Actual footage and samples from the Sirui 24mm F2.8 1.33x anamorphic lens: Digital Photography Review

This image was taken with a 17:9 anamorphic Sirui 24mm lens and 1.33x de-definition to produce a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

Specialized anamorphic lenses for interchangeable-lens cameras have traditionally been expensive, but Sirui has made it a mission to create much more affordable options. Although the company currently has a 50mm full frame anamorphic lens, the majority of its production to date has been aimed at users of APS-C and Micro Four Thirds systems. The 24mm F2.8 is the third in a line of low-cost crop sensor 1.33x anamorphic lenses.

This is new 24mm F2.8 aims to fill the wide-angle gap in Sirui’s range of 1.33x anamorphic lenses for APS-C and MFT systems, and in doing so creates a collection that includes wide, standard and mid-range focal lengths. The kit now includes this 24mm f/2.8 lens, a 35mm F1.8, One 50mm F1.8 and a 75mm f/1.8.

The 24mm F2.8 is the third in Sirui’s line of low-cost crop sensor 1.33x anamorphic lenses.

Of course, how much width this 24mm offers in practice depends on the system it fits into, as it’s designed for both APS-C/Super 35 and Micro Four Thirds sensors. If you mount it on your Fujifilm X camera, you’ll enjoy the horizontal angle of view we can expect from a 27mm lens on a full-frame camera – which is really wide. However, on a Micro Four Thirds camera shooting in 16:9, that view looks like what we’d expect from a 36mm lens, which can only be described as a moderately wide angle. If you shoot at 17:9 with a Micro Four Thirds sensor, that view expands to something like 32mm, maybe just wide enough to call it ‘wide’.

The lens is available in the Sony E, Fujifilm X, Canon EF-M, Nikon Z and Micro Four Thirds mounts and is priced at $999 / £899.

If you are not familiar with anamorphic lenses, check out our article, How Anamorphic Photography Works?, which explains more about how they work.

All metal ties

Like the others in the series, the 24mm is all-metal, including the bezel on the aperture and focus rings. The veins are smooth and shallow but still easy to grip, and it offers plenty of purchase even for those who wear gloves. The focus ring rotates with less effort than it takes to rotate the aperture ring, which makes sense given what they control and how we’re going to use them. The 35mm lens comes with plastic 0.8 adjustment rings to fit the focus/aperture rings, but this model does not. I’m not sure why, but it’s a shame as the designer rings included are a nice touch. However, it is easy enough to fit the adjustable ones.

According to Sirui, the focal length of the lens is exactly 189.6°. This can feel like a long way when pulling from furthest to closest, but fortunately, we rarely need to do it. In more frequent use, this allows precise focus control whether you’re focusing manually or with a manual/motorized focus unit.

In this video, I discuss my experience using the Sirui 24mm F2.8 1.33x anamorphic lens on a Micro Four Thirds camera.

The construction uses 13 elements in 10 groups and is based on a conventional 24mm lens with an anamorphic element mounted on the front. Mounting the anamorphic group in the front gives the (moderate) oval bokeh that people crave and is more prone to flare and those magical blue lines.

This is definitely a lens that picks up a point light source and turns it into a bluish tint very easily, and fans of these will be delighted. However, apart from the blue streak, there is a nice overall flare characteristic that provides a pleasantly soft contrast and evenly dispersed patches of light when light has just left the frame. It’s a nice look, but also one that can be controlled and moderated to some extent with a hood or translucent box.

Three in a set

Sirui’s quartet of anamorphic lenses: 35mm 1.8, 75mm F1.8, 24mm f/2.8 and 50mm F1.8.

Many times these lenses are a ‘set’, there are many differences between them that may or may not be important to you. Over time, lenses got bigger and bigger: the first lens, 50mm, was the smallest and 24mm was the biggest until the 75mm came along. 24mm is not too much bigger than 35mm, conversely not too much bigger than 50mm, but 24mm is quite a lot bigger than 50mm.

The more important difference, however, lies in the form of maximum aperture and filter thread size, as the new lens is F2.8 instead of the F1.8 line and the filter thread is 72mm instead of the 67mm of the previous models. other models. The lens weighs between 770g (1.70 lbs) and 810g (1.79 lbs) depending on the mount, with Micro Four Thirds being the lighter one and the Nikon Z being the heaviest.

Close focus decompression

The closest focusing distance marked on the lens is 0.6m (2 ft), but users will find the anamorphic effect somewhat diminished in images taken at this end of the scale. Applying the highlighted 1.33x decompression to your footage will make your subject noticeably longer.

At the closest focusing distance, the lens’s squeeze factor becomes slightly distorted, and 1.33x full de-compression stretches the image horizontally slightly. In these cases, a 1.25x de-squeeze factor can be used.

I noticed this while using and used a simple, less scientific test to determine that the 1.33x squeeze drops to about 1.25x at the closest focusing distance. To detect this, I took a 25cm x 25cm black Cinefoil and discarded the image until the Cinefoil regained its square shape. At 1.33x, the square is oblong with horizontal sides much longer than it’s tall, but with a 1.25x reduction, it’s much more uniform.

There isn’t much to do with subjects approaching the 60cm minimum focusing distance, but subjects at that distance and closer can be displayed by a factor of 1.33x when the 1+ diopter magnifier is used. attached to the front of the lens. With it attached, the infinity focus position occurs at about 0.7m, and since the lens is at infinity, the squeeze factor is restored. With a +1 diopter fitted, I was able to focus as close as 40.5cm, although the anamorphic factor drops to 1.25x again at that distance. A screw in diopter + 0.5 diopter lens would also be useful, but they are more difficult to use.

Highlights out of focus

Since this is a wide lens with a smaller aperture and moderate anamorphic factor, the ability to create dramatic oval bokeh is somewhat reduced. Fans of a sea of ​​elliptical cat-eye shades will have to look elsewhere, as they can hardly match this lens. Even when focusing at the closest distance to the light at infinity and the aperture wide open, it only feels like the circles are squeezed. It’s enough to create the atmosphere of a polymorphic lens, but the look certainly doesn’t exhibit polymorphic features and your audience will never be distracted by them.

Overall, though, out-of-focus areas are rendered quite nicely, and the F2.8 aperture is just wide enough to allow us to create a good degree of selective focus even at wide focal lengths. than this. Perhaps the 50mm F1.8 Sirui might suit you better if you want extra drama.

This video includes sample footage shot with the Panasonic Lumix GH5, GH5s and BGH1 in 4:3 anamorphic mode and 16:9 and 17:9 aspect ratios to obtain different final images.

I was impressed with the sharpness of the lens and it showed enough detail even for High Definition shots on the Lumix G9. When you look that closely, you can notice a moderate degree of color separation in details far from the center of the lens, but the effect isn’t too bad anywhere. At normal stills resolution, I suspect most won’t notice it, and it’s even less obvious in video.

No textures

The 24mm F2.8 1.33x Sirui anamorphic lens is mounted on the Panasonic Lumix BGH1 box camera.

As has happened with previous Sirui lenses, if you’re hoping for a ‘cinematic’ texture, you’ll need to learn how to add it to the post, as the 24mm lens provides fairly uniform illumination. right on the frame. This is good news for most people, as it’s always easier to add a corner shade to the atmosphere, and it’s better to remove it when unwelcome.

The reasonably uniform sharpness and lack of vignetting don’t draw the viewer into the center of the frame the way some vintage lenses do. This also means that we can have subjects that are significantly off-centre without losing them due to technical glitches or characteristics of vintage lenses.

Inference

With a smaller aperture, reduced selective focus, and reduced oval highlights, it’s safe to say that the Sirui 24mm F2.8 1.33x anamorphic lens is somewhat less interesting than the previous two models in limit. However, for all its dull technical precision, it’s still a very good lens to use and gives satisfactory results.

If you can see beyond the dramatic out-of-focus background and distorted highlights, there’s still a lot of morphing to be had and I quite like the soft contrast and tendency to display flare attractive before the blue streaks appear.

To make it a truly interesting lens, it will need the same maximum aperture of F1.8 as the other three lenses, but that will make it a lot bigger, heavier, and more expensive. It is perhaps more important to maintain the compact character and some similarities in form and proportions with other lenses. Any larger, and this won’t be part of the kit, and the idea of ​​a highly portable, easy-to-use, low-cost lens is gone.

For more information on this 24mm F2.8 1.33x anamorphic lens, see Sirui . Lens Website.