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BMPCC 4K Anamorphic 1.33x - Drifter Character Intro


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Hey All, here's a quick character intro for a project that I'm aiming to direct this year. Shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K with SLR Magic 1.33x Anamorphic Lens Adapter. Base color grade via a BMPCC 4K to Arri Rec709 conversion LUT that I created and have been testing. Might release if there's interest.

Blackmagic LUTs byBoz™ are available to download here: https://blackmagic-luts.yolasite.com/

There's a specific "imperfect" anamorphic look that I'm going for. Haven't quite found it yet, but overall I think the combo works really well. 

Thoughts?

 

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  • 3 months later...
On 7/3/2022 at 4:16 PM, Bulent Ozdemir said:

Hey All, here's a quick character intro for a project that I'm aiming to direct this year. Shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K with SLR Magic 1.33x Anamorphic Lens Adapter. Base color grade via a BMPCC 4K to Arri Rec709 conversion LUT that I created and have been testing. Might release if there's interest.

Blackmagic LUTs byBoz™ are available to download here: https://blackmagic-luts.yolasite.com/

There's a specific "imperfect" anamorphic look that I'm going for. Haven't quite found it yet, but overall I think the combo works really well. 

Thoughts?

 

If your camera has a PL-Mount, then a lens sandwich with a Laowa PL-PL rear-anamorphic adaptor behind your lens and the SLR Magic front anamorphic adaptor will confer a 2x anamorphic squeeze.

If you want a more distressed look, a Century Optics 16:9 front anamorphic adaptor might do it for you. You would have to find a version with a filter thread mount on the back, not the bayonet mount Sony version. I made a threaded adaptor for the Sony version. This however limits the lenses you can use to lenses with a closely coupled 52mm or 58mm filter thread fronts like Nikons and about 50mm focal length. Any wider-angle lens will vignette. 

I have machined a new thread for the back of an Ishico Proskar 2x anamorphic projection lens. Infinity focus requires a small mod to the Ishico lens and manging two interacting focal adjustments is as much the irritating challenge on a camera as it is for projection.
 

 

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  • 3 months later...

Apologies for such a late response! Haven't been on here for a while.

Thank you for your detailed breakdown. Don't have a PL mount re Laowa sandwich (didn't even know that was a thing!) but sounds super interesting.

I do have a century optics 16:9 converter which gives a squeeze of around 1.33x. Def has that distressed imperfection. Might have to try and experiment a little.

Def digging the look of your ishico 50mm test! Do you have any more vids with the combo?

B.

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In this test, at timecode 0:30, the Century 16:9 anamorphic was fitted. You will observe a loss of contrast and sharpness compared to the following shots. One of the following shots looks a bit soft also. That was a Nikon 35mm f1.4 which had been serviced at some time in the past and had been incorrectly set up. I have since fixed it and it is now sharper.
 

 

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Further to my previous responses, I changed the mount on the Mini Pro to PL so that I could offer up the "sandwich" of the Laowa 1:33 rear anamorphic adaptor -> Nikon lens > Century 16:9 front anamorphic adaptor. 

This combination will work with a lens as wide as a Sigma-for-Nikon 28mm f1.8 to the Mini Pro sensor without vignette with the aperture wide-open. I have not tested it outdoors. Chances are that the iris may cause corner brightness falloff when closed up.

The Century adaptor has to be mounted as close to the front of the Nikon lens as you can get. Even then, the PL-Mount in the Mini Pro has to be shimmed forward by 0.50mm to restore correct focus.

I forgot to mention that the Laowa adaptor I used is a one-off remanufacture with a Nikon F-Mount on the front. The standard Laowa rear anamorphic accepts a PL-Mount lens on front and the rear attaches to a PL-Mount camera. 

To do the same experiment you would need to use a 1:33 anamorphic prime lens like SLR magic with a PL-Mount tail on it. Since Laowa will be making a 2x anamorphic lens set, the experiment is probably now pointless. 

LAOWA PL TO NIKON TO CENTURY.jpg

Edited by Robert Hart
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For sake of curiosity and to test a broken Ursa Mini Pro I have resurrected at the same time, I shot a rough test using front and rear anamorphic adaptors additively to make near-to 2x cinemascope. Youtube does some weird stuff unless the uploaded clip is exported correctly, something I have yet to learn. The colours are a bit off because I have yet to learn BM RAW. 
 

 

Edited by Robert Hart
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I gave the "sandwich" another try this evening with a genuine Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens. Apologies for the handheld shake. That part of the near neighbourhood is not renowned for being a safe place at night so I went handheld, darted out, took a quick glimpse and got on my way again. I processed in 4K this time round in Resolve. Am still trying to get my head around BRAW. The focus was on the front of the parked white car. The front anamorphic was a bit skewed. If you want tack sharp, you will not get it with this combination as the Century adaptor was originally built to meet standard definition television requirements not 4K. I imagine a superior result would be obtained with 1:33 anamorphic lenses mounted to the Laowa 1:33 adaptor in its PL-Mount form. 

 

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I can def see the character/potential of the combo! Like I said before, never heard of the sandwich method till you mentioned it.

Do you think similar results would occur if the 1.33x adapter was mounted to the front of the 2x anamorphic adapter rather than the rear of the taking lens? Not sure of the maths in terms of squeeze/desqueeze factor though ?

Thanks for your really insightful and detailed posts. Much appreciated ?

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Bulent Osdemir.

You will most likely end up with a bad porthole vignette. A rear-anamorphic adaptor slightly crops the field-of-view and its exit pupil is far too small for the 2x front-anamorphic adaptor. 

If I was filming a serious project with a budget, my personal preference would be to rent good anamorphic lenses. 

What I am doing is really only a cost-reduced workaround with old equipment I already have.

Edited by Robert Hart
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21 hours ago, Robert Hart said:

You will most likely end up with a bad porthole vignette. A rear-anamorphic adaptor slightly crops the field-of-view and its exit pupil is far too small for the 2x front-anamorphic adaptor

Ah, ok. I understand.

21 hours ago, Robert Hart said:

If I was filming a serious project with a budget, my personal preference would be to rent good anamorphic lenses.

Absolutely! Same personal preference.

21 hours ago, Robert Hart said:

What I am doing is really only a cost-reduced workaround with old equipment I already have.

I think that's a really great way to discover, re-use and adapt equipment. I've experimented quite a bit with adapters, own cameras etc and sometimes... Just sometimes I discover something cool ?

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