RED/anamorphic lenses

[jamie ramsay]

Hi All

 

i am in pre-prod on a feature and am at the stage where camera choice is the topic... i am leaning towards the RED with anamorphic lenses, but have no one to seek any advise/knowledge on this topic. any discussion would be appreciated...

 

Jamie Ramsay

DOP

South Africa

[Ravi Kiran]

Anamorphic mode with the RED crops a little off the sides of the image (since the 2x anamorphic lenses were designed for a 1.2:1 35mm area). My only experience with RED anamorphic has been grading a music video shot with both anamorphic lenses and spherical lenses (composed and cropped to 2.40:1), and the spherical footage was sharper. Don't know if it was just a focus issue with the anamorphic lenses or something inherent to shooting RED and anamorphic. I've read that one would shoot RED and anamorphic not for added resolution (the way one would on 35mm) but for the flares and bokeh.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Ravi Kiran

[John Sprung]

Go to the rental house and test the actual anamorphics you might use against the actual sphericals they'd rent to you instead. Go to the post house and make split screens of your tests, screen them on a big front projection setup. If your eyes give you a clear answer, you're done. If it looks like a wash, consider the cost and convenience factors, such as how much light you'd need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Santiago Benet]

Claudio Miranda ASC shot a 50 cent video with RED and anamorphics ,is the fist one on the page

 

http://www.claudiomiranda.com/videos.html

 

I shot this more humble video using a RED MX and anamorphic LOMO lenses

 

 

its a very easy workflow, the anamorphic built in setup crops the sensor a little so you lose some resolution and it crops the lens view angle a little as well. it gives very nice looking flares.But you could also use spherical lenses and use RED code 42 2:1 and then crop it to 2.40:1 for maximun resolution as Jeff Cronenweth ASC did in "social network"

 

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4152690201/

 

I hope this helps ! its a world of options

[Bruce Taylor]

I've read that one would shoot RED and anamorphic not for added resolution (the way one would on 35mm) but for the flares and bokeh.

 

Exactly.

 

Modern spherical lenses are going to be sharper and flare less. There are film area advantages when shooting anamorphic 35mm that do not exist when shooting on RED.

 

The reason for shooting anamorphic on RED is to get anamorphic artifacts like the flares and eliptical bokeh mentioned above, or the shallower depth of field. Also, the newer anamorphic lenses are going to flare much less as you'll see in the tests. That's why a lot of RED shoots like the Lomo roundfront anamorphics from the '80's-- they are reasonably sharp, moderately fast (T2.4) and flare enough to get interesting results if that's what you're after.