MIRRORLESS LENSES
The hipster option for footage that looks decidedly vintage is achieved with ease using the Petzval 55mm f/1.7 Mark II (£449/$499), specially designed for mirrorless cameras. Available in Sony E, Canon RF and Nikon Z mounts, the lenses are based on a 180-year- old design that gives unique swirly bokeh, adjustable via a dial on the lens. Filmwide open and the bokeh from the eight-bladed aperture is very swirly. Close down, using the stepless aperture ring, and everything is much sharper. But at any f/stop, alter the swirly look with the bokeh control ring. You can also drop inWaterhouse-style plates that have different shapes cut into them to change the appearance of the background bokeh. The look is very different, adjustable to 5. THE LO-FI OPTION
your tastes and gives a strong style that’s ideal for making a film stand out. Using a lo-fi lens wide open for shallow depth-of-field, maximum vignetting and bokeh can become a bit gimmicky. It’s good for something like a dream sequence, but not for a whole film. If you dial back the look, it can be more useful. lomography.com “The lenses are based on a 180-year-old design that gives unique swirly bokeh”
VERSATILE AND SHARP The unique swirly look of a Petzval lens can give your work a very different style – and the bokeh is adjustable
6. CINEMASCOPE FOR ALL
The craze for affordable anamorphic lenses shows no sign of slowing: everyone wants super-widescreen, Cinemascope-style footage, with bright blue horizontal flare streaks and ovalised bokeh. To this end, Sirui has an affordable range of anamorphics, including 24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 75mm. The Sirui 50mm costs £598/ $699 and is for APS-C sensors, so on a full-frame camera, you need to set it to crop mode. There is a 1.33x factor, which
enlarges your field of view to the equivalent of using a 37.5mm lens on an APS-C sensor, except the perspective and depth-of- field is like a 50mm. That’s why you can’t get the same look by shooting a wide-angle lens and cropping in post. The optical quality of the lens itself is 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. The horizontal blue flares are obviously cool and the lens does flare when provoked, which is one of the biggest attractions of an anamorphic. 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. uk.sirui.com
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