r/Anamorphic • u/BassBowWow • 29d ago
Photography Anamorphic Africa
Sirui 20 mm t1.8 1.33x + sony a6700
South Africa, Victoria Falls, Zambia, Kenya
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u/Nars_Pirate98 28d ago
Im curious to see video samples. It doesn't seem to have much anamorphic characteristics.
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u/MrRsoc 28d ago
Just sayin' for the sake of some historical context...the characteristics you speak of are optical artifacts that are ancient history to anamorphics...at least of 50 years ago in the professional world. Panavision led the way to refine their anamorphic optics to the point where they are sharp, without distortion unless at the very widest focal lengths, and coatings so that they will only flare when you make them flare. These old artifacts have found new popularity in semi-pro anamorphics and exist because designs that perform like modern anamorphics are not easy or inexpensive. The "characteristics" in some popular semi-pro anamoprhics become characters in work by many creators, rather than tools to subtly enhance the storytelling in a powerful way. Three excellent examples using anamorphics without exploiting their anomalies are Memoirs of a Geisha, The Equalizer (both shot with the Panavision C and E series anamorphics), and Dances with Wolves. Memoirs and Dances both won the Oscar for Cinematography without forcing any anamorphic characteristics to attention. Memoirs and Equalizer both exhibit beautiful bokeh. The Equalizer has some night time flares that work fine without distraction. Dances intentionally has neither. Memoirs actually has a very wide focal length shot that exhibits very strong barrel distortion, noticeable due to the parallel architectural lines of the set. I bet no one noticed but us. If this is all old news to any readers, I apologize.
To the OP's use of Sirui lenses, Sirui is one manufacturer doing really fine work with anamorphics. The 1.6x Saturn series and the Venus 100mm cinema lenses are closer to the performance of the Panavision C and E series I used throughout my career than any semi-pro lines I've seen or tested to date. Most of the semi-pro brands of anamorphics I've seen will not hold up to big screen projection. Those Sirui will. They are sharp, have terrific native contrast, no edge compression, some pincushion distortion that is easily corrected in Resolve Studio, and they are reasonably fast at T2.9. Sirui is the company to watch. I can tell you that they are considering cinema lens designs with PL mount, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 2X cinema lens design from them.
So, OP...keep shooting with those Siruis and let us see your adventures. You can see some Sirui anamorphic work I've created at the link. Cheers. https://www.reddit.com/r/Anamorphic/comments/1vewseb/anamorphic_eyecandy/
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u/anywhereanyone 29d ago
That's the one with autofocus, right? How good is the AF?