Atlas anamorphic lenses with Standard 16mm Eclair ACL (PL mount)

[Nathaniel Elder]

Hello, I have an interesting situation here and I was wondering if anybody could shed light on it.

My friend has some Atlas anamorphic lenses and is wanting to try them out on 16mm.

These are the lenses he has: Atlas Orion 2x squeeze (25mm, 40mm, 65mm) and Atlas Mercury 1.5x squeeze (42mm and 72mm)

I have an Eclair ACL (standard 16) and a high-quality PL mount for it, so we're thinking of trying to shooting a short with them. 

I have tried researching how this would work, but there's not much specific literature out there on modern anamorphic lenses being used on an ACL. 

Does this seem likely to work out fine? I know that cropping down from spherical is safer, but it sounds really interesting to experiment with these anamorphic lenses if possible.

From what I understand, the 1.5x squeeze lenses would produce close to a 2:1 ratio (baseline 1.37:1) and the 2x squeeze would produce close to a 2.76:1 ratio?

 

My main concerns: 

Is there any chance that the lenses could damage my mirror when trying to put them in?

I know since these are S35 lenses, the image coverage will be fairly tight. Can anyone give me an idea of how wide a 25mm S35 anamorphic lens (being the widest option) would be on 16mm?

My ACL build is simple and we would not have the option to desqueeze in the viewfinder. I don't think that is a dealbreaker but I'm not sure. 

 

Anyways, any advice is helpful here. I know it's not the easiest thing to try but it does sound fun. As long as it is physically possible to get a decent image out of it, we're interested in trying. 

 

Thanks!

Nathaniel

[Mark Dunn]

Well, the effective horizontal FoV is simply the focal length divided by the squeeze, so the 25 will be a 12.5, which I'd call the wide side of normal for 16mm. Vertical FoV stays the same of course so the others will be quite long.

Don't know if there are any mounting problems. As I recall from Super-8 looking through a squeezed viewfinder is tolerable when you get used to it.

Edited January 6 by Mark Dunn

[Vincent Wolfram]

the Eclair ACL uses a mount that is compatible with C Mount lenses. any PL lens made for reflex film cameras shouldnt have any issues mounting on it with the right adapter.