It’s a new year and a moment to update my goals and what to expect of the following videos.
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Now that that’s out, you SHOULD have noticed the classy intro sequence for this video, which will be opening all videos from now on. It was a pain to shoot, and an even bigger pain to edit. Not having a macro lens around made it impossible to the point that I had to go and get myself a Pentax 50mm macro. The whole thing was done using Rob’s Kinemini 4k camera, shooting at 120 fps and 2k (2.4:1), Kineraw encoded. The camera itself was the easiest part to handle, getting these tiny things in focus was the painful part. Editing half a terabyte of slow-mo footage into 10 pretty seconds was also quite a challenge.
I hope the subjects in this video don’t seem totally disconnected, even though they kind of are. If you don’t follow my blog, just the youtube channel, you’re missing out on the awesome Anamorphic Calculator. After replying to hundreds, THOUSANDS of times to people asking me which taking lens goes with each anamorphic, I took the matter seriously and came up with this multi-function calculator that tells you when you should start to get vignetting according to your camera sensor, taking lens, anamorphic adapter and focal reducer. I think I covered all available options out there, and the custom fields let you input whichever numbers you like, in case you don’t find the ones you want. The calculator also tells you the resulting horizontal field of view and the aspect ratio of your final product. You can reverse some of these operations to figure out which taking lens will give you a specific field of view or which crop will get you a desired final aspect ratio.
I am aware there are exceptions and, just as I said in the calculator’s post, once you figure out the anamorphic you want you should conduct specific research about it. By “conduct specific research” I don’t mean “send me a message”. From now on I’ll stop replying to blunt messages about gear like “where can I find diopters for my Kowa?” or “does the Rangefinder work with the Cinelux?”. I’m also a person, so, maybe start with a “Hi” or “Hello, how are you doing?”, including a “please?” somewhere in the message is also a good idea. If you’re gonna contact me, first be 100% sure that your answers can’t be found in any of my posts. Replying to these messages eats up too much of the time I could be focusing on much more productive research. If you feel lost and abandoned, feel free to let out your doubts and questions on facebook or the EOSHD forum. There are plenty of experienced anamorphic users there (myself included), capable of providing you with answers. If you feel I am the ONLY person capable of resolving your issue, go ahead and send me a message, but be aware I might not reply. The bright side of this is the number of new in-depth posts and the progress on the Anamorphic Cookbook should increase.
Speaking of the Cookbook, this is my second take at an anamorphic guide of sorts. The first one (Anamorphic on a Budget) was a good start, but there are MANY subjects that were left out because I lacked the experience, or simply because I wasn’t aware they existed. Now I’m gonna try to cover a lot more ground. The Cookbook is meant to have deeper analyses and conclusions, being useful to any anamorphic enthusiast and even to anyone considering learning more about these lenses. I’m going deeper into the whole diopter party, how taking lenses affect the resulting image, how to fake the look in more effective ways and many other important points (if you wanna check a more detailed overview of my goals, check this link).
This kind of research requires gear I don’t currently have, which implies there will be expenses. Because of that, I’ll be putting the Anamorphic Cookbook on Kickstarter. You can get yours there, for a lower price than it will be available when it comes out officially. You can also use this chance to get yourself some other useful trinkets such as this amazing shirt, anamorfaked Helios lenses, aperture disks and even skype calls for advice in a particular project. Keep in mind that whatever amount raised there is crucial for the research and tests featured on the book. You are literally helping me to keep going and speeding up the process. If you wanna be notified whenever there’s a new post or update regarding the project, send a message to news@anamorphiccookbook.com
Lastly, I’m starting to sell some of my gear. Both of my Isco Wide-Screen 2000s shall go, along with the small Century Optics, Isco-Optic 16:9 Video Attachment and some more. These are all listed in a separate part of my website and the goal is to avoid eBay’s taxes and bidding wars. Most of the money coming from these sales is gonna be directed towards the Cookbook, so, besides getting an awesome piece of gear, you’re funding more upcoming content. The list is gonna be constantly updated as items come and go, so be sure to check it every once in a while!
Phew, that’s it for this video. Subscribe to the channel for getting updates as soon as I upload new episodes and be sure to check all the cool new things mentioned here!