360Photography

Anamorphic for less $ $

After much teasing, Sirui has finally launched its second anamorphic lens for interchangeable lens systems. The first was the 50mm F1.8 1.33x anamorphic that came out at the beginning of this year, and the company doesn’t seem to be wasting much time getting its second model out to the market.

One of the great attractions of the original lens was its price, and many will be pleased to hear that this new 35mm model is following suit. Anamorphic lenses are, in the main, quite expensive, so these sub-$ 800 Sirui examples open anamorphic shooting to a much wider audience. The lens is being launched via an Indiegogo campaign with early-bird prices from $ 599.

With its 1.33x anamorphic characteristic the lens offers a 2.35:1 aspect ratio to those shooting in 16:9 while GH5 and GH5S users using Anamorphic mode will get a high resolution 16:9 image with all the anamorphic trappings of flare, blue streaks and oval out-of-focus highlights. GH5S users shooting in 4096 x 2160 C4K will be able to achieve a 2.5:1 aspect ratio.

MFT mount with adapters

The 35mm F1.8 comes only in a Micro Four Thirds mount, but Sirui offers adapters for Nikon Z, Sony E and Canon EF-M bodies. The 50mm was offered with fixed mounts for MFT, Sony E and Fujifilm’s X mount so there’s been a bit of a shift in favor of Nikon Z and away from Fuji X. Sirui says there is a Fujifilm X-mount lens on the way, but it hasn’t said what focal length it will be. With all the video improvements Fuji has introduced in recent times there should be a decent market for an anamorphic lens, but Sirui says it can’t make an adapter to fit MFT lenses on Fujifilm X-mount bodies.

Designed to cover APS-C, Super 35 and MFT sensors, the smaller imaging areas will add some apparent magnification to the marked focal length. The 35mm focal length on APS-C sensors with a 1.5x factor behaves as a 52.5mm would on a full frame camera, but with the extra 1.33x width in the horizontal plane that 52mm stretches back to the appearance of the 40mm.

On MFT bodies the 35mm doubles to 70mm, but then stretches to cover the horizontal angle we’d expect of a 52mm. The angles of view achieved with this lens are wider than those achieved with the 50mm lens, but they leave a good deal of room for a wider lens in the future.

Gear rings

Sirui has helpfully included a pair of gear rings with this lens to allow it to be used more easily with follow-focus systems. The rings slip over the mount-end of the lens and marry with the ribbing on the focusing and aperture rings. Each ring is labelled so you know which goes where, not that it seems to make much difference.

The rings are essential for follow-focus but they also make hand-made smooth focus transitions much easier too. As the barrel of the 35mm is somewhat wider than that of the 50mm, these rings aren’t interchangeable between the two lenses.

Design

The lens has an all-metal ‘aircraft aluminum’ body that feels very solid in the hand and dense for its size – but without it being heavy. The smooth finish feels good to the touch and the focus and aperture rings turn nicely with just the right amount of resistance. The ribbing on both is perhaps a little fine for a sure grip in all conditions, but the addition of the gear rings soon solves that. I kept mine on all the time.

The aperture ring turns smoothly and without clicked stops, allowing iris altering during filming without disturbance, and of course focus is all manual.

Plain underbelly

The underside of the lens is completely plain other than for the close focus and filter size engravings. I rather like the look without any other text, but it does mean that when the camera is mounted above head-height you can’t see what aperture you are using or the focus distance set. For those more used to lenses designed for stills this won’t seem unusual, but for those coming from movie lenses this might be a surprise.

The distraction-free underside though shows clearly where the anamorphic element group is in the optical construction, as the forward end of the barrel expands to accommodate that wide anamorphic cylinder.

Looking through the lens

Further evidence of the position of the anamorphic group comes when we look through the lens. From the front the iris looks oval and from the rear it looks round, thus demonstrating that the iris is positioned behind the anamorphic group. Not all anamorphics have the anamorphic group at the front of the construction, as some use a design that places the group just in front of the mount, but those with a forward anamorphic group display more pronounced optical characteristics. Having the cylinder at the front helps it catch the light that creates flare and ensures we get those oval out-of-focus highlights.

Close focus

For a normal spherical lens a close focus distance of 0.85m / 33in would be considered a little long, but in anamorphic terms this is about standard. Distances are marked in feet and meters, and apertures in full stop measurements. All markings on the barrel are deeply engraved, with paint neatly dropped well below the surface.

It takes a 191° rotation of the focusing ring to shift focus from the closest point to infinity, which makes for swift shifts in the focus position.

Construction

The Sirui 35mm F1.8 1.33x anamorphic is built with 13 elements in 9 groups, and uses a 10-bladed iris. The glass is made by Schott according to Sirui.

The lens is really very small for an anamorphic, which is partly down to its reduced covering circle but must also be the result of some internal miniaturization in the design, elements and glass used. It measures 117mm / 4.61in including the mount, is 70mm / 2.8in wide at the front and weighs 700g / 1.55lb.

Compared to the 50mm F1.8

The overall look and design of the 35mm (right) is very much in keeping with the existing 50mm, so the two lenses are easily identified as part of a set. There are some minor changes to the font used in places but you’d only notice if you had the time to look at such things.

The 35mm is longer, broader and heavier than the 50mm, and although the focus rings match in depth they have different diameters due to the difference in barrel size. The aperture rings are different in design too, with the 50mm featuring a much narrower ribbed area.

Red dots

The shift from dedicated mounts to an adapter system has meant Sirui has had to relocate the index red dot. Maybe not such a big deal, but I’m used to Micro Four Thirds lenses having their red dot on the side of the barrel where it is easy to see rather than on the mount itself, so this took some getting used to. The dot has shifted from a permanently visible position to avoid confusion when a Nikon Z adapter is fitted, for example, as the Z mount has its red dot in a different place. Moving the dot to the mount means there will only ever be one on display as the MFT red dot that is marked on the mount will be covered by the adapter ring.

The mount adapters are fitted using the second set of screws in the base of the lens, with an index indentation to ensure it is positioned correctly. One set of screws has a star head while the ones we are supposed to use have a regular cross-head, to avoid getting them mixed up. The 50mm doesn’t have the facility to accept these adapters, so those using Nikon Z cameras, for example, will only have access to the 35mm at the moment. Only Sony E and MFT camera users can fit both 50mm and 35mm lenses.

Clips reel

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)