SLR Magic, a company known for making affordable optics and accessories for filmmakers, has announced a new set of anamorphic cinema lenses that can be adapted to a variety of lens mounts. The PL mount ANAMORPHOT-CINE line of lenses includes the 35mm T2.4, the 50mm T2.8 and the 70mm T4, all of which can be adapted for Canon EF, Nikon F, Micro Four Thirds and Sony E-mount.

Anamorphic lenses are frequently used by filmmakers to capture wide-screen aspect ratios commonly associated with a more cinematic look. This is accomplished by squeezing the image horizontally onto the sensor or film to capture a wider horizontal angle of view. The image is later 'de-squeezed' either in post processing or by a special lens attached to a projector. 

Digital filmmakers sometimes mimic the anamorphic effect by cropping off the top and the bottom of the frame in post processing to create a wider aspect ratio, however this effectively results in throwing away much of the data captured by the sensor. Additionally, anamorphic lenses are directly responsible for some of the looks often associated with cinematic productions, such as horizontal lens flare and elongated bokeh. The ANAMORPHOT-CINE lenses have a 1.33x squeeze factor, making it possible to create a 2.35:1 image from a 16:9 sensor.

The ANAMORPHOT-CINE lenses also provide an alternative to anamorphic adapters that are often used to create an anamorphic image using a standard lens.

The new lenses will be available for demo at the BVE Expo in London from February 23-25. Pricing is yet to be announced.

Press release:

NEW: The SLR Magic Anamorphot-CINE 1.33x PL lens set

Hong Kong, China (Feb 9th, 2016) – SLR Magic is proud to announce the SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 1.33x PL lens set for filmmakers which could be adapted to EF/F/mFT/E-mount via adapter.

As a commitment to the film industry, SLR Magic developed the SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE lenses to deliver the classic contrast, distortion, chromatic, color aberration, and flare characteristics of vintage anamorphic lenses, but with the convenience of a matched lens set without the hassle of aligning and matching lenses to the already popular SLR Magic Rangefinder with Anamorphot adapter combination.

To achieve the much loved scope aspect ratio, which gives a very pleasant, epic effect, filmmakers must crop off the top and bottom of standard 16:9 footage when using spherical lenses with modern digital cameras. As a result, 25% or more sensor/negative information is discarded.

This 1.33x anamorphic lens help filmmakers to maximize their image quality by preventing this loss of vertical resolution. The unique 1.33x squeeze factor uses the entire 16:9 sensor/negative area to achieve the desired 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 1.33x does this by compressing a 33% wider field of view to fit the width of the 16:9 sensor/negative without compressing image height. 

The SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 1.33x create a unique “artifact” such as horizontal lens flare, commonly referred to as anamorphic streaks, and may create slightly elongated bokeh. Over the history of cinema, these same stylish effects have contributed to the cinematic “look” of epic motion picture photography. Characteristics that shape this anamorphic “look” come from “front-mounted” anamorphic designs such as the SLR Magic Anamorphot while “rear-mounted” anamorphic designs have more suppressed anamorphic characteristics.

Lenses would be on demo at the BVE Expo in London, UK from February 23-25 in the Atomos booth K30

Technical Data:

  • SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 35mm T2.4
  • SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 50mm T2.8
  • SLR Magic ANAMORPHOT-CINE 70mm T4
  • Lens Type: Anamorphic lens
  • Squeeze factor: 1.33x
  • Objective front filter thread: Φ82
  • Mount: Titanium PL compatible with optional SLR Magic EF/F/mFT/E-mount
  • Titanium adapter.
  • Lens Coating: Multi Coated
  • Close Focus: 3’6
  • Weight (oz./g): 38.8/1,100
  • Length (cm): 13.5
  • Diameter (cm): 10
  • Image Circle: S35 for 35mm T2.4, FF for 50mm T2.8 and 70mm T4