I am really annoyed about this anamorphic ear worm at the moment (huh, Moment….you will get this in a mo….ment).
I am mostly interested in anamorphic for the extreme wide view without wide angle looks, i.e. wide angle with natural perspective. I can do it to some extent by shooting in 4k and letterbox cropping, but it is not the same (or is it basically*).
Ideally I would like an anamorphic lens without tell tale effects, just wide….and tall.
The streak thing is to be honest vexing me more because I cannot work out if I get excited by it because I like and sometimes it adds that something that makes a dull clip look good and that because we have come to accept the look or just because I know it means an anamorphic lens was used?
I first responded to it on the Enterprise bridge scenes in the newer Trek movies, positively as well, but a little knowledge goes a long way. Since then I have had mixed feelings.
Streaks are done sorta with filters that cost half as much as a lens.
My lame test the other day only proved one thing, that if you do not do it with controlled light, it is just rubbish. I have deleted that flawed and lazy post.
Oh yuck. What a mess of distracting and contrast robbing flare streaks.
This time more light control, better point sources, more filters and the Sirui 24mm Nightwalker at a wide aperture (T1.4).
A better test, using two small torches, one a stronger than the other, both cold white in light.
Same no name filter (previously miss-identified as a Neewer), camera and lens, better light control. The streaks are strong, the other flares quite well behaved. The tapering off of the flares is nice. The light point is odd.
The '“dirty” version with a Neewer 1/8 mist, about a 1/4 compared to the K&F I have. Kinda like this one more, kinda.
The Moment blue (there, told you) cine streak. Natural colour seems better, the streak more elegant, the effect less distracting. Cool purplish blue and subtle enough that I would use this filter for more. I feel the right balance for me is an occasional response to a strong point light, nothing more.
The gold cine streak. Interesting how the cold light has created a mixed effect. When I tried this with a warm light, it was true gold, but the blue above basically failed to fire.
The gold, but “dirty” with the milder 1/8 K&F mist filter. I am going to guess that consistent flare blob is the lens. The mist filters take away the hardness of the light blob and make the streaks smoother.
The advantage of filters is they can also be angled, or even rotated while filming. It is even possible to mount both the gold and blue and make a miss-matched cross effect. Flare blob moved.
I really want this anamorphic thing to go away. the Sirui 24 f2.8 would be the one (MFT mount), but only for wide coverage on a “normal” looking lens and it is well behaved. Do I need it or more to the point, would my clients know the difference?
There is a small thread of local adds being made with anamorphic lenses, likely full frame Saturn Sirui lenses, but I will keep an eye on that. Habits form, expectations lift, even if people sometimes do not know why.
*Anamorphic lenses stretch the area covered by a lens length ways so you end up, for example, with a 50mm in height but 35 in width if using a 1.33 squeeze. The important thing is the perspective and magnification of the 50mm is kept, the 35mm coverage is a bonus. Cropping a 35mm down to 2 or 2.3:1 is not the same, but does it really matter?