Panomicron/ alum anamorphic

[Carlos cruz]

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Found a parcel in my mail box today.It all started with my feelings toward anamorphic lenses and lack of funds for proper ciné lens. Squeeze is x 1,33 which I find a bit too little for proper anamorphic experience, but since I couldn’t find any better options I pulled the trigger on this contraption (if I do my math right it gives you aspect ratio of 1:2, I’d be much happier with something closer to 1:2.35) 

I’ll try to post some pics and more observations after the weekend. 

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[Carlos cruz]

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[3D-Kraft.com]

I am a friend of experiments - but what do you expect from that attachment lens in combination with an M10?

The image quality usually degrades quite a lot with these contraptions. To get an aspect ratio of 1:2.35, you can simply choose a lens with a wider angle and crop a little bit from the top and the bottom.

Other "cinematic" effects may be oval shaped bokeh balls after de-squezing the image and blue streaks on highlights. May give some nice effects to videos at night but the M10 cannot shoot video...

Your vintage lens looks more interesting.

Edited November 15, 2024 by 3D-Kraft.com

[Carlos cruz]

This “vintage lens” is my daily 50/2.5 color skopar, nothing fancy, or vintage just well used.

Luckily no blue flares here so far, not a fan,  rather tacky way to show off you’re shooting anamorphic. I took it for a quick spin in the evening it does degrade image quality a bit, it would need a floating element that will move when focusing your main lens. I certainly would prefer an image from a proper anamorphic lens, but they are nothing like rangefinder lenses heavy and huge, the only similarity is the price.
 Of course one could argue that the only proper way to look at the world is 2:3 ratio being closest to golden ratio, but art history comes to my aid with silver ratio. 

9 minutes ago, 3D-Kraft.com said:

To get an aspect ratio of 1:2.35, you can simply choose a lens with a wider angle and crop a little bit from the top and the bottom.

That’s totally not what anamorphic lenses are about. They are meant to use maximum area of your negative(or sensor) squeezing along horizontal axis. In short with regular 2x anamorphic element the 50 mm lens will give you horizontal perspective of 25mm while maintaining all the properties of 50 mm in vertical axis, this with dof of a 50 mm lens, and that’s where magic happens. Your 50 or 40 becomes your widest lens  that doesn’t exhibit all the problems you have with regular ultra wides, your 75 becomes your “normal” lens. 
For the effect you’re describing I could get an Xpan or Fuji gfx or just crop, actually in the 70’s some cheaper movies did it just like that, converting cameras to 2 perforation movement in lieu of regular 4. But I’d end up with heavily cropped pic shot with 20 mm lens with dof of 20 mm lens. 

And all that made me want to try some novelty technology from 1950 ;-]

 

 

[3D-Kraft.com]

I am pretty sure, that every top/bottom cropped picture from a 25mm lens will look better than from a 50mm lens with a cheap 2x anamorphic attachment, as long as your sensor delivers enough resolution. Same for a 35mm lens compared to your 1.33x anamorphic on a 50mm lens.

It was a different story, when shooting video with limited resolution cameras before the 4K age (720p, 1080p). There you could gain a little bit.

The blue streaks on highlights are usually desired in order to get a more cinematic look. 10 years ago, I was using the Anamorphot 1.33x from SLR Magic and they spent much effort on coatings helping to get these desired streaks:

 

Edited November 15, 2024 by 3D-Kraft.com

[J S H]

I use 2x anamorphic lenses with RED cameras regularly in the course of my work and the footage is always pleasing. I have used a Blazar Nero 1.5x anamorphic adapter with the M11 and among other lenses, the Voigtlander 50mm f/1.2. It does degrade the IQ a bit, but can also produce some really unique images. I’m on location for a few more days, but will dig up some samples when I get back to my computer, or perhaps shoot some new images, as I have it with me. 

[Al Brown]

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As you said, 1.33x looks barely anamorphic when desqueezed. It has barely any significant “oval” effect on the highlights. These attachments are just a gimmick of the “because we can” type, especially for photography. I only go 2x on my cinema cameras and even with open gate it is a strong desqueeze but it looks the part.

I wish you lots of joy using your new toy on your Leica M. Post some samples.

Edited November 16, 2024 by Al Brown

[Carlos cruz]

11 hours ago, 3D-Kraft.com said:

I am pretty sure, that every top/bottom cropped picture from a 25mm lens will look better than from a 50mm lens with a cheap 2x anamorphic attachment, as long as your sensor delivers enough resolution. Same for a 35mm lens compared to your 1.33x anamorphic on a 50mm lens.

It was a different story, when shooting video with limited resolution cameras before the 4K age (720p, 1080p). There you could gain a little bit.

The blue streaks on highlights are usually desired in order to get a more cinematic look. 10 years ago, I was using the Anamorphot 1.33x from SLR Magic and they spent much effort on coatings helping to get these desired streaks:

 

I beg to differ, I like to have options with my tools, and luckily images are not about pixel count.  Any day of the week I choose subpar 3.2K camera over 12K.  I don’t want to take part in pixel peeping contest or try to convince you that only this or that type of lenses are appropriate. Different projects ask for different tools and it’s your call as a photographer to pick what you think will work best for you. If photography was about pixel count and what most ppl believe is best everyone would use the same setup.
To each his own

 

[3D-Kraft.com]

As i said before, I am a friend of these kind of experiments, so I wish you a lot of fun and would be happy to see some examples.

[sleeplessduck]

Too bad I only found out about these after they were sold out, I hope to pick one up when a new batch is made. Love how compact these little adapters are! Any word on the optical quality?

[J S H]

Below are two images made with the M11, Voigtlander VM 50mm F/1.2 and the Blazar Nero 1.5X Anamorphic adapter. These are with the lens set at F8...if you open up the lens, things get soft really quickly. Still, some interesting selective focus effects are possible between wide open and F8. Definitely some distortion and softness in the outer parts of the image. 

 

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[J S H]

Voigtlander VM 50mm F/1.2 at F8 and the Blazar Nero 1.5X Anamorphic adapter.

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[3D-Kraft.com]

Although the Blazar Nero adapter already plays in a higher league, the results look quite disappointing even at f/8. If you cut away 25% from each side, the remaining part (that you also would have without the anamorphic adapter) is ok 😉

[J S H]

Haha. Yeah, I completely agree that it's not really a high quality transformation. But there is potential for interesting rendering in a selective focus situation and it's definitely a different look versus just an aspect ratio change via cropping. I'll try to experiment with it a bit more to illustrate what I am seeing. It may be that F/2 or F/2.8 is the sweet spot with the 50mm F/1.2 - if you blur more of the frame, the problems at the edges become less noticeable. Another thing I'll add - the taking lens stays set to infinity and focusing actually works really well with just the focus ring on the Blazar. I'd say ease of focusing is one of the high points of this adapter.

I have experimented a bit with other lenses and it actually works quite well with both the Leica R 35-70 F4 and the Nikon 35-70 F3.5 to provide anamorphic zoom capabilities. The Leica has some haptics that make it tough to use for anything but relaxed testing, but the Nikon zoom is parfocal with internal focusing and much easier to use when combined with the adapter. I also found that the Voigtlander 75 F/1.5 produced nice results with the Blazar and even a small MF Nikon 85mm looked good. Also, it's a good combo with a Helios 44-M, which produces some pretty dreamy images. 

[J S H]

Here's a shot with the Blazar Nero 1.5X adapter and the Helios 44-M (58mm F2), wide open at F2. It's clear that most of the frame is soft, but it's a different look than with the sharper Voigtlander 1.2 stopped down. This is pretty straightforward framing, but it can get interesting with near/far elements in the frame.

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[J S H]

Here's a shot with the Blazar Nero 1.5X anamorphic adapter and the 17 aperture blade Zeiss Biotar (58mm F2). This lens is pretty soft wide open, with or without the addition of the adapter, so it's stopped down to f/2.8. 

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[DrM]

2 hours ago, J S H said:

Here's a shot with the Blazar Nero 1.5X anamorphic adapter and the 17 aperture blade Zeiss Biotar (58mm F2). This lens is pretty soft wide open, with or without the addition of the adapter, so it's stopped down to f/2.8. 

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Which Leica lenses work with this adapter? Summilux 50/ASPH(II) as well?

[J S H]

5 hours ago, DrM said:

Which Leica lenses work with this adapter? Summilux 50/ASPH(II) as well?

I’m sure that the 50 Summicron would work fine. The adapter has 52mm rear threads and 62mm front threads, so it’s not tiny.
 

I tried it originally with the Voigtlander 50 1.2  and Helios 44M, both of which have 52mm threads and are a good match in size. The Zeiss Biotar 58mm works fine with 40.5mm threads, but it is much smaller than the adapter. The 50 Cron would be smaller still. 50mm seems to be a good focal length - I tried a Nikon  35-70 zoom and it worked from approximately 42 up to 70. A Nikon 85mm also worked well. 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica M