LOMO Anamorphic test

[Kristian Schumacher]

Hi,

 

I just shot some stills with my new set of LOMO anamorphic round fronts, but I don´t really have anything to compare the results with, so would appreciate any input from anyone with experience with the performance of these or similar lenses.

 

The test shots were taken as stills on my 5d2, cropped to use the centre 21.95x18.6mm part of the sensor, then reduced vertical resolution to half - does this seem like the right way to estimate what these would look like on a 35mm camera with an anamorphic gate?

 

The shots are taken at widest aperture, then 4, 8 and 16. The 35mm especially seems to need a lot of stopping down to get sharp in the corners. I have read about this here before, but again don´t know exactly how much corner blur is considered normal/acceptable.

 

Please have a look and let me know what you think:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/51868503@N08/sets/72157624754990624/

 

Thanks,

 

Kristian

[Bruce Taylor]

Have the lenses been gone through by a lens tech that knows how to set up anamorphic lenses yet?

 

Issues I see regularly are Lomo anammorphics that have not been evaluated and set up by a qualified lens technician, and then judgements are made about the quality of the lenses. The Lomo mechanicals are not the best, but the optics can be quite good. I have to have my 35mm in for adjustments quite regularly, probably because it is so heavy that it goes out of whack. It is a complex lens that needs frequent attention.

[Dom Jaeger]

Yes it definitely pays to have them checked out by a lens tech who is familiar with them. In the last 5 or so years anamorphic Lomos have surged in popularity and depending on where you source them sometimes they seem thrown together in haste. Sometimes the front and back halves have been interchanged without being properly recallibrated, or the rear anamorphic element is not centred or slightly off azimuth. I've spent many hours tweaking Lomos to get the best image possible. But once callibrated they should centre resolve 200 line pairs on projection even wide open, which is as fine as my projection chart can measure. Obviously things like contrast and chromatic aberration improve dramatically when stopped down a couple of stops.

 

They do drop off a little in the corners (like any older anamorphic) but it should also be remembered that older lenses have a focus plane that is more concave than flat, so shooting a flat wall as you have done means the edges are going to be slightly out of focus, especially with the wider angles where the distance to centre is far less than the distance to edge, and when fully open where the depth of field is shallowest.

 

FWIW I really like the anamorphic Lomo look, in the right hands they make stunning images. Australian cinematographer Tony Luu ACS shot this ad for the Sydney Dance Company using our Lomos and D21 (in MScope mode 4:2:2)

 

[Kristian Schumacher]

Thanks to you Both, Bruce and Dom,

 

I will get in touch with a tech, but it looks like I would need to send the lenses overseas :-( I am actually looking to sell the set, and it would be nice if there was a way to ensure that they are as good as they can be to get a good price - without spending tons of cash :rolleyes: just to find out. Looks like it may be the only way though.

Thanks for the tip about the concave focus plane. I have tried focusing based on the corners now, and I will have a proper look at the results - so far it doesn´t look like a big improvement...

 

Thanks again,

 

Kristian

[Bruce Taylor]

I have tried focusing based on the corners now, and I will have a proper look at the results - so far it doesn´t look like a big improvement...

 

Right, the lenses are not flat field. The easiest way to determine focus plane is to create an arc from edge to edge from the film plane with your tape measure.

 

I am not surprised you don't see an improvement, the example photos you had show a brick wall from a considerable distance, the DOF should easily have made up for any small distance differential. That's why I suspected adjustments were needed.