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diy

Anamorphic

Anamorphic Mumps Corrector – AE Preset

January 8, 2017

Here’s an upgraded version for the anamorphic mumps correction tutorial I posted last year. Featuring a free AE preset that will let you apply the adjustment directly to video! I made this episode in collaboration with Lucas Pfaff.

USEFUL LINKS:

Place the Preset in the right folder!

WINDOWS: C:/Program Files/Adobe/After Effects /Support Files/Plug-ins or /Presets
OSX: Applications/Adobe After Effects /Plugins or /Presets

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Anamorphic

Anamorphic Chop Shop – Anamorfaking the Helios 44

October 11, 2015

Anamorfake your Helios 44 by opening it up and using an oval aperture. Anamorphic bokeh made easy and with very little cost! All steps explained and links provided at the blog.

USEFUL LINKS:

All the RED links on this post are part of eBay’s Partner Network, so if you purchase anything through them, you’re helping me to keep this project going.

You can support this project on Patreon. Make your contribution and help the Anamorphic Cookbook!

Tito Ferradans here for a shorter than expected Anamorphic Chop Shop episode. I expected this whole thing to be a little more complicated. Thankfully I was wrong. Cutting to the chase, in this episode I’m gonna show you how to open up the Helios 44-2 in a non-destructive way and use your own aperture discs. Before I start on the procedure itself, this technique was first shown as a vimeo video by Amir Safari, in late 2012. I messaged him about it and we talked a lot, he explained me how to open up the lens and even sent me some of his spare aperture discs through the mail since I couldn’t make mine anywhere in Brazil. Amir is still doing aperture modifications to some other lenses and if you like what you see here, you should definitely check his Train Station test video – you can find the link in the blog post.


First thing you should do is print out your aperture. I have links for 2x ovals and different iris values (f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6 and f/8), you can just download them and get them laser cut. Here in Vancouver I just went to Laser Cutter Cafe and that costed me less than CAD$10. You can also design your own aperture blades, as crazy as you want them, feel free, be creative. Another option is to use transparent sheets of plastic and color them using markers. Just a hint of how crazy things can get.

UPDATE – OCTOBER 2016: I’m selling aperture discs for this mod on a small scale on eBay, so if you’re looking to get some for a decent price, check out the listing!

Next step is opening up the lens. The first time I did this mod, I came through the front and had a ton of extra work and even messed up the focus helicoid. Ended up damaging the blades and having a stuck iris. If you open it from the back, you’ll have to put a little strength once but then it’ll be as easy as attaching filters. I’m using a lens wrench (less than $15) just to make life easier. You can see there are two different slots for the wrench, you need to pick the outermost one, which is liked to this thicker piece.



So, twist the wrench anti-clockwise (I always get this wrong) and remove the rear optics. Now you’re looking at the iris mechanism. Just drop your selected aperture there and close it up again. One issue you might face is getting alignment right, which can be a little tricky. In my case, I did a tiny mark on the side of the lens that’s facing up, and then using a toothpick I aligned the oval with that mark and then closed the lens back.


And that’s it! We’re finished! Here are just a few shots to prove my point. Combine this with a flare filter and you have a complete anamorfake look, with close focus, single focus, lightweight, pretty ovals, sharp image and the Helios 44-2’s pretty flares.


I hope you guys enjoyed this video, subscribe to the channel for more content, check my blog for some extra information regarding this mod and other anamorphic matters. Also, if you know of anyone who’d be interested in this modification, send the video their way. I’m trying to constantly upload new stuff, but your help spreading the word is a huge boost for my morale along the bleak fall and winter months I have ahead! Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon! Ferradans out.

Anamorphic

Anamorphic Chop Shop – Flare Filter

October 4, 2015

A quick, cheap and dirty tutorial on how to achieve streak flares with any lens and save a lot of money by NOT shooting anamorphic.

USEFUL LINKS:

All the RED links on this post are part of eBay’s Partner Network, so if you purchase anything through them, you’re helping me to keep this project going.

You can support this project on Patreon. Make your contribution and help the Anamorphic Cookbook!

What’s up ladies and gentleman? Tito Ferradans here for a very easy – but useful – chop shop episode. This time we’ll be making a flare filter for less than ten bucks. Our magical ingredients are the cheapest UV filter you can find, fishing line, tape, and scissors if you don’t have super teeth that can cut fishing line. I know this is a common trick, but the way it works is a much less common explanation. Let’s get this thing going and I’ll explain over the process.

First, remove the glass of the UV filter. You can simply unscrew it or break it. The one I’m using is 77mm because it’s big and should cover all my lenses. You can make several, don’t worry about it.


After removing the glass, cut a piece of fishing line that’s just a little larger than the diameter of the ring. Tape it to the ring. Boom, done! Now that I thought about it, a Circular Polarizer would be better since you can adjust the direction of the wire. Scratch that UV I mentioned before, go with a CPL. When putting this in front of your lenses, you have to align it VERTICALLY, so your flares are horizontal.


Ok, a few notes on that: first, the diameter of the line affects the flare. The thinner it is, the subtler is the effect (subtler, does that work exist?). There is a huge number of different diameters for fishing lines, choose your favorite. I got three here, 0.2mm, 0.28mm and 0.41mm. You’ll see the difference in the tests.

Another option, if you don’t care about getting a little tape on your lenses is completely ignoring the CPL filter. Tape the line directly to the lens. The downside is you have to do it for every lens instead of simply swapping the filter.

Some people like doing this with several lines across, instead of just one in the middle, which causes stronger flares based also on the spacing between the lines. You can also tint the wire with markers so you have colored flares, as easy as that! Using regular wires will get you flares with the color of the light source.

Now for the bad side of using such trick. The most noticeable one is that you’ll get a line in your bokeh, or several lines if you used a whole bunch of them. It can start to show on any kind of highlights as well, since the lines are actually blocking light to reach the sensor.

And how the heck does this work? Why can’t I simply use regular threads instead of fishing line? Because fishing line is transparent and is denser than air. So when the light changes mediums from air to inside the line, it refracts. Some beams of will get in at a very magical angle and literally be trapped inside the wire unable to get out until it reaches either the cut at the top or the bottom. If you notice, the flare is always perpendicular to the wire AND always start at the light source. That happens because the light coming straight from that source will hit the wire. Some beams will go inside of it, and will not appear on the resulting image. The ones that DON’T get in are the ones causing the flare.

From optics, the Law of Reflection states that a beam will be reflected at the same angle which it hits the barrier. The barrier being the wire, the light can only reflect horizontally and THAT is what causes the streak flare. I hope this made any sense. If not, comment below and I’ll try to come up with better wording or visual examples!

Now that this is done, it’s time for you to try it out and enjoy this cheap trick. For me, I guess I should start a career in fishing, for I have over 500m of line here and each filter uses less than 10cm… Tito Ferradans, going fishing, see you next week!

Anamorphic

Anamorphic Chop Shop – Century Optics Bayonet to 52mm

July 18, 2015

A very quick guide showing how to replace the bayonet mount on the Century Optics 16:9 adapters with 52mm filter threads so it can be used with regular lenses.

USEFUL LINKS:

All the RED links on this post are part of eBay’s Partner Network, so if you purchase anything through them, you’re helping me to keep this project going.

You can support this project on Patreon. Make your contribution and help the Anamorphic Cookbook!

I’m Tito Ferradans and this is Anamorphic Chop Shop. Today I’ll go over modding the Century Optics adapter from bayonet mount to 52mm threads.

First off, you’ll need the adapter, a 52-67mm step up ring, a phillips screwdriver, #00, #0 or #1, any of these will work. You’ll also need cutting pliers if your Century has a Canon bayonet.

The version I have here is the Sony bayonet, for the VX2000, which is VERY easy to mod. First remove the screw on the side, then unscrew the lock off.


The Canon bayonet (for the GL1, GL2) has a stopper inside, while the Sony doesn’t. You’ll need to use the pliers to cut a slice in the step ring to fit the stopper, otherwise it won’t be possible to reassemble the lens. Luckily for us, this Sony version just needs you to sandwich the step ring between the main body of the lens and the lock. The 52mm thread side of the ring will fit snuggly around the rear element.

Now just screw back the lock and put the little screw back into it’s spot. Tighten it well so neither the bayonet lock rotates nor the step ring inside it, messing with the anamorphic’s alignment.

As explained in the Century review, you can use an 82-72 or 77-72mm step down ring with electrical tape to create front threads, and voila, now you have a production ready adapter!

Special thanks to Matt Leaf for lending me the lens for this video.

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