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Sirui releases Saturn 35mm T2.9 1.6x Anamorphic lens

Sirui has officially announced the general availability of its full-frame Saturn 35mm T2.9 1.6x Anamorphic lens. Initially launched in November 2022 as a pre-order, this tiny lens is smaller than a can of coke, yet covers a full-frame sensor with a 35mm anamorphic field of view. It’s intentionally small so it can be more easily used on lightweight gimbal rigs, as well as drones, where balance and lens weight is important.

Available in Canon RF, Sony E and DJI DL mount, the lens measures only 100-103mm with a weight of only 390-415g. Its weight is thanks to its use of carbon fibre on the lens barrel. Carbon fibre is much lighter than aluminium or other metals often used in lens construction while maintaining more than enough strength for a lens barrel. So while it’s still a but of a lump, it’s a lot lighter than it could have been.

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Laowa launches their new Proteus 2x Anamorphic T2 Super 35mm lens series

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Looks like Sony’s not the only one announcing new lenses today. Venus optics has announced their new Proteus line of 2x Anamorphic lenses in 35mm, 45mm, 60mm and 85mm focal lengths. The new lenses provide a constant 2x squeeze ratio for Super 35mm sensors. All lenses offer a maximum T2 aperture for shallow depth of field with smooth elliptical bokeh and that signature anamorphic lens flare.

These aren’t cheap lenses, by any means, coming out at around $5,000 each, with some discounts for buying kits containing either the 35mm & 60mm or 45mm and 85mm lenses. But Laowa promises outstanding sharpness, an ultra-wide 2x squeeze with pleasant oval bokeh, low focus breathing and a high-end user-friendly cine housing. They can also cover full-frame systems with a 1.4x expander.

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Great Joy rounds out its full-frame 1.8x Anamorphic lens lineup with the 85mm T2.9

Great Joy has announced its newest full-frame anamorphic lens. The Great Joy 85mm full-frame T2.9 1.8x Anamorphic lens adds to the 50mm T2.9 and 35mm T2.9 launched earlier in the year to round out the set quite nicely. As with the first two lenses in the range, the new 85mm T2.9 is also being launched through Indiegogo with a super early bird price of $1,229 or $1,495, depending on the mount you want.

It’s available in 6 different mounting options with Canon EF/PL being the more expensive option and Sony E, Canon RF, Micro Four Thirds and Leica L being the slightly cheaper option. Naturally, it comes in a cinema housing with 0.8 MOD pitch gears and matches the 85mm front outer diameter of the other two lenses with a similar length – which varies depending on the mount.

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Sirui’s new Saturn 35mm T2.9 full-frame 1.6x anamorphic cine lens is smaller than a can of coke

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Sirui has announced their new Saturn 35mm T2.9 full-frame carbon fibre 1.6x anamorphic lens. Designed for lightweight and mobile shooting, the new lens is smaller than a can of coke and designed for use on cameras with gimbals and even FPV drone rigs – cinema ones, at least, not cinewhoops! The light construction is thanks to the use of carbon fibre in the lens barrel and it measures only 100-103mm long, depending on the mount.

It’s one of the few third-party lenses I’ve seen that comes in a DJI DL mount. So it can be used with the DJI Ronin 4D gimbal stabilised cinema camera. It’s also available in RF mount for use with Canon cameras and the RED Komodo and V-Raptor, as well as E mount for the entire range of Sony mirrorless and cinema cameras. It comes in two flare options and has a 1.6x squeeze ratio.

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The complete guide – How to turn any lens into an “anamorfake”

Anamorphic lenses seemed to disappear in popularity for a while but there is no doubt now that they’re back in a big way. And while there are some moderately low-budget options out there from companies like Sirui, Samyang and Great Joy, they’re still above the budgets of many who just want to play around and experiment. And playing around and experimenting happens to be Tito Ferradans’ speciality.

Over on his YouTube channel, Anamorphic on a Budget, he’s experimented with a lot of DIY “anamorfake” options and he’s put together a complete guide on how you can do it yourself to pretty much any lens you already own. At least, he’s put together the first part of it, which is the video above.

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Laowa launches trio of compact, lightweight and low budget 1.5x anamorphic prime lenses

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Venus Optics has announced a new line of low budget lightweight 1.5x anamorphic prime lenses for EF and PL mount cameras as well as seven different mirrorless mounts. It’s called the Nanomorph series and consists of 27mm T2.8, 35mm T2.4 and 50mm T2.4 1.5x anamorphic lenses. Interestingly, they’re available with a choice of “flare options” – amber or blue – letting you choose your desired look.

They claim to be the “world’s tiniest anamorphic lenses” and in mirrorless form, they are. The Canon EF/PL mount versions are a little larger and heavier, but not by much. In total, they’re available for nine different camera mount systems and the mounts are user interchangeable (but there’s a caveat that we’ll get to down below).

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Try one of these seven weird and unusual lenses to shoot your next documentary

The king of weird lenses, Mathieu Stern set himself a challenge with a documentary short film he shot recently. The challenge was to use only anamorphic and swirly bokeh lenses. But he wasn’t just getting off-the-shelf ready-to-go lenses you can pick up online (although he did use a couple). He ended up using seven different lenses to film his documentary, along with various adapters and doohickies to tell his anamorphic story.

The short film itself, which follows the journey of Louis-Thibaud Chambon, AKA The Waterfall Hunter, is quite interesting in itself but visually it’s also very appealing indeed. The footage itself was shot using the Sony A7III camera and Mathieu wanted to use lenses that not only gave the film a cinematic look but also presented it in an almost magical way. And this wonderful array of lenses and adapters certainly did that!

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“Great Joy” launches full-frame 60mm T2.9 1.33x Anamorphic lens and 1.35x Anamorphic adapter

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Seems to be a big anamorphic thing going on lately. We’ve had the launch of Sirui’s full-frame 50mm T2.9 Anamorphic lens, stacking Anamorphic lenses with Anamorphic adapters and now we’ve got the new “Great joy” 60mm T2.9 1.33x Anamorphic lens and 1.35x Anamorphic adapter being launched through Kickstarter.

The new Great Joy 60mm T2.9 lens offers a 1.33x anamorphic aspect ratio. The adapter provides a 1.35x anamorphic aspect ratio. When stacked together you’ve got 1.8x anamorphic, offering some pretty wide field of view. Of course, like other anamorphic adapters, you can also put this one onto a regular lens to give it that anamorphic look.

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This is what it looks like when you use an anamorphic adapter with an anamorphic lens

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Anamorphic lenses are a lot of fun to shoot with and they’ve really risen in popularity over the last few years. That’s obvious by the number of new ones that keep getting announced, particularly for the lower end of the movie-making spectrum. Sirui even announced their newest one today. But there are also anamorphic adapters out there. They sit on the end of a regular lens to give it that anamorphic look and feel.

So… what happens if you stack the anamorphic adapter on the end of an anamorphic lens? Well, that’s the question that was asked of the folks at Epic Light Media, so they decided to find out!

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Sirui launches $750 24mm f/2.8 1.33x anamorphic lens

Sirui has just added another member to its family of affordable anamorphic lenses. The Sirui 24mm f/2.8 1.33x is now out, and unlike many other anamorphic lenses, it won’t hurt your wallet too much. It’s currently available for $750, but you need to hurry up if you want to get it at this price.

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