Vintage Cine Zoom Lens (possibly anamorphic)

[Lukas Strobel]

Hi everybody,

i am currently looking for a vintage cine zoom lens somewhere between 10 and 150mm for an old school film look and some sweet and unique imperfections.

after my research on the internet and in this community i find the Lomo FOTON 37-140 rather attractive and there are some offers on ebay in my price range (no more than 4k $)

the thing i dont really get (since i am new to the whole lens game) is: the Lomo Foton 37-140 is often presented to be an anamorphic lens and videos like this

show beautiful anamorphic results. than again sometimes there is no word of "anamorphic" like in this offer: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lomo-FOTON-37-140-37-140mm-T4-4-ARRI-PL-Mount-RED-Dragon-URSA-Alexa-F5-F3-3/372126254975?hash=item56a474077f:g:KywAAOSwa0VZ~a8C

so i guess lomo fotons are not all the same.

is there some kind of anamorphic adapter i can combine with the non-anamorphic foton to get results like in the video link above or would i have to go way more expensive and buy for example this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/LOMO-FOTON-A-ANAMORPHIC-ZOOM-37-140mm-f-3-5-Lens-w-ARRI-Arriflex-PL-Mount-1/372194587842?hash=item56a886b4c2:g:1U8AAOSw-RFaW29l

has someone experience with the foton with or without the anamorphic feature?

are there any other old glasses that fit my description you can recommend?

anamorphic look is not a must for me but it would be a giant bonus if it fits my price range.

thank you so much for your time,

Lukas

[Nojus Drasutis]

Hi,

The Lomo Foton is a spherical lens, but there's a possibility of attaching Lomo Foton Anamorphic front (or rear) attachments and then it becomes anamorphic lens. They are quite expensive as you noted in your post. But if your price range is up to 4k USD, i think it is possible to find it on ebay (If you are patient enough).

Other option, as you mentioned, is to try adapting some anamorphic projection attachments, but:

The problem with most anamorphic projection attachments is that they are bad at covering wide angles and also you need to modify them somehow or use them with diopter and special housing (like FM lens module) to get one focus solution. But then the whole thing gets heavy and unstable.

There is few examples of Lomo FOTON in spherical setup: