.

But I did test it on a 14-42mm at 18mm just so you see the image quality close to the 20mm FOV.

Looks ok at aperture f9, looks horrible in my f2.8 test (had to test this with a Helios 44M 50mm as this and another 50mm nikon were my only fast lenses with a 52mm thread)

I dont have a front clamp on this so no tests with diopter.

I probably need to test this out more. Can't seem to get good focus below 10 feet at wide apertures. There hopefully is a way around this.

@ipcmly

You will need a diopter to reduce the focusing distance. Most common are +1, which will get you in the 1m or 3 feet range. Rarer are +0.5 and +0.4 which brings you a bit further back.

@rozroz I have one single focus lens the isco iscomorphot 1,5. I've you can find one, they will set you back $500 or more. There are cheaper optinons like a bolex moller 1.5 but with this lens you have to focus both the taking and anamorphic lens.

ebay makes prices higher. Best option is to look around thriftstores, fleamarkets etc etc.

@rozroz

Made one test video

@disneytoy I got no residue duct tape and attached the generic anamorphic to a front clamp I use on the eiki 16f. Worked pretty well. @itimjim I tested out a +1 diopter and a +0.4 diopter on the generic anamorphic yesterday but only at f2.8. It looks better but still awful especially when comparing it to my eiki 16f. I'll test it on my Nikon 50mm f1.2 instead of the Helios 44M later. Hopefully it holds up better.

So what is the best at any price Anamorphic? Isco 54? Aren't these all out of patent by now?

@rozroz It's a comfortable lens because you only focus through the anamorphic. Need to test with different taking lenses and focus distance of the taking lens, but I really like this tiny anamorhic lens. Pro's small and light lens. Cons.. haven't met one till now

@disneytoy

Here are a couple of pics Taking lens is Nikon 35mm f/2.8

@EeeCeeGee

Use Marketplace for this, do not post this in topic, as it introduce unnecessary noise that is unactual after very short time.

Another short with the Sankor 16C.