MINI TESTS
IMAGES The lens has a 1.33x squeeze, so you need to view the widescreen footage on something with a desqueeze setting
an Atomos Ninja V monitor recorder, which has a variety of desqueeze options built in. So just set 1.33x and you see the image on the screen as it will be used in widescreen. And then you just shoot away with it like a normal, manual focus lens and relish the widescreen look. Composition with an anamorphic brings its own challenges, as it’s just a different shape of image that most of us are used to. But that’s the idea – to have films with a different and more cinematic look. The optical quality of the lens itself is surprisingly good, with little vignetting and good sharpness across the whole frame. There is some softening at the corners, especially at wide apertures, but this adds to the effect rather than distracting from it. Colours and contrast are better than you might expect for a budget lens. The horizontal blue flares are just
sensor, except the perspective and depth-of-field is that of a 50mm lens. Despite what you may read on social media, you can’t get the look by just shooting a wide-angle lens and then cropping in post, ghetto style. It’s just not the same look. The image you see on the screen or viewfinder is a squashed-up image, that you have to desqueeze in your editing programme – unless your camera offers anamorphic settings built in as an increasing number do. This is very simple to do by changing the Y-scale to 75%. After desqueezing, the lens produces 2.4:1 aspect videos in a 16:9 frame, so there are black bars at the top and bottom. We used the lens on a full-frame Sony A7R Mark III, which doesn’t have a desqueeze setting, and therefore the image looks squashed- upwhenshooting. Althoughyoucould get away with it in a pinch, we fitted
gorgeous, so you can go and shoot your own sci-fi film straight away. The lens does flare when provoked, but it’s difficult to criticise it for that as the flares are one of the biggest attractionsof ananamorphic lens. The multi-layer nano coatings give the look that is so difficult to fake in post. The out-of-focus highlights do take a slightly ovalised look, but this isn’t as extreme as on full-stretch 2x lenses, as the Sirui is only 1.33x. But you can tell if you look closely. The Sirui is a well-built bit of kit with solid aluminium construction, German-made Schott glass and weighs just 560g/1.29lb for the Sony- fit version. And being so compact, you could even fit it to a lightweight gimbal for the real cinema look. For the real difference it can bring to your films, at such an affordable price, it’s a total winner. AD PROMOVIEMAKERRATING: 9/10 If you have always dreamed of shooting a real anamorphic lens but couldn’t justify the money to do it, now you have no excuses Pros: Unique real anamorphic at this price! Cons: No full-frame coverage or IS
“For the price, it’s stunning and really does open up the world of real super-widescreen shooting to the masses, with no fuss. No adapters needed”
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SUMMER 2020 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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