Anamorphic Lenses on Commercials & Corporate Video

Anamorphic Cinematography Series

As a part of our continuing series on anamorphic cinematography, here is a featured Toronto customer’s work shot with the Isco Micro Red Anamorphic lens kit. Hungry Boy Productions has shot some incredible anamorphic TV commercials and we are proud to link to his Instagram @hungryboyproductions for more demos. Nik can also be contacted directly via email here.

The camera setup

The camera used for each of the anamorphic videos was a Black Magic Ursa Mini 4K shot in 3K anamorphic mode. This is an excellent camera for shooting with anamorphic lenses, as the 3K anamorphic mode (with a resolution of  3072 x 2560 desqueezes in post to a resolution of 6144 x 2650 which is near-perfect cinemascope, or a 2.4:1 aspect ratio.

Nik shot with the Voightlander 58mm f/1.4 and the 50mm Zeiss Planar f/1.4 (one of our favorite prime lenses for shooting anamorphic). One thing to always keep in mind with shooting with anamorphic lenses is that your prime lens focal lengths will double.

For example, shooting with our Isco Micro Red anamorphic kit on the Voightlander 58mm f/1.4 will result in an effective field of view of 29mm f/1.4 anamorphic. If you’re looking to shoot even wider anamorphic (especially with Super35 and smaller sensors like the Blackmagic Ursa), you can always add an Anamorphic Wide Angle Superscope to add another 1.5x of field of view after the anamorphic lens, resulting in an effective focal length of 19mm f/1.4 anamorphic!

You can use our anamorphic lens calculator to determine what prime lenses and anamorphic lens setup will work on any camera, including the Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4k.

Summary

If you have found this demo interesting and are further interested adding anamorphic to your toolbox as a cinematographer, please visit our anamorphic lens store for demos and examples. We have spent several years collecting, modifying, and testing anamorphic lenses to weed through the junk, make needed modifications, and assemble ready-to-shoot packages.

If you are interested in learning more on working with anamorphic lenses and DSLR, please check out our anamorphic tutorial blog for more anamorphic tips and tutorials!