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Lenses for "Lost in Translation"


Chris Keth

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Did he say that in the AC article? Because there is no 27mm Superspeed, only 25mm and 35mm.

 

No it's from a book " New Cinematographers" although there not so new anymore.

He only mentions the Superspeeds once and in another part he writes that his lenses ran between 27 to 50mm and that he used the 35mm for most of the film, of course he could have used another set of Zeises in addition to the Superspeeds. Well spotted though Max!

 

Kieran.

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That is a great book, but there are some small inaccuracies in it unfortunately. like mentioning anamorphic Cooke S4 lenses (which I am sure they would be very popular if they acutally existed). I did write the author an email with all those that I could find and hopefully they are able to correct them for a revised edition.

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Uncorrected astigmatism makes the out of focus points get more and more oblong, or footbal-shaped as they get further from the center of frame.

 

Check out this still. The out of focus points in the center are round and they get more football-shaped as they are further out.

 

LostinTranslation2.jpeg

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Uncorrected astigmatism makes the out of focus points get more and more oblong, or footbal-shaped as they get further from the center of frame.

 

Check out this still. The out of focus points in the center are round and they get more football-shaped as they are further out.

 

LostinTranslation2.jpeg

 

You mean of course American football shaped as a real football shape would still be round! HA HA

I've seen the Phenomenon many times, didn't know it had a name though.

 

Thanks Chris.

 

beautifull shot BTW Acord is a brave cinematographer.

 

Kieran.

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You mean of course American football shaped as a real football shape would still be round! HA HA

I've seen the Phenomenon many times, didn't know it had a name though.

 

Thanks Chris.

 

beautifull shot BTW Acord is a brave cinematographer.

 

Kieran.

 

That's absolutely correct. I was not talking about soccer balls. Maybe I should have explained it all in terms of the various football shapes. :blink:

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I'm a sucker for odd lens aberrations. I like uncorrected astigmatism and I like coma. Come, unfortunately only is seens in vey, very old lenses used on formats larger than they were really designed for so it doesn't show up in movie lenses often, or at all as far as I have seen.

 

Here is something with some pretty massive coma and some astigmatism:

PamsGardenS.jpg

 

This just gives me a headache but in lesser quantities it's quite enchanting.

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That is a great book, but there are some small inaccuracies in it unfortunately. like mentioning anamorphic Cooke S4 lenses (which I am sure they would be very popular if they acutally existed). I did write the author an email with all those that I could find and hopefully they are able to correct them for a revised edition.

 

wow! Can I ask you to send me that e-mail as PM or e-mail, please. Would be great to go through the book to cross out the mistakes.

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Uncorrected astigmatism makes the out of focus points get more and more oblong, or footbal-shaped as they get further from the center of frame.

 

Check out this still. The out of focus points in the center are round and they get more football-shaped as they are further out.

 

LostinTranslation2.jpeg

 

 

Actually, the effect you show here is simply vignetting. Light arriving from the corners (edges of the image circle)isn't coming from a circular opening at that angle, but from a football shaped hole, which is clearly illustrated when points of light are photographed out of focus. Vignetting (and thus 'football' points of light) is most pronounced wide open and tends to disappear a couple stops into the lens, when the widest opening for arriving light isn't the lens barrel itself but the aperture blades (soft points of light then assume the shape of the aperture blades). Also, newer lenses with a larger opening at the front of the lens have less vignetting - Master Primes being the best example, which have very little of the effect but are much bigger lenses. Smaller high-speed lenses, such as superspeeds, old Panavision SS lenses and C series anamorphics have much greater vignetting wide open due to their small size and high speed. In the case with these lenses, you're really only getting your true wide-open T stop in the center of the image, with fast light fall-off toward the edges.

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There is a bit of vignetting, see the red spot in the upper right corner.

 

Nonetheless, the majority of that look is astigmatism. Notice how the football shapes are more oblong near the edges than they are in the center? Regardless of how out-of-round they are, they are always even.

 

If it was vignetting, you would see some places with out of focus circles with a slightly flat edge, other places further form center with more of a flat edge, some places near the edges perhaps even cut to a crescent shape.

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