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2x extender with 2x anamorphic?


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Hey everybody, I am not in the position to test this myself but the curiosity is killing me: Why will a 2x extender not work with with 2x anamorphic lens?  I have read multiple times in forums that it won't work and even the Duclos website notes that their extension tubes won't work with anamorphic lenses:

https://www.ducloslenses.com/collections/adapter/products/exttubekit

The physics prohibiting it escape me. Does anybody have actual experience trying this and can explain?

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I've heard of anamorphic movies shot with extenders -- "A Bridge Too Far" for example, tons of long-lensed shots on Panavision anamorphic zooms with extenders... but those were all rear-anamorphic lenses, don't know about front-anamorphic lenses.

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Ran into this question on a shoot recently. I needed a very long option for a single shot and we were using Kowas which max out at 100mm. I played it safe and went with a spherical lens (a beefy Nikkor 300mm PL) instead. With such a long lens the anamorphic effect is much subtler so it cut in fine. Everyone I talked to said that 2x adapters wouldn't work but no one could tell me why— thanks for sharing that old thread Daniel! 

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Much appreciated. Thanks guys!

That old thread answers half of my question. I realize now that I was mixing extension tubes (that simply add space between the rear element and the focal plane) with extenders, which add essentially a "magnifying glass" behind the lens that doubles the image in size). It makes sense to me now that extension tubes will not work. Wouldn't a 2x optical extender keep things in focus as it adds an optical element? I have the Century 2x Extender with PL mount that works on zoom lenses but I lack an anamorphic lens to conduct the experiment myself.

Edited by Hannes Famira
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a doubler will work with anamorphic, but test each lens to see if it physically clears the space

dom mentions this

 

also, abelcine tested their doubler with a lot of different lenses, some which are anamorphic

https://www.abelcine.com/articles/blog-and-knowledge/tools-charts-and-downloads/plx-extender-compatibility

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front anamorphic lens is basically a spherical lens with a wide angle attachment which only works to one direction 

rear anamorphic lens is basically a spherical lens with a rear extender which only works to one direction 

 

a spherical rear extender basically takes the center part of the image and magnifies it. In the process one loses some light and also magnifies any aberrations there is. Additionally the extender may not physically fit to the back of the lens. But generally there is no optical reason why it would not work unless the image quality ends up being so bad that one does not want to use the system (imperfections of the original lens magnified too much to be tolerable) or the light loss being too much (the typical one or two stop loss of the extender combined with the possible stop-down requirements of anamorphic lenses to get good enough image quality for cine use. So with anamorphic one would end up to somewhere around T8 maximum aperture with a 2x extender?? )

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I worked with a Turkish Dp named Burak Turan on a job in sirlanka where he had brought over his Elite S7 Anamorphics and he had requested a normal 2x Pl Extender from the local rental house ( our camera gear was coming from India ) 

but to my Surprise the normal Century I think 2x adapter Worked Perfectly Throughout the 5 days of shooting all over the county

it did cut a lot of the light dino banks were used even indoors ? 

but yes it works one thing to watch out for is that certain adaptors might hit certain lenses due to flange distances   

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