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Laowa and Keslow Camera have jointly announced a new addition to the Laowa lens lineup today. “Proteus Flex”, as the new lenses are called, are a new “interchangeable flare” version of Laowa’s Proteus 2x anamorphic lenses (buy here).
The new Proteus Flex lenses use a modular design, comprising the Proteus main body with interchangeable flare modules. So, you no longer need to limit yourself to buying and sticking with one colour.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Moment, more commonly known for its smartphone lenses, has expanded into DSLR and mirrorless cameras with its new Moment Anamorphic Adapter which screws onto the filter thread of your regular camera lenses and turns them into 1.33x anamorphic lenses. Moment says they’ve been working on the adapter for the past eight years to turn your 16:9 footage into a more cinematic 2.35:1.
As well as stretching the view to what we’d typically expect from an anamorphic lens, Moment says it brings those horizontal flares and vertical bokeh that anamorphic lenses also typically present. They’ve launched the new anamorphic adapter via Kickstarter, where they’ve already blasted way through their $50,000 goal with 29 days still left to go on the campaign.
Vazen has unveiled their new 135mm T2.8 1.8x anamorphic lens for full-frame cameras in EF and PL mount. This completes their 3-lens 1.8x full-frame anamorphic lineup adding to the Vazen 85mm T2.8 1.8x anamorphic full-frame lens announced in August 2020 and the Vazen 50mm T2.1 1.8x anamorphic full-frame lens announced last May.
As with Vazen’s previous full-frame 1.8x anamorphic lenses, this one’s not cheap, coming in at the same $8,000 price tag as the last two, although you can buy the complete set of three in a nice custom hard case for the bargain price of $19,999 (a $4,001 discount). If you’ve already bought some, though and end up getting the 135 to complete your set, the case is available separately for $300.
Glass, a new startup working on AI-enhanced imaging, wants to change how our smartphone cameras work to overcome the limitations of current smartphone cameras. They want to do it using larger, wider sensors and the same technology found anamorphic lenses in order to be able to do it. The problem, essentially, is that size matters. And smartphone cameras are running out of space to expand.
You can’t make the sensors larger without making the lenses larger (longer) and phones just aren’t that thick anymore. AI is great and has brought us a lot of advances in smartphone imaging technology over the last few years but that, too, only goes so far. Glass’ solution is to use the 100-year-old cinema technology to overcome some of those size limitations.
Sirui has announced a new 75mm T2.9 full-frame 1.6x anamorphic lens for RF, L E and Z mounts. Naturally, they’re launching the lens via Indiegogo – because that’s what Sirui always does – where it’ll be available for an early bird price of $1,199 (20% off the full retail price). It adds to the Sirui 50mm T2.9 1.6x anamorphic lens announced last October, doubling the number of lenses in their full-frame anamorphic lineup.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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