Anamorphic test footage

[iangreenhalgh1]

Just some test footage I shot to try out my first anamorphic shooting rig which consists of a modified Schneider-Kreuznach Cine-Xenon 2/60 coupled to a S-K WA Cinelux 2x anamorphic adapter and mounted on a Lumix G3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToWiCuziCgk

For some reason, this Cine-Xenon isn't very sharp or contrasty in this application so I might have to use a different objective.

Oh, and I definitely need to oil the head on my video tripod to enable smoother panning!

[Pete]

Interesting look, makes me think I am sitting in the theater. Did you need any post correction for the anamorphic adapter?
Now if you could only make an adapter to help that delivery truck get through the alley...
Pete

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Pete. The only processing was to rescale the footage to 50% of it's original height. The video was shot in 16:9 and with the rescaling it becomes full Cinemascope, something like 2.3:1.

I can see times when the soft dreamy look I got would be useful, but I definitely want a sharper look for most uses so I'll try some other objective lenses with the anamorphic scope.

[Rick1779]

the rescaling shouldn't add some more sharpness? at least vertical

[iangreenhalgh1]

That's a good point. In theory, I suppose it would increase the vertical sharpness. I'll make some stills using the scope and rescale one then post crops so we can try to see if that is the case.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Here's an example. This is a shot where I tried hard using the magnify focus assist to get a sharp image and failed.

First, the untouched image with crop:




Now the same image but with the vertical height reduced by 50% in Photoshop:

[iangreenhalgh1]

Not so easy to tell much, so let's put the crops side-by-side:

[iangreenhalgh1]

After some head scratching I've figured out the issue we are seeing - the image is focused correctly in the horizontal plane but not in the vertical. Horizontal focus is achieved by focusing the objective lens, vertical by focusing the anamorphic lens.

The objective can be focused correctly but the anamorphic, as we are seeing here is not achieving focus.

There are two possible reasons that I can see for this:

A. the anamorphic lens is in need of re-alignment

B. the distance between the anamorphic and objective lenses needs to be changed, probably decreased.

The former is not easy, should be left to a technician, but the latter is simple and I will try it out today and hope it is the solution.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I'm happy tonight because I've finally fixed the issue and gotten sharp results from this setup.

I moved the Cine Xenon closer to the scope et voila, it now focuses perfectly and the IQ is as it should be.

Here's some samples shot in abysmal light, no PP.

Raw image as it came out of the camera, then reduced in height by 50%:



100% crops:



Finally, only taken a month or so of fiddling and fussing and hair pulling out to get this thing working just right.

[iangreenhalgh1]

A 60mm objective on M4/3 is not very wide, even with the 2x scope, so I've been playing with wide angle adapters. The front glass of the scope is about 72mm diameter so to avoid vignetting, they have to be very big adapters.

First, this is without an adapter, as a frame of reference:


With Fujinon WCV-82SC 0.82x WA adapter. This is for their broadcast grade pro video lenses, costs over 500ukp new. The tiny bit of vignette is no problem as when shooting 16:9 video it won't be within the image area:



With Century Optics 0.7x converter intended for Sony broadcast grade camcorders. A colossal piece of glass and very heavy. This baby costs more than 700ukp new. Sadly it vignettes on the huge Schneider scope and it's enough to be visible when shooting 16:9 video so this adapter won't play well with this scope. The uneven vignette is because I was handholding the adapter in front of the scope:



Interesting to note how the adapters alter the colours. There appears to be a magenta tint to the Century 0.7x image.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Now I have fixed the sharpness issue, here's some new test footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj7iBBExUqQ