Christian Appelt Posted September 24, 2004 Share Posted September 24, 2004 AgaScope lens on eBay I know that there was an anamorphic process called AgaScope in the 1950s/1960s, but this is the first lens I ever saw. I am somewhat puzzled because 23mm seems quite a short focal length for anamorphic lenses of that time. The thing has a BNC mount, so I suppose it's for 35mm. Does anybody know more about this strange beast? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Adam Frisch FSF Posted September 25, 2004 Premium Member Share Posted September 25, 2004 Yes. Aga is a swedish company that dabbled in optics in the 50's. They mainly made anamorphic projection attachements, but during a short period they manufactured a series of primes, mainly for the national market. I think you could get them in both BNCR-mount and DeBrie (french camera). For some reason a lot of these lenses ended up in Hungary and the Czech Republic when they went out of fashion. You can still rent them from Barrandov Studios, I think. I'm sorry I don't know more about them technically, but they were rumored to be quite good, actually. Not extremely fast, but not slow either. Swedish schlock- and actionfilmguru Mats Helge who made a whole slew of cheap direct-to-video actioners in the early 80's shot on them. He still owns a set. Check out the film Ninja Mission - that was shot with Agascope and has the most blue, sharp flares I've ever seen in an anamorphic movie. Aga still exists, but today they sell gas (!) and welding equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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